City Commission - Regular Meeting

Order clerk call the roll.

Mr. Ricketts.

Here.

Mr. Rigsby.

Here.

Mrs. Tackett. Here. Mr. Wallace.

Here.

Mr. Rue.

Here. Acting city manager.

Yes. Tonight we have a work session on the Community Reinvestment Area Act led by Cassie Scott, our Economic Development Manager and Assistant City Manager and Director of Economic Development, Tom Franzen.

Thank you so much. So tonight I will be presenting on the community reinvestment area program. First, I'll give an overview of what the program is and what it does. Then I will highlight some impacts of the program. And finally, I will propose three changes we'd like to make to the program. So first, what is the CRA program? This is a tax abatement to assist property owners who build new or significantly improve existing structures. So something about this program, people often think, oh, they pay no taxes. That is not the case. You continue to pay taxes on the existing structure, if there is one, and then you continue to pay on the land. So you pay on the dirt itself. And the great thing about this program is that it can apply to commercial and industrial. It can apply to mixed use projects, as well as new construction for residential and rehab. So it really can benefit both your big developer, your property owner, and also your homeowners, so the little guy. And that's what I especially like about the program. And the abatement only applies to the improvements to the property. To be eligible for the program, it must be within the boundary. So as you can see based on this map, the boundary currently covers much of the city and that is due to an expansion that we had in 2019 and later in 2020. So CRAs have been in Ohio for a long time and we purposefully expanded the boundary to incentivize development in our city. And what did we see? We saw that it worked. So this map shows the amount of development happening in Springfield right now. And you can see it's happening all across our city. And that's really exciting. We have about 3,300 units in the pipeline right now, and over 2,400 of those are making use of the CRA program. I think it helps to show a few examples of how the program is used. So a great example is Mother Seward's. They have a commercial CRA in place. That means they continue to pay taxes on the existing structure. So it used to be an old industrial building. And they receive abatement only on the improvements that they made to this. so the city gives up a little we give up 60 percent of the taxes on the improvements and in return we get a great asset that really adds to the culture and vibrancy of our community and this will be fully taxed once the abatement ends one of my favorite examples um the wren building so you all are probably very familiar with this project it's a mixed-use project so the developer is taking an existing historic structure and they are adding modular units to it in return we will have 74 luxury apartments in springfield with some commercial on the bottom and yet again this is an example of a negotiated agreement So this is something that the commission votes on and approves based on the benefit that it gives to the community. The Center Street Townhomes, I like this one because it is an existing, it was a brownfield and we turned it into housing. So there are 34 townhomes on this land. And this is a really awesome example because that benefit goes to the homeowner. So it's not the case that it's just going to a company or so on and so forth. Those homeowners actually see the benefits of this program. key thing to keep in mind with this program, this is a temporary incentive for a permanent asset in our community. So with the center street town homes, this isn't an example of just one lot before the investment, the land was worth $30,000 after it was worth close to 200,000. So you multiply that by 34 and we see over $6.5 million in new investment in our community. A common myth with this program is that no taxes are paid. I like this example because it shows that for this actual real world example, the taxes paid are actually higher than those that are abated. So it's not always the case that the benefit is greater than what is being given up. So why are we recommending changes to the program? My boss, Tom Franzen and I, we sit here every day and we have people come to us with programs and projects that they'd like to do. And there were a number of projects that were coming across our desk that were outside of the current boundary. Tom and I don't wanna be in the position of excluding projects based on the geography alone. It's my goal to make sure that those projects are happening inside of Springfield. And to be competitive amongst other communities, we have to use incentives for the math to work. So we took that into account and we commissioned an independent housing study. And the result of that study was it showed that we should in fact expand the CRA. So what changes am I proposing? I'm proposing that we expand the boundary to include the remainder of the city. I also want to increase the rehab abatement from 10 years, 100% to 15 years, 100%. And that's because I want to incentivize rehab just as much as I am new construction. And finally, we'd like to implement fees to cover the administrative costs of the program. A few important points to leave you with. This program is really unique to Ohio in that we have control at the local level. So we get to say what the boundary looks like and what the amounts are. We have to do that within the confines of ORC, but having that control at the local level is really amazing and we should make use of it. Importantly, this is not set in stone. We can make changes at any time. So we can and will Review this policy yearly and we can make updates depending on shifts in the market This is meant to be responsive to the market and Springfield's not yet at a point where we have enough housing or enough development so I want to keep incentivizing and encouraging that and To that end. I want to have a few speakers talk about how they've used the CRA program and why it's needed Kicking it over to Tracy

Good evening. My name is Tracy Craig with Premier Properties, and I'm here tonight in support of expanding the community reinvestment area to encompass the entire city of Springfield. Over the past several years, our company has invested millions of dollars into Springfield through new housing, redevelopment and infrastructure. We've seen firsthand the momentum the city has created, and we believe Springfield is in a unique position to continue attracting private investment. Expanding the CRA citywide is an important step in that effort. This isn't about giving away tax dollars. It's about creating an environment where developers, businesses, and homeowners have another tool to make investment decisions that might not otherwise happen. With today's construction costs, labor expenses, and interest rates, many projects simply don't work financially without the incentive. Premier Properties is a perfect example of that. We've successfully developed projects that would have been otherwise difficult to make financially feasible without the CRA program. Those projects include 24 townhomes on Hillside Avenue, 28 apartment units on Home Road, 13 single-family homes, and 8 townhomes on what we call the Northern Avenue project. The 15-year tax abatement significantly reduces the tax burden during the years when the projects carry most debt, making it possible to invest in properties that would otherwise remain underutilized. The CRA doesn't eliminate the taxes forever, and it doesn't reduce the value of the investment. It simply gives projects the opportunity to succeed during those critical first years. Once the abatement expires, the city, schools, and other taxing authorities benefit from the full value of a property that may have never been developed without it. Cities across Ohio are competing every day for investment. Expanding the CRA sends a strong message that Springfield is committed to growth and is willing to partner with the private sector to encourage responsible development. We believe in this city and we hope you'll continue providing the tools that allow companies like ours to reinvest in neighborhoods, create housing and strengthen our community. Thank you.

My name is Justin Bird. I'm a development manager with Casto. I'm here speaking in support of the expansion of the CRA boundary to include the corporate boundary of Springfield. CASTO is a multifamily developer in Columbus, Ohio with approximately 6,000 units under ownership. CASTO retains ownership and management of its multifamily communities for the long term. CASTO looks throughout Ohio for new multifamily development projects. CASTO currently has eight projects in various stages of planning and development in the following markets. Kahana, Lancaster, Springboro, Columbus, Westerville, Lakewood, Finley, and Cincinnati. Each one of these projects received a tax abatement. Under today's economic environment, CASDA would not consider developing a multifamily project without a tax abatement. The reasons for this are rents do not support the cost of new construction, and multifamily communities compete across jurisdictions with tax abatements for residents. Casto is interested in developing a new class A multifamily community in Springfield that must include a tax abatement to move forward. For these reasons, Casto is supportive of the expansion of the CRA within the city of Springfield to include the entire corporate bound. Thank you for considering this economic development tool. Casto looks forward to the opportunity of working with Springfield on a new multifamily project.

Good evening. My name is Sean Murphy with Mid-Ohio Development. We actually own and maintain Spring Meadow Apartments and Olympic Reserve Apartments over off of Home Road. Speaking on the other side of that, you know, Olympic has a tax abatement. Spring Meadows Apartments does not. Spring Meadow Apartments consists of, all in Springfield, we have about 248 apartments. Similar to the others, we're developing all throughout Ohio. We have municipalities where we have tax abatements, municipalities where we are navigating that. Just some simple facts. Spring Meadow was built in 2013. Since 2013, we've seen 121% increase in construction costs. We as the developer are willing to absorb some of that, but on top of the tax increases in the assessment, that's just something we can't handle. The number of buildings on Spring Meadow Phase 1 is 26 buildings. Our assessed value and our current annual property taxes are $172,000. With our final phase of Spring Meadow 2, we have 12 buildings, and our annual property tax is $160,000 on 48 units. With that simple math, we have a site on Middle Urbana Road, which is 94 units. Our annual tax bill is $315,000. The site's engineered. It's ready to go. We've done Olympic. We have Spring Meadow. We enjoy partnering with the city of Springfield. It's just something we simply cannot underwrite from a financial standpoint of looking at this municipality versus others. So, you know, obviously we're in support of the tax abatement. It's something that helps get us over that hurdle in relation to the financial aspect. We want to be a good community partner, but it's one of those things that we have to make the numbers work.

Ms. Cass, could you tell me what other communities have taken this same approach, particularly interested in benchmark communities similar to Springfield? Thank you.

So the city of Columbus has a citywide CRA and importantly theirs is quite complex. It's tiered, but they are charging significant fees and so on and so forth, but it is available throughout that city and it's not far from Springfield. So if we don't also rise to the occasion, I can see us losing out on projects in a city like Columbus where the rents are higher.

I think I understand the projects. I'm more interested in the infill opportunity and the housing stock and the age of housing stock and needing to reinvest in that. Have cities like ours taken that approach? Like that's one of the main reasons as well.

So Tom can speak to this too, but yes, this is a tool that's widely used throughout other cities.

Mansfield, Hamilton, Middletown, areas like that. Have we looked at those?

We have done a comparative analysis, but I could dive into specifics for each and get you a review.

I would be interested to know similar communities, legacy cities like ours, are they taking this approach? And if not, what is the negative effect that they've had because they haven't? Okay. Happy to get that to you. Thank you.

I mean, that was part of that initial study when we decided to expand the CRA initially. You'll recall we did, those were the cities we benchmarked against and they were very aggressively pursuing CRA policies that they were seeing success where the city at that time, we really didn't have the larger zone. So we'll get you that data, more recent updated information on the performance of those cities. But yeah, this would put us in kind of on par with our peer cities to attract the investment.

And it's my understanding that we're not taking any action on this tonight.

That's correct. There's no action tonight.

A learning opportunity for the community. Absolutely. Other commissioners have questions. Go ahead, Larry.

As a former developer myself outside of the state of Ohio, the Community Reinvestment Area Program was set up originally to encourage developers such as yourself to invest in areas where nobody wanted to invest. The units that you talked about over by Mother Stewart's are a perfect example. I love the program as far as commercial. I mean, we're getting apartments downtown because of this and so on. But I think statewide, and I'm not picking on any particular developer, but statewide this program has expanded to the point where now developers expect this. It's not a question of are they developing in an area that can't, that somebody wouldn't develop in in the past. So my concern about making the entire city of Springfield considered under this particular expansion, is that we're basically saying that the entire area is undevelopable. And I just, I don't think that's true. I think with some of the things that have happened here recently, with the new businesses, with the new manufacturing that we're going to get in here, Springfield's going to be a place where people do want to move to. Jobs will be here. More opportunities will be here. I have a real problem, again, not with the developers themselves, but just the fact that this program has strayed from what its original intention was.

so I would say in response to that it is true historically that's how it was used the program has changed over time and evolved and communities across Ohio are using it in this way and we still need more housing in Springfield and a rising tide lifts all boats I think one of you could also speak to this if you'd like to just jump in and respond to those concerns but

Before that, you said it's changed since when Larry was familiar with it too. Now, what changes have been made? How has it evolved?

I think the states still have to meet the requirements, but we're given more discretion. And I would argue that the indicators that were analyzed in this study did in fact show that even these areas need investment. So the intent is still for it to be on areas that need it. But as we can see with Columbus and other places, it is being more broadly applied. And that's to encourage housing because we have a housing crisis in the United States. There's no overlooking that, and Tom can jump in, too.

Just historically, Commissioner Ricketts and I had this conversation. When the CRA programs were started back in the early 80s, maybe late 70s, the idea was that it was to spur urban investment in areas that were... low to moderate median income areas and those kinds of things. And over time, the state legislature slowly kind of opened it up. And jokingly, we talk about it spread evenly like peanut butter across the state now. So it's opened up suburban areas as well that are eligible for this. And it's not anything that we've done locally. This is the state legislature that's expanded that program. And so it's the environment that we're operating in today. And so when we look at it, what the original intent was, to what it is today, it doesn't change the fact that we're still competing with other communities for these investments. At the end of the day, these developers are making decisions on where they can get a return on their investment. And so if they can't get that return on that investment here in Springfield, they'll go somewhere else to get it. Our question is, do we want that housing here? Do we still feel there's a gap? Do we still need that housing? And that's really the argument. It's not necessarily whether they deserve it, don't deserve it. It's more of, do we want that development? And is it worth expanding that? Because we're competing with communities that do have it. And so I think that's kind of it. I think it's the state legislature that's changed those policies on how these incentives are used. The enterprise zone is very similar. The other tax abatement program, most of the programs in the United States were started to encourage development in urban areas, right? And then it's not the only program. A lot of programs have been changed this way. We initially, Springfield had eight different CRA zones when we first started. They were all very narrowly defined along rail corridors, industrial areas that were in need of investment when we first started. But slowly over time, we've expanded those zones.

What's the reason for the 10 to 15-year recommendation?

I'll just go ahead and so this is on existing homes on rehab original Ohio Advice Code limited it rehab to 12 years but new housing was available up to 15 years so it didn't make sense to us as staff it seemed like we were disincentivizing people to buy existing homes and rehabbing them and so we wanted to level that playing field okay thank you

I'd also just add to that the costs to rehab homes, especially if they're historic homes, is very, very expensive.

I know if you open a Dayton business journal, you'll see story after story, similar cities competing against us. So I recognize the productive use for this tool to get businesses here. And you said that we can do this year by year.

We review this policy yearly, so as the market changes and if we don't need to incentivize housing in the same way, we can take it before all of you and scale it back. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there a motion to close the work session?

So moved.

Second. I moved and seconded. Call the roll.

Mr. Ricketts?

Yes.

Mr. Rigsby?

Yes.

Mrs. Tackett? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Rue?

Yes. Thank you for being here. Public comment period for city commissions called to order. Clerk, call the roll.

Mr. Ricketts. Here. Mr. Rigsby.

Here.

Mrs. Tackett. Here. Mr. Wallace. Here. Mr. Rue.

Here. The city commission is committed to creating a conducive environment for constructive and productive dialogue and engagement for the community. Those wishing to speak must fill out a public comment card and provide their name and address for the record. A state issued ID and driver's license and or driver's license must be provided while filling out the card. And only those who are residing in Springfield and Clark County will be permitted to speak during the public comment period. Comment cards will be accepted 15 minutes after the start of this meeting. Those who have determined to provide false information on the card will not be permitted to speak at this meeting or the next scheduled meeting. We truly are committed to making the meeting an environment where people have an opportunity to share their ideas, their thoughts, and their concerns. While we fully respect the First Amendment rights of all individuals, disruptions or any conduct that impedes the orderly progress of the meeting will not be tolerated. Should any individual be escorted or asked to leave during the, and because they've had disruptive behavior on three separate engagements, they'll be notified they're considered trespassed and barred from attending future city commission meetings. As a reminder, the citizen participation guidelines allows comments on legislative items. Each citizen may comment up to three different agenda items per meeting with a total speaking time of three minutes.

First to speak to with us tonight is Mr. Terry Atkins.

evening different mr atkins can you move that microphone towards her sure thank you he was looking down chris okay um first thing on my mind is jerry atkins there you go before you say it um There's been an issue with this new airplane factory coming in. Doesn't appear from what I've seen that 80 acres is going to be enough land. That seems like a huge building. So what's happening on that aspect? I know the property that was approved, was out on 72 and it wasn't very big. I don't know where that 80 acres is that was available. It was mentioned in the one meeting. But there was a very large problem with water, either good water for houses or drainage. So are you guys going to be proactive and fix issues before you just start slamming buildings in there? and creating even more problems because, you know, the two houses out there have to have bottled water brought in because their wells are contaminated. So it isn't something the city did, but, you know, it could be an issue. The, you know, last Tuesday, I believe it was, I'm going to say here we go again, you know, patient-related accident, somebody lost their life, Driver that was at fault, no license. That's two lives on one road. That shouldn't have happened. I mean, just crazy. It's just hopefully it's going to get better quick. There's some other issues coming into town. Some new establishments open up. Most of the liquor establishments are 1 or 2 a.m. I've had people tell me they're going to work at 4 a.m. and there's people still in the one building having a good time. It's going to come to a harsh end, I believe, when people come in. I'm just curious a little bit more on, you know, I just saw at 5.30 a.m. You know, Carl Ruby was on there talking about how, you know, worried and scared and how they got food donated to the one church through Nehemiah. Why didn't they take all that money, time and effort and assist these people in getting home safely, reestablishing all the paperwork so they can come back? Because the way the law reads, if they leave now alive, Without, you know, if ICE comes in or somebody removes them, they can't come back. Like the 19-year-old young man that got arrested, now he's sitting in Butler County because he overstayed his visa. Nothing to do with DPS. So, you know, he's pretty much going to be done for. Sad. Thank you.

Thank you. Tom, can you speak to our economic development project, the biggest one that's been announced in Springfield in decades, please, at the airport? And Mr. Atkins, I want to acknowledge the fact I think the last commission meeting you told us what an asset the airport was. And I was particularly thinking about you when this announcement was coming forth that this is something special for Springfield. I just want to speak to the questions. I want you to speak to the due diligence that this company has taken and all the partners around it and then the concerns that Mr. Atkins may have about the property that's all been vetted. by the company who's going to invest nearly a billion dollars on that property. Go ahead, Tom. I just want you to get the information.

Thank you, Mayor. You're exactly right. The company hires site selection consultants, real estate professionals, and they list what their requirements are for site size and suitability. And so it has gone through the rigor of that process. We submit the information on the site. It's about 86 plus or minus acres there where they are going to build 800,000 square feet. The site's large enough. They've determined that. We didn't tell them it was large enough. They determined that on their own. There'll be some improvements of the taxiways to meet that site. So it met all of the due diligence factors there. And a big part of this, I've talked about it in some of our zoning meetings, this site was certified under the SiteOhio program, which certified that the infrastructure was in place and adequate, zoning was in place, adequate, and the site was ready for development. We worked with our development partners, Dayton Development Coalition, Jobs Ohio, and the Greater Springfield Partnership, and the county, to kind of present the site and work through some of those challenges. So we're very excited about the announcement. We know that there's some work to do ahead of us, and so we look forward to that. Specifically, the question about stormwater runoff. We understand that's a challenge with every development. And the unique thing of the airport, it's in the county. So the Clark County engineer will be the one that reviews the stormwater runoff plans and meet the EPA requirements for that. So each new development has to show that they're capturing the runoff from the site in containing that, not releasing it any quicker than it was pre-development. So those are standards that are enforced by Clark County, our city engineer, for projects that are inside the city, and we'll certainly make sure that those are followed.

Thank you. Diana Daniels?

At least I was first.

Hi, Diana Daniels. Decisions have consequences. Sometimes those decisions also have benefits. In our case, a lot of decisions have negative consequences. One of those consequences and decisions was to dismiss, dismean, defame, and call us names. And the consequence to that is you now have a subset of your population who is ecstatic that TPS is ending. When in fact, from my point of view, I'm pretty heartbroken. because it didn't have to be this way. There could have been other decisions made that brought us all to the table to have an opportunity to help not only the Haitians, but also the Nicaraguans, the Guatemalans, the Venezuelans, and the many others that are here under TPS and are going to be affected by this decision. It really is sad to think that a lot of the decisions that were made were based on the ideology of one man. You put your eggs in one basket, And that's the sad part because you believed him. And that great ideology, that ideological whatever concept that he had is now going to uproot a lot of lives. And it didn't have to be that way. If you were to take a map of the state of Ohio and you were to take a dart and start throwing at it, it would take hundreds of thousands of throws to ever land on Springfield. And how did that happen? One man. Will there be consequences for this individual? This Jim Jones, the doctor of chaos, who's already basically called himself out on that? No, probably not. But it's not criminal to have an ideology. It's not criminal to promote your ideology. Is it immoral? Yeah, for sure. But you can't prosecute immorality. You can't prosecute corrupting the Bible to suit your ideology. That's not criminal. But it will be answerable. And it won't be answerable by us. That's for sure. To all the individuals, both Haitian Hispanic, Guatemalans, Hondurans, I pray for you. I pray that you make the right decision. The gate is still open. Because I'd like you to come back. I'd like you to come back as citizens. Come back the right way. Drop the pretense. You've been misled. I sent two back. I can't wait for TPS to end. I can't wait for that email, that phone call. asking to be a sponsor because i desperately want to be a sponsor for these two individuals that i advise to go back to brazil and when they come here they will already know the american language and they're ready to be citizen that's the way it should be done this is corruption thank you melissa rexroth

if your house was on fire would you call people and invite them over to sit in it with you while it burns or would you put the fire out first why are you building developing and inviting more people in before taking care of your citizens first all of your citizens homelessness has increased and shelter for them has lessened under your watch you purchased two hotels that were both functioning when you acquired them you originally told us they were for the homeless and now you say it was for development why didn't you tell us that then you also told us initially they were brought fought with arpa funds now you say it wasn't arpa funds but from the general fund is it true that you deposited 10 million of arpa funds into the general fund could you then have used those general funds to repair roads instead of building a pickleball court or used to repair the roads Many of your constituents are afraid to speak. They're afraid of you and all the wealthy people that make most of the decisions in Springfield. Is that what you prefer for people to be afraid to speak their minds for fear of losing their jobs because of the power and connections you have? I find that sad. And I hope you do too. I will once again, remind you a majority of your constituents live in poverty and are barely surviving just because your portfolios are doing well. Doesn't mean your constituents experiences are negated. Your constituents have been coming for years with multiple complaints that you have been ignoring. Brian, he's not here, but he recommended the commission approve the tax abatement for the data center. He had the application and knew what was going in there. Did he share that information with the commissioners? Robin Tracy, did you know what you were voting on and how a data center would affect our community? Did you only read what Brian gave you as resources or did you do any research on your own to find out what the repercussions of your vote would be? Did any of the three of you do any kind of independent research to see how this decision would affect all of us? I see that phase two for the data center is coming in 2028. Are there any plans? What are those plans that are going to be coming there? I would like a copy of that email to me. Their plan states they will have 64 employees as of this year. How many do they currently have? And are any of them from the city Springfield residents? Did they employ Springfield construction workers, electricians, et cetera, or did they hire a traveling team? Where will the site be for Crusoe? Will Crusoe be using natural gas generators to power them since that's what they typically use, those that run 24-7? Springfield currently has a forever chemical in the water, which means it will be there forever. Do you know the source of that contaminant? And you guarantee these data centers will not put any pollutants in the water or any more forever chemicals. Just as a reminder, there is no safe amount of forever chemicals. I'M AGAIN FORMALLY ASKING FOR YOU TO CANCEL THE FLOCK CONTRACT AND NOT RENEW IT. ANDREW THACKER WAS FALSELY ACCUSED BY SPRINGFIELD POLICE EARLIER THIS YEAR AND HARASSED AT HIS OWN HOME. HIS CAR WAS SUPPOSEDLY SPOTTED ON THE FLOCK CAMERA NEAR A CRIME SCENE EVEN THOUGH IT DIDN'T QUITE MATCH AND HE WASN'T THE ETHNICITY OF THE PERSON WHO COMMITTED THE CRIME. THE POLICE OFFICER PULLED HIM OFF HIS PORCH AND TOLD HIM HE WAS DETAINING HIM JUST BECAUSE ANDREW TOLD THE POLICE TO GET OFF HIS PROPERTY. If you insist on keeping them, I feel you should all wear body cams while on duty. Springfield is denying requests for audit reports. This would prove cameras are not being accessed inappropriately. Why?

Thank you for your comments. I let you go longer than three minutes. Just keeping the meeting in order. Thank you, Ms. Melissa. Our officers do wear body cams. We received a grant a couple years ago to... I'm not...

um nicole bevel hello so we have the moratorium on any data centers until next year or a six-month moratorium do we know what data center is currently in construction is that the hyperscale or is that the 45 megawatts um melissa asked some of the questions that i would like to know also um so i think our next step because we don't have the confidence that you guys are going to keep us safe against this data center that here um the water the air the land so i am in discussions with Indiana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Grove City, Waterville, and also Lysander, New York. I have some meetings set up next week. Several of these communities have citizen-led data center committees. um and they are comprised of a lot of different people departments um and they will protect their they're they're there to protect their citizens so i'm going to after i want to talk to them to see exactly what they're doing and how that can help springfield so um is that something that you would you let me know how that goes yes i will because um next week there's one of us yes so um because i feel like that's the next step that we need because we can't stop this one that's happening but we need to protect our community from this one so there's a lot of things involved with that so yes i will write up a formal proposal next time just an email that's a public record but i just like to know how that goes and i just you still have time but i just want to say that one of the reasons we all supported this six-month moratorium

is to, so we can watch the legislation to see how they're responding at the state level. Because sometimes the state can supersede these projects. Just want to make that aware. You still have time to talk. Please go ahead.

Oh, I don't have, that's all I had to say today. So I just wanted to talk about this next step. So yeah.

I would be interested in the citizens like group.

Okay. So yeah, I will get some of that information. Like I said, we have some meetings set up next week with some of these officials from these cities and states and we will keep you updated.

Thank you very much. The information when we made the decision, I'll speak for myself, but when I made the decision, the staff recommendation was to support it. It does seem like it was an appropriate decision. At the time data centers have become a beast in many ways and it is a bit overwhelming and many municipalities like ours are seeing the same thing and and there are many like us that are concerned about it so why we put a stop to it and i i'm not aware of phase two can you speak to that please

The earlier question about Vulture and Crusoe, they're not going to be building separate standalone buildings. Those are going to be tenants of the 5CDC building. So 5CDC was the company that acquired the LexisNexis property, the existing data center, and has expanded it.

And how long was that data center? When did LexisNexis open?

2008, I think.

And that was there to support LexisNexis, obviously, and basically be a backup.

It was a disaster recovery data center, is what they called it.

But through that zoning and legislation at the time, that property was already set in place for a future data center.

Absolutely.

So it's not something that snuck in underneath of us. This is something, at the time, in 2008, was an appropriate... investment for another company to put it back up. And data centers have more of in many ways.

They have, but the 5CDC project was thoroughly vetted by our utilities department to ensure that we could adequately serve the property, and that also we look at any of the contaminants or anything else that would be a possible threat to our utility system, and so Chris Moore has spoken to this in past meetings. I'd just like to also reiterate that every time we get a new question about the data center or a concern and we answer it, We make sure to add that to our frequently asked questions page, which is on our website. And it's 5CDC, frequently asked questions. And so we're trying to answer all these questions. So if the public has concerns, I'd encourage them to look there first, and then we're happy to chase down anything else.

But I think it would be helpful in the near future that we would have a report of the water around there, the available in the water uh the power usage just so we could see that these are things that public is asking questions about we're interested in as well and uh so if you could provide that information maybe work with chris if that's okay it's uh it's already on it's already there uh we've answered the question about the power they've secured up to 150 megawatts but i mean ongoing like as as they got it have clients come in come into 5cdc that we would continue to monitor yep got it Thank you. Jennifer Apple.

Thank you, Mary. Speaking to the airport water supply, if you go to Cool Change Ontario 30 on YouTube, I tested the water for the water out there and TAKE A LOOK AT IT. I INCIDENTALLY BROUGHT THE MICROSCOPE TONIGHT AND I TRIED TO SET IT UP EARLY BEFORE THE MEETING BECAUSE I WANTED YOU GUYS TO LOOK AT WHAT ONE DROP OF THE DRINKING COUNT AND WATER LOOKED LIKE. I WAS TOLD I'M NOT ALLOWED TO SHOW THAT TO YOU ON THE BIG SCREEN. I'M NOT MUCH FOR IGNORANCE, BUT IT DOESN'T REALLY LOOK ANY BETTER THAN IT DID SIX WEEKS AGO OR EIGHT. SO ALSO ON THERE, I'M SURE THEY DIDN'T TELL YOU The cremation remains are exuding tech. There's no way to stop it. It's online. You can go take a look at it. I look at everything.

What do you mean by exuding tech?

I mean like the ashes of the dead put on the microscope slide. Stuff grows out of that. They're recombinant tech.

I just didn't think at that heat anything can grow after that.

It's online.

Okay.

WHICH BRINGS UP THE QUESTION ABOUT DOING THE MORTALITY COMPOSTING ON THE FALLOW LAND BECAUSE THIS IS SHOWING THE SAME THINGS IN THE WATER THAT WE'RE PUTTING ON THE LAND. ON THAT NOTE, I WOULD LIKE TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT THAT OUTSIDE IF YOU'RE GOING TO But I want to say thank you because you have made incredible strides in the community that I have seen. The arts in the park was phenomenal. You had great people out there. The community was dancing and having a great time. I want to thank the city for the extra flowers and mulch that we use for the West End Welcome Garden out on West Main. When you go all the way out there towards the track, you can't miss it. It's the roses and the daylilies and zinnias. It's beautiful. And then also the grilling in the garden that was done from the oasis. I got to see some of the people in the city council were there. I mean, you guys were really representing and it was fun to see the neighbors. Thank you very much for the strides.

Thank you. Jacob Putnam.

Good evening. Power is dangerous. It corrupts the best and attracts the worst. It is only given to those that are willing to lower themselves to pick it up. For at least the last three years now, people have been coming up to this podium over and over again with the same topics, and nothing has been done. Why? There's been a constant dismissal of the ideas and topics that the people who are presented here before you. Case point example, when someone is coming to you with the situations of the homeless and they're told after multiple conversations at this podium that that is being handled, which ended up failing. You constantly make statements at the end of people's time and not allow the time for them to rebuttal the comments that you make, even when you, as a commission, make statements that are dehumanizing to the individual's thoughts and concerns that they are presenting to you. You all should be ashamed. You should be ashamed of making the comments and the rest of you should be ashamed for not standing up for the individuals in this town when those comments are made. Rue did it to Mayor Copeland when they had a disagreement. You can go back and watch it on YouTube. That's why you guys were voted in. My concerns... or with the way that the commission is dealing with the concerns of the other people that come to this podium by dismissing or not doing the very things that are needed to be done instead of trying to further their careers, gain more customers for the business, or whatever. I feel that this town is pushing to a volatile mindset that can be just as dangerous as power. How low have you placed yourselves to pick up the seats that you are currently sitting in? As I have challenged this commission the first time I spoke here and right before the current administration took their oaths, how do you want to be remembered and what is the legacy that you will leave behind? Just so you know, I'm not here to rail you. I have a dream about this city as well. I want to see it flourish and I want to get to experience what my parents would always tell me that they experienced when they were kids. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Logan-Cobbs, could you speak just to an update on our homeless initiative? And I believe I saw a grant in the paper that was just received as well.

Absolutely. Mayor Rue, commissioners, good evening. Logan Copps, director of community development. This commission just a couple of months ago following the closure of Sheltered Inc. did approve a contract with Homeful to operate the former fire station five. So that is operational and they are currently conducting intake. I should have brought that number up, but I don't have it off the top of my head, but I'll circle back with that. But again, they are conducting intake. As of last week, they had approximately 20 persons currently in shelter. And to your point, Mayor Rue, there is an item in front of you before you all tonight, two items actually, one to accept an agreement with HUD for a grant specifically for homeless and disabled individuals, and then a subsequent agenda item to actually administer that grant, which would be administered through Homeful. I think it's also important to note that the all-in Clark County plan, which is a comprehensive homelessness prevention plan, is currently underway.

Thank you. Yes, sir. It's hard to, and I appreciate the concerns of the citizens. It is hard to hear. We don't care when you just point to many things that I've spent my time caring about. And so here you, you're absolutely allowed to have your opinion. Appreciate that you have dreams for the city. We need more people to dream for our city. Thank you. I have dreams too. And I want to see the city flourish as well. I don't have any more comment cards. I do have a statement reading to read regarding temporary protective status. As the federal government moves forward with ending temporary protective status for certain Haitian and Syrian nationals, many individuals and families in our community continue to face the uncertainty about what comes next. Many of those affected have become part of Springfield. They're neighbors, coworkers, business owners, parents, and taxpayers who contribute to our community every day. Immigration policy is the responsibility of the federal government. The city's responsibility is to provide essential services, maintain public safety, and serve everyone in our community fairly and in accordance with the law. We will continue to fulfill that responsibility professionally and consistently. This is also a moment for Congress to lead. Many immigrants have spent years working, paying taxes, raising families, and contributing to communities across the country. Under the current legal framework, there is no opportunity for permanent legislative solution for many of these individuals. That responsibility does belong to Congress alone. As an elected official serving in a nonpartisan role, my commitment is to the citizens of Springfield. I believe it's also important to care about people regardless of their nationality and offer support while following the law. As a country, we can enforce our immigration laws while recognizing the contributions of individuals who have demonstrated the commitment to work and strengthening their communities. I encourage Congress to enact immigration reforms that secures our borders while creating a clear legal pathway for those who have demonstrated through their actions that they want to work, want to obey the law, pay taxes, and contribute to the United States. At this time, our immigration laws must be enforced. Those who repeatedly violate our laws and choose not to become productive members of society should expect those laws to be applied. I encourage everyone to treat one another with dignity and respect. We support every person's right to peacefully express their views and we ask everyone to do so lawfully. While the city has not received any information from ICE regarding planned enforcement operations in Springfield, our focus remains on maintaining the safety of everyone in our community. City officials will continue to monitor developments and coordinate with our safety partners as appropriate. The Springfield Police Division will continue to carry out its mission of protecting this community. Lasting solutions require leadership. I hope Congress will seize the opportunity to modernize our immigration system in a way that upholds the rule of law, strengthens our economy, and reflects the values that have long made the United States strong. Thank you. Is there a motion to conclude this part of our meeting?

So moved.

Second. Moved and seconded. Clerk call the roll.

Mr. Ricketts?

Yes.

Mr. Rigsby? Yes. Mrs. Tackett? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Ryu?

Yes. The formal meeting of city commission is called to order. Clerk, call the roll.

Mr. Ricketts?

Here.

Mr. Rigsby? Here. Mrs. Tackett? Here. Mr. Wallace? Here. Mr. Rue?

Here. Please stand for the invocation and the pledge. God, I ask for peace in our community. I ask that you give us wisdom as we govern tonight. In your name, amen. Is there a motion to approve minutes?

So moved.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Clerk call the roll.

Mr. Ricketts? Yes. Mr. Rigsby? Yes. Mrs. Tackett? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Ryu?

Yes. Clerk proceed with first readings by title only.

Authorizing the city manager to enter into amendment number one to the contract with Four Corner Property Management LLC for weed cutting and lot clearing services as needed by the city to increase the contract in an amount not to exceed $40,000 for a total amount not to exceed $90,000. Authorizing the city manager to enter into amendment number one for the contract with Mike's Lawn and More LLC for weed cutting and lot clearing services as needed by the city to increase the contract in an amount not to exceed $40,000 for a total amount not to exceed $90,000. authorizing the renewal of the services agreement with flock group incorporated to provide services related to the automatic license plate reader camera system for an amount not to exceed 114 000 and confirming and approving related expenditures incurred from july 27 2026. thank you i would like to hear more about the renewal of the flock contract

Since our last meeting, I believe there's been several concerns raised, which I think are legitimate. And I'd like to see where we have gone from that point and what information we could provide the public on the transparency of using block cameras and at what level we're using them. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Mayor and commissioners, thank you. So this item is authorizing our second year payment of our two-year contract with Block. Commission authorized the two-year contract last year, but we bring these items before commission annually as it is the mechanism that grants the city the ability to make the payment. There have been a number of concerns voiced from the community and commissioners about attention about the flock cameras, and we've taken a number of action steps to ensure that our cameras and our policies are in alignment with our values and the expectations of the community. Here tonight with us is our Chief of Police, Chief Elliott, to share more.

Good evening, Mayor Rue. Thank you. Commissioners, thank you. Director Vai, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak here again. I know we've discussed this at previous commission meetings. First and foremost, I want to say thank you to the public and for the community for one, raising their concerns, bringing these concerns to us, allowing us to have a better understanding of with these processes and any sort of technology that we do implement. We recognize there are concerns when you don't understand or know the platform and the implementation. There are multiple platforms that we do operate. So I just want to thank the community for raising that awareness. I think it's also given us the opportunity to level up And continue to improve our policies, our practices. We have continued to review not only just policies, practices, and ensure that we are up with best practices, but also looking at contracts. As again, the concerns were raised in a previous commission meeting about the renewal of this contract. I understand and I hear it's not just specifically to dispute or raise concerns. I think there is recognition that these are very beneficial and we have talked about the benefits and all of the things from being able to identify missing loved ones, Amber Alerts, missing endangered adults, to homicide suspects and ensuring that victims are receiving the services that they deserve and bringing justice to them and their families, and to stolen car recovery and identification But there are several success stories that I did share at those previous commission meetings, and I'm happy to continue to share some of those additional stories. But with that, the understanding that there were questions about the platform itself and the company itself and understanding accountability goes both ways. And we recognize that. When we're being held accountable and we want to make sure that our officers are using it responsibly for legitimate law enforcement purposes, we too expect that from those companies that we are engaging in agreements and contracts with. We all need to be accountable. And so those continued conversations, the concerns raised by the public are not taken lightly. We recognize that public safety and privacy are not mutually exclusive and they're not competing values. And we continue to reflect and make sure that we are staying up with best practices every time we are implementing these systems and some of the additional things that we have taken into consideration. We are working on the frequently asked questions from the flock company itself. in the implementation and the use of the license plate readers. But additionally, we are working on a FLOC accountability portal that would be public facing that you can look at our agency and we would be providing information as to our usage and our specific usage of our cameras and the data that we would collect and what their capabilities are.

Chief, is FLOC providing that portal?

Yes, that is correct.

And could you speak to the level of our usage of block cameras? Like I believe we purchase a base level. Is that correct? I mean, there's different levels that block cameras can be used.

Yes. So essentially, sir, there are different levels. The cameras that we do have, they take a snapshot of a license plate and identifying information on your vehicle, back of your vehicle. It does not identify drivers. does not gather that that information on who's operating that vehicle our officers and I do want to make sure that I clarify this because I don't want it to be misinformation or something that I spoke about the last meeting I know there I was back and forth a lot and there were a lot of questions and I may have missed a couple things but what I want to do is make sure that I clarify so with the flock system when our officers are entering in to use that that platform They have to do it for legitimate law enforcement purposes. And each time that they log into that and use that portal, they have to, it's logged. That information is logged for data reviewing purpose. Well, there is some questions about that. And I will also defer to Ms. Allen about some new information or information about what is actually public record when that information is stored. But As far as the systems, it's very similar to the law enforcement AUTOMATED DATA SYSTEM, WHICH IS AN OHIO-BASED SYSTEM THAT OUR OFFICERS ALSO HAVE POLICIES AND LAWS GOVERNING THE USAGE OF THAT. SO IT HAS TO BE LEGITIMATE LAW ENFORCEMENT PURPOSES. AND WHEN OFFICERS ARE USING THOSE SYSTEMS, IF THERE IS MISUSE OR IMPROPRIETY, THAT, YOU KNOW, THERE IS ACCOUNTABILITY AND UP TO INTERDEPARTMENTAL DISCIPLINARY, BUT ALSO, OR DISCIPLINE, EXCUSE ME, BUT ALSO YOU COULD BE CHARGED criminally so I guess like you miss using any of the information as a law enforcement official right so and I guess what I was trying to get back to that for when we enter into that system to run that license plate information we would then have to go into a separate law enforcement database that has policies and laws governing it to be able to gather that data as to whose vehicle that belongs to and things like that so It does not, back to your initial question about it, it is specifically just snapshots of the vehicle and license plate information.

And then do we audit the usage of these cameras?

Yes, so there are audits.

Like how the cameras are used? Do we audit to make sure there's... I think it was brought up in the last, and I'm sorry to interrupt you. I want to make sure I get this question out. Like it was brought up that some cameras can be used for immigration, some cameras, and we make sure that those are not toggled, I guess, or those options are not happening in our organization. Is that correct?

Through that process, you are speaking to a toggle that has recently been put in place in January available through Flock. It is a decision made by each individual agency, and that is for sharing with federal agencies and specifically related to immigration searches. So we have that enacted or enabled in our system, essentially. And as far as auditing purposes, yes, part of that review that we've done, we have also increased and enhanced the way we conduct our audits and reviewed all of those practices. Okay.

Is there other questions from commissioners on first readings? Thank you, Chief. Thank you.

Okay.

Clerk will continue with second readings.

Authorizing the exercise of the city's option to renew the contract with LaHoyce North America of Missouri Incorporated for the purchase of quicklime for use by the city's water treatment plant for an amount not to exceed $1,598,750. So moved. Second. I moved and seconded.

Other comments from commissioners? From the audience? Clerk called the roll.

Mr. Ricketts? Mr. Rigsby? Mrs. Tackett? Mr. Wallace? Mr. Ryu? Authorizing all actions necessary to affect the government natural gas aggregation program with opt-out provisions pursuant to section 4929.26 Ohio Revised Code, directing the Clark County Board of Elections to submit a ballot question to the electors and declaring an emergency therein.

So moved.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Other comments from commissioners?

Do we have anybody here to speak on this tonight?

Yes, sir. Good evening. We have both our economic development manager, Kessie Scott, is available, but also Ross from NOPEC is here again tonight to provide some more details.

And just a point of clarity, this was a first reading, the last meeting. This has been moved to an emergency ordinance so we can fulfill a timeline within the Board of Elections. It's the only reason it's emergency ordinance tonight. Sir?

Well, thank you, Mayor Rue and commissioners and residents of Springfield. My name is Ross McDonald. As mentioned, I do represent NOPEC. NOPEC is the United States' largest government aggregator of electric and natural gas. We are also the electric aggregation provider for the city of Springfield. If you're in the electric aggregation program here in the city, we are that provider for the program. Here tonight to shed a little bit of light on what this ordinance would do if asked. So the ordinance would propose a question to the registered voters of Springfield as to whether or not the city should be authorized to create a natural gas aggregation program. So as you know, you have an electric aggregation program. This would just create a natural gas aggregation program. The election is November 3rd this year, so make sure if you've had any address changes that you get yourself updated with the voter registration rolls here in Clark County. So what would happen between now and election day is a public education period. So as a part of that, NOPEC is offering to send a community-wide mailing to every household that contains a registered voter. That mailing would be neutral in terms of its commentary. It would not urge passage of the issue or opposite. It would be neutral, factual-based information. Additionally, we are planning for late September an Energy Education Day. And during that event, we'll invite every resident to come out, ask questions, to hear really about the current status of natural gas, how you purchase your gas here in the city currently, versus what an opt-out program would look like. We believe that the program, in a hypothetical, if the voters were to approve this, the program could be established as early as March, 2027. With that said, the Board of Elections here in Clark would certify the results sometime around November 18th. And that'll give us, at that point, once the results are certified, that would give the city the opportunity to explore doing a competitive bid process, RFP, or just go ahead and select their provider. Happy to answer any questions.

Any other questions? Just want to remind everybody, this is a vote to put it on the ballot for the community to elect to use this option or not to move this program, correct?

That's right, sir.

Or not to?

Yep, and if the program were to be established, residents would still have further choice as to whether or not they would like to participate in the natural gas program.

Okay, thank you.

That's what I just wanted to clear up. This gives citizens more choices, basically, on who provides their gas.

That's right, Commissioner. Absolutely, it adds an additional layer of choice. Typically, what we find with natural gas aggregation programs is that there's predictability about the price right now if you're purchasing your gas directly from say columbia gas uh that's a that's a number that changes it's a variable rate and it's often tied to consumption so while it is very handy to have low gas in the summertime when you're not you really using natural gas too much it becomes problematic in the winter time when you're really using lots and lots of natural gas uh and then the price spikes up with with the demand

Thank you. Comments from the public? We'll call the roll.

Mr. Rigsby?

Yes.

Mrs. Tackett? Yes. Mr. Ricketts? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Ryu?

Yes.

Confirming and approving change order number one to the contract between the city and Berger Construction Services LLC for the Snyder Park weight station roof replacement and foundation repair to increase the contract in an amount not to exceed $2,750 for a total amount not to exceed $122,725. Authorizing the city manager to execute said change order number one and declaring an emergency therein. So moved.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Are there comments from commissioners? From the audience? Clerk, call the roll.

Mrs. Tackett? Yes. Mr. Ricketts? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Rigsby? Yes. Mr. Rue?

Yes.

Authorizing the city manager to apply for, accept and enter into water supply revolving loan account loan agreement with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Ohio Water Development Authority to finance a portion of the city's 2026 West High Street. Staten Avenue to Yellow Spring Street water service replacement project, authorizing the city manager, finance director, and law director to do all things necessary to implement said loan application and agreement and to comply with all relevant local, state, and federal legal requirements in declaring an emergency therein.

So moved.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Other comments from commissioners?

Mayor, I was hoping maybe we could get Director Vai to explain the financing structure on this because it's pretty interesting.

Yes. Thank you for your question. Our finance director, Katie Evastan, is here tonight and has additional detail on this project.

Certainly Commissioner so this item and the next item 177-26 are related and are being presented as emergency measures to meet the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency or EPA's loan application deadline of August 1st. Meeting that deadline keeps the project on track for a September loan award Missing it would push the next funding opportunity to October, delaying the overall project schedule and impacting our paving plans for the future. As you're aware, we're looking at these water and sewer line replacements ahead of paving projects in future years. So we're very intentional in planning those out. um the first item request authorization to apply for a water supply revolving loan through the ohio epa and the ohio water development authority or owda to help finance the west high street water service replacement project which is between dayton avenue and south yellow spring street and the project itself will replace lead water service lines from the water mains to residences along with restoring any pavement sidewalk curbs driveways and grass disturbed during the construction. The total estimated project cost is $832,900, which includes the actual construction contract, which is the next item on the agenda, contingency and the loan application fee. As Commissioner Riggsby mentioned, I do think it's important to highlight the very favorable financing opportunity here that the city receives with Ohio EPA and OWDA. Overall, about 80%, 85% of the financing is expected to either be forgiven or carry no interest, leaving about 15% subject to the standard interest rate of 3.57%. I'd also like to recognize the service department, Chris and his team, and our treasury teams for their continued dedication in identifying and administering these loan opportunities. We've been able to take advantage of many of these. Their efforts certainly have helped us complete critical infrastructure improvements while maximizing outside funding and minimizing those costs to our residents, which ultimately is reflected in those rates for water, sewer, and stormwater. the next item again on the agenda awards the construction contract for this project the majors who is the lowest and best bidder based on a single bid that would receive other comments from the audience clerk call the roll Mr. Ricketts yes Mr. Wallace yes Mr. Rigsby yes Mrs. Tackett yes Mr. Ryu yes

Authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with Majors Enterprises Incorporated for the West High Street, Dayton Avenue to South Yellow Spring Street water service replacement project for an amount not to exceed $747,053 and declaring an emergency therein. So moved.

Second. Been moved and seconded. Other comments from commissioners? from the audience for all the roll?

Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Rigsby? Yes. Mr. Ricketts? Yes. Mrs. Tackett? Yes. Mr. Ryu?

Yes.

confirming and approving a continuum of care program grant agreement with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in an amount not to exceed $252,563, confirming and approving an amendment extending the term of the continuum of care program grant agreement, authorizing the city manager and the director of finance to perform all acts and execute all documents they consider necessary to fulfill the city's obligations under said grant agreement and amendment, and to comply with all relevant local, state, and federal legal requirements in declaring an emergency therein.

So moved. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Are there comments from commissioners? I wanna say that in the future, I will request that Homeful would come in and do a work session on what they've done in Springfield since they've reestablished a intake opportunity for our homeless community and what vision is and these expenditures. Is there anything else we need to add to that? Logan, I know you're ready to speak. So this is what you just came up and spoke about earlier. I read it in the agenda. I didn't read it in the paper.

Absolutely. I'm happy to just give a brief update. We did mention it earlier. So the first item, which is 178-26, is us entering into an agreement with HUD. This is for a permanent supportive housing program. The community may know it as the former SPC program, so we've administered this grant for many years. The second item before you all tonight is 179-26, And that's for us to enter into a formal agreement with Homeful to administer these funds. So this provides rental assistance to individuals that are experiencing homelessness with disabilities and then the support of services as well. And then also I did mention earlier, I'd come back with the telephone number for intake. That telephone number is 937-350-1296. Thank you.

The comments from the audience or call the roll.

Mr. Rigsby.

Yes.

Mr. Ricketts. Yes. Mrs. Tackett. Yes. Mr. Wallace. Yes. Mr. Rue.

Yes.

Authorizing the city manager to enter into a subrecipient funding agreement continuum of care rental assistance program 2025 to 2026 between the city and homeful to conduct a Springfield permanent supportive housing program funded tenant based rental assistance and administration program in an amount not to exceed $252,563. confirming and approving related expenditures incurred from July 1, 2026 and declaring an emergency therein.

So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Other comments from commissioners?

Excuse me, I have a question for Logan. I'm assuming that there was a request for proposal put out for this or something like that.

We did not go through a formal RFP process for this grant. We apply for these funds annually. Normally, the community hears us talk about CDBG and HOME and ESG funds. We're an entitlement community, and normally with those grants, we do put out a request for proposal or a formal bid. We apply for these funds through HUD, and as part of that application process, we do have to identify our partner ahead of time.

Okay. And just to make clear... Whenever Homeful or whoever gets this type of project, this isn't money that we just give to them. They have to submit bills. They have to submit invoices to us. The finance department has to go through those, and then the bills are paid as needed. as we receive them, correct?

Yes, sir. These are on a reimbursement basis.

And there's usually an audit done at some point in time. So every nickel and dime is accounted for, correct?

Yeah. So not only are we doing a review of all of the invoices from there, we do send that to finance. Keep in mind that these are also federal funds as well. So HUD's also looking at our expenditures.

Thank you. Thank you. Other comments from the audience? Call the roll. I'm sorry, please. Please, Melissa, go ahead.

Ms. Skinner. I don't want to sound ignorant, but I want to make sure that I understand. So when we give them this money, is this just based for rental assistance and it's not going to give somebody a raise in their position that this is just for to really help people that need rental assistance? Because I feel like that's very important and a lot of money.

Absolutely. Thank you for that question, Ms. Skinner. So this grant is for $252,563. Of that, $263,112 goes specifically to rental assistance and $16,451 goes to administrative costs, administrative overheads. $16,000. 16,000 of over 200,000. Yes, sir.

It takes people to administer these loans. So it's not an abnormal. It's a very small percentage. So nobody's getting fat off that, Terry. I heard you. There you go. Yeah, every dollar requires accountability. It requires somebody in like in Katie's office to make sure that the red tape is attached in the appropriate spot. When it's not, then that's when there's this concern. So it costs money to make sure where the money goes. It's the way it is in every organization. I can't speak to that. I can't, I don't want to speak to that. We're good with that. Let's stop.

Thank you, Terry.

Okay, thank you, Logan.

Thank you, guys.

Clerk, call the roll.

Mr. Ricketts?

Yes.

Mrs. Tackett? Yes. Mr. Rigsby?

Yes.

Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Ryu?

Yes.

Levying special assessments for the improvement of streets by the construction of sidewalk curbs and gutters in the 2024 sidewalk curb and gutter program and declaring an emergency therein.

moved and seconded are there comments from commissioners from the audience clerk call the roll mrs. Tackett yes mr. Rigsby yes mr. Wallace yes mr. Ricketts yes mr. Rue yes

Confirming and approving change order number one to the contract between the city and Double J Construction Incorporated for the John Street Water Line Replacement Project to decrease the contract in an amount not to exceed $12,700.65 for a total amount not to exceed $320,779.35 and to extend the project completion date to August 31, 2026 authorizing the city manager to execute said change order number one and declaring an emergency therein.

So moved.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Other comments from commissioners?

I'd just like to say it's nice to see a decrease. As former Commissioner Estrop would say, that's going in the right direction. Comments from the audience?

Clerk call the roll.

Mr. Rigsby?

Yes.

Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mrs. Tackett? Yes. Mr. Ricketts? Yes. Mr. Ryu?

Yes.

Providing for supplemental appropriations within various funds and declaring an emergency therein.

So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Ms. Keeley, do you want to speak to any of these, please?

Certainly, Mayor and Commissioners, there are two items that are included on the supplemental appropriations list. One is for the general fund for an increase of $6,000. This is related to a LexisNexis contract as part of revenue collections, as we are determining what those expenditures were with our revenue collections and income tax and how we have changed those operations. More importantly and more substantial is roughly $120,000 in the OneOhio Opioid Fund. Those monies are dollars that were paid by pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies. They are not tax dollars. The funds are restricted by the settlement and may only be used for eligible opioid prevention, treatment, recovery, and remediation efforts within the community. As you'll recall in a work session last year, I believe we had Judge Carey and his staff present the commission on drug court and how they have implemented that. They received a federal grant that required local match monies in order for them to carry out that program. We utilize these one Ohio opioid dollars instead of general fund dollars in order to provide that local match to that federal grant to carry out that program. I mean, just as a reminder, commission approves supplemental appropriations is essentially the budget. So that increases and decreases within all of our funds. We have over a hundred for those budgeted expenditures, whether that be personnel related or other, all of those adjustments come before commission to approve.

Thank you. Other comments from the audience? Clerk call the roll.

Mrs. Tackett. Yes. Mr. Ricketts.

Yes.

Mr. Wallace. Yes. Mr. Rigsby. Yes. Mr. Rue.

Yes.

Confirming purchases and the obtaining of services for the city and providing for payments therefore and declaring an emergency therein.

I'll move. Second. I moved and seconded. You want to speak to this as well?

Certainly, just a reminder for the commission and the audience, a moral obligation is prescribed in the city's charter. That commission is required to approve any invoice for payment that exceeds $100, where a good or service has already been provided, but a purchase order was not in place before that good or service was provided. Some examples that are included on that list tonight, again, I believe we talked about it last meeting, are indigent cremations, which municipalities are responsible for per the state. Also, the building lease agreement with Clark County for municipal court. The city bears a cost with the county in carrying out those operations. Commission previously approved the contract. We are just due to contract negotiations, getting that PO in place in order to pay that invoice. These items are emergencies in order to not delay payment to our vendors.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Comments from the audience? Clerk call the roll.

Mr. Wallace?

Yes.

Mrs. Packett? Yes. Mr. Ricketts? Yes. Mr. Rigsby? Yes. Mr. Ryu?

Yes.

We have one item added to the agenda. consenting to the appointment of Bethany Gietke-Whittaker to the community police advisory team.

It's been moved and seconded. Just want to appreciate Bethany for being willing to serve. Comments from the audience? Clerk call the roll.

Mrs. Tackett? Yes. Mr. Ricketts?

Yes.

Mr. Rigsby?

Yes.

Mr. Wallace?

Yes.

Mr. Rue?

Yes. End of our, part of our agenda, commissioner announcements and acknowledgements. Well, we talked about earlier, the Electra company investing in Springfield and Clark County is a massive investment. It is very large. And this was announced in London. You may have read that in the paper at a world aeronautical show. Tom, make sure I get that right. This is also the one show that part of our team went to France for. And these connections have paid massive dividends for Clark County and for Springfield. The investment in the NOMC Center, the investment in the airport and keeping the airport open, quite frankly. And it's just, it's massive for Springfield. These are good paying jobs. These will be good opportunities for our community. So I'm very excited about that. I want to say it again.

go ahead i just i kind of want to jump on that a little bit i mean i think between the electra announcement and rochelle and and navistar which is really kind of the slipping under the radar we're talking about literally literally thousands of high-paying good quality jobs over the next five years that's going to be in the words of someone else transformative for this community The fact that we're seeing this kind of job growth, we haven't seen that in a lot of our lifetimes. And that's going to be something that's going to be spectacular for this community. not just counting those, but counting the suppliers that will have to move in, those sorts of things, the economic impact for our businesses, the people who live here is going to be just really almost incalculable.

Thank you.

Thank you to our economic development team. Absolutely. They put in lots of work.

I'm sorry, we've already... You want to speak to one of those exciting announcements? Go ahead.

I'll take positive. So I actually work in the aerospace industry, and I've done a little bit of research with Electra. They're projecting that the average intern basis is almost pushing $60,000 annual salary. So just kind of giving a heads up on that. Yeah, it's really nice. Thank you for saying something.

Okay. Okay. I'm going to make, I'd like to make a motion to go in executive session for pending litigation and personnel.

I moved.

Second. Moved and seconded. Clerk, call the roll.

Mr. Ricketts?

Yes.

Mr. Rigsby?

Yes.

Mrs. Tackett? Yes. Mr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Rue?

Yes.