Council - Regular Meeting

It is 6:30. I'll call this meeting in St. Mary City Council to order. Roll call, please. Buck, here. Lens, here. Chrisman, here. Here. Here. Here. Aqua here. All rise. Please join pastor a brief prayer.

Oh, gracious God, we thank you for being a God who walks with us and leads us and guides us in all decisions and all things that we do. Lord, we pray that your wisdom and your guidance comes through this evening as it does each time the council meets and that they that they um are open to where you lead them. Father, we are thankful for this time of year. We are thankful for the excitement in the air and yet we know that there's business to be done. So, Father, we pray that that's where our focus is and that's what happens this evening. All under your guidance, all under your wisdom. Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Please join me in the pledge. I aliance 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.

We all received a copy of the minutes of the last meeting. Are there any questions? If not, then may I have a motion to accept the minutes? Mr. Pup, uh, Mr. Chris to accept, please.

All yeses. Thank you. There you go. Uh, next under the list, we have petitions, communications. Uh I see we have some people in the audience. Is anyone wishing to address council at this time? Okay. Moving then on to reports of city officials. We have the mayor's report. Mayor Herman, I have no additions or corrections to my report. Any questions or comments for council? Next, we have the tax commissioner's report. Mr. Chair, there's nothing to add to the tax commissioner report. Any questions or comments for councel? Next, we have the director of public service safety report, Mr. Fox.

Uh, Mr. Harris, one thing I'd like to add in my report, if I could please, is that after the report was finished, um, John Maker gave me his letter of retirement. Uh, John is, of course, the superintendent of general services. He's been here 32 years. Uh, his retirement is effective January 30th. He's a incredible guy, very talented, has done a great job for us. His assistant superintendent is Corey Netan. Corey will be promoted to that position effective January 31st. Uh Corey's position as the assistant. Uh we have posted internally and have already started to receive some applications from people within our workforce already. So uh I assume there will be a party for John on the 30th which is a Friday. He those will be big boots to fill. Uh but I think Corey Net is up to the task. So other than that I'll be glad to answer any questions anyone might have. Thank you. Uh, any questions or comments from council?

He's been talking about repairing for a while. He has. We'll keep talking about Yeah, we talked about it last year. Uh, he wouldn't we wouldn't have to put up with it again for another year. Okay. Thank you. Uh, under reports of committees of city council, we have the finance committee. It's Jill.

Yes, sir. uh plans being met December 1st to discuss the uh second round of the budget. Um and report we had the committee had a chance to ask any questions they had related to the budget or review of the budget items. Um I think they were all met with good answers or appropriate answers and all our questions were resolved at that time. So I believe we took we're bringing the the uh budget to council. There's legislation for that later on this meeting other than that report stands on itself. Thank you. Any questions or comments from council? Okay. Moving on to readings of ordinances and resolutions. We have no third readings. Our second reading, the ordinance number 2025 26 and emergency ordinance set in courts for wages and benefits for the fire chief and other fire department employees not represented by collective bargaining agreement. Any questions or comments for council. This will be out for its third reading at the next meeting. Next we have ordinance number 202527, an emergency ordinance providing for wages and benefits for the city of St. Mary's supervisory personnel and non-represented employees. Any questions or comments from council? This will be back at the next meeting. Next, we have ordinance number 202528, an emergency ordinance setting forth wages and benefits for the chief of police and other police department employees not represented by a collective bargaining agreement. Any questions or comments for council? Okay, this will be back for its third reading at the next meeting. Next, we have ordinance 202529 ordinance adjusting the salary of the

director of public service and safety. Any questions or comments from council? Okay, this will be back for its third reading at the next meeting. Next, we have ordinance 202530, an emergency ordinance setting forth the rates of pay and providing for certain friends benefit for the city of St. Mary's dispatchers represented by the Ohio Patrol Association. Any questions or comments from council? If not, okay, this will be back for its third reading at the next meeting. Next we have resolution number 202516 an emergency resolution authorizing the disposition of city property from green build committee. Any questions or comments from council? This will be back for its third reading at the next meeting. Under new legislation we have ordinance number 202531. May I have a motion to read please?

Mr. Yulate, Mr. Fitzgerald. I'll vote to read, please. All yeses. Ordinance 202531, an emergency ordinance to make appropriation for current expenses and expenditures of the city of St. ary state of Ohio during the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2026. Any questions or comments from council for the new uh members of council? Uh let you know this will be amended as the numbers are firmed up more and more over the next few minutes. Next we have ordinance number 202532. May I have a motion to read, please? Mr. Chrisman, Mr. Pop, council vote to read, please. All yeses. Ordinance 202532, an emergency ordinance authorizing the purchase of various materials, equipment, and services for the departments from the city of St. Mary's, Ohio. You want to add anything?

I wanted to add this is materials ordinance. It's a companion to the to the budget. As you can see, the projects, capital improvement purchases or capital improvement projects is anything that's over $5,000 and and or I'm sorry, $500 last over 5 years. So, you can see it's broken down by department or fund. For instance, the voted tax is used by several different departments. So, it's broken down differently. I think it's important to note that just because it's listed here doesn't mean it's going to happen. Uh we we list it here if the funding's available and as Mr. Harris indicated as we get a closer and clearer picture uh near the end of the year we'll know where we stand better off financially. Some of this will change. Now we won't change these uh just because the funding may not be there. We'll leave them in there just in case there's a grant opportunity or something of that nature. So that's what this is. materials ordinance, companion ordinance, and list of projects and or purchases that are capital improvements.

Any questions or comments for council? This is your standard. Okay, this will be back for second reading at the next meeting. Next, we have uh scheduling this morning business and closing. I have a request to reschedu the December 22nd meeting to December 30th at 5:15. If so, may I have a motion to reschedu, please? Mr. Harris, if I could, please, just to verify that we will have a quorum. We'll have our supplemental at that time, but we will need to suspend the rules. So, we will need at least six members here for that meeting.

Y'all good? Who won't be here? That would be at 5:15. It's a Tuesday. Yeah. Saying that's a Tuesday. It's not a Monday. It's a Tuesday. Tuesday at 5:15. Want to have it earlier? Hey, that works for us. Well, I don't know. It might put Deb in the crunch to do the earlier at 5:15. Oh, that's right. We don't want to do that tomorrow. That depends. We have Monday at 2. Yeah, 5:15 probably be okay. We're here till 5. So, I'm good. So, good. As long as we have a quorum so we can pass the supplemental. Of course, we do that every year. We got to balance the books and we will need to suspend the rules and pass it that night.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. The law says we have to have both balance. So, so if that's good for everyone, may I have a motion to reschedu please? Miss Children, Mr. lines. We're good. Is there anything else to come before council? Mr. B. Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn by Mr. Buck. Second by uh Mr. Chrisman counc.

Oh yes, thank you.