Finance & Debt Oversight Committee - Regular Meeting

Then a water service disconnect door tag is left. Then we encourage the customer to either make a payment or to sign up for a payment plan. Then the service, if it's If they do not pay or sign up for a payment plan, the service is disconnected. When they pay, the service is restored within 48 hours of payment.

So what is your estimate from the time they're notified that they are delinquent and the time if they do not respond to anything, how long would that be? Four weeks? Six weeks? Before the water is cut off?

From the point of final notice, it would be approximately... Commissioner, go ahead.

Yeah, from the time they get that notice on the door, it's approximately two weeks before it's cut off. But prior to that, they're receiving plenty of notice on their bill regularly that they're...

So how long is it before, from the time they're mailed a bill that says they're delinquent, and the time you put the first door hanger on there, how much time has elapsed, do you think?

For, like, what makes this difficult is because these are accounts that are significantly delinquent, so they've been receiving notice on the bill.

Okay. But they've gotten several notices.

Several notices. Okay.

Now, do we reach out to them? Do we call them or anything like that? Or is it just strictly the notices through the mail and the door hangers?

So for the... hundred or so that we discussed during our hearing earlier this month they will be receiving text messages as well as emails thank you and thank you for your report um maybe this is to jog my memory but when we

Since you're taking a phased approach at this, what priority are we looking at first? Is it like the amount due, so the highest are gonna be turned off first? Are we going via neighborhood? Are we going the,

longest not paid like what is our what is our first priority so the first group will be prior to the moratorium there was about 300 customers that were already shut off they were already turned off they didn't have water So our first group will be the, there's about 100 remaining of those. So that will be the first group. And that is the group that we've already began to try to reach out to in addition to the shutoff notices that they received. Texting and emailing them, letting them know that we are doing shutoffs and they can make a payment arrangement or they should be contacting us.

I appreciate that. I have another question. Since this, as we get deeper and deeper into, the numbers expand, right? So we're going to have a little bit 100 at first, but eventually there's going to be a lot. Are there any plans for anticipated anticipated events in neighborhoods where there'll be a lot of shutoffs, like library meetings, because I think what I'm anticipating is we're going to get to the band of the widest amount of people, maybe that's, for example, 1,000, and they're all going to go and flood engage. They're going to flood 211. They're going to maybe call the senior center if they've got a home. There's going to be this flood. Have you thought about how to preemptively have events or have places that they can then go that has the information if they waited for the last second whatever held them back. Has there been any thought of that?

Yeah, so we have a number of activities and locations that we will be doing outreach. One, for example, is last Thursday there was the large senior event. We did have someone attend and answer questions and provide information. Yesterday, council passed additional assistance So with that, we will be doing additional outreach and making sure that we get that information. As I mentioned, we're gonna have enhanced communication, which includes texting and email. And we are gonna continue to do additional outreach to try to make sure that we're reaching everyone. So that includes libraries. and any type of event that we've traditionally attended. Okay, we'll try to get that information out.

I think that's wonderful. Is there any way you could get a list of the planned attended events or planned to be attended events to council? So if I get calls or I can let people know, hey, they're gonna be here if you need anything.

yes okay i really appreciate that thank you for all your hard work thank you chair thank you council person um director i just want to clarify so when i look at the chart at the bottom half of the page uh right now we uh 52 million 349 000 is owed by residential customers that am i reading that right In other words, what is our balance? Yes. Okay. All right. And then in the commercial accounts, industrial, it would be six, is it?

Commercial is, yep. And then the industrial customers is that number down at the bottom. That's the $2 million.

Okay. So it's like almost $7 million. Yes. Okay. All right. Anything else? Any other questions, numbers, director, commissioner, anything else?

No.

Okay, thank you very much for this update, and we'll notify you when our next finance meeting is. Okay, thank you. I appreciate the monthly update, and thank you. Okay, next on the agenda will be the finance department, Director Campbell. Before DPU leaves, is there any members of the public that have questions or comments for the Department of Public Utilities? Okay, thank you. Good afternoon, Director.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman Sirontu, members of the committee. Melanie Campbell here today with the team from finance, Commissioner Zavisha from taxation, Commissioner Buckley from accounts, and our wage and hour compliance commissioner, Dan Morey, is in the audience. We are here to present April financial reports to the committee, starting with the overall monthly packet of revenues and expenditures. And to get us started, I will turn it over to Commissioner Zavisha for an update on income tax collections.

Good afternoon. I'll start on page two of the report. Withholding for the month of April was up just over $60,000. However, for the year where the withholding category is still in the negative range, it's down approximately a half a million dollars or 1%. We broke down the withholding category more into, we look at the top 75 companies. They represent about 54, 55% of total withholding collections. To be in this category, you have to be a company that's paying the city of Toledo at least a quarter of a million dollars a year. The top 75 group is actually up for the year about 117,000. instead it's the companies that are outside the top 75 that have the bigger hit that group is down 617 000. as we dove into the top 75 a bit more we do have three of our top 10 employers in town that are showing negative so far this year so we are going to continue to watch the three of them more closely the rest of the other in this case 72 companies um are doing positive numbers overall so again we're going to watch those three companies if you remember last year we sort of had the same holding definitely started slow we were negative for quite a while and it picked up during the summer so we're just going to have to watch this category closely to see if this is a repeat of last year or again with the economy getting tighter is that going to reflect more in this category As we move down to the two net profit categories, business and individual, they're both up for the month of April. Business was up a half a million dollars, or 9.8%. That brings it for the year up to 454,000. Individual was up 440,000, which brings that to a positive number of 404,000 so far this year. However, I'd be cautious in both of these categories. As we've expanded our electronic payments program, as we've continued to grow our lockbox program with Fifth Third, it's getting the payments into the system faster. So little of this we're going to have to watch is how much is the April numbers, just simply the payments are in quicker than they had been in previous years. in addition for business net profits we get a lot of those bigger payments through the opt-in program with the state and again like we've talked about in the past that is a delayed process where for example it's the february collections that are reported in the april numbers so when you're getting into more march and more importantly april where the first quarter estimate would be made for these um those numbers will actually come in the may and june numbers so again we're watching may not only for the opt-in stuff but we're also watching may to just see how much it simply came in sooner um overall we are up 360 000 so far this year or 0.6 percent um again on that one where when we're comparing it to the budget number we're behind on the budget number at this point but again this is a positive number on a year-to-year basis so we're going to have to continue to monitor this like councilwoman gaddis had mentioned a couple months ago what are things that i'm watching okay now we've got the april numbers in we're starting to change a little bit to the opt-in we're having to watch this a little closer on how this compares to our budget number and then we would take appropriate steps if necessary over the next couple of months

A question, as far as the April 15th deadline, what percent of those payments that were brought in by April 15th have been processed?

If it's for stuff that's in the office, we're currently up to date on everything, so the April stuff would be in. Probably on the withholding category, a thing to watch is the quarterly payment is actually due April 30th, and it just has to be postmarked April 30th, or whether they made an electronic payment. exactly on april 30th right those numbers would actually record into the main numbers then in that case but first quarter estimates would have been minus the opt-in payments from the state would already be included in as well okay so that's good i mean we've got that the april 15th deadline and those have been processed so that's good and then could you uh briefly explain to us again the new program with the attorney general of ohio and how that is going Sure, so we kicked off right at the end of 2025. We're working with the Ohio Attorney General. What we're doing with our ... We're still taking cases to the court, but on certain cases that we were either considered too low to go to court, or if they were not garnishable, we're starting to move those to the Ohio Attorney General. What happens is we'll say, for example, you owe $1,000 to the city of Toledo. That case would go to the Ohio Attorney General. They would go after you for $1,100 because they had a 10% fee on top of the amount due. So that in the end, Toledo would be made whole, the full $1,000. They would collect their $100 fee. So far on some of that stuff, it would avoid the whole court system to begin with. With those cases, those can just go directly to them. So far this year, we've collected... I would say approximately $450,000 already using the Ohio Attorney General, and we will continue to send more things to them as the year goes on. We've updated all of our letters and stuff like that to give the proper notification to individuals who do not pay that that money would be going to them to help us with collections.

So in terms of the procedure with the Attorney General's office, we get 100% of the tax owed. What if we tack on penalties and interest?

Do we get that? Yes, again, whatever an individual would see on their bill. Like I said, they owe the city of Toledo $1,000, and that's $700 tax, $300 penalty and interest. That full amount goes there, and then, like I said, they put their fee on that and then use their thing, especially when it comes to something like a state refund or a federal refund. I mean, it's just things we don't have access to that they're able to assist us with on that. And then, again, that can be sent without having to go to court is another advantage for us.

And then one last question. Is this program with the Attorney General's Office, is it unique to Toledo or many cities are part of this?

No, many cities in Ohio do it. On something like that, we're able to finally get all the clearance to be able to get it done. Okay, great.

Then you want to update us on Stacks?

Yes, so on the Stacks unit, they're down approximately $160,000 so far. As I've mentioned before, one of the things that comes into play is there had to be the proper wording on letters that a person is receiving the proper notification. So unfortunately, late last year and early this year, what we're doing with that is we have to resend a lot of stuff just to make sure the wording's on there, make sure they're receiving their 60-day notice. So their assessments and new letters sent are down because you can't, you know, obviously if you're just repeating something, it does not count as a new contact and it doesn't count in the assessment. So they're working their way through that. All of their letters coming forward now, um those we've had to worry nonsense last year the compliance one we had to work out a few things with the irs first to make sure we were covered on that and delayed that a little bit, but they're getting there on that.

Okay. Anything else on tax?

Just probably the only other thing would be on page three, just refunds so far this year were just over a quarter of a million. That's pretty comparable to where we were last year, overall last year. We ended up at just under $6 million. We budgeted for $6 million again this year, and so far seems to be heading in that direction. We'll hit the individuals and stuff more this first half of the year, and then refunds on the net profits is more of a third quarter, fourth quarter, I think.

From what I've observed, I think more companies are having the employees come back to the office location.

Yes, I would definitely say the remoting seems to be down compared to prior years. But again, we're still seeing that. You still have it where there are certain individuals who might be there only working 15 days from home or 30 days from home. Those were the type of events that were happening even pre-COVID type ideas. So there's always the remoting that way. I think some of the employers are a little better on their withhold.

great okay Commissioner Morey just a quick update on wage and hour theft and how things are going I know you and your department are working very hard on this issue

Yes, thank you, councilmen, councilmembers. We onboarded our third person about two weeks ago. April Weber has joined the team. She was previously in tax, sorry, John, and has come up to speed very quickly. Helps that she's familiar with the system. So we're rolling along pretty well. We're seeing the uptick, normal uptick in construction. We're definitely seeing some results of our efforts where your normal players are now requiring contractors to have that certificate of compliance before they start. We're still finding one-offs here and there, so we're just continuing our efforts, and we're going to have a total for you next month if you like.

Sure. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Okay, next director.

thank you moving in to page four you'll see an overview of the general fund revenues here through april 33 of the year complete and collections are at 27 of the budget estimate by comparison overall at the same point last year collections were at 28.5 so still in that same ballpark as you look through the report you'll see our property tax collections at 50 so half of the budget those come in semi-annually where we would expect to be license and permits we're at about 35% we're at 37 this point last year again expect where we would expect to be at this point in the intergovernmental category we do have areas here that come in quarterly for example the JEDS and the casino revenue local government funds were right at about that 33% so where we would expect to be at this point in the year in the charges for services category you will see with the ems and bls transport fees we do get one payment that comes in from the county during the year that was 4.6 million that was received in april so that's a one-time payment that's why we're at 55 in that category investment earnings is only at 10 percent this is similar to what we saw last year we see more of those revenues posted in the latter half of the year in the other revenue category at 77 percent we do have payments that come in for school resource officers but we also have some settlement proceeds related to a pfas settlement that the city was a party to last year and then lastly The other financing sources and uses, the transfers from other categories come in from the TOLOT and from ARPA at 30% of the budget for the year. I'd be happy to take any questions if you have them. could director could you re-explain to us the cable franchise fees because those look awfully low in terms of what we've collected yes so the cable franchise fees are also a quarterly payment that comes in so we haven't received except one small payment the bulk of those payments for the first quarter i would expect that we would see those with next month's may report I think it is worth noting, though, that year over year we've seen an overall decline in those franchise fees, I think, as less people maybe are subscribing to cable.

So are there several companies that are paying those fees or just one?

There's a couple different ones that come in, maybe three or four different ones.

Okay. Great. Okay. All right. Anything else on that page?

i'll move into the next couple pages of expenditures for the general fund on page five you'll see the overall summary by expenditure category just slightly ahead of the year-to-date budget at 33.7 percent here through april you will see in the labor category we're at 34 34.5 percent of the budget We do have some contractual payments that happen in the first part of the year that affect those labor categories. So we'll expect to see that variance decrease as we go through the year. We're continuing to watch the overall overtime expenditures. Fire overtime, we have seen that month over month decrease, even though they're ahead of budget on a year to date basis. i think the class that graduated in february would help their recall overtime so as we move through these next couple months that's one we'll want to watch the all other departments in that overtime category being ahead of budget on a year-to-date basis is driven by some of the demo program over time that they're completing demos this year And those we would expect to be reimbursed through the ARPA process. Other labor expenses is another one that early in the year you will see us be ahead of budget. We're at 69% and those are contractual items, bulk of which happen early in the year. On the supply and service category, with council approving the full budget at the end of March, I think as we hit April, departments were entering purchase orders and contracts for the year. So on the supply side, we do have contracts set up for purchases of medical supplies for the EMS program, for clothing, for equipment. On the service side, you could see things like mowing being set up for the year, so on a year-to-date basis. looks like it's ahead of budget but we'll see that variance decrease as we go throughout the year do you have an update in terms of just our medical expenses i know that last year we saw a real increase in our prescription costs we did we did see an increase uh significant increase from 24 to 25 as we're looking here through um april we're just under budget a little bit on employment tax and medical i'd have to dig into some of the details just to see what that year-over-year increase is looking like

so far here through april i would i would pre i would appreciate if you can keep an eye on our medical costs and advise us every month in terms of where it's going if it's going up or if it's staying steady or if it's going down but i know the prescription cost has really been a huge indicator contributor to those costs

okay question from council okay next um just on page six just a couple items to know as you look at the breakdown by cost center a few areas where it's trending ahead of budget again is i think just related to department setting up contracts for spending through the year so in hr They have an annual EAP contract as well as pre-employment dollars that are encumbered for physicals. On the ERP team, kind of towards the middle of the page, that would include all the contracts that are used for hosting payments during the year for the system as well as support services. And then lastly, urban beautification. I mentioned mowing, so we would see the encumbrances for mowing there. I'd be happy to take any questions, though, if you have them.

Okay. Any questions for members? If not, let's proceed.

The last two pages are the all funds, revenues, and expenditures. I'd be happy to take any questions there before moving to CIP and FERPA.

Okay. So there's nothing that's sticking out as unusual in terms of expenditures? Pretty normal. At this point, okay. All right, Council Vice Chair Driscoll. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I submitted a referral a couple of weeks ago. The status of all of our TIF funds, just kind of the balance on each of those. Any idea when we'll have that answered? And then I also would like to include any money from the downtown parking.

the tiff one was just completed this week so i expect it would be in your packet at the end of the week and then the downtown parking we can check on as well okay thank you thank you vice chair okay anything else

And in terms of the audit for year 2025, I assume that's proceeding, Commissioner?

Yes, Chairman. We're just right now finalizing our basic financial statements. It's due to go to the auditor state's office. We file that on Monday. That's Hinkle. The Hinkle filing is on Monday. Then the auditors will be showing up the second weekend.

in june okay do their work so great right on schedule okay great uh vice chair driscoll thank you mr chairman with regards to the hud 108 loans um how many of those loans are not being paid back by us is it is it just the loan on the hotel in south toledo is that the only one

The Delta Hotel one, and then they're finalizing right now one for Swain Field for the work that's been done at that plaza over there, but that one hasn't been finalized yet. Those will be the two that will be paid back by outside parties.

And is the account with the hotel current? Are they making payments?

I can confirm, but I believe so, yes.

Okay, thank you. Excellent.

Okay, anything else?

We also prepared the CIP and ARPA report and we'd be happy to take any questions on that if you have any.

Could you just, a very brief summary of ARPA in terms of the funding where we're at. I see a figure of 12 million.

Yep, so about 93% of the overall approved ARPA dollars have been expended. We continue to work with all of our departments on making sure that anything remaining is expended fully by the end of this year.

Are you seeing a trend where some of the recipients are saying that they do not expect to spend all the money?

No, I know we've been working through probably the healthy food incentive program, those dollars, especially on the food systems hub piece of it, but that's really the only one that has some continued conversation about how that program will ultimately work.

That's at about 29%. Yes. Okay. All right. Keep us posted on that because my understanding is that if an organization hasn't spent all that money, the feds require us to put that money toward a very similar type program. Yes. That we can't use it, you know, you can't take food money and put it in parks.

Yes, if there was an obligation and a vendor couldn't complete that, you would need to use it for something similar. Okay.

Okay, thank you. Vice Chair Driscoll. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A couple things on the ARPA report. This medical debt forgiveness program is stubbornly remaining at this $677,000 amount. Who in the city of Toledo is responsible for that relationship with that organization?

Between finance and law, we communicate with RIP Medical.

And any indication from them when they'll use up the remaining balance?

They had been working towards having a final portfolio of debt sold here, I think, in the first quarter. So we'll have to get an update on how that's playing out now that we're in April.

Okay. It seems we're making some progress on Metro Parks, more than we had before, which is good. The healthy food is the other one to really, I suppose, keep our... keep an eye on. I do think, I hate to beat a dead horse here, but Mr. Chairman, I think it's maybe either June or July, important to bring back some of these kind of red flag issues here to make sure they're spending their money. And I don't need a dog and pony show about the merits of the program. I just want to know from each of these organizations, when are they going to spend this money? Because I don't want to send it back. So I don't know, Director Campbell, if you have any comments on that or if we can put together I don't know if June is too soon, but it seems necessary to me to bring those and probably another time too before the end of the year.

No, I would agree either June or even July would work as well. Like I said, we've been meeting and kind of outlining with some departments about when do you expect things to have an invoice or when would a contract be signed. So we've been working through that. So either time would, I think, work for us.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, I agree with the Vice Chair. You know, what we don't want to do is on December 10th find out that we need to make some changes close to the end of the year when we're really, we have a serious deadline. So I think having june july reports would be very helpful okay all right great any other questions anything else from the department of finance no thank you okay are there any uh anyone in the audience care to address the department of finance please come forward state your name for the record Our testimony is limited to three minutes.

My name is John Bibish, 2152 Grantwood. And I'm here to address finance because on April 16th, I attended a public safety committee hearing where I made a request that they submit a referral to the administration for the project plan for the opening of a police station on Sylvania in Jackman. It was a $500,000 project. I looked at the website today and I saw that there were no referral responses addressing that. So I want to take this opportunity again to employer finance, because after all, ultimately it's money. If they could collaboratively with safety or in some other fashion, get that referral to the administration. Two months have already passed since the budget was passed. I think it would be fortuitous if something would occur this summer in order to implement that project, considering its benefit to four districts, four council districts in the city of Toledo, and I appeal to the Finance Committee for its help on this subject. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bibich. And for the record, yesterday at the council meeting, I did make a formal referral regarding the plans for that police substation at Sylvania, Jackman, and Tremainesville. So hopefully we'll have some specific data in terms of what they're going to do and the cost factors. Vice Chair Driscoll.

Mr. Chairman, I believe the next Public Safety Committee hearing is going to address this topic on June 4th.

Oh, June 4th, that's right, at 5 o'clock. That's right. So the next Public Safety meeting will be June 4th at 5 p.m. here in Council Chambers, and the committee has announced they will address that issue. Thank you. All right. Anything else? No, thank you. Okay, well, thank you. Next, we'll have the City Auditor, John Hrabowski's report. Thank you.

good afternoon mr auditor good afternoon john rovolski city auditor this month i have a quick update for you i'm continuing with the grass cutting audit and expect to do observations next month and that's all i have for today thank you any questions for the auditor council person gaddis

Thank you. And thank you for working on that. Do you have a proposed timeline for the completion of the audit?

I'm still targeting end of next month. It's possible that it could trickle into July as well, though. But that's the expectation.

All right. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Great. Thank you, Councilperson Johnson. All right. And as far as the audits that are completed, where do we find those for council members?

Sure. So I've sent out all audits that have been completed so far, and I do retain them locally. We do have a shared drive that they'll also be made available.

Great. Okay. Thank you very much for confirming that. And with that, our—oh, I'm sorry, Councilperson Gattis.

Thank you, Chair. You brought up a great idea, a great thought. Do you have a social media page attached to Council's page, auditor?

I do not, no. We don't have one for the City Auditor.

But you have your own page, like a landing page?

I'd have to look into it I don't think that there's anything on the city website for me or social media but I have my own internal files I think with a team of six Marcom employees we should be able to get you a page up and running I nerd out

I am a big fan of reading other cities' audits. They're wildly informative, and I would love our citizens to be able to read all of the hard work you're putting in, and so maybe we can strategize a way to get you a landing page that would host all the hard work you're doing.

that would be great thank you so could you as a result of the council person's suggestion would you check with rachel hart the director of communication and see what what we can do to implement something like that i'll do that okay thank you thank you all right uh last item on the agenda is a united way 211 report you can come forward please set the table good afternoon we appreciate you being here today because to counsel the 211 system is very important and we kind of wanted an update and so i'll turn it over to all of you if you could introduce yourselves for the benefit of the committee

Absolutely. Hello. Good afternoon. We love this opportunity. We're so excited about the progress that we have made all together over the years. When we brought 2-1 back, U-Wall Council was extremely helpful in that and actually, I think, really moved the needle on how we could hold the highest regard for this instrument, we work together and to make it the best possible product for our clients we can. So I want to thank everyone here today and they're excited to share this. I want to introduce my colleagues. First of all, I'm Wendy Peaster, the CEO of United Way of Greater Toledo. And then this is Jill Bunge. She is a wonderful, wonderful leader of this work. She has been doing it since day one with our organization, saw us through the pandemic. And then I think a few of you might know Erin Tupper. She joined the organization. So sorry, but we're really glad that she came to us and has brought the expertise and so many things she learned here to us. And she gets those monthly reports to you all. And today, I think as we explore what we've been doing, we're looking forward to what we can do next in the way of sharing information with you all and supporting the great work you do for the citizens of Toledo.

Wonderful. Great. Well, welcome to everybody.

Thank you so much. Could you get a little closer to the mic? Because we do record. Sorry, my multiple pieces of technology here. So thank you so much. As to echo Wendy, we're so appreciative of your continuous support, your investment in 211. This, of course, dates back to 2023 when one of our staffers was working closely with Councilman Komi to secure a $100,000 annual allocation to support our work. As part of the legislation, we did commit, of course, to communicating with you all regularly to provide this really critical information about your constituents and show a lot of those metrics in these monthly reports based on district. So we've continued that data collection and wanted to share with you today an overview of how our program has advanced over the past three years and how we have really stewarded those dollars and leveraged those funds that you invested. So to talk first about the budget with 211. Our total program budget for United Way 2-in-1 for the upcoming 26-27 fiscal year is $913,000. That's up from $764,000 in fiscal year 25-26 and $751,000 in fiscal year 24-25. This not only supports the work of that core infrastructure of 211, but also coordinated access, which we'll talk about in a moment here. So we're halfway through the third and final year of this three-year commitment from the ARP funding that has been allocated to us. that has supported our operation since 2024. We also receive funding and apply for annually the emergency services grant to specifically support our work through community coordinated access. This is a HUD mandated program that's administered by 211 and monitored by the Toledo-Lucas County Homelessness Board Our award for the upcoming fiscal year is $47,290, specifically dedicated to that program. We are responsible for obtaining additional revenue to support the 211 program, which we leverage through fundraising, corporate sponsorships, grants, and other contractual agreements.

I wanted to give you a little introduction to ALICE. Across our area, 39% of households struggle to make ends meet. These folks are referred to as ALICE, asset limited, income constrained, employed. That means that they're above the federal poverty level, but they still don't make enough to cover their basic needs. They fall short of being able to cover their basic needs. Many workers who keep our lives running like cashiers, cleaners, health aides, child care providers make Alice or make Toledo a better place to work. At United Way we're leading the way to support Alice families so they can cover monthly bills and have a cushion to when setbacks arise.

Wonderful, so now we'll talk about how we've leveraged this investment. We've done a number of things coming out of the pandemic and into our recovery. Over the past three years, this investment has allowed us to, of course, maintain the essential services that we provide through the 211 infrastructure. It's also allowed us to continue responding to emergency needs and disaster, to expand that reporting and call data analysis to monitor trends in live time. to increase our programming in response to that need and where we're seeing those gaps. And then also to take on special projects in support of different community partnerships. Go ahead, please. So I think that we are all familiar and you all have some familiarity with the backbone core services of 211. We connect people to Health and Human Services 24-7, 365. We're also part of a national network of 211 programs across the country that allow people access to basic needs.

Could I ask a question regarding Alice? Are those people that are considered Alice, are they on any kind of public assistance like SNAP or anything like that?

Most times. So the federal poverty level is 100%. Those assistance usually cut off at 150 or 300. 175, this goes up to way, I could show you, we can send another slide to give you a better estimation of how that goes, but there usually is a major disparity between what people get when they get assistance and how much they actually need to make to be able to cover their daily expenses.

Okay, so they are getting some SNAP?

Sometimes. A lot of people aren't. It's called the benefits clip. You make a certain amount and you don't get assistance anymore. And a lot of those ALS families fall into that place where they make too much, but they still can't cover their...

Okay, so I assume they're referred to food shelters and other places where they can get some assistance.

Yeah, usually pantries have lower stipulations on who they're able to serve.

Could you repeat that and make sure your mic's up?

Sorry, yeah, we have a, I'm sorry, ALIS reporting that has been done annually, and it is broken down by county. It's for the state of Ohio, broken down by county, and it gives you a lot of detail on certain populations, including seniors and veterans. It shows budgeting for an area and demonstrates exactly where these folks live, and it does give you some idea of which percentage of these folks are receiving benefits, who are not, and obviously that is sliding around quite a bit in lieu of the changes and benefits, and that's something we've been very sensitive to at our organization, especially when it comes to SNAP.

That report will be out June 10th, so we'll send it as soon as we get it.

Okay, that would be great. And, you know, I think it would be, if there's a way to show us where the recipients are that are, you know, that have called in, what areas of Toledo area, Lucas County, is it by county that you keep track? Okay, that would be helpful for council members to know.

With Alice, Lucas County. Alice County, 211 data is by zip code and council district.

Okay, that would be great. Yep, thank you. Proceed.

Of course. So another essential component of our programming that's deeply embedded in 211 is coordinated access, which is available in Lucas County. It's our connection point for folks who are experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity to get access to services. So through that program, we do diversion. We coordinate with all of the shelters to provide intake and resource wayfinding for housing vulnerable residents, all in a centralized location. We average over 6,000 calls annually that are referred to coordinated access. And then we also work in coordination with the Continuum of Care, Toledo-Lucas County Homelessness Board, really to contribute to an improved client experience, but also to make sure that we're improving system performance to make sure that HUD dollars are coming into our community to support the system as a whole. We also work to leverage other resources in this space. So earlier this year, we identified that there was a bottleneck in the system for individuals who were unable to exit shelter due to rental arrearages. So they weren't able to go into their new home because of these past due bills. We were able to leverage a private source of funding to identify 53 households and pay out over $63,000 of rental arrearages to move them out of shelter and into permanent housing. So identifying spaces where we are, but through that 211, we have a deeper depth of knowledge to really understand where those challenges arise.

The number of 211 calls that you get on an annual basis is approximately how much?

Around 80, 85,000 calls on an annual basis. 88? 80 to 85,000 calls a year. That's a lot of calls. With a peak of 104 in 2021. Yeah, obviously.

and let me this just occurred to me when you have calls to 211 regarding people that are homeless and you direct them you know to shelters as best you can is transportation an issue for them typically and how do they get there

It sure is. That's an excellent segue to my next section. Yeah, so we actually have a partnership with Lyft called Ride United Transportation Access. So we, this year, particularly for the Code Blue warming centers, we were utilizing that service. We also offer rides to anyone who is going to a shelter intake. So we're able to utilize that program if it's prohibited for them to get there. OK, great. Absolutely. um so uh for instance the past two years we have partnered with homelessness board with city of toledo to operate code blue this is just occurs in the winter during extreme cold we all know about the tragic loss that we experienced this past december when a gentleman froze to death outside who was unhoused So that was a very immediate activation. 211 was really pivotal in providing that operational support at the warming centers. We were connecting callers to the centers and then we also provided that transportation to get there. 358 rides, we were open for 52 nights and nine days this year in comparison to six days overall year prior. It was a very cold, long winter, and we were making sure folks had access to food. It was really a community effort to come together, food, restroom access, safe place to stay overnight, and making sure that they were able to get there safely. Another victory out of that that we're really excited about is that we were able to really deepen our connectivity in relationship to first responders and Toledo Police Department. So over the past year and a half, we have really been working hand in hand with them to make sure that they have the tools to, you know, they're often encountering folks on a firsthand basis. They need tools to be able to tangibly give someone a pathway to help. when they're in a situation that maybe they're unable to intervene or police transportation is unable to be provided. So in January and February of this year, 2-1-1 made presentations at all the TPD roll calls. Before the presentations, we had four outreach attempts from officers who we had connected with. In the six weeks after those presentations, we had 28 contacts with TPD officers. So it has really improved the communication between them. As of this first quarter, we're also now a regular part of the crisis intervention training, so 2-1-1's being incorporated into those specialized officer training. And then we've also been working with their response teams on encampments, deploying 2-1-1 community resource advisors out to emergent situations like executive towers, Hotel Lorraine, the mobile home court. So we're really trying to be responsive and really have enjoyed the working relationship that's developing here.

Okay.

Another way we bring 211 to the community is through 211 to You. Every Tuesday at the main branch library, there's a community resource advisor that is actually in person reaching out and meeting with people from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. During 2025, we had over 48 outreach events. One of the things that we noticed was after the same cafe closed, that there was a need for food because a lot of the unhoused hang out at the library during the day and they need shelter, but they also need a meal. So one of the... through the United for the holidays program last year we were able to designate money to put towards bi-weekly lunches some of our series have also filled in the gap this was not a formal expansion but a reaction in real time to the needs in the community

You know, I've attended a few of the National League of Cities conferences, and one of the things that I vividly remember is there's a number of police departments that actually have a social worker riding with them, and they're able to, you know, get the person help. And I know that money is tight, but I'm just wondering if that's something we can kind of think about in the future. i think i think there is a real benefit to that because of the homeless population and also the mental health needs of our community i'm sure we have a number of individuals that obviously need to get help we have we have hoped over time that we could expand the program for things just like that and in the long run we've always wanted

We talked a lot about how do we get to a better place and understand how we even see a reduction in 911 call volume because folks know to call 211. It is that awareness and that synergies of working together that I think really get us to that place so that it reduces the cost to the city and some of that more expensive roll volume.

Right. That's an excellent point. I really appreciate that because it's true. I mean, it's a burden when everyone is calling 911 and there's an outlet, 211, and they can get a faster response and really get some concrete suggestions as to what to do.

um so another thing that we want to bring up is the expanded reporting the legislation passed in 2023 required a yearly reporting by october 31st to fulfill that reporting we've actually been sending monthly reports usually it's monthly sometimes it's bi-monthly i don't know who's whose fault that is But we also include information about, with expanded information including call volume, broken down by district, and then we also include the wait list for students. coordinated access in addition 211 has presented to the neighborhoods department on two occasions once in 24 and once in 25 and for esg united way is monitored by the toledo lucas county homelessness board and participates in the required quarterly meetings for cdb esg grant recipients okay This slide shows the average call volume for the city of Toledo, which is regularly between 3,000 and 5,000 monthly calls. That represents just over 50% of the 211 system call volume. Also, this trend shows the highest number of calls come from District 4, District 3, and District 1. If you want to look more into that, we can resend some of those reports for you.

Great, and I think we touched on this. So Ride United is a partnership that we have, that we've expanded an area of programming, knowing that transportation is quite a barrier in the city. So in partnership with Lyft, this moves people to places for health and human service needs like housing and shelter, food, We get people down to get essential documents, to the courthouse, whatever they need. We've started this program in 2023, over 3,100 rides, unique people who have utilized the service. And then we also have a partnership with DoorDash. So this gets things to people. We partner with food pantries, with different social service agencies that help mothers and children. We've delivered holiday baskets. So we just expanded our partnership with the Ability Center to be able to deliver medical devices directly to homes. Over 3,500 deliveries in the past two years that we've increased our programming in this area. And finally, just wanted to talk about one special project that we've had the capacity to take on as United Way to fill in these gaps that links to 211. We've been serving as the fiscal agent for the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement's Healing and Compassion Fund and the Youth Leadership Collective. And we've been able to cross train a lot of those Monsey navigators with our 211 staff to provide victim support services. So we're helping to kind of advise on the grant and make sure that we're maximizing those dollars that are invested by the city. After someone experiences a violent act, we know that sometimes maybe they have a, you know, the fund is intended to be flexible. If they have a need for medical services, we know that managed care plans are already providing those rides. So we want to use the resources that are available in community to really maximize those dollars. So that's been a really excellent working relationship as well.

Okay.

Very good.

Can I ask also, what is the relationship with the Lucas County Mental Health Board and United Way in terms of 211 and so forth?

Yeah, we are in good working relationship with them. We often cross paths in the housing realm. So we also sit on the Continuum of Care Board, the Home for Everyone Board, through the Toledo-Lucas County Homelessness Board. And I would say some of our funding kind of overlaps in certain spaces, too, with agencies that we mutually fund through United Way.

Okay, great. That's very good. Anything else?

Sure. No, please. We're quick. We're almost out.

That's all right. We are headed into the home stretch. We just wanted to let you know about the DCY expansion. In April, the governor's office announced that the Department of Children and Youth will be using 211 across the state, and they'll be contracting 211 to be the call centers for DCY. That means that United Way of Greater Toledo is actually the 211 that's covering 16 counties in Northwest Ohio. 211 was chosen as a statewide partner because of the existing infrastructure and as a trusted information and referral partner. Limited funding has been provided through that contract, but we still have a ways to go to fill that $913,000. And the last thing, one of the last things is we just wanted to highlight the partnership between 211, 911, and 988. 911 has been of the longstanding federally designated phone number for emergency services. 988 is the federally designated number for mental health and substance use crisis. 2-1-1 is the third leg of that stool that really supports people in time of need. The three call centers work together and can support the others. Every call that comes into 9-1-1 could really be followed up with more support by a 2-1-1 CRA, hopefully reducing the reliance on the 9-1-1 system and stabilizing families in our community.

And so just so we wanted to make you aware of some resources we have that we would be helpful and supportive of your work, we have monthly 211 updates that are sent to you all. We also have biweekly advocacy newsletters we've started generating. What's been great about those, we've been impressed by how much they're forwarded throughout the community and shared. And so we find that very exciting as people really understand the situation that we're being faced with in our state. our federal government and how you know resources shift and so making folks aware and appreciating uh the issues of the day in a very non-partisan but you know i think a deeper understanding of that really helps citizens uh appreciate where the resources are and then also we have these advocacy hours they're hosted by erica kraus and john williams on behalf of united way we've been working with them now 211 is integral to how we weave this information together how we look through the lens of advocacy and really want to support We are looking at expansion. Our board last week approved a budget that gives us the opportunity to explore even more relationships with 211 and how we can be supportive in community. So we look forward to working with you all, the continued relationship, especially supporting our first responders so that their jobs are a little more simplified or, you know, they feel like they've got resources at hand, too, and sometimes it seems so overwhelming. So thank you so much for the time and for the relationship, and we look forward to what the future holds.

Well, we appreciate this presentation because it was a very comprehensive presentation in terms of all that's being done. One of the concerns I've had and I know Councilwoman Morris has had is the increase in domestic violence. And recently we had a public safety meeting, and the prosecutor of Toledo Municipal Court, as well as Toledo Police were here. And we are seeing an increase in prosecutions for that. And I'm just wondering, you know, from a perspective of two-on-one calls, are you getting, do you find more calls or about the same calls on domestic violence from people seeking help?

Yeah, we have seen that as a trend throughout COVID that that has kind of ebbed and flowed and gone up and down. We really see that most through coordinated access when someone would, you know, willingly kind of share that maybe their housing situation is unstable and we have specific resources for them and specific shelters that are, you know, help people to make a plan to get to a safe location.

Good, because that's a critical issue. Absolutely. We have got to provide the assistance to people, to the victims. Yes. So they understand that. Is there anything else that you'd like to present? I greatly appreciate your time and attention today. Is there anybody in the audience that would care to address this issue? Please come forward, state your name, and you'll have three minutes.

Richard Arnold, thank you for the opportunity to speak. Across the hall, our friends at the county commissioners last year, they allocated $148,750 to run between October the 1st and September the 30th of this year, and it contains that phrase that I'm really becoming annoyed with, with no renewal option. It says it more than once, actually. Do you have a plan for when that money runs out? Have you found replacement funding, or do you have a plan to absorb that? 148,000.

Sure. Yeah, so that's Title 20 funding that we receive from the county commissioners that we, you know, we steward that relationship with the county commissioners. It's very essential operational dollars to support that $913,000 that we're allocating year over year. um we continue to fundraise and find other sources of funding um to make sure that that's piecemeal together part of this expansion is really allowing us to provide services to a wider county footprint which also allows us to offset some of that contract revenue so you know like many other non-profit organizations we are we are patchwork quilting all of our funding sources together to make sure that we can deliver a strong service for the community

Thank you. Thank you very much. And as far as the, it's encouraging that we have some assistance from the state, but clearly it would be great if we can get more assistance for 211 statewide because it's such a valuable system. I got to believe that other cities and other communities, other counties could certainly use that help because it just overwhelms the 911 system. if people are calling for things that they really don't have the answers but 211 would. Are there, what has been, How are you communicating that to the Ohio senators and state reps? Are they aware of this, do you think?

Erin is part of a group, but we do have a statewide advocacy group, and we do hold meetings annually with state senators and representatives. And I think really over the years it's garnering more traction. It takes a minute for that to become front of mind, because they don't think at the municipal level quite like you do. And sometimes that isn't... but we are getting there and we're going to be hosting something i believe this fall uh we're locally even looking at the regional construct but definitely something where it's like you know the water dripping and finally it's starting

United Way Worldwide has also submitted the HELP Act to Congress. That happened in April of this year, so that's to help fund 2-1-1 on a federal level. This is the second time that this has been submitted. It's a long game, but we're working at all levels of government to try and make sure that there's funding because it's such an important infrastructure.

Well, I'm sure I speak for all 12 council members. If there's anything we can do to help in the advocating of an expanded 211 system with our state legislators, please let us know. We're happy to be there.

Well, we'll ask you to tag along the next time we go. Yeah. I saw you the last time I was there for too long. I know, that's why I brought it up. Yes.

You were hard at work and I remember we talked about it. And I just think it is important. I'm a great believer in contacting our state reps and state senators because they get busy and a lot of times they don't realize all of the things that we're going through locally. And we just need to work together and present to them the facts. what's happening in our communities and what we can do to strengthen it because if we don't address the needs of people it's just gonna get worse you know it's it's I'm a reading mentor at Sherman school and if we don't teach kids to read many of those children will end up in prison and no hope and from a financial point of view as the chairman of the finance committee, I can tell you that that's a huge drain on any budget. Look at our situation with the jail and our criminal justice system. So, I just think that it's very important for all of us to advocate and to really let them know that we really do need assistance. The state of Ohio has almost $4 billion in reserves.

and certainly a little bit of money for 211 would make a huge difference in our community so i'm going to be sending the 211 report in the next couple days i will make sure that i send a link to sign up for the newsletter and for the advocacy hours it's really good information so i'll make sure that that's included in that email when i send it the next time which is in the next day or two

Well, thank you very much. Any other questions, comments? Thank you so much.

Appreciate your time.

Thank you. Seeing no other business, our committee hearing stands adjourned.