City Commission - Regular Meeting

Oh, got welcome to the November

Welcome to the November 24th, 2025 meeting of the Suski City Commission. We will have an invocation offered by myself followed by the pledge of allegiance. First, I'd like to take a moment and ask for a moment of silence for Susan Murray, who passed away a week ago. Susan was a friend to many Suscians and to most of us at this table. Susan was that person who cared deeply about this city and was so supportive of all that Sunduski was about. A moment of silence. Thank you. I'm pleased that my turn to provide the invocation falls so close to this Thanksgiving. As a city, we have so much to be thankful for. Let us give thanks. Thanks for the trust that citizens continue to place in us. Thanks for the dedicated city staff who turn our decisions into sidewalks, water lines, and safe streets, and that provide protection for each of us every day. Thanks for the residents who show up in person and in spirit to remind us whose city this truly is. May we be granted wisdom to see clearly, courage to choose what is right even when it is difficult, patience to listen to voices different from our own, and humility to remember that we serve something far larger than any one of us. May every decision we make tonight strengthen the bonds between neighbors, lift up those who are struggling, and leave this city a little kinder, a little fairer, and a little more united than we found it. Dear Lord, it is with gratitude for this opportunity to serve. We ask you allow us to finish our work together. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance 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. Mr. Myers, you call the role. Yes, Mr. President. Mr. Coun here. Mr. Crrael here. Miss Fargo here. Mr. Wington. Mr. Brady here. Mr. Murray here. Mr. Vali here. Commissioners, you have before you the minutes of our meeting of November the 10th, 2025. What is your pleasure? Mr. Chairman, Mr. Waty, I move that we accept the minutes of November 10th as presented.

Second without that a motion and a second discussion. Without objection, that motion will be approved and those minutes are approved. I am going to uh move the agenda around slightly. We have uh some very important legislation on this evening and we have I can see that we have residents here that may or may not want to speak towards that reg that legislation. So I'm going to move a very important presentation that we had teed up a little earlier. It is the inventory survey results that we are all anxious to hear, but I'm going to move it uh back uh behind the legislation as we get to that. So we will move to residents comments on any item regarding tonight's agenda. Seeing no one rushing to the podium, we will move right along. Commissioner said before you several communications from staff recommending various pieces of legislation, can I have a motion to approve those?

So move. Second. Been a motion and a second discussion. Without objection, that motion will be approved. And hearing no objection, that motion is commissioners. We have eight items on the consent agenda this evening. Do any of you wish to move any of those items to our regular agenda? I was certain that one of you would motion to move item E to the uh regular agenda just so we could hear the pronunciation of those 20 chemicals we're going to be buying. [laughter] But I guess once again, Miss Myers, you're going to get off the hook. Miss Myers, you present the consent agenda.

Item A, approval of general appropriations amendment number five. Item B, approval of insurance renewal with Reinhardt Walters Danner. Item C, approval of calendar year 2025 wastewater treatment plant annual discharge fee to EPA. Item D, approval of calendar year 2026, Big Island Waterworks annual license to operate fee to EPA. Item E, approval of calendar year 2026 chemical contracts for Big Island Waterworks and wastewater treatment plant. Item F, approval of site agreement with HAPCAP and Baron's bus for go bus services. Item G, approval of transportation contract with Erie County Board of Developmental Disabilities. Item H, permission to dispose of unneeded items. Commissioners, having heard these ordinances, what is your pleasure? Mr.

Chair, Mr. Kums, I move for approval of these ordinances under items A through H in full accordance with section 14 of the city charter. Second. Been a motion and a second. Discussion. Mr. Myers, do you pull the commission on that motion? Mr. Coons? Yes. Mr. Crrael? Yes. Miss Vargo? Yes. Mr. Wington? Mr. Brady? Yes. Mr. Murray? Yes. Mr. Bali? Yes. And now on the ordinances. Mr. [clears throat] Coons. Yes. Mr. Crrael. Yes. Miss Vargo. Yes. Mr. Wington. Mr. Brady. Yes. Mr. Murray. Yes. Mr. Vali. Yes.

Those ordinances are passed. Miss Myers, you present item number one, please. It is requested an ordinance be passed authorizing and directing the city manager to purchase two 2026 Ford utility police SUVs from statewide Ford of Van Wart, Ohio through the state of Ohio Department of Administrative Services Cooperative Purchasing Program for the Police Department in 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? Mr. Chair, I move for the adoption of this ordinance under suspension of the rules in accordance with section 14 of the city charter. Second. Been a motion and a second discussion.

Mr. Mars, you pull the commission on that motion. Mr. Coons, yes. Mr. Crabel, Miss Vargo, yes. Mr. Wington, Mr. Brady, yes. Mr. Murray, yes. Mr. Vali, yes. And now on the ordinance. Mr. Coons, yes. Mr. Crabel, yes. Miss Vargo, yes. Mr. Wington, Mr. Brady, yes. Mr. Murray, yes. Mr. Vali. Yes.

That ordinance has passed. Miss, you present item number two. It is requested an ordinance be passed authorizing and directing the city manager to enter into an agreement for the purchase of software and associated hardware for a fleet management information system with Ron Turnkey Associates Incorporated doing business as RTA of Glendel, Arizona through the Sourcewell Cooperative Purchasing Program for the Fleet Fleet Maintenance Division and declaring this ordinance shall take immediate effect in accordance with section 14 of the city charter. Commissioner, have I heard this ordinance? What is your pleasure? Mr. Chairman, Commissioner Wat, I move for the adoption of this ordinance under suspension of the rules in full accordance with section 14 of the city charter. Second.

Got a motion and a second discussion. [snorts] Mr. Bars, you pull the commission on that motion. Mr. Coons, yes. Mr. Crabel, yes. Miss Fargo, yes. Mr. Wington, Mr. Brady, yes. Mr. Murray, yes. Mr. Vali, yes. And now on the ordinance. Mr. Coons, yes. Mr. Crabel, yes. Miss Vargo, yes. Mr. Wington, yes. Mr. Brady, yes. Mr. Murray, yes. Mr. Vali, yes. That ordinance is passed. Miss Myers, you present item number three.

It is requested an ordinance be passed authorizing and directing the city manager to enter into an enterprise zone agreement with Lucco Incorporated relating to property located at 706 Lane Street and declaring this ordinance shall take immediate effect in accordance with section 14 of the city charter. Commissioners, having heard this ordinance, how do you wish to proceed? Mr. Chairman, Mr. Val, I would move to adopt this ordinance in accordance with section 14 of the city charter. Second. Got a motion and a second. Discussion. Mr. Myers, you pull the commission on that motion. Mr. Coons, abstain. Mr. Crrael? Yes. Miss Fargo? Yes. Mr. Wington? Yes. Mr. Brady? Yes. Mr. Murray? Yes. Mr. Bali?

Yes. And now in the ordinance. Mr. Coons, abstain. Mr. Crabel, yes. Miss Fargo, yes. Mr. Mr. Wington. Yes. Mr. Brady. Yes. Mr. Murray. Yes. Mr. Pali. Yes. That ordinance is passed. Miss Mars, you present item number four, please. It is requested an ordinance be passed authorizing and directing the city manager to enter into a purchase and sale agreement with San City LLC for the acquisition of City Hall property located at 240 Columbus Avenue, Sanduski, 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, Mr. Chairman? Mr. Cra,

uh, I move approval of this of this ordinance in full accordance with section 14 of the city charter. Second. Second. Been a motion and a second discussion. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Murray,

I'm delighted we're finally at the end of this long haul. uh was more than 70 years ago, we began to look at how it is we could put together a a very very complicated financing package uh and lease arrangement along with tax credits and a number of other uh things that um uh our former uh employee Matt Lazco uh put together [clears throat] and um that required that the pro the building be the the the space that we're in right now had to be owned by a private entity for uh seven years in order to be able to take advantage of the historic historic tax credits, excuse me. [clears throat] Those are now about to run off and so we are in a position to purchase this building. In a sense, we're burning the mortgage tonight. Uh in a way, uh we've been renting this facility over this period of time. Um our finance director, Miss Reer, has carefully uh squirreled away the money so that we have all the money that we need to make this purchase. uh and our city manager uh has truly negotiated over a long period of time to get the best deal for our city and I'm very appreciative of that. Uh and this is a a wonderful facility to be in. We spent a lot of time dealing with the bulk of the communication are the complicated um uh this is a condominium in effect. It's a very elaborate condominium. Um and so the building is shared by different um owners and so we had to work all that out. That all took a long time and kudos to staff for stick sticking with that working out all of those many details and delivering to us our home. So thank you for all of that.

Mr. Chair, Mr. Crabel, um I too would like to congratulate staff in particular Michelle and John for the efforts that they've made. I also want to congratulate our our law department uh for putting together the um the condominium agreement. It's no small thing. It's uh kind of a complex matter. Uh familiar with it though not for this kind of a a a project but um well done by one and all and um I'm very glad to see that we are able to pay cash. Mr. Fargo,

actually ditto to what Mr. Kville said. I wanted to thank um our law director and uh Melanie in the back, assistant law director. Um it was very complex and talking to um our city manager John, he um shared with us that it was a very complex law situation and they did a great job and got us the best deal that we could. So, thank you very much. Yeah,

you know, uh, one of the collateral benefits of paying this off a year early, uh, is the fact that we are not going to be paying, uh, a little more than a quarter of a million dollars in lease payments over the next year. That's a quarter of a million dollars to go directly to the bottom line. And and I want to roll the clock back about four years. One of the very first conversations that I had with the then newly elected Commissioner Pali was how are we going to pull this off? How are we going to pay for city hall? Because he knew and I knew that that moment was going to come. I didn't think it was going to come during our administration because it should have come a year from now. I didn't have an answer for him then. But there are two people in this room that had the answer and they didn't tell me until about six months ago. That was our finance director and our city manager. Those two collaborated and stuffed away enough money over the last four years to pull this off tonight. So the law department did a great job getting the documents together. Michelle and Mr. Orzac pulled together a great job in finding the money to do this. So, thanks to all of them.

I guess we got a vote on this, don't we? Yeah. I don't hope so. Mr. Myers, will you pull the commission on the motion? Mr. Coons? Yes. Mr. Crab? Yes. Miss Fargo? Yes. Mr. Wington? Mr. [clears throat] Brady? Yes. Mr. Murray? Yes. Mr. Bali? Yes. And now on the ordinance. Mr. Coons? Yes. Mr. CrarAbel? Yes. Miss Fargo? Yes. Mr. Wington? Mr. Brady? Yes. Mr. Murray? Yes. Mr. Bali? Yes. That ordinance is passed. Done. Mr. Myers, you present the next item on the agenda.

It is requested an ordinance be passed authorizing and directing the city manager to enter into a design build contract with Janata and her of Monroeville, Ohio for the Sunduski Recreation Center project and declaring this ordinance shall take immediate effect in accordance with section 14 of the city charter. Commissioners, having heard this ordinance, how do you wish to proceed? Mr. Chairman, Mr. Crabel, I would move approval of this ordinance in full keeping with section 14 of the city charter. Second got a motion and a second discussion. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Wington,

I first would like to thank the residents of Sunduski uh for passing this levy a while back. I know uh Mr. Murray and I believe Mrs. twine years ago. We sat at the old IAB club and uh punched this around and we had no idea uh as far as money cuz it was tight for a few years, a couple of our uh uh years on the commission and uh but to have this pass in the community behind me, I think that's big. So, I'm excited about it and I hope every commissioner is. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Bur,

I agree with Mr. Wington. [clears throat] I recall that meeting uh and many other meetings, public meetings that we had where the residents would come to us and they were clamoring for a rec center. Respectfully, um these weren't these weren't adversarial conversations, but they kept telling us we need a rec center. Uh we need a place for all ages to go to to youth to keep them out of trouble because we all know what we were all like when we were little. Someone watched us and we had opportunities to to do things. and then for for for people to of uh to exercise at these facilities for the elderly for programming. Um and it was been it's been a very difficult slog to get here. Um we I for many years said no rec center unless we have a dedicated source of funding for operations because we've all seen this happen in other communities. You build a beautiful brand new rec center and the tough times come because they always do. Uh, and what gets shuttered? The rec center. And what happens while it's shuttered? Uh, neglect. Um, things happen and there's no one there to supervise it. And before you know it, you've got a tear down. And so it was incredibly important that the public approved that. I would not be willing to support this had we not secured that long-term funding. Uh, and so I'm I'm grateful for the public's support. It wasn't a mandate. It was a pretty close vote, but the voters spoke and they said they want this. and they've said they wanted this uh for long before that and and outside of that vote. So, I'm glad that we're able to deliver. It is not um club med. Uh it is uh it is perfect for our community. Uh it's modest uh but it is centrally located where many children and adults alike will be able to enjoy it and take advantage of it. It's right next to the tennis courts and we took a gamble because had we not been able to get these bids uh where we did um that we

would have had an orphaned set of tennis courts. But we gambled and the gamble paid off and this will be immediately adjacent to uh the schools and and I I just think it's a wonderful thing that we are finally able to deliver this for our community. We had a lot of conversations along the way in terms of what programming was going to look like. Um, and I think we ended up in a good place. And it'll be up to future commissioners and commissions and staff to figure out how to staff this, how to finance it and and fine-tune the programming depending upon the needs that are presented and what gets utilized. But I'm delighted that we are able to deliver this on the way out the door. So, I'm going to regard this as my Christmas present. I don't think we're ever going to be accused of uh doing this fast, but [clears throat] I hope we're accused of doing it right. Um we uh found a way or have a way of funding it. Uh that's through an admissions tax and our residents have found a way to uh support the operation of it. Uh true, it was not a was certainly not a mandate, but democracy works when you get one more vote than the other guys and and we did on this. Um, I think that, uh, going forward, uh, we've listened to our, uh, staff who've made programming recommendations. We've listened to the community and the community spoken. Uh, we've got a contractor who has given us a price that is well within our budget. Um, tonight we, uh, tonight, uh, we're going to pass a vote that I think is historic, and I think it'll benefit this community for years to come. M Mr. Chair, Mr. Go,

just a couple of things real quick. Um, one of the things that's really important, it's been important to all the the commissioners here and myself is that um, we have a facility that we can manage, that we can afford. Um, but also one that um, we can expand upon the the ground, right? There is some room to expand. And you know, I've heard talk before and it's almost like some folks haven't kept up with this process along the way about a swimming pool. But one of the things that happened along that trek was that the city schools basically were enduring a campaign to raise some funds for a school there. One of the things that I hope that happens is that we get involved in this process of making sure for whatever time is available for our children to use that pool that was newly constructed that we do so. Um that's important. The other thing that's happened already um and that happened as the work of this commission moved forward was that we have tennis courts on that very ground where the recreation center will be. I thought it would be um it would look interesting if that rec center wasn't over there at that point. So I think that's a good start for what we have. Um and I think being able to expand is also a really good thing as well. So that's all I really needed to add.

Mr. Kel, Mr. chairman. Um, this has certainly been a long process to get to where we are this evening. Um, but I think that that long process has served uh a very good purpose in that we have been able to hear from a lot of people over the course of the number of years it's taken. [snorts] Um, I too uh echo the comments about being thankful uh to the community for providing this support uh for operating funds for this uh facility. Um I want to thank um uh Commissioner Brady as well for his suggestion. I believe it was your suggestion uh that we look at this as a design build uh project. Uh and uh we have to say this evening that that was a wonderful idea. Um I also note that coming commissions, whether it be the new commission coming in or or commissions that take take their place afterwards, uh we're going to have to pay close attention to programming because that's where it's at. The bricks and the mortar are great. Don't don't mistake me, okay? But the but it is the programming. it is the people who deliver the services, who run run the the youth programs or the adult programs or whatever it might be. Those that that's that's where the action is. And so I very very much look forward to seeing what that looks like.

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Murray, unless others wish to speak, I wanted to say two other things. Go ahead.

So first, u I do hope and I'm sorry I forgot to mention this in my early remarks. I do hope that we do find a way to honor the legacy of that site. Um there is a whistle from the old American Cran uh site that's sitting over at the Erie County um uh historic historical society barn. They'd love to give it back and put it on top there and see if it works. Don't know if that works. I hope it fits in the budget, but it would be a delightful thing to see uh if not here again. Uh and then I know uh John Croft, some of you are familiar with him in the book that he wrote about the history of American cran. He donated a large collection of American crayon memorabilia of whatever you want to call it, crayons and the crayon boxes and all of that. Uh it's really interesting and if we can find all that's been donated to I don't know if it's Froman I think I'm thinking um it might be the Haye Center that has all of those have all been donated at this point in time. They're available and hopefully we can find some window box to put that in because that is the legacy of that location. But the other thing I wanted to mention uh is this um and I think it's important for all of us to keep this in mind. Government is here to provide us with things that we cannot acquire or build on our own. Uh whether that's a police force, a fire station, roads or parks. Um government is a positive force in our lives. We we hear too much these days that we need to tear government down, that we need to make sure that everybody has every last dime in their pocket because they shouldn't be uh paying taxes. Uh that's a wrong way of thinking. Uh what we have seen over the course of the last 12 years is we've consistently made investments in our community and that is what the people want us to do. And that is what over the long arc of history we learn uh is is makes for a a successful community. People come to where they

want to live and businesses follow. It isn't the other way around. We want to be a pe a community where people come to live and people want to live, where they want to stay here. And uh we h have accomplished that in some measure over the course of our 200 plus year history. Um and I'm delightful to have had played a part in it. But I think it's important that we remember that government is here to do things for us. It's not just here to put money back in our pockets and this is a great example of government doing something that it should do. Mr. Chair,

I just first I want to say thank you to um Commissioner Brady, Commissioner Murray, I know you've been here and Commissioner Wington, you've been here the longest trying to get this done and it's not easy and as everyone said already, it's been a long time coming. I'm very excited for the recck department. You guys do such a great job as it is in providing so many awesome opportunities for our kids, for um families, whatever it may be, and you keep coming up with new ideas. We got to keep Jason hidden somewhere so we can't keep coming up with new ideas, but um uh Tandra does an incredible job with the kids at middle school, and I can't wait to see what you can do with the opportunities that we are going to be before us at this new building. Um and you know, I think it's really important to take a look at what Janata and Hearnner did, too. I think it's really a great opportunity that they looked at the new they redesigned it for us to make it affordable for us to do this and um I had a nice conversation with one of our incoming commissioners today u Mr. Pujo and we were both um reminiscing about what it was like to have the Y and how much fun that was meeting friends you know learning to swim there doing all those things now yes we are not going to have a pool and we are going to continue to push the schools to make sure that they do more for our youth with swimming I think that's really important where we live but to our rec center it's going to be an opportunity for relationships to be built friendships to be built great athletes to be born elderly to take walks um old people like myself middle-aged to go work out a little bit, lift little weights, um not run. Um but it's very exciting times and um and the community is going to have to take part in this as well. I mean, it's it's it's not a it's not an open door and you just walk in and go. We're, you know, it's not going to be a free opportunity. So, we do need to make sure that everyone knows that. Um with something like this, there is cost that is going to come with it, but not not significant, nothing that more normal families and we've had opportunities for scholarship talk for some kids who can't afford it. So, those things are all coming, but right now it's just enjoy it and get excited and

get the plans going and get a shovel in the ground. So, thank you. Should we vote? Yes, we should. Mr. Mars, you call the role on the motion, please. Mr. Coun, yes. Mr. Crrael? Yes. Miss Fargo? Yes. Mr. Wington? Yes. Mr. Brady? Yes. Mr. Murray? Yes. Mr. Bali? Yes. [clears throat] Hurry up about it. And now on the ordinance. Mr. Coons, yes. Mr. CrarAl, yes. Miss Fargo, yes. Mr. Wington, Mr. Brady, yes. Mr. Murray, yes. Mr. Bali, yes. That motion, that ordinance is passed. Yes.

Thank goodness. We are going to move now to our uh presentation that we have uh pushed back into the agenda a bit. It's uh it's on our property inventory survey results and it's performed by the Western Reserve Land Conservatory and it is a very important document that is going to enlighten us. Good evening everyone. My name is Isaac Rob from Western Reserve Land Conservancy and I just want to start by saying how humbled we are to be presenting. This seems like a very big night uh for the city of Sunduski and we're happy to play a very small role in tonight's agenda. I'll wait for one second. Um, one point that I I want to bring up is the the invocation you started with tonight uh was was very moving in a few um in a few ways, but I think public service does not get the recognition it deserves. And this work isn't an accident, right? The sidewalks, the utilities, you have to do those little things in order to do the big things like purchasing city hall or creating rec center. So, I just want to commend the staff and the commission. I'm from Cleveland, but I've been really impressed with our time here in Sunduski, and I think you have an all-star staff. Um, Colleen, Aaron, working with the city manager, John. Um, truly top-notch. So, I wanted to start there.

Thank you.

Yes. Um, you all know the city of Sunduski better than I ever will, so we can skip through a lot of the the history, but what we will be presenting tonight is a story map that will be posted online, so everyone wherever you are in the world can get a little glimpse on what is happening in the city of Sunduski in the year 2025. What we were able to accomplish with a team of surveyors was going out in teams of two with tablet computers and getting information on every par property, every parcel in the city of Sunduski. Over 12,000 records were taken. Photos were taken for each parcel and a series of questions uh were answered. Now, this is not the first time we've done this. For those of you who maybe been uh on the commission in 2015, we worked um with the city of Sanduski in doing one. So, what we're really proud and happy to present tonight is that you can see these changes parcel by parcel, sidewalk by sidewalk, and how the city of Sunduski has changed over the past 10 years. The Western Reserve Land Conservancy is a regional land trust. We're we're based in Kyoga County, but we work in 29 counties throughout Northeast Ohio. I want to thank my teammates Adrian, Sadi, and Emily who really spent a lot of time, many months and countless hours on this project working with the city of Sunduski team. And what you can see here at the top when you land on this page there, you can view these almost like bookmarks. So you can go through and scroll down in a linear fashion or you can jump around. So I'll I'll try and be timely tonight and go through. So there's sort of an introduction and then you can see these when it's italicized and in bold. These are hyperlinks that you can click on. So you can actually link to the report from 2015 which is nice. You can see um under the collected data a list of all the questions that were answered sort of what we consider metadata on this. And then we use a tool called regrid which is based in the city of Detroit. We've been working with them for uh about a

decade now. And that's kind of the wireless software that we use for for this. We also worked, as you can see here, all these smiling faces. Our staff worked and trained with city of Sanduski staff and local residents to collect all of this information over the project period, which was really a lot of fun to hear their stories, their lived experience, and how they interact with their their neighbors. This is something that shouldn't be understated. the ability to walk and have those authentic interactions with people. That's a type of community development that again you don't get by just looking at aerial imagery or things like that. So, it's really a human-based approach even though we're working with a very large data set here. But enough of me talking. I'm sure you're very interested in the results. So, if you continue to scroll down, we've been able to create maps in a variety of ways to visualize this data. So, one of the main characteristics is obviously what the use of the properties are. And if you can see here in the lower right, you can actually zoom in and then click around and select parcels. So, it's a little different than our PDF 10 years ago. But then you can see, you know, beautiful home here. You can click on the par on the photo to enlarge it. And then it has information listed below. These uh property conditions range from roof, siding, porch, things of that nature, uh if it's occupied. And what's really nice about working with this Regrid company is that they actually have parcel data, publicly available parcel data for every parcel in the entire United States, continental United States. So existing data like your zoning code, um tax information is all integrated. And so that might not be showing here, but the city staff has all of this combined data in both Excel and uh GIS shaped files, which is really impressive.

And then if you continue to scroll down, you can see out of the 12,242 parcels in the city, 9,200 are occupied structures. You have a little over 1500 vacant lots, others, and that column with parcels is the absolute uh count. And then in blue that would be the acres, right? So it's trying to get the most comprehensive approach because you might have a parcel that's a tenth of an acre, you might have a parcel that's 10 acres. And so really to be able to break it down by land use to see uh what the composition of the city of Sunduski is. Then we also, like I mentioned, broke it down by zoning. So you can see residential, business, commercial. Under residential, we have two family, multif family, industrial, and you can click around and zoom in as you like. So again, working backwards, 12,000 parcels in the city of Sanduski, 92 almost 9,300 are residential, and of that, 5,800 are single family, 27 are are two family, and then you have 741 multifamily. So again, it's a really nice snapshot to see, as we all know, residential housing makes up so much of what makes our community special and unique. Uh, one of the commissioners was saying, you know, what is going to draw people here [snorts] and as we live in a state with aging housing stock, it's really important to keep that laser focus on the condition of your buildings. And we're happy to say that you guys have been doing a fantastic job of that.

[sighs]

We gave each structure a letter grade similar to being a student with your report card A through F. A would be excellent and going down to F would be hazardous and needs to be removed immediately. An A property could be a brand new home. It could be a century home. It doesn't have to be architecturally significant. It could be a little bungalow or a shotgun house and everything in between. It's just is the condition from an exterior determining what the the grade will be. And you can see sort of here in blue and then pink those that are occupied versus vacant. And then you can zoom in and we've highlighted everything here that's highlighted would be an occupied A and everything I'll zoom out a little bit so you can see just cuz there aren't many of them but that would maybe be a vacant A. Vacancy is determined at the time of survey, right? And I'll get a little bit more on how we created vacancy indicators as well, but that's an example of an A property in your city. B is good. Um, you know, that just means minor improvements are necessary. Um, maybe would have some peeling paint, a porch that needs new steps, things of that nature, but would is totally fine from an occupancy standpoint. C is fair. Here's an example of fair. Maybe the gutters are overgrown. We've done this property inventory in Cleveland two times, 2015 and actually 2022. Um, my house, which is a Century Home, got a B in 2015 and a C in 2023, even though we've put a lot of money into it. So, sometimes we recognize that these property grades can shift a little bit. But this is a highle overview of of the the entirety of the housing stock. And then again, you have the accompanying map to the right. Deteriorated example. and then Fhazardous, which there are very very few in in the city.

So again, here's the breakdown. You have 4700 and 3,700 occupied A and B structures, which is fantastic. And you know, just a few dozen that received the D or the F score. You can zoom in and click around on all of these as well. And here's the breakdown of the vacancy. And we did sort of points here so you can sort of see exactly where those vacant structures are. And this is something that was really great working with your staff. We created a vacancy indicator. So not only is it the record that the property surveyor took, but it's combining with the US Postal Service vacancy that we get through the regrid and then we received um water shut off records from the city and we created a blended score. So if all three of those indicators hit that a property was vacant, that was definitely vacant, which you can see here. If two of the three were scored as vacant, that was a probable vacant. And then if only one of the three, that was a possible vacant. So again, we recognize these data sources are always changing. We've noticed that the USPS data lags a little bit more than others. Um, so again, here is the indication of what the vacancy data shows. Again, in the summer of 2025, you only had 112 parcels that were were deemed vacant, and most of them were in this probably indefinitely vacant category. We also did a ranked list of some of the most common issues. This is helpful for determining what your next strategy is going to be. So, in Cleveland, we have a lot of issues with lead based paint. Um, so the city has created a a paint program that residents can apply for. And so looking at this data, we like to say data doesn't make us smarter, but it does keep us more informed. And one thing that I've really appreciated working with your staff is you are a very visionary municipality in a lot of ways, but you do the little things right in order to get to those big things. And so here's um really a clear-headed

approach on maybe what those next steps are that you guys should be focusing in on from a a housing condition. Um, but what's really great to see is just the changes and improvements that you've seen uh in the city. And what this does as well, and we have the raw data that we've shared with the municipality, but if you sort of scroll to the right, you see the 2025 data. And if you pull the slider to the right, I know oo and are okay. [laughter] And are okay. Um, so you and then you can zoom in and do that comparative analysis. Again, this is rarely unique that we don't have a lot of people u municipalities that have committed to doing this. A lot of times people don't like that accountability, right? They're afraid what the data is going to show. And I appreciate the courage that you all have shown by by going through this process. So again, what you can see is you you're seeing an uptick. And again, the good thing is nothing drastic has happened, right? We came when I started working at the land conservancy was after the foreclosure crisis. Things were in a really really tough state. So you haven't seen a huge swing, but the swings you have seen have been very positive. So, an increase in occupied A and B, a slight decrease in C properties, which isn't a bad thing because that is corresponding with properties being improved, and then a decrease in the DNF properties, which is which is fantastic. Same thing in change in vacancy. You've seen a huge decrease in the vacancy of those A and B properties. Things are getting um filled. Um, and then a slight increase in the DNF, but again, you have 112 total parcels that are vacant in the city. So, you're not talking about a huge denominator there. And then this is another interesting one that municipalities and and your city really pushed us to evaluate. So, this is how do those grades change based on ownership type. We're not saying that this is 100% accurate. Ownership obviously, as you know, is an everchanging nebulous thing. But we broke down things that had tax mailing addresses that were concurrent with the mailing address of the parcel to see

what the grades were for parcels that had ownership in Sunduski, had ownership in Ohio but not in Sunduski and then had outside ownership. So again, you can sort of see those trends across different ownership type as well. Same thing, owner's mailing address based on vacancy. So you can compare that. And then this is something, you know, unique. You were obviously a beachfront community. A lot of people come here seasonally. And so we tried and and I'm blanking on the rental data source. Um, but it's in here, but we were able to get short-term rental listings and be able to compare this property data with with that as well and sort of see where that is dispersed. And then vacant land. I won't spend a lot of time on this category. I encourage everyone, but we did break this down into four different categories. Typical, which would be just a mode, vacant lot, improved, that could be a community garden, things like that, a sideyard perhaps, wooded lots, which are just kind of patches of of micro forests. And then distressed vacant lots that maybe have, you know, illegal dumping or things of that nature. in this case, maybe um just could use some deep paving. And then we also want to recognize that this data is only as good in the framework and the lens that you're looking through. So again, the city has done a fantastic job with the new strategic plan. Um Colleen's been working, I think, how many homes do you have under construction with the welcome home Ohio program?

Uh seven. Seven under construction. So again, it's really about taking this data and then either honing in on existing strategies or creating new programs that best meet the needs of your community. And so um with that, I think I'm at time, but again, special thank you to Adrian, Sadie, and Emily, as well as the surveyors. Unfortunately, um one of the all-star surveyors, Payton, was not in this photo. Um but and we were hoping he'd be here, but I think he's just finishing up his first semester at Purdue. So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions and again, it was been an absolute pleasure and hopefully you'll have us back um maybe in another 10 years. Questions or comments? Commissioners?

Mr. Chairman? Mr. [clears throat] I'd just like to say that uh this is great. It's going to uh enhance all our grant writing activities, not just housing, economic development, all those things that you would look up housing data for census. uh when I was with regional planning, we did a couple of these and that was uh circa 2003. Okay.

We we did them by hand and by the time we were done, we didn't do the whole city. We did maybe Kilborn district. We had piles and piles of paper and all the pictures like this were on floppy discs. [laughter] And uh at that time you had to show all this information because the housing money was competitive, right? But this is this is excellent. Yeah. Thank you and thanks for your hard work in 2003. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Murray, it

be interesting to see what future commissions and staff recommend with this. Um we've been through a process where 10 years ago there was almost nothing that didn't seem to need improvement and so we had some rather generous grant programs. Um as we move forward it will be interesting to see the choices that are made because you you point to at least the data points to a possible way to use this use the grant dollars that we've set aside or we have been setting aside in recent years in a more targeted way. M

do we want to target those to C properties to bring them into B properties? Um uh do we really need to be granting grants to um A properties? Probably not. And we've also had some discussion about putting [clears throat] some income collars uh on some of these grants. So it'll be interesting to see what staff develops as recommendations and what the commission then follows in terms of a way to le leverage the available grant dollars we have with the data that we have. Mr. Chairman,

Mr. Kribble, all I can say is outstanding. This is amazing. Um, I can see how I'm going to spend several weekends uh going through it. Um, but in particular, thanks to you, to your team, thanks to staff um because I'm sure you were deeply engaged in this as the process went forward. Weekly meetings. Yes,

weekly meetings. Okay, very good. Um, excellent tool. I echo everyone else's um comments uh that went before me here. [clears throat] Uh I can see any number of ways that we can utilize this and be and be very much better at you know what we do. So much more efficient dollar efficient. You want to go? I have two comments. uh one you mentioned early on that some uh some communities um may not embrace this idea because they don't want to know the results. Um we're not that kind of a community. I think I think you figured that out and I hope we never become that kind of a community.

How do you how are you ever going to know where you're going if you don't know where you're at? You're you're giving us a roadmap uh you know to continue to move forward with these kind of things. Uh thank you for this. This is a and I mean I love the slide uh Mr. Orsac shared with me that concept that that you must have seen earlier than I did. Uh we we're calling it the Murray slide. I I'm not sure I'm not sure why, but Mr. Orzac had a theory on that.

Um Mr. Murray's was uh the one that was kind of instrumental in pushing this, but um I saw a picture of him when he was uh on commission 20 years ago. And [laughter] uh so we wanted we wanted to do a Dennis Murray 20 years ago. I do have the photo if anybody wants to see it and then Dennis Murray now. But uh it was a uh when he when he presented this slide, we kind of joked about it, but it is a a neat way to see where we were in 2015 and then where we are in 2025. So thanks Mr. Murray. Well, must be a retorer somewhere.

There's at least a rejoinder. Uh, so I I don't think I look uh one day older than I [laughter] did when I was first elected 20 years ago. And in fact, when I look in the mirror, I see the same person who graduated from high school in 1980. So your eyes only, I'm sure, [laughter]

you know, I I do uh I'll digress for a moment, but I my my wife and I do share the fact that one of the nice things about getting older together is your eyesight fails at the same time. [laughter] The second comment that I wanted to make was I I hope you can either corab corroborate or dispel a story that Mr. Orzac shared with me earlier about about your work and that is that Miss Blair and Miss Gillson actually accompanied you accompanied your team on on these visits.

Yes, I should definitely I can definitely corroborate that and that is a unique thing. A lot of times some of the municipalities we'll work with just want to hire us and call us in 6 months when everything's done. And your staff really rolled up their their shirt sleeves and were begging to get tablets. We actually were missing two tablets and we're like, "Oh, did we did Payton take one to Purdue? Where did this tablet go?" I was like, "Oh, it was in Colleen. They got us." Yeah. So, so yeah, they were very hands-on throughout this process. That is above and beyond the call of duty for both of you. Thanks for doing that. additional questions or comments. Question,

if I may, I do want to acknowledge the young people that participated in this. Um, Payton, Julian, Brandon, Owen, and Reagan. Mhm. all young men that live in this community that were deeply committed to this. The comments that we got, the things they would come back to this very room every day with from finding a dog that was chained up and they were wrecked over it to houses that just blew them away. It was really amazing and I'm hopeful that there's a young commissioner in one of those five in the future. And Payton, I know you're watching. Thank you for your hard work. Um, and thank you to the Western Reserve team. It's really been a pleasure working with them.

Great. Thanks. Thanks for all you're doing. Thank you. Mr. Horseman wanted to make sure because he was uh for sure someone would ask this is on the website already. So, uh there's access to it. It is on the website. Yep. Thanks. What about the That concludes our regular agenda and we will move to our city manager report. Thank you. Good evening commissioners, audience, and staff. I have a whole slew of uh donations. Um the first is $1,000 to the K9 fund from Smith's Top Notch through the Remember Cruise and Car Club. If I get a motion to accept second a motion and a second discussion without objection, motion be approved. Without objection, that motion is approved with our thanks.

Um on September 11th, a member of the Sunduski Fire along with three uh retired firefighters participated in the family health services third annual golf classic. Proceeds from this fundraiser are being used to help fund their mission to provide quality health care to those in need. A significant portion of the proceeds raised were also donated to area first responders. Suski Fire Department was awarded a donation of $1,500. Get a motion to accept that donation. So moved. Second. Been a motion and a second discussion. Without objection, that motion would be approved. Hearing no objection, that motion is approved for the $1,500 donation.

And then uh the rest of these are all for uh Rick. Um would like to thank Toughman Rental and Supply for lending the uh lift for use and installing as well as taking down the Christmas lights on the Christmas tree at Shade Myander Plaza. That value was uh 1770 $1,770 and that was in kind. Um also would like to thank Sean and Don Rachel for donating their beautiful tree to be used for the city's Christmas tree at Shade Myander Plaza. Also would like to thank Barnes Nursery for once again being our partner in helping choose a tree, removing, transporting, and installing. It's a huge undertaking by Barnes and they played a key role in making this happen each year. [snorts] Um would like to thank uh Susan Morren Perry from Resaler. Resaler donated 40 drawstring backpacks that are handmade and uh from used sales and sailboats. Uh, like to thank Sandy Markham for donating two packs of popsicles for Mills out of school. Uh, Virginia or for donating $470 to the ABC Club at Mills. These are children who have no C's, D's, and Fs on their report card and have been coming uh to do homework at uh for the out of school program. The ABC Club then gets a quarterly reward where they go to the movies and enjoy snacks. This quarter they had 34 kids attend. And then OHM Advisors for donating a case of water, pop, cookies, and napkins uh for Suski Wreck. And the last uh would like to thank Suski Christmas Market for donating $150 to Mills Wreck. Um they will be doing kids activities in the Myander Pavilion on select market days and this covers the supplies. I get a motion to accept all of those donations.

So moved. Second. Got a motion and a second discussion. Without objection, that motion will be approved. Hearing no objection, that motion is approved with our thanks to all of those people.

And then uh the finance committee will be meeting at 8:00 on Friday, December 5th here at city hall. A general reminder for property owners of vacant dwellings. If your dwelling is expected to remain vacant and unoccupied during the winter months, we highly recommend that you contact the city to turn off the water. This will prevent help prevent your water lines from freezing and breaking which could lead to costly repairs for the property owner. Customer accounting can be reached at 419627-5893. Um, as mandated by the EPA, notifications will be sent in early December informing some property owners of the status of their water service line materials that connect the water main to the building. All questions can be directed to Department of Public Works at 419-627-5884 and more information at www.c cityoski.com/waterlines and leaf collection is on schedule. Refer to www.c cityofossunduski.commap for dates for your area. Happy to take any uh questions that you have.

Questions or comments for the city manager? If not, we'll move to items of old business. Any items of old business? Mr. Chairman, Mr. Wing,

a few meetings back, I asked for $2,000 to go towards a car chair for their toy to toy drive. And uh tonight, I would like to ask for additional $3,000. It' be 5,000 total then uh for when we do the fill the bin at Karen Shar. It's December 6. It's be 10:00 a.m. till noon. And I've done I've been involved with this probably for uh 15 18 years when Pastor Ward was there every year. We always uh you know you got to remember that this place is in the shadow of city hall couple blocks away. Okay. And the need is uh uh great there. I know uh Mrs. Cro Anita Cromer does a great job. She's the new director now of it. And uh if you drive by there, which I do a lot of mornings, I have coffee and go down and sit at the dock for 20 minutes. But uh there's always seems to be a line there, you know. So I know the need is still big in our community.

That's in the form of a motion. I'll second it. Okay. Thank you. Discussion. [snorts] Miss Bars, do you pull the commission on that motion? Mr. Coons? Yes. Miss Farco? Yes. Mr. Wington? Yes. Mr. Brady? Yes, Mr. Murray. Yes, Mr. Bali. Yes, that motion has passed. And that date was December the 6th, 9:00. No, it's 10 to noon. 10 to noon. Okay,

great. Additional items of old business. Items of new business. Any items of new business, commissioners? Most of you are probably aware that uh we have a new municipal court judge uh taking office uh in January. And uh I felt it might be a uh good gesture on the part of our city to uh pass a motion to purchase uh for our new judge, Judge Kaufman, uh his his first magistrate's robe. Uh it is a uh uh that court is an integral part of of our community and certainly an integral part of u the business that's conducted uh throughout this city. And uh we are looking forward to uh uh developing a great relationship with Mr. Kaufman. Uh I know our city manager has spoken with him. I've spoken with him. I think most of you have had a conversation with Mr. Kaufman. Um, I think this is a a gesture that uh can uh can pay dividends for for all of us and we can be proud of the fact that uh we are uh we are robbing our new our new judge.

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Mur,

I'll make that motion and and I'd like to add that as as the commission and the staff moves forward, it's important to have a dialogue with the court. Um we for many years did not have much of a dialogue and [clears throat] um I I reached out because we were at a point where it turns out we were subsidizing the court to the tune of at least a h 100,000 sometimes much more than that per year and we had a dialogue with them and we said well that's not really quite right. You guys need to cover your own expenses. We paid for the building and we paid for the utilities but you need to cover your own expenses. And uh that's worked out well for the last nine ten years since we had that conversation. So when those things come up um we're all we're elected officials as well and we can talk with other elected officials and we have staff that can talk at a staff level too. So just keep that in mind. They need to keep their balance their their budget balanced. U but um we need to make sure that we make that request if that wanders out of line.

Mr. Mr. May, if that's in the form of a motion, I would I would like to add that the cost of that robe is $410 plus some shipping costs. So, I think if we make a if your motion would include a figure of say $500, it would probably cover. So, amended. Second. But a motion and a second discussion. Miss Bars, you pull the commission on that motion. Mr. Coons, yes. Miss Fargo, yes. Mr. Wington, yes. Mr. Brady, yes. Mr. Murray, yes. Mr. Bali, yes.

That motion is passed. Any additional items in new business? Not we will move to residents comments on any item that concern city business. Seeing no one rushing to the podium, I'll ask for a motion to adjurnn. So moved. We're a journ.