Finance & Debt Oversight Committee - Regular Meeting

Is your mic on?

Oh, sorry about that. That's okay. Could you just repeat that? I am happy to repeat that. I'm sorry about that. Do you want me to go over the whole thing or just the June information? June information. Sorry about that. I'm not sure what happened. So for June, looking at June 1st through June 15th, knowing that our disconnection process started on June 1st we have already seen a huge increase in installment and payment plans for our residential customers specifically so in June we have already had 340 enrollments we have had 12 accounts that were delinquent were paid in full bringing in a total of two hundred and thirty two thousand dollars if we keep this trend through the end of the month this will be the highest collection month that we have had with promise pay so obviously we're paying very close attention to that knowing that our to help our customers be successful in paying our water bills this the data that we're receiving thus far June 1st through June 15th ish is showing that so I just wanted to highlight that knowing that the May numbers that you have in front of you but but as you can tell you know in May we had 436 customers already in June or account set up already in June we're at 352 so were there any turn offs there were not in may no we did not start disconnections until june currently we have done 17 disconnections of those we have had one that has reconnected due to signing up for a payment plan and being put it put on a payment plan okay but in june we will we will show all of that on the yeah in in july for the june report will um what we could add to this what we were thinking about for june is maybe modifying this report a little bit to sort of sort of give a capture of those delinquencies since the moratorium and then show you the outstanding balance then we would show essentially our active delinquent balance we thought that might be helpful and then what's what's collected knowing that those disconnections started in june okay all right council council vice chair driscoll thank you mr chairs how many how many accounts do we interface with that were given a disconnect notice um i could get the actual number for you be i'm just not sure if we're all the way through that 102 number so i could get that to you right we were doing a little bit of a slow roll if you recall um our approach and how we were starting was with the 102 residential customers that actually had their water disconnected before the moratorium went into place and and hadn't had any active payments or made an attempt to pay their their their water their past due water bill so we started with those accounts they received the notices some some paid some went into payment plans which is wonderful we never had to you know give that disconnection notice um unfortunately some did not and we have had to disconnect the water of those that were disconnected we have had one customer reconnected because they paid.

Do all of these accounts still represent somebody who's still, until the disconnect, was still using water?

Yes, because when the moratorium was in place until January, well, yeah, until January 1st.

That's my question, though. These aren't like vacant houses that have gone vacant since?

We are tracking that. We are tracking, and we could show that in the July report for June. We could show which appear to be occupied or not.

Okay. I think that would be helpful. Sure. It might be. worthwhile for members to put together a list of the things that we want if we're gonna if we're gonna adjust this report sure it might be worthwhile to get a list of what each member's kind of looking for as long as it's reasonable to put together month after month we could do our best to put it together and whatever we can capture that we think is important to show thank you thank you mr chair okay thank you uh vice chair uh councilman hobbs

thank you chair um you said before chief you said before your mic went out or when it came back on you said 232 000 something what where was that what were you saying and where's that number because i can't find it sure that um that actually isn't on the may report um i just wanted to provide a comparison and give a quick update knowing that we didn't start the disconnection process until june 1st

we have seen a large increase in customers signing up for payment plans and making their payments on those delinquent balances. So that captured June 1st through June 15th. Just to give a comparison, we've already seen, just through Promise Pay, payments of $232,000. So just to show that if we keep trending that way, June could potentially be the highest month for those installment payment plans that we've seen.

Chief, my second question was, I know in dealing with, as we provided ARPA money for Swainfield, they had a huge water bill. where's that water bill stand have they paid that taken care of that um because well anyway so do you know if that bill has been taken care of i do not know but i am happy to get you an answer i can look through the accounts and see where it stands i would appreciate sure of course thank you thank you chair thank you uh

um i want to follow up i want to make sure that we're understanding this because uh the figures are a little different from what we were we had in previous months are you saying under the column outstanding affordability as of may 26 that a total owed to this department of public utilities was 61 million 633 000 okay yes that was that was the total number and am i reading this correct that As of May, we've collected out of that 61 million, 15 million, almost 16 million.

Yes, and what we want to show is trying to represent a true... active balance of those delinquent accounts um so yes that that shows the information of where the figures are i for next month what we want to show is kind of where those active accounts are so we can show of that outstanding balance you know how much it how it's essentially decreasing where the challenge is is every day you have customers that are becoming current and because new customers that are becoming delinquent so it's very hard to capture that real-time number we've been modifying the report a little bit to try to to give you something that

is almost charting and showing that we are headed in the right direction but yes for to your comment yes we're so if we were owed 61.6 million that we've collected almost 16 million that means that we've got somewhere around 46 million that's still owed yes and that number is is going to change every day as you've indicated every day somebody pays a bill somebody doesn't pay a bill any other questions from members i want to read into the record an email that i received today just to indicate what a citizen is saying Councilman Sorrento, I have an irrigation system for my lawn, and I was shocked again when I got my last two bills. I do not mind being charged for the water, but last and now again this year, I am paying a sewer charge of water that never reaches the sewer. Whatever happened to the legislation that you introduced to return to the winter sewer average? I guess there are more important things for city council to mull over, like the shootings that occur every night. However, if my memory serves me right, the mayor and police chief announced that the crime statistics are down for this year. Data can always be skewed, but the fact of the matter is, is the city of Toledo is not a very desirable place to live anymore. No wonder the city is showing a decline in population. Being a senior citizen, if I could move, I definitely would. I suppose the sewer charge is to offset the deadbeats who do not pay their bills. The current mandatory shut off program is a joke. and there are more and more delays and shutoffs to deadbeats that still refuse to pay their past due bills. So the elimination of the winter average is a cash cow for DPU. The past due bills should have been started to be collected five years ago instead of now the Department of Public Utilities is facing over $61 million in unpaid bills. But suburbs, suburbs who receive city of Toledo water have a sewer, have a winter sewer average. So why not in the city of Toledo? So my question to you is, are you going to pursue the matter of the winter sewer average or not? If not, why not? Irresponsibly most welcome, Charles Horvath of West Toledo. As I've indicated so many times to constituents, I would love to go back to winter sewer averaging. because again it was a very fair system but we don't have the votes on city council you know we just don't so it's probably not going to happen but the point i want to make is this retired resident makes a valid point as i have almost every month since we've eliminated winter sewer averaging And that is that the water that people use to water their lawns and their gardens goes into the ground. It doesn't go into the sewers. And here's just a perfect example of anger. about the fact that we're you know charging a lot more for sewer rates when they're watering their lawns and their gardens and so forth so just wanted to put that into the record i know we're working on it uh people are uh tired of hearing me give the same excuse i've talked to the director of public utilities ms bannister and she assures me that she and legal counsel in the department ms kovacic are working on a plan here but again on getting more of these communications as people get their bills and they see the increase on the sewer charges when the water is going into the ground just wanted to raise that issue council vice chair driscoll thank you mr chair i sort of add my voice to that course here a little bit

I'm not sure winter sewer averaging is the best system necessarily, but I will say that there is a legitimate question of fairness when we are essentially charging people for sewer costs when we're not certain whether or not that water, some of it does probably because of runoff. but we're not certain all of it does. I suppose people could have taps put in place, or could have meters put in place, sewer meters put in place, like our major industrial customers do. I think, and this is not the DPU committee, but I suppose we have not gotten an update in a while, not formally at least, about where that issue stands, whether or not we're working on some sort of solution for folks like that. And I agree, for six years we've been giving a lot of people a break on their water bill. And then we came in pretty heavy handed with this question about watering their lawns or pool fills. And it would be worthwhile, I think, to have an update about where that question stands. We've been lenient before. We've been lenient for five years. That's why there's $65 million outstanding, $61 million outstanding at one point in time. And I think it'd be good to have an update.

sure i'm happy to provide an update so director bannister and i as long as well as our legal counsel have been working on exploring what other municipalities have done also what the city of toledo can do the approach that we feel is probably most appropriate is is having two leaders So someone would be able to have two meters if they have a sprinkler system, for example, as was mentioned in the email. We also do the pool credit, which is available. So we think this is probably the best approach. We do want to approach it with a plan and and and have something you know that we feel our law department um can stand behind and also know what is something that the city is able to do um and then what residents would be responsible for with an outside plumber an independent plumber so so that's that's what we're looking at right now and um putting it together so that so that we can show counsel

And I will tell you there's a constituent in my neighborhood that decided to put in a separate meter because they have an irrigation system. And it was about $1,100. Then the other day I had a communication with a doctor that has his office on Sylvania Avenue by the mall. It is a converted ranch home to a doctor's office, which happens occasionally. They were going to put in a separate meter and separate irrigation system for the lawn that they have in the front. and they were quoted a price because it's listed as a commercial property, even though originally it was a residence, $5,500. So the doctor's going to email me and I'll pass it on to council and the mayor's office. But that just seems outrageous. $5,500 to install it because it's listed as a commercial property. So I believe this is the tip of the iceberg. I think a lot of people are very concerned and would like to see some kind of relief. So hopefully in the next few weeks we'll get some relief. Thank you. Vice Chair Driscoll.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to go back to that a little bit. Or is it too early to say? If it is, that's fine. But is this at the homeowner or property owner's expense, putting a meter in for sewer charges?

that's what we're exploring what would be what would we be able to do as far as the city standpoint but you know if a meter were installed on an irrigation for example for a private residence you know it would more than likely be on the private side of the line so is that something we could assess put on somebody's tax bill or These are questions that we're exploring with our legal team to see what is something we could do.

It seems to me we have a lot of bad debt that we are about to collect on that is money that, you know, for the last... five years we didn't think we were ever going to see that might to me could exist as a pool of funds to draw from in terms of um in terms of making it an assessment uh to put on some for a long-term you know 15-year tax assessment or something like that might be helpful for somebody but you know if that's the question if the question is where the money would come from to for to front the costs um seems like a possibility but to front the cost for a private meter Right. Because I don't think we've been counting on this money for five years or so.

Well, it's all based on our debt policy. So some of it we hope to collect. We have been accounting for it. So we've run some analysis based on our debt policy. And then, of course, the customer assistance programs we have as well as debt forgiveness programs that we have so so that is what we're working on as well to see what we can do as far as separate meters how much can the city afford to do I know there's been discussions and some interest in saying it can the city offer some type of loan to residents if they want to install a meter those that is those are all calculations that we have to way you know weigh against and look at and analyze against our current rate model occurrence against our outstanding debt etc and um you know currently it's it's looking pretty good as far as hey we're you know halfway through the month and what we're collecting because we're started doing disconnections but you know we need a lot more We need a lot more months to go before we can do a full analysis to say how much of this debt are we really going to get paid back and what do we think is a fair estimate.

Right. In fact, the matter is that Toledo Edison and Columbia Gas, if you don't pay the bill, you're cut off probably within eight weeks at the longest amount of time. I will also say to Vice Chair Driscoll that Councilman Melvin and I have talk with DPU leadership over the last several months exactly with what the chief indicated. Is there a way that we can finance the installation of these items and help people out and have them pay back each month? So I know they're looking into it. The law department's involved. So hopefully we'll get some answers that would be palatable to the residents. So I appreciate you bringing that up. Anything else?

No, that's it.

Thank you very much. Next we'll get to the Department of Finance. Director Campbell, good afternoon.

Thank you. Good afternoon. We are happy to be here today, Chairman Sarantu, Vice Chairman Driscoll, to present the May Finance Committee reports. Commissioner Dan Morey is to my right. He'll give a brief update on wage and hour compliance. Commissioners Avicii will provide an update on tax, and we also have Commissioner Tom Buckley at the table. Natalie Brona, our Purchasing Commissioner, is with us in the audience as well. But to go ahead and get started, I will turn it over to John, who will cover the income tax pages in the monthly packet.

Good afternoon, John. Good afternoon. I'll start on page two of the packet. Withholding numbers for the month of May, it was nice to see an increase there. So for the month of May, the withholding number was up 1.1 million or just shy of 8%. This has moved the withholding for the year into positive territory, and it's sort of following the way last year started. If you remember last year, for the majority of the first half of the year, we were actually behind the previous year's numbers. So we're hoping, we'll see what'll happen over the next few months, but we're sort of hoping that this trend will then continue then. So overall, withholding through May is up $623,000, or just shy of 1%. When we get to the two net profits, the one thing I want to remind, last month we had noted the April numbers were both positive for business and individual, and one of our concerns was the good news is we got the money into the system faster. Would that be affected in the May numbers? And they're a little different between the two categories, but I'll go through them. So for business net profits for the month of May, we're actually down $3.9 million. and the majority of this number is a single company not making a 2026 estimate payment this is the business net profits biggest concern it's the volatility in this where not only are companies trying you know so for the month of april and into may and stuff like that companies are making their final payment on their 2025 taxes but they're also making their estimate payment for what they think their 26 taxes are that obviously will not become due till april 27. so in a case like this what had happened was a company who had made an estimate payment last year did not make an estimate payment this year now It's possible they didn't make a first quarter payment and they're just gonna simply make a second quarter payment or a third quarter payment. But at this point, this is just one of those we're really gonna have to watch this number then from that point of view. During the month of June here, so what happens during June is the second quarter payment is due. So June 15th was second quarter estimates. And then also just a reminder that when we get money from the Ohio Business Gateway we get their april money during the month of june so again in june not only will we have the second quarter estimate payments of companies who truly paid us directly we will also get the first quarter estimates for companies that paid the ohio business gateway so again for the year we're down about 3.5 million in this category so we're definitely going to have to watch this coming forward the june numbers will be very important for what direction we want to go coming forward individual wise it did happen more like we thought um if you sort of notice on that april was up 440 000 mays down 408 which came out to be a net of 32 000 and is sort of keeping individual where it's at where it's almost exactly flat from last year we are 3812 dollars below where we were last year So put all that together. Through May here, we've collected just over $82 million. We're down $2.8 million from last year. Again, business net profits is the category that's down. Withholding helps get a little of that money back. To move forward to page three the one thing I do want to point out on that one is Sort of towards the very bottom there. It's refunds issued So the refunds issued through May is just over a million in sort of earlier in our process We would still project through the entire year that there'll be about six million dollars in refunds But to compare that to last year at this point we had only issued six hundred thousand dollars in refunds So the refunds are running a little higher than last year on that one so again something we're just sort of watching coming forward but again at this point we've probably only issued about one sixth of the refunds we'll issue through the year that'll get very heavy in the fourth quarter because that's when the corporate and partnership returns are filed and those obviously companies are making the bigger payments and I'm open to questions on either of those two pages

Well, Commissioner, I know that in the past few years we've had more people working from home. It seems to be the trend now that they're coming back to offices a little bit. Is that a fair assessment?

I would say because it's a little bit of both because I mean we've also got the same type of thing there are definitely Toledo residents who don't normally work in the city of Toledo so you can also make that argument the other way than to how many people who maybe their office was in Perrysburg got to remote and you know was paying Toledo instead of Perrysburg and now they're going back to the Perrysburg office but that definitely is some of it I do think from an employer point of view most employers have figured that out for a couple of years there there were some really odd rules in play how do you truly withhold this preponderance of a day and I think on that one that's now become more normal than it was a couple of years ago so I think some of that has settled down that way discuss the IRS oh yes so one of the attachments was the IRS the IRS was pretty flat for the month of May they were down one thousand six hundred and fifty six dollars from last year that puts them down about hundred and seventy thousand for the year probably the biggest play in this turns out to be is they do get yearly information from the Internal Revenue Service the Internal Revenue Service obviously over the last couple years have had some shutdowns less employees and stuff like that which has created some delays and programs and at this point this year we still haven't received the the yearly information we get from them we're expecting it in the second half of the year and so down on that one still at this point I would like them to get to six million by the end of the year I think right now they're on pace for about five eight five nine so hopefully that information when it would arrive would help for a stronger second half

And last year was a good year in terms of IRS information. Yes, yes.

Last year was 6.2 million, which was our second best year. The previous year was 6.5, which was our best year. You know, again, they had made changes in there going after. Assessment-wise, changing... What they were going after because again, you know, like you can assess something but it's not collectible You know, you're going after a withholding account of a closed business is harder to collect on than someone who's every year filing their w-2 for instance, so a little more directing What direction we want to go on some of this stuff? Well, we're on the income tax topic I think Dan Maury

our commissioner of wage and hour we have a one-page update um he will walk through all right yes uh good afternoon good afternoon commissioner um so the uh front page is just uh just a little quick cliff notes on the ordinances we cover uh getting to the slide uh third slide on the last page there other side Just to highlight a couple events we've had here. April Weber joined our team on April 28th, joining Mark Wilson as our two wage enforcement coordinators. And that has allowed us to start expanding a little more into the 796 portion of our enforcement efforts, which is the employee's right to report wage theft. We currently have three open wage theft investigations. Two happen to be on the same employer. And we'll be opening another one tomorrow. In her new role, April has started to set up some meetings where we can do some more community outreach. We had been interfacing with Toledo Jobs with Justice and we met with them two weeks ago about helping them out on some wage theft clinics. They're going to put on a program to start educating workers on their rights. and how they can advocate for themselves in the workplace so we'll be looking to provide quarterly support at their meetings we're also looking at what we can do internally with the department of neighborhoods they do a lot of outreach to people who are homeless or trying to re-enter the workforce so we're going to try and make sure that we educate our most vulnerable population on their rights so that they're not taken advantage of where sometimes they're seen as as an easy mark because they don't have the financial resources to then recover the money they're owed so we want to make sure every employee in toledo is aware of the help they can get through our division So far, from inception, we've recovered over $1.3 million in owed taxes from employers, averaging over $12,000 per week. And then I included just a little graph just to kind of put it in visual form on our recovery efforts. And I'd be happy to take any questions you may have.

So there's you and two employees? That's correct.

Myself, Mark Wilson, and April Weber.

Very good.

all right we appreciate your efforts any questions from members we'll continue into the rest of the may reports in the packet on page four you'll see the general fund revenues through may we're 41.7 percent through the year collections are at about 33 percent of the total budget estimate looking through the report you will see again property taxes were right where we would expect to be through the first half in the license and permit we're at 42 percent that license fees group a will see some more of those fees are due in the second half of the year so that's why we're down a little in that category at this point on the intergovernmental category we did receive our casino revenue for the first quarter right on track with the budget estimate local government funds continue to be in line with the budget estimate other taxes at 27 percent those tend to come in more in the second half so not a concern that we're only at 27 percent there charges for services overall are at 40 percent i do want to mention on the ems and bls transport fee category at 60 we did receive a payment from the county that comes in one time a year so that's why we're ahead of budget in that category at this point investment earning collections have are stronger typically in the second half it's what we saw last year and then on the other revenue being ahead of budget that's related to settlement proceeds from pfas that the city was a party to other financing sources include transfers in from the tola and from arpa and a little bit ahead of budget at this point in 2026 i'd be happy to take any questions on the jedd and jedz are all the entities current with us sharing agreements to my knowledge yes

Okay, now Rossford paid us a lump sum of previous obligations, and do they pay, how often do these entities afford the percent of tax revenue that we're entitled to? Is it a quarterly or monthly?

Quarterly.

Quarterly, okay, all right. So at this point, all of the entities that we have those agreements with are current with us.

Thank You mr. chair director I know we have a handful of things that have significant quarterly impact we're not quite halfway through the year but if you had to based on like our projections what like do you have a number in mind in terms of what we're missing so far that you think is, you know, we're pretty likely to collect. The reason I ask the question is, you know, we're 40% of the way through the year, but we're only really, our revenue projections are about a third of where we would want to be. So there's a gap there, and I don't want to skip ahead, but we're also overspending, somewhere it should be right now. So my question is, If there's money out there that is going to come in that would make us all feel better, that we're fairly confident is going to come in, that would make us all feel better on where we are, any sense of that? Do you understand the question?

I think so, Councilman Driscoll. There's a couple areas. Cable franchise fees might be one we'll need to look at. Those have continually kept dropping. but generally in the license and permit fee category you know i think we'll be pretty you know on target with budget um the 50 on property taxes um is a good indicator for that one overall um i think um just kind of looking at the rest of it um you know the refuse collection fees the rate or the fee increase did go into effect we'll want to see those collections over the next but we budgeted a higher number for that we budgeted yes so the process we've set in place is as we close out the second quarter then during july we'll take a look at you know all of our estimates revenue and expense and that will inform what we would bring forward to council on a mid-year um budget adjustment that's what i was getting at do you think that that's that may be necessary just in terms of what we've collected and what we spent so far that a budget adjustment might be necessary i think we'll have to look at it um what we'll do is once we close out june is gonna sit down and take a look at where we're at and kind of based on those first six months do some projections out and see you know how it tracks with you know the original budget estimate okay thank you okay uh anything else On the revenue, the next couple pages move into general fund expenditures, which overall are at about 42.2% of the budget. You'll see labor costs in that top row have about $1.4 million variance. We do have some contractual stipends that happen early in the year that impact that category. And we expect to see that variance decrease as the year goes on. So we'll watch that. Last month when we reported, we were about 1.9 ahead of budget. It's now down to 1.4, so indicating that we're moving in the right direction. Police fire, over time, we do need to continue to monitor. In May, they did have a quarterly comp time payout, which I think has caused a bump in that area that we've seen from the prior month. But it is something we'll want to look at. And Councilman Driscoll, to your earlier question, that would be something we'd evaluate on the midyear potentially. Pension, employment tax, and medical are under budget. That other labor expenses category at 69%, not a concern because we do have those as one-time stipends that happen early in the year. Supplies and services, the variances you see there are really driven by departments setting up purchase orders and contracts for spending that will happen throughout the year so things like medical supplies that fire uses on the service side seasonals that work at the pools mowing costs are all encumbered within each department's budget so that variance will decrease as the year goes on

Yeah, because police over time is up 130,000, but fire over time is up over 700,000. What comes to mind is the old West End tragedy that happened. all the fire personnel that had to be there because we had 12 people that were seriously hurt we've got upcoming we've got the july 4th holiday event downtown obviously we'll have more police there a significant police presence there so um If you could really keep an eye on overtime and advise us as to where we're at on that, hopefully this is not a trend that's going to go the rest of the year. But we've really got to keep an eye on it because it's one of our biggest expenditures. Okay. It's nice to see the medical costs are a little bit down. Because I know last year it was significantly higher due to prescription costs, correct? Yes. Okay, all right. Have we had any feedback since Anthem took over the prescription program from employees that you know of?

Not that I've heard. HR might be able to weigh in on that a little bit. All right, great. okay anything else on the expense side no the breakdown by cost center is also provided as well as our summary of all funds for revenues and expenditures be happy to take any questions or i can move into cip and arpa if you'd like okay i don't see any questions so you want to get into arpa and cip yep so our cip may report you will see reflected all the open projects 185 million in total including all the grant and loan projects that fund road and bridge improvements as well and no major items to note there on the cip report okay any questions on cip seeing none you want to get into arpa where we stand on that so our arpa report through may reflects 94 percent of the overall arpa budget has been expended we talked i think at last month's meeting about having some updates from our different departments here and i think july meeting if that works for the chair and the vice chair we could do that we've been meeting pretty regularly with the departments and just making sure their spending plans are in line with getting all these dollars spent by the end of the year so we'd be able to give an update next month if you'd like.

So in terms of what still has to be spent under ARPA, that figure is $11 million?

it's 11 million within our Toledo recovery plan just one item to note for the committee we did use some interest earnings that happened and earlier in the ARPA process to to supplement the cleanup demolish and redevelop brownfield sites that was about four million dollars so of that eleven about four million is just interest money that's being spent as well

Of course, we all know that we have to spend this money by the end of the year. Correct. Again, I think it would be very helpful at the July meeting to have a presentation from each of the departments so that we can make sure that this money is properly allocated and properly spent, because any money that's not spent will have to go back to Washington, and that would be tragic. so we want to make sure that we're doing that and then if money is left over correct me if i'm wrong director any money for example for parks or a recreation or something has to be spent for a similar type program you can't use that to pay police or another department can you yeah it has to stay within you know the obligations that we had approved at the end of 24 when the obligation deadline hit right okay thank you vice chair driscoll

thank you mr. chair did anything in the ARPA report represent a significant change from last month's report a couple did finalize so the affordable housing development the last payment went out so that one's now at a hundred percent there was one culture arts and tourism investments that one's now complete there was a final payment there I think those were the two I noted as I was working through it.

Okay, I just wanna be very, very clear if we're gonna do this next month about what the assignment is. I don't need the dog and pony show and I don't need everyone to talk about how great these programs are. Honestly, at this point, I don't care how great the programs are. I just wanna make sure we're spending the money and I just want everybody, I just want everyone who is in charge of spending that money to be very clear. They come up here, I don't even need a PowerPoint presentation. I just need them to tell us how they're gonna spend money in between now

december 31st of this year um because that's the the that's really the only question at this point so thank you that's an excellent point uh vice chair and i concur with that we just need to know where the money will be spent and when and we'll relay that to the programs we've all dealt with them for several years now okay uh anything else under arpa

um nothing further for us anything else from the department of finance okay thank you thank you one last question um i'd be curious i don't know if we need a monthly but maybe quarterly the we have a If you go back five years ago, we didn't have any Section 108 loans, but now we have a handful of them, and I know that some of them we're obligated to pay on, but some of them are private actors, and I'd just be curious, almost like we do DPU, but I think quarterly is probably sufficient, but just to get an update on where we are on all the Section 108 payments.

we can right now it's just the delta that has been approved and as i understand it they are currently all up to date okay but we will you know check in on that every month and we can update you thank you very much councilman i'm glad you brought that up i did have a conversation with

Director Clemens specifically about the Delta Hotel and she indicated to me the same thing. They were current and they were doing well with payments and business-wise. So that's good for us to know because obviously that was an important allocation that we gave.

Okay, anything else?

No, thank you. At this point, we're at the point where the public, is there any comments from the public regarding city of Toledo finances? Mr. Raring, could you state your name for the record?

Mr. Sorantu, Glenn Rang, 3072 Carson Avenue, Toledo, Ohio, 43606. I was glad to hear about what was going on with the sewer stuff, This on top of what's going on with First Energy raising their rates. So let's recap. You already raised the rates on the sewers. You've raised the rates on garbage. That garbage dump is going to be expired in five years, so you've got that expense coming down. And now you've got... first energy and their rate so one of the things that we're trying to do as a passenger rail we think that the very first step to get anything accomplished is a public banking option i've been already talking to the city of maumee i talked to the city of oregon and their mayor to drum up support for a banking option public banking option statewide this will get your sewers stuff built infrastructure built this will get money for your garbage dump and it also will create a micro grid working in conjunction with wood county and lucas county you can create a regional micro grid that will allow you to do an energy glut that will drive down electrical costs. my my uh my ask to you guys is that to really look i sent out a packet to y'all the last time i talked about public banking i'll send it out again but i really urge you to look at public banking i think it's our only card to play do seeing our our current situation here thank you Thank you.

If you could resend that, that would be very helpful. Councilman Komives and I are going to be working on a resolution to oppose the first energy rate increase request that just came up just in the last week or two. So we'll be working on that. As we have in the past, we've sent down resolutions and we've been able to lower the amount of increase not totally but it's been helpful but we will continue our work in that area okay thank you uh before i uh go to the next speaker i forgot to bring up we have obviously our annual audit that we're preparing now uh hinkle was filed okay and then we'll submit the final documents and we've got our outside firm helping us also with that so yes we're continuing to work through the final audit process and act for completion of the final comprehensive report very good okay thank you all right uh please come forward richard state your name

richard arnold thank you for the opportunity to speak i just wanted to comment briefly on your earlier discussion on water delinquencies uh the um moratorium during the pandemic lasted from i believe march the 10th of 2020 until september the 1st of 22. as soon as the word got out that it was being lifted here comes the scam artists uh this is a blade article july 14 2022 Very sophisticated scam, people were contacted and using modern technology, the scammers made it appear that it was coming from the city. They were threatened with immediate shut off if they didn't send money immediately. We're probably going to see that again. These scam artists are getting more sophisticated all the time. So what I'm asking, can we communicate with people, to be on the lookout for this, can we have a coordinated effort with perhaps the Better Business Bureau? They know a thing or two about scam artists. With the Area Office on Aging, the Abilities Center, I'm particularly worried about the elderly and handicapped. They can use their resources to get the word out. please be on the lookout for these scam artists and give them instructions on what to do if you receive a threatening phone call claiming to be from the city, claiming that they will shut your water off if you don't send money to them immediately. And at the risk of stating the obvious, if people are giving their money to scam artists, they won't have any money to pay their bills. So I'm asking for a coordinated effort to get the word out, look out for these scammers. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Thank you very much, Richard. And we will get that word to our DPU people, because on the bills, they could have something on there warning people to be very careful. I know Edison has cautioned consumers that if someone's asking to see your bill, typically it's a scammer, because they take the information and then they try to sign you up with another energy company, and people are not aware of that. is there anything else before the committee our next meeting will be july 29th july 29th wednesday july 29th at 4 pm with that we stand adjourned thank you