City Council - Regular Meeting

Could you find I couldn't find it. Okay. So, but you don't I [laughter] didn't say Oh, I thought you said I would never do that. Yeah. Right. No, last year's this would have been Last year's wouldn't have had it then. No, it was a year before. You didn't approve tax. No, last year. We did it two years. Oh, okay. It was a two year. It was a two-year approval. Well, that explains why I didn't find that. Yes. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. I don't I think I think they're sliding that in.

All right. Good evening. It's after 700 p.m. Welcome to our regularly scheduled uh West City Council meeting held here uh this Monday, November 17th, 2025. Uh the meeting is livereamed on YouTube and our next regularly scheduled meeting will be uh Monday, December 1st, 2025. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the council members. Mr. Abernathy here. Mr. Gaffy here. Mr. Jose here. Miss Kappic here. Mr. Malta here. Mr. Meyers here. Miss Warden

here. All right, we have a quorum and the agenda will remain as presented other than as we have done in the first in the last two meetings where we have our seven TIFF parcel items that we will be reading those all at one time and then having a discussion since they're basically all the same thing other than the specifics of the addresses. Will we want to will we want to vote on them individually though? Yes. Okay. So, I guess we could just read them and do it that way then.

Yeah. I would I would say we if there's unless there's any conversation we want to continue to have. So, Yep. Okay. Well, I stand corrected, we'll just do it like normal. Yep. All right. With that, uh, at this time, I'd ask to stand and join the members of city council in reciting the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes from our November or excuse me, no? Yes. Mhm. Our November 3rd meeting motion. Oh, go ahead. [laughter] I'll be the second. So, who's the first? That was me, Jen. Jen. Okay. Miss Warden's first. Miss Kappic second. All in favor of approving signify by saying I. I. I. All opposed. All right. Motion carries.

Communications from the mayor. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, Mr. President, councel. Um, just a a fair number of things to recap and then I'll warn you right up front that I'm going to go on a little bit at length at the end, but it's about the seven partial tiffs. So, if I didn't do it at the end, I'd probably do it during the course of that discussion. And my hope is that my comments might help clarify the situation a little bit on those parcel tiffs and talk about those. Um, so first thing as far as activities since the uh previous meeting, we've had election day. We now know who is going to be filling some seats here come first the year. Congratulations to Mr. Owens and to Mr. Paul. Look forward to seeing you join us. We also have two new members of the uh Wish City School District Board of Education and Joel and I had a chance to meet briefly with both of them in in the offices upstairs and um look forward to working them with them in the future. Speaking of which, on the 6th, the W City uh schools business advisory council finance committee met um to talk about their upcoming strategic plan. And Joel and I had lunch the following day with uh Superintendent Tutor. Um I'll touch more on this later, but um it's clear we have, you know, we've always had a shared interest with the school district as far as different activities um going on in the community. And uh we're going to have several to talk about in 2026. And if you are interested, I think Thursday's board of education meeting is going to be informative. So you might uh tune in to that if you have the chance. We had a GOBA organizational meeting on November 6th. I mentioned this before, but they're coming to town this summer early. It's the evenings. They'll be here the nights of June 23 and June 24. This is their third trip through

Worcester, having been here in 1994, excuse me, 95 and 2004 previously. Um, we are already looking at a three-day celebration July 3rd, 4th, and 5th. And you know, this is like just the week before, so maybe we'll stretch this into a a full week of festivities there. Um that same evening, we had a public hearing um for planning commission on the proposed amendments to the ZO residential zoning code that we've talked about, and you may feel like we beat to death over the the past year, but um taking our time and doing it right was a worthwhile way to go about this. And um procedurally, as you know, planning commission makes a recommendation to council on that type of thing and they'll be doing so at their next meeting and then council acts on it the legislation just with that recommendation. And like all recommendations you get, you can choose to accept it, ignore it or or do whatever. So that we'll be having that discussion later on. I just wanted to take it an opportunity to uh give Vince Marian a pat on the back. Um we were very um apprehensive going in know knowing that there were some in the community that could be very skeptical about the process and Vince went out of his way to include those segments in the discussion. Um some uh the proposal that's going to eventually come to council is going to look much different. I shouldn't say much different. It's going to be different than what was originally proposed because some compromises were made to address concerns from the public and the people on the steering committee and um at the public hearing I I certainly expected there to be fireworks and instead everyone that showed up um was in favor of the proposal and went out of their way to praise Vince for his accommodation and as far as working the

process. So, I'm not going to tell you when this comes to council that this is the the perfect set of amendments because there's probably there's things are going to need changed there. We don't even know what some of those are yet. We'll find out on the way. But, as far as the process that Vince used to get to that, I think he came pretty close to perfect as that process. And we had council members that were part of that. So, I appreciate your involvement and uh you if you feel differently on on how things went, feel free to speak up. But everything I heard at that public hearing was positive. Um couple Veterans Day program we were participating in. There was one at Rotary. Um had one at the high school the following day. Those were nice to be a part of. Um on the 10th, the League of Women Voters had a program down at the library with Commissioner Matt Martin and Jen Kyper from the county planning department to talk about county land use planning. That was an interesting I was certainly not a participant in it, but it was uh fun to sit in the audience and and see where the interest uh fell. Um the 11th we had breakfast with Dr. McCall from the college. Again, things seem to be going well there. They've got some they've got some inhibious plans. has kind of played in with the zoning code revisions we talked about because they've got some older housing much like some of our older neighborhoods that they're struggling on what to do with whether they, you know, put more money into keeping them where they tear down or they try to rebuild. So, I think we're kind of on the same page on that front. Um the next morning we had a WDC meeting at the hospital. The hospital was the host for this one. Scott Boise a presentation and it was a reminder if I think maybe we're all aware of it but if not we should be that the Worcester Community Hospital is not just uh a service provider to support our other businesses it's an economic driver for the community. So, we were lucky to have that. Um,

the that morning we also had the commissioner's uh hearing. They meet weekly and this was their vote on the Graham Farm annexation and we're happy to report that it was approved without comment. Um, we have no opposition to that. So, there's a statutory period. I think it's 60 days. Is that right, Jonathan? Yes.

60 60 days from that vote before it can come to council. So you'll be seeing that in, you know, the annexation process is it goes to council first for a decision on what utilities you're going to offer. We did that. Then it goes to the county. They commissioners vote on it. Um and then it comes back to the city and that'll involve public hearings and the whole thing. So again, look forward to that in January probably. Um also had a meeting at the Dallas Noble Ice Rink. Um they were they want to express Phil and I weren't real sure what we were there for, but um turns out they just want to express their thankfulness. They got a grant through the bed tax fund coincidentally um to replace the air conditioning units and they're very pleased by that. And they said without the help of the city uh and council on that um they would have been hardressed to to make those out of those repairs out of their uh operating budget. Um had a Wayne Trails meeting. Uh everything's going smoothly there. Um reported back that the GOA people when they were here were really pleased with the community and really pleased by the local bike trails that we have or multi-use paths I guess is a better um thing than not only the ones we have in place but the ones we have planned. So that's credit to the community. Then we had the uh quarterly mayor's meeting up at the career center. Tom Ballinger, the Wayne County Sheriff and the Wayne County Emergency Management Director Jerry Winkler provided a program We did get an offer. I uh came away with an offer that they would be willing to give us a tour of the new jail facility and [snorts] uh I told I gave Mr. Sanders a head up heads up on that and left it up to him to figure out what time would work best for council members. So, um no, I I know he's got plans on that. Not sure what they are and he'll he'll be trying to get that scheduled. Um then Friday morning we had the uh

annual budget retreat for the hospital. Um took you know started at 8, went till noon, did budget and some other training things. And I just threw out to Mr. Sanders that I know at some point the budget process seems like a very hurried affair and that maybe in future years we might want to consider the I know it's asking you to give up a morning or an evening or a Saturday whatever but we might consider doing a it' be a excuse me be a public meeting um we'd have to do that but spending if if you want to do a deeper dive on the budget that's probably the way to do it um but again just a But um Saturday I wanted to make mention uh Lydia Thompson's funeral. Um some of you may have never met Lydia and if you didn't you'll never see her like again. Um I know Mr. Pervis is in the room and I I'm sure Dave was acquainted with her u over the years and she was not one to suffer fools and if she thought you were being a fool she would let you know and I've had the opportunity to get several phone calls from her um while I was on the school board to let me know exactly that. Um, but uh she you ought to take your time and read the obituary and uh she's uh

very impressive kind of in the Worester Hall of Fame as far as character and I don't mean that in a bad way of their impact on the community. Absolutely.

And then finally, we just this afternoon had a swearing in uh up at the chalet um for two new captains, two new sergeants, and three patrol officers. That's always a fun day. That was a and we had a full house given all those promotions. Um, just a few things looking ahead. Um, tomorrow night, no, I'm sorry, Wednesday night is community stakeholder meeting with the OSU graduate team at six o'clock in council chambers. I hopefully you all got the email on that event. Uh, also that same night, Orville is doing their more than a game event um for the local Nick Amster workshop um teams and that's a nice opportunity to get together with people over there. The 20th we have a Wister growth meeting. 21st our quarterly meeting with the Wayne County commissioners. Same day we have the win window wonderland event which I hope if you've got kids or grandkids you have on the calendar. I am happy to report um that the new ladder truck is operational will be in service and Santa Claus will not be using the elevator on the Briggs building on uh Friday night. Um, I drove by the square Sunday morning after I left Mr. Myers at breakfast and there were fire trucks and lights on in the square and I thought, "Oh no, we got another car on the side." But I was relieved to see they had just blocked off the street to try out the truck. Um, I got an offer of a ride in the basket and I turned it down and I'm regretting that because I don't know when I'll get that offer again.

It would have been so much fun. Uh and then finally uh on the first then we have a community corrections board meeting. All right. Agenda review. Two items of new business. Both of which I expect are going to require three readings. Seven items on third and final reading. Each involving partial tiff proposals. Uh I want to address those as quickly as I can. And again my hope is that these comments will make maybe the discussion your votes on those a little easier. Um sue me I guess if I'm wrong on that one. Um, there were concerns raised at our last meeting about the potential impact of our use of tax abatements and tiffs on the wisher city school district and their effort to build new facilities. This type of concern is precisely why the W city administration has a long history of being very selective in advocating for the use of those development tools. The intent has been to use them strategically and selectively for the purpose of growing the tax base. And because of that philosophy, the leadership of the Wish City Schools has largely been supportive of the city administration's policy over the years. I want to reassure council and the W City School District that I will do everything within my power to make sure that remains the case so long as I'm mayor. And I've already shared that sentiment with the superintendent, the board president, and our two new board of education members. Um, I served eight years on the board of education, worked on many school levy campaigns, and chaired a successful one. So, I very much appreciate the financial challenges faced by the district and know firsthand the work that goes into getting voter approval for a tax increase. Because of that, I will never present something to council for approval that I believe not to be supported by the Wish City School District leadership. And it won't take a formal vote by the board of education or someone from the school district to showing up at a council meeting. A phone call from the superintendent or the board president will suffice. Uh, and I would point out that not only um were we in regular communications with superintendent tutor, but Mr. Goodright, the board president, and I have known

each other since fourth grade when we went to Wayne Elementary together. This brings me to the seven items on third reading. These are each a proposal for a parcel tiff. Ohio law authorizes municipalities to use a parcel tiff to take a portion of the newly created tax revenues for a limited period of time to pay for infrastructure improvements with the idea that those infrastructure improvements will eventually result in additional development and that additional development will in turn produce additional tax revenues. The tiff funds must be designated for use on infrastructure projects that are somehow related to the parcel which is the subject of the tiff. The infrastructure improvements for the seven proposals before you tonight could be lumped into four groups. The first is the Apple Creek Bank facility on South Market Street. Funds generated from that project would be used to help pay for the extension of streetscape along South Market Street and other improvements in the arts district. The second is for the Bell store and car wash at Smithville Western and Cleveland Road. Funds generated from that project will be used to help pay for infrastructure projects along Cleveland corridor, Cleveland Road corridor and Smithville Western. The third is for the car wash and adjacent 45 unit commercial apartment building along Cleveland Road. Funds from those two projects will be used to help pay for infrastructure improvements along the Cleveland Road corridor. And the final group includes the Texas Roadhouse project, the car wash on Burbank Road, and the Chick-fil-A project. Funds from these three projects would go towards the Burbank Road corridor and/or the extension of Riffle Road to Cleveland Road. There have been requests for clarification as to exactly how these funds would be used, asking what specifically will be built if these tiffs were approved that otherwise wouldn't happen. The answer to that really is nothing. That is one of the misconceptions going around about these TIFFs and the funding

generated by them. There's a narrative that tiffs have been used to create some type of slush fund to pay for projects that otherwise wouldn't be undertaken by the city. This narrative is false in two respects. First, the city has never proposed to use TIFF funds for project that we didn't feel was needed regardless of where the funding was going to come from. Second, the expenditure of these TIF funds, just like expenditures out of the general fund and any other city fund, is done by council action. As the saying goes, city council holds pur strings. However, the availability of these additional funds for infrastructure improvements can impact the timing of when these improvements occur. If all seven of these proposals are approved, they will generate an additional $124,000 a year for the next 10 years, which by itself won't make or break any of the projects identified. However, it will allow the city to expand its capital budget during each of those 10 years and with the possibility of matching funds from the state and federal governments increase the impact well beyond the $124,000 coming directly from the tiffs. And that increase in funding for capital projects means improvements will take place sooner than would otherwise be the case. And to help illustrate this, this is why I gave I passed out copies of uh page 3-11 from the budget book you just received, just as a little bit of a demonstration of this. These are items that didn't make the capital improvement budgets for next year. And if we had another $124,000 or let's use that because you can't assume matching funds, we would just be able to dig a little deeper on that list for the coming year. So those are the items that pretty much are if you want to know what items that addition additional funds would pay for, this is an example of what they'd be. And if they weren't paid for next year, they'd be paid for the year after. Um,

this brings me to the seven specific pieces of legislation before you tonight on third reading. My initial reaction following our last meeting was to recommend you vote no on all of them. Um, my fear was that the benefits that would result from their passage would be outweighed by the confusion they would possibly create in the community with some of the confusion caused intentionally by people opposed to the W City School's strategic plan. That still may be the case. and I will defer to council's judgment on these votes. Um I I can see the rationale for going either way, but there are three of these seven projects that I want to make special mention of and I respectfully disagree. You you may vote them all down. You may vote them all in favor, but they are somewhat different, at least these three. Um then I'll touch on those just briefly. Um the first are for the car wash and apartments on Cleveland Road. That's 202518 and 20 2519. I single these out for two reasons. The first is that because of timing issues, if we want to do a parcel tiff on these two, we need to do it now because of how close the construction is to completion. Um the second reason that these two developments and especially the apartment complex will clearly and immediately increase the traffic flow on Cleveland Road. The residents in those 45 units, which is almost half the number of units in the Spring Run development, will use the Cleveland Road corridor to get to their healthcare providers, to do their shopping, and to get their kids to school. So, infrastructure improvements will be needed to handle that increased traffic. And to the extent funds aren't generated by a tiff, they will need to come from the general fund. The other property I would single out is the Apple Creek Bank project on South Market Street, which is 2025-16. There was discussion at the last council meeting as to whether this project was better suited to a CRA given its location. We'd respectfully submit that

a TIF is a better fit for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the TIFF funds could be used to provide improvements around the project that would indirect directly support the development as opposed to an actual reduction in taxes for the property owner that would be provided by a CRA. And as a a reminder, unlike a tiff in which the amount of taxes paid by the owner are not affected, the CRA results in an actual reduction in taxes. There are several other aspects of the project that would m have made, excuse me, would have made a CRA problematic, and I won't go into those at this time, but uh it just was not a good fit. With all that being said, I'm not going to argue that any of these seven are vital to the growth and well-being of our community. Um, looking ahead, it is possible that we might bring a parcel tiff back to you in the future, but we'll do so only after we meet with the new board of education to make sure that they are supportive. At some point after the first year, we're going to try to schedule a meeting with the board of education and superintendent tutor has been amanable to that and we would invite the uh city uh council to attend if they'd be interested. It would be a public meeting open to all. And as I said previously, we will only be coming back to you with a new TIF proposal if we are confident that the TIFF has the support of the school district. Finally, a reminder that a TIF only provides a means of paying for infrastructure improvements and does not affect the administration's decision-making as to what infrastructure improvements are needed, nor council's ability to decide how tiff funds are spent. So, with that, again, my apologies for the length of that. Hope that helps your decision-m process, and I will say no more. All right. Thank you very much. Uh, moving on. We have no petitions this

evening. We do have communications from the public related to, uh, agenda items, which we have one. Uh, Miss Waller, do you want to speak now?

My name is Waller. I'm the executive director of Main Street Worcester and the city of Worcester has been very generous with the economic development funds for our organization. Uh, it actually represents a third of our budget. Uh, so we're very grateful for that support. We work closely with the city regularly make to make sure that we're in alignment with the kind of economic development projects that we do. Um I want to call out that uh your city manager is on my finance committee. Uh we have um Jonathan and Vince Marian on my economic development committee and as well as uh Mayor Reynolds and Joel Montgomery are on my board of trustees. So we work closely together and we value the part partnership very highly and we want to make sure that we are producing the kind of economic impact that makes you feel like you're uh making a good investment with the money that you give to us. And a a statistic that I rely on heavily, the College of Worcester found that for every visitor to the kind of free attractions that we do, uh like the um Main Street music or or the kids day, each one of those visitors spends an average of $26.58 for every visit that they do. So the e economic impact is really strong and has some good data to back back it up. But hopefully you had a chance to review the 23 different um economic development projects that we did over the past two years and that encompasses 171 individual events. If you look at every farmers market, every Main Street music, uh that's that's the uh outward facing visible attraction that that we bring to the city of Worcester. So thank you so much

for that funding. we hope that you continue it because quite frankly if we didn't have it we would have to curtail a significant portion of the activities that we do. Um so if there are any questions about the uh the work that we do or or any of the particular programs or or uh how we value or evaluate their success or whether to continue them on how the events

I don't have a question but I do have a comment. um the events that that Main Street Worcester puts on, the contribution that you make to keeping downtown vital and vibrant is invaluable. I hear from people so many times, "Oh my gosh, your downtown is so wonderful." And I go other places and you see empty storefronts. You really don't see that here. There's something to do every single weekend downtown.

I'll concur with that. I just my wife and I went to dinner in Mansfield about two weeks ago and uh some people were sitting next to us asked where we were from and we said Worcester and they raved like you guys have the most beautiful downtown. Um they talked about a couple of the restaurants here that they're from. They say their getaway is to go to Worcester. So um they I I just want to echo that. So you guys do a fantastic job. people are coming from surrounding counties to come and just see some of the stuff that you guys put on. So, um I can just say outstanding work. Well, thank you. I really appreciate that. That's means a lot. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Okay, we'll move on to We have no committee reports. Mr. President, I do need to schedule a committee meeting though. Okay. Um December 1st at 6:00 p.m. for the finance committee. We will be uh talking about the budget.

All right. Thank you. Thank you very much.

We have no public hearings. And so with that, we'll move right into unfinished business. And if we hadn't muddied the waters earlier, like I say, we will just uh take these we'll take these as we normally would simply from the standpoint that we will be uh having to vote on the uh outcome of these individually. So with that, Miss Hamilton, I'll turn the first one over to you. Ordinance number 2025-16, an ordinance declaring the improvement to certain parcels within the city, an area here in referenced as 2025 tiff market S310 to be a public purpose and exempt from taxation pursuant to OC 5709.40B, providing for the collection and deposit of service payments and specifying the purposes for which those service payments may be expended and allowing for immediate enactment.

Mr. Abernathy, the floor is yours. Okay, I'll open it up for any additional comment or questions. We do have everybody from the administration here for any additional answers that we might need on this. Um, thank you. I'm just want to say a couple things. One, I I don't think that uh these are needed. I'm going to vote no on all of them, but I want to thank Jonathan Malay for all the hard work he did putting it together and taking rapid fire questions and handling them very very well over the last couple of meetings. Um, so I just want to make sure I thank you for your time. Um, I don't see the need for these. I tend to vote no on all of them. Thank you. Anybody else?

Motion to adopt. Motion [snorts] to adopt by Mr. Abernathy. Is there a second? Second. Second by Miss Warden. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Mr. Abernathy, no. Miss Kappic? No. Mr. Malta? No Mr. Gaffy. No Mr. Jose. No Miss Bordon. No Mr. Myers. No. Okay. Item number two, Ordinance 2025-17. Miss. Hamilton, could you please read it for us?

Ordinance number 2025-17, an ordinance declaring the improvement to certain parcels within the city. an area here in reference as 2025 TIFF Cleveland 4782 to be a public purpose and exempt from a taxation pursuant to OC 5709.40B providing for the collection and deposit of service payments and specifying the purposes for which those service payments may be expended and allowing for immediate enactment. Mr. Aernathy, the floor is yours. Motion to adopt. Motion to adopt. Is there a second? I'll second. Second by Mr. Gaffy. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Mr. Abernathy, no. Mr. Gaffy, no. Mr. Meyers, no. Miss Warden,

no. Mr. Malta? No. Miss Kappic? No. Mr. Jose? No. Okay. Next item. Ordinance 2025-18. Miss. Hamilton, please read it for us. Ordinance number 2025-8. An ordinance declaring the improvement to certain parcels within the city, an area here in reference as 2025 TIFF, Cleveland 2695, to be a public purpose and exempt from taxation pursuant to OC 5709.40B, providing for the collection and deposit of service payments and specifying the purposes for which those service payments may be expended and allowing for immediate enactment. Mr. Abernathy, the floor is yours.

Motion to adopt. Motion to adopt, second by Miss [clears throat] Kappic. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Mr. Abernathy, no. Mr. Malta, no. Mr. Jose, no. Miss Warden, no. Mr. Meyers, no. Mr. Gaffy, no. Miss Kappic? No. All right.

Next item. Ordinance 2025-9. Miss Hamilton, you please read it for us. Ordinance number 2025-9, an ordinance declaring the improvement to certain parcels within the city and area here in reference as 2025 TIFF Cleveland 2775 to be a public purpose and exempt from taxation pursuant to OC 5709.40B providing for the collection and deposit of service payments and specifying the purposes for which those service payments may be expended and allowing for immediate enactment. Mr. Abernafy, the floor is yours. Motion to adopt. Motion to adopt. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Jose. M. Hamilton. Please call the role on the adoption. Mr. Abernathy?

No. Mr. Meyers? No. Miss Kappic? No. Mr. Gaffy? No. Mr. Jose? No. Miss Warden? No. Mr. Malta? No. Okay. Next item. Ordinance 2025-20. Miss Hamilton, please read it for us.

Ordinance number 2025-20, an ordinance declaring the import improvement to certain parcels within the city. The area here in reference is 2025 TIFF Burbank 4900 to be a public purpose and exempt from taxation pursuant to OC 5709.40B 40B providing for the collection and deposit of service payments and specifying the purposes for which those service payments may be expended and allowing for immediate enactment. Mr. Abernathy, the floor is yours. Motion to adopt. Motion to adopt. Is there a second? Second. Second by Miss Warden. Let's call the role on the adoption, please. Mr. Abernathy. No. Miss Warden. No. Mr. Malta? No. Mr. Meyers? No

Miss Kappic. No Mr. Jose. No Mr. Gaffy. No. Okay. Next item. Ordinance 2025-21. Miss Hamilton, you please read it for us. Ordinance number 2025-21. An ordinance declaring the improvement to certain parcels within the city, an area here in reference to 2025 TIFF Burbank 4855, to be a public purpose and exempt from taxation pursuant to OC 5709.40B, providing for the collection and deposit of service payments and specifying the purposes to which those service payments may be expended and allowing for immediate enactment.

Mr. Abernathy, the floor is yours. Motion to adopt. Motion to adopt. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Gaffy. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Mr. Abernathy, no. Mr. Jose, no. Mr. Gaffy, no. Miss Kappic? No. Mr. Malta? No. Mr. Meyers? No. Miss Warden? No.

All right. And our last of old business items. Ordinance 2025-22. Miss. Hamilton, if you could please read it for us. Ordinance number 2025-22, an ordinance declaring the improvement to certain parcels within the city, an area here in reference to 2025 TIFF Burbank 4147, to be a public purpose and exempt from taxation pursuant to OC 5709.40B, providing for the collection and deposit of service payments and specifying the purposes for which those service payments may be expended and allowing for immediate enactment. Mr. Abernafy, the floor is yours. Motion to adopt. Motion to adopt. Is there a second? Second.

Second by Mr. Meyers. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the adoption. Mr. Abernathy, no. Mr. Gaffy, no. Miss Warden, yes. Mr. I'm sorry. [laughter]

I actually didn't get Okay. All right. [laughter] Somebody had to break the silence on that, Mr. Throwing that wrench, [laughter] Mr. Jose. No, Mr. Meyers. No, Miss Kappic. No, Mr. Malta. No. Okay. Takes care of old business. We'll move on to new business. Uh, ordinance 2025-23. This will also be a Mr. Abernathy item. Before that, Miss Hamilton, if you could please read it for us.

Ordinance number 2025-23. an ordinance appropriating from various funds to individual accounts for the current expenses and other expenditures for the city of Worcester for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2026 and allowing for immediate enactment. Mr. Abbery, the floor is yours. Yeah, this one is for the budget. Um, obviously we're going to have a finance committee meeting on December 1st. We don't have the hospital yet, so nothing to talk about yet, so we're going to go ahead and leave this one on its first reading. Okay. Can it be on first reading if we haven't read it since we just got [laughter] I didn't get it. Where were you? Nobody. Good point. Technically, you should have gotten it before the meeting, right?

It just need to be introduced. Okay, we'll leave it on its introduction. There you go. Yeah. Okay. Uh, last item this evening, resolution 2025-66. Um, Miss Hamilton, would you please read it for us? Resolution number 2025-66, a resolution authorizing agreements with various applicants for the use of economic development monies and allowing for immediate enactment. Mr. Abernathy, the floor is yours.

All right. So, this is for the bed tax, I believe, here. So, uh, we had a chance to take a look at this, some of the money being distributed and some of the procedures. I know Miss Kappic asked some questions. Um I believe uh you said you were satisfied with the procedure. Yes. Um anybody else have any questions in regards to this? I have um really maybe maybe just a correction unless I'm misreading this. Um but in section one it says that the uh funds are appropriated and awarded for 2024 and 2025. So I think that's just a typo.

Yeah, it's scrier's error. So yeah, I don't think we need an amendment or anything like that to to fix that. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Mars, were you looking to jump in?

I'm just I was unclear that we had allocated money to the way to the Worcester Growth Corp. Um, and then I went back and found in my 2022 23 uh explanation from the city and we originally had not included them and then they amended it to include them at a later date. So that was my question, but I think I've gotten that resolved. I don't know why they're included. There shouldn't be, but that's that's been included. Okay. All right. Um, I feel like this is maybe one we can actually push through tonight. So, uh, I'm going to take the chance and motion to suspend the rules. Okay.

Second. Sec suspend the rules by Mr. Abernathy. Seconded by Miss Kappic. Miss Hamilton, please call the role on the suspension of the rules. Mr. Abernathy, yes. Mr. Meyers, no. Mr. Jose, yes. Miss Warden, yes. Mr. Mr. Gaffy. Yes. Miss Kappic. Yes. Mr. Malta. Yes. Okay. The rules are suspended. Motion to adopt. Motion to adopt. Is there a second? Second. Second by Miss Kappic. Miss Hamilton, please call the role in the adoption. Mr. Abernathy. Yes. Mr. Meyers? Yes. Mr. Jose? Yes. Miss Warden? Yes. Mr. Gaffy? Yes. Miss Kappic? Yes.

Mr. Malta? Yes. Okay, that was easy.

I think Mr. Mayor took you more to explain this meeting than it's actually taken to [laughter] the meeting. See, I said it first. The voting isn't that much faster. Okay. I feel the voting might have been a Senate if I said nothing. Yes. Yeah. All right. Well, we are now in miscellaneous. Um, we do have one individual that signed up to speak this evening, uh, Mr. Pierre Louise. You've got a topic of walkability of Worcester. So,

yes. Hello everyone. My name is Julian. I'm a student at the College of Worcester and um I would just like to make a case for the walkability of Worcester. Walking downtown is amazing. Um you see all the big beautiful buildings. Um and it really feels like you can go wherever you wherever you please. But I would argue that some parts of Worcester outside of downtown are much harder as a pedestrian and as someone who walks to work. three times a week. It's quite um it's quite hard to get get where you want to go and it feels like you're walking against the cars and rather coexisting with them. Um so I'd love um to hear some of your thoughts on what a more walkable looks like. I heard um bike paths were mentioned briefly by the mayor. Um, but yeah, that's that's it for me.

What What are some of the uh pathways you take to get to work? I'd be curious the the route. So, we kind of have an idea. From the College of Worcester, I walk up to Chipotle and I would say on Burbank Road specifically, that's where I find the the largest issue. It feels like a lot of the cars were speeding out from the T intersections um trying to get to wherever they were trying to get first. Um, that's mainly the largest Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you.

All right. Oh, Mr. Gaffy, we'll start with you this evening. Right. Um, I guess first off, thank you for coming tonight and and sharing, you know, your thoughts with us. Um, definitely appreciate that. Um definitely uh Jonathan despite the way the tiff everything went we I think really appreciate the preparation and the information that you uh share with us and the time and effort that you put in uh to present these things to us. It's very valuable and I think it helps us really understand things that we don't necessarily deal with on a daily basis. Um so thank you for that. You're welcome. I'm excited to broken a record that [laughter]

Oh boy. [laughter] That is a record in the 12 years. That's a record in the 12 years I've been here, too. [laughter] Yeah, a halfarted. Yes.

And Mr. President, I and Council, you already let me talk once and I maybe overstate my welcome then, so I'll try it again. But no hard feelings on those votes. Um, probably our fault for not presenting that better and bring it. Frankly, the we anticipated more push back on why we hadn't done this before than than on the on the validity or the uh merits of the proposal itself. And that was poor planning on our part. Um, so again, uh, we could have done a better job of planning for that and presenting it and maybe if we'd planned better for it or prepared for it, it wouldn't have been presented. Um, and, uh, you know, the council did the right thing under the circumstances and, uh, that happens.

Okay. Thank you. The only other thing I was going to say is again to Main Street a couple uh my colleagues, you know, already said, you know, some some nice words, but I do uh you guys do do a phenomenal job and our our downtown definitely shows that and so thank you for continuing that work and uh look forward to seeing more things in the future. Thank you. So, thank you for me. Um thank you. I'd like to congratulate um the folks who were uh fortunate in their most recent election and um and including you. Yeah.

That's right. Thank you for the one running against me again. [laughter] Um, I hope this isn't premature, but I want to thank Miss Kappic for um, your years of service to Worcester City Council and um, it's been an honor to serve with you and I I appreciate your uh, guidance through this too because I know you um, have been somewhat of a mentor to me in a number of ways. So, I I want to thank you for that. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you,

Mr. Malta. Thank you as always. Thank you all for attending and all those watching at home. Past that, you know, transparency I think is our best best goal moving forward and we can all work together if we know what's going on. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mars. Thank you. Um, yeah, I also want to point out that the chamber was represented this evening. We didn't I mean we didn't let you talk. You didn't speak this evening. uh but uh the chamber and main street work in partnership to do a lot for our downtown community, the events and all the support that they businesses. So I want to thank both of them uh for all the work that they do.

That's it. Okay, Muse. Yes. Thank you to the chamber and Main Street for all you guys do and the other folks in the uh packet as well. WEDC Visitors Bureau. Um, yeah, and I don't want my no votes on the TIFF to be misinterpreted as an indictment against the administration, Jonathan, uh, the projects themselves or the comprehensive plan projects. I think at the end of the day, for me, it just came down to timing. Maybe if some things slot in a little differently, uh, I'd be open to reconsidering, you know, a reconstituted package. Mr. Abernathy,

thank you. Uh again, the the tiff votes were were tough tonight, but um I I kind of like the way you presented it, Mr. Mayor, is that uh thinking about bringing maybe back one at a time and looking at them maybe at a more specific project at a time and making them maybe more palatable. Um I I think that that that those could be the pathway that that would make it a little bit more comfortable for me and and not seven at a time. So um that that's that's for me. Um and I'm with Mr. Jose as well. The timing is is maybe a little rough especially with what the schools have been going through. But um I appreciate your sentiment that you know there's no bad blood. Um, it's important that the the city sees that, you know, we can disagree and we can still get along. Um, I think that our track record shows we agree probably 98.9% of the time. So, um, we are getting a lot of good things done for the city of Worcester. So, um, every once in a while it's probably not a horrible thing that we disagree on something. So, um, and and I'll just wrap up my portion of this again. Um, I know I said it last meeting, but I'll say it again. Um, it's been an honor to serve with you, Barb. Um, you have, uh, been my neighbor to my right for the last two years. Um, lots of times nudging me and giving me some quick education when I need it the most, when maybe I'm a little bit lost. And, uh, believe me, for a person that doesn't come from this world or any elected office prior to this, I've needed that guidance to try and learn on the run. So, uh, I'm going to miss you and I really appreciate, uh, the mentorship you've given me the last two years. So, thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Miss Kappic.

Okay. First of all, I'd like to reiterate the comments on the tiff of my general the gentleman council members and to my left. I I agree with that and um, again, I think it's it's great. It's a sign of good government when we can agree to disagree and move on and still work together. That's how it's supposed to work. Federal government, that's how it's supposed to work. So, um, I want to thank everybody who is here tonight and who's here every time that we have a council meeting. The people who watch us on television, I want to thank you as well. Um, your commitment to and interest in the community has always been such an important thing and we here appreciate it very much. So, as you probably suspected [laughter] from the comments, uh I am stepping down tonight. This will be my last city council meeting. The last issues that we really have to deal with in the next month, the major is the budget. And I would like to give my opportunity to uh Drew Paul, who is my successor, to actually be able to vote on the budget that he'll be operating under. Um, and I think it'll give him a very good opportunity to go through the budget process before he gets into um too much of his term. I guess it it'll be a nice way to wet your feet. I want to congratulate Drew. I want to congratulate our other P other council member who will be starting with us. I appreciate your willingness to serve. This is a great organization. It's a great city and I'm going to miss being here very in the city council very very much. Um I'd like to thank each and every one of the city employees who have been here for the 12 years that I have sat here. The city employees, city of Worester

employees are just amazing. They are they've always been very responsive to me. Um, I've had my questions asked, answered rather, and um, I really appreciate all the help and assistance everyone has given me. I'd also like to thank my fellow council members. It has been an honor and a pleasure to sit on city council with you folks. I appreciate your assistance, your education, filling me in on things I didn't know, and um it truly has been a pleasure. And finally, I would like to thank the citizens of the city of Worcester for electing me, for believing in me, and for uh supporting me. again. It has been a true honor and pleasure to serve on Worcester City Council and I thank you very much.

All right. Well, thank you. Final motion. We are going to Can I move tojourn? You can, BUT [laughter]

you you can, but since I got to listen to all of you, you get to listen to me now. [laughter] It's it's always it's always a difficult separation when when we see people that either, you know, don't don't run for the positions that they've held for a long time or just get outright beat, uh, which doesn't happen very often. But you've you've been instrumental in terms of a lot of the decisions, a lot of the positive decisions that this council's made. I mean, in terms of your viewpoint and and how you've looked at things and um I know I'm going to miss having an attorney on the uh as part of council. I mean, it's always been we've had more than our fair share of legal conversations that since I am not a person of any legal ability other than trying to stay out of it. [laughter]

Feel free to call me anytime you're in charge. So, it's been one of those things where Yeah. But we I I have to say from a personal standpoint, I mean, the the years that I've been here and the years that you've been here, I appreciate your time and your energy for this and um and we'll have the same conversation in a couple meetings with regarding Mr. Myers with the fact that it'll be his last meeting and same thing. I mean, it's um you know, we've been very blessed with everyone that's been on council um at least since I've been here since 2012. And candidly, it's um we got a great group of people. So with that, you had something more to say. I move to return.

Second turn. [laughter] There's a second. Second by Mr. Abernathy. ALL [applause] thank you very much. Thank you. I I even [laughter] What time [snorts] is this supposed to rain? So Barbara, I was trying to think. So