City Council - Regular Meeting

started everybody. Oh, there it is. Hey, welcome everybody. This is the November 25th uh regular meeting of Zenaia City Council. Uh we are meeting on Tuesday today in lie of the Thanksgiving vacation, our holiday on Thursday. So, we appreciate everyone that's here tonight. We're going to start off with the invocation led by Pastor Alrefett from Victory Life Christian Center followed by the pledge of allegiance by Mayor Ursel. If you'd all please stand. Good evening. Our gracious heavenly father, we come before you this evening. We thank you, God, for another great day. And Lord, we're certainly reminded of your scripture where it encourages us to to have thanksgiving in our heart, knowing that you're a good God, that you're a faithful God, and that your mercies endure forever. And for that, we are grateful. And God, tonight, we're grateful for our government here in Zena. We thank you for our city administration. We thank you for our law director, our city council members, Lord, all these precious ones, God, that they signed up for this job, Lord, to do what you've called them to do. And we believe that you anoint them by your precious Holy Spirit to do what they do so well. And so tonight, God, we invoke your blessing upon them. We ask that you continue to give them uh wisdom to make decisions that are favorable for our community. We thank you that they lead our community in a way of prosperity. And father, we just are grateful tonight for our city and our government in Jesus' name and amen.

Amen. Amen. Beautiful. Let's uh face the flag. [clears throat and cough] I pledge algiance 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. Thank you, pastor. Thank you, Mayor Ursel. We're going to call the meeting to order at this time and ask for a roll call, please. Mayor Ursel here. Councilman Reynolds here. Councilman Crawford here. Councilman Propes. Councilman Walker. Councilwoman Sice here. President Smith here.

This time I'll make a motion to excuse um Councilman Propes and Councilman Walker. I'm assuming they're uh both were tied up at work. I think Councilman Walker is going to join us here shortly. Uh, Councilman Props will not make it tonight due to his uh, other employment obligation. I'll take uh, I'll make that motion and ask for a second. Seconded by Councilman Reynolds. Can we get a roll call, please? Mayor Ursel. Hi. Councilman Reynolds. Hi. Councilman Crawford. I. Councilwoman Sice. Hi. President Smith. Hi. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Next on the agenda is approval of minutes. These are the minutes from the November 13th regular council meeting. U, minutes are before us. I'll entertain a motion to accept.

So moved. Thank you. Moved by Councilman Reynolds and seconded. I'll second by Councilwoman Sice. Is there any corrections or additions, changes to the minutes? All right. Seeing any, we'll get a roll call to accept the minutes. Mayor Ursel, I. Councilman Reynolds, I. Councilman Crawford, hi. Councilwoman Sice, I. President Smith, hi. Motion carries.

Thank you very much. Next on the agenda is special presentations. We have none scheduled for tonight. So that'll [snorts] move us right into audience comments. So we're this is the opportunity anyone in the audience tonight would care to come and address your city council uh for any reason. Uh it could be an item on the agenda, could be various other topic. Um just keep in mind this is your opportunity to address council. Um we rarely will respond. Uh but if you do have a question uh at the end of the meeting, usually our staff will help you answer those questions. So at this time, anyone would care to come forward. We will ask for your name and address for the record and limit your comments to 3 minutes. [snorts]

Okay, you can come forward. Thank you.

My name is Penny Stewart. I'm at 2589 Ridge Road, Senior. Um, I don't know the ex Thank you very much for listening to me and um, let me speak. I don't know the name of the proposed plat, but it's off the Ridge Road, 68 Ridge Road, and I'm very concerned that they're wanting to take the area, the 37 acres that was supposed to be for 44 homes and put 88 homes on there. um and and extend our road into [clears throat] that. And my concern is our road, which is Ridge Road, has 19 residents. We have no sidewalks. We have no lights. And um I'm concerned about children at that end and adding possibly 200 more cars going in and out of our plat. and the um the safety of 68. They have also proposed to put a a pathway from that new area on 68 back up onto Ridgeway. That is a very dangerous area. There is a blind spot there. It is very hard to get out with a car, much less have a path on there. I proposed for them to probably look at possibly purchasing the small little plat of land next to the nursing home where Dollar General is and putting that outlet there instead of extending our road into where they will be using our road and theirs. Um, I know that's probably not what they want to do, but I would invite anybody to come down to Ranchway Road, stand at cautiously stand at that corner right

there on 68 and view that blind spot and view the traffic that comes through there. It is not safe. and for the safety of our children on the road and the safety of other people and also I have a concern about the noise. Um we're three people on that road. I'm one of three people on that road that own there and 68 is extremely noisy. It's a lot of traffic and if they take away the buffer of any of the trees for other the other people leave living there and the buffer of the terrain, it's going to be horrible to have to listen to. I mean, I can hear the traffic in my house. I can't imagine what it would be when they take away the rest of the buffers. And I'm not opposed to them building on there because it was for 44 homes. They want to put 89. That's scrunching a whole bunch in there. And I just think Zena is a beautiful place to live. And I just think that's an entrance into Zena. And I just think it's going to look like urban sprawl. That's just my opinion. So I invite anybody to come down and see our our little road, our community, and feel the ambiance, the wildlife, the trees. And I'm I'd be very sad to see all that go away, but I'm not opposed to putting what they proposed to begin with. 44 homes, that's reasonable. But 89, I don't believe reasonable. Thank you for listening.

Right. Thank you very much,

President Smith. Before we get too far into audience comments, just to make sure that the public understands tonight, if you are here about Timber Ridge, you're welcome to come up and speak, but any of the comments that you make cannot be considered by this council when they make their decision. Any comments made for or against have to be made during the public hearing, which will be on the 11th of December. Um, again, you're welcome to speak, but comments that you make tonight, [clears throat] council cannot base their decision on those comments because they're being made outside of the public hearing. So, not trying to discourage you from speaking tonight. I just don't want anyone to speak tonight and then not come back on the 11th and think, why didn't they consider what I said? So, just so everyone's aware of that. Thanks.

Yeah. Yeah. Your your ordinance tonight is 2025-33. It's just an introduction tonight on on that specific item. So, we're actually not voting on that tonight. That would be on December 11th when we do have the public hearing. And but I do appreciate you coming forward. Sure. Anyone else care to come forward? Sure. Mhm.

Hi, I'm Robert Stewart's husband. Um, I live on 2589 Ridge Road. Also, I'm just asking you all to look at the plans, look at what they're wanting to do. It's apples and oranges. U, we have 19 houses right now. You're looking at putting 89 next to that. Um, and connecting the road. Um Brian and I have been going back and forth about there's a court at the end of the road right now and I want that to be if you do decide to build there. I'd like to have that stopped just to keep the traffic down from us cuz like my wife said 89 houses. You figure at least husband and wife both have cars. It's 200 cars. Um you got two roads going in. It's going to be 100 more cars coming in on our road and 100 coming from the other way. Um so just to keep the traffic down like we have. We don't have sidewalks. [clears throat] We don't have street lights. So, I just like for you all to look at that, look at that plan, uh, see if it makes sense. Um, one thing that doesn't make sense to me that Ryan and I have been talking about, and then I'll get off the floor is, uh, where I'd like to have that court where it's gravel now made permanent. Uh, Brian said there's something in the city code or whatever. Because of the length of road, we can't do that. But if you go to Eagle's Way, like [snorts] you're going to the golf course on Country Club. I lived on Country Club for 21 years. If you go down that way, that [clears throat] road is longer than what ours is and it ends at a court. And if you come out of there, if you go to the right, you go to the golf course. There's no exit there. If you go left, you got to go all the way down to Regency before you can get out. So, kind of what Brian was saying to me doesn't make sense um about having to get EMT in and how they can get in and out and and and respond to that. So, there's another 11 houses on top of the 34 that are there. So, you're talking about 45 houses. [clears throat] We've got 19 where we're we're wanting to have a court put if you go through with this. So anyway, I just like for you all to look at that, consider that uh when we have our next meeting. Thank you very much.

Sure. Thank you. Anyone else care to come forward? All right. This time we're going to close audience comments. We do have four public hearings tonight [snorts] in old business. Our first item is ordinance 2025-29. This is a public hearing amending chapter 881 of the city's taxation code to make it concurrent with state law through the rest of this year uh known as house bill house bill 96. So at this time I'm going to turn the floor over to Mr. Marman. No, I'm sorry, Miss Fischer. Thank you.

Good evening. Uh this comes from House Bill 96. These are some um changes that were necessitated by changes in state law. None of them are substantial. It's mostly small little tweaks. There were five changes made. Um, we are required under the Ohio Vice Code to match our income tax code to state law. These are things like clarifying the definition of armed forces. Um, they changed the terminology of lottery sports gaming to video lottery terminals. Just a change in terminology. Um and then made some clarifications regarding extensions and filing deadlines. Um nothing that changes what the tax amount is, what the tax rate is, nothing of that nature. Although most of the provisions of House Bill 96 went into effect on September 30th, the changes to municipal income tax go into effect on January 1st. So, we are actually uh recommending a later effective date of this ordinance of January 1 to mirror when we're required to have these in place by state law. Um, and I'm sure Mr. Duke can answer any questions you have as well. I I don't foresee that this is going to make any changes.

Yeah, it's not going to have a a material impact on collections. It's it's mostly administrative and and won't really impact administration of the tax to any great extent. All right. Thank you. All right. Any of my colleagues have any questions for Mr. Duke or Miss Fischer? Okay. At this time, we're going to open the public hearing on ordinance 2025-29. Ask anyone in audience if they would care to come forward and speak either for or against. All right. See no one come forward, we'll close go ahead and close that public hearing. And um this item was introduced by Councilman Crawford at our last meeting. Would you care to move for passage? So move.

Thank you. Move for passage by Councilman Crawford. And we'll entertain a second. Second. Seconded by Councilman Reynolds. There's no other discussion. We'll go for a roll call, please. Mayor Ursel. I. Councilman Reynolds. Hi. Councilman Crawford. Hi. Councilman Walker. I. Councilwoman Sice. I. President Smith. Hi. Motion carries.

Thank you. Our next item under old business is item B which is ordinance 2025-30. Also a public hearing tonight amending section 1016.08 and enacting 10 1016.10 of chapter 10.16 discharges into wastewater treatment plant for the Zena city code. So at this time we will turn the floor over to Mr. Maramman who's speaking on behalf of Mr. Burgerer. Yes, correct. Thank you.

Thank you sir. Um these amendments to code uh would address uh functions pertaining to our industrial uh pre-treatment program for as part of our sanitary sewer system. Um after we had made some changes um a while back the Ohio EPA requested that we make some additional tweaks uh that address some enforcability concerns and basically just some administrative house uh keeping with a couple of the uh of the code sections. Um so again this wouldn't have any broad impact in the public. It's more specific to just some of the enforcement functions relative to that industrial pre-treatment for our industrial users. All right. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Mayorman?

All right. This time I will open the public hearing on ordinance 2025-30. Invite anyone that would care to come and speak either in favor or against this um ordinance. All right, we'll close that public hearing. Uh, this was introduced by Councilman Propes in his absence tonight. I'll make that motion and entertain a second. Would anyone like to second? Seconded by Councilman Reynolds. Thank you. Any other questions or concerns? All right, we'll get a roll call, please. Mayor Ursel. Hi. Councilman Reynolds. Hi. Councilman Crawford. Hi. Councilman Walker. Hi. Councilwoman Sice. Hi. President Smith. Hi. Motion carries.

Thank you. Your next item under uh old business is ordinance 2025-31. Also a public hearing tonight. This is amending tables P10.4, P14.1, and P14.2 of the city's fee schedule. This is an appendix A to part two of city government for the Zena city code. This time we'll go ahead and turn the floor over to Mr. Duke.

Thank you, Council President. uh rate increases are are uh being requested related to two uh two types of fees. The first is uh the city's water rates. The city is making significant investment in infrastructure and has been over the last couple of years. Uh significant investments on on Sheilan Road in the Market District uh on Country Club Drive. There are significant improvements scheduled for uh North King Street next year as well as an extension u out Fairgrounds Road. And so, um, those are just a few in the in the five-year capital plan, but there are significant investments being made across the water fund. There are also some requirements to replace lead lines uh that are going to require significant um investment to be made there as well as we find lead and in any of the older lines to make replacements there. And so there's a a an increase that's required in the water rate to uh offset uh many of those expenditures related to improving the city's infrastructure. Uh the second area is related to uh building permit fees. The city brought uh or created that division in 2002 uh and began providing those services. Um uh the National Inspection Corporation is our our contractor who facilitates um uh much of that. Uh their cost of doing business is obviously increased as has the cities. And so we're requesting uh a rate increase to building permit fees. And there's a a variety of fees and the fee schedule related to building permits. There's a a whole list that's attached here to the agenda item. Uh but those fees are are necessary uh in order to uh properly compensate our contractor and to offset city costs related to building inspection. Uh those are the two uh principal areas and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about amendments to the fee schedule.

All right. Thank you. Questions for Mr. Duke, Mr. Reese? Go ahead. Yeah, I'm just curious just so um citizens will know when will they expect to see this increase one and two if somebody personally pardon [clears throat] me has lead lines and that needs to be replaced will that cost come to that particular homeowner or is that just part of the overall collection process?

Yeah, there so there's some ambiguity about what the state is requiring. generally any uh lines after the meter are the responsibility of the property owner and so I think that is um likely to be the case moving forward that the the resident would be responsible for anything on their property after that meter. Uh the city does have a obviously a number of of mains and lines uh in public rightway and the city would be responsible for placing any lines that have lead uh in those public rights for ways. So, if I'm a renter, then I might expect to see my personal bill go up as a result of say if somebody owns an apartment complex or something and those have to be replaced.

Correct. The the well the the fees related to that apartment complex, upgrading their plumbing system would not be passed along to to city residents as a whole. Uh that would be the responsibility of that property owner. Okay. Thank you. And then to start in the new year, yes. So these are effective March one uh on the on the uh water side. On the building inspection side, I believe it's January one. Okay. Thank you, Mr. President. Clarification if I may. Yeah.

Um uh on the lead issue, um US EPA has submitted rules that essentially put the onus of lead line replacements on local water providers. Um the Ohio General Assembly has introduced a bill that essentially reinforces that. So as it's written presently um there's the suggestion that replacement of those lead lines on private property. So you know in line with what Mr. Duke said typically anything from the meter box off to the private residence is the responsibility of the private homeowner. the way the rules are [clears throat] currently written, it is suggested that that would be the responsibility of the city now and not just us but any city where we have lead lines. Um, lots of questions with that in terms of how how enforceable is that? How do we enforce uh that rule on private property if we don't have a warrant um or some kind of administrative capacity? Um so a lot of ambiguity but um you know just to reinforce the point uh we have I had we've had to we are required and have since uh notified any of our residents that we believe may have lead lines as part of their system. That was a requirement that we had to to do some time ago. Um and then we have a uh database where anywhere we where we believe that there are lead lines we're in the process of going through and having to replace all of those. And again Ryan mentioned King Street. We know there's a number of of or we believe there are a number of of lead line connections on King Street. That's part of the scope of that project next year. And given the age of our city, um it's it's likely we'll over time continue to find a lot of these. So Mr.

Thank you. Yes. And just to clarify, this is also an unfunded mandate by the EPA. Correct. Like they're requiring us to do it with absolutely no money from the USPA, Ohio EPA or the state. Correct. And it will be to the tune of billions of dollars just in Ohio anyways. So that won't make Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. So I I have a question. So the the just the cause of lead pipes running to houses is not was not the owner. I mean the reason for the lead pipes being there would not be the resident owner or the current owner cuz I'm sure those that infrastructure is back from the 50s4s. Yeah. So that was standard practice when these homes were built. Obviously unaware of some of the dangers of those types of lines.

Can I I just hear your your real position. And I just want to hear your heart in this matter. Um, well, I think do you believe do you believe that it's up to the resident to replace those lines? So, I think that financially it would be a an enormous burden on city rateayers to have to fund replacement of all those private lines.

Uh, so from a financial standpoint, it would be problematic. Um, it's not necessarily the fault of the the homeowner obviously that their their line may contain lead, but it is ultimately or has been previously their responsibility. I think we share in some of the concern and that where does that stop? If you have lead line in your line to your house, you probably have lead lines in your house going to your sink, going to your shower.

Is that the city's responsibility? And so where does that responsibility for the city stop in and in in having to pay for replacement of of those types of of lines in the home? So my personal opinion is that it should fall on the private homeowner to maintain the lines that are on their private property. Um, that's that's where I would stand on the issue, but ultimately it'll be the the the attorneys and and the lawyers that decide what we're responsible to to pay for and what we're not. I I think Mayor Ursel has a quick question that Oh, no. Go ahead. Frank, go ahead.

Yeah, I just want to point out uh with that um it's not just lead lines. It also includes galvanized and copper. Um because theoretically the lead could detach. You mean iron, not copper, right? It could be could be copper, iron, or galvanized copper included.

All of those are included. So, it's it's there's the language is written lead or or other non-led and I forget the exact verbiage, but it's other materials that it could attach to and later leech from. Um, so it's so it's a it's a broader collection of materials than just the lead. And then the second point with the private property improvements. The other concern in addition is look if whether it's city crews or a contractor, you're going all the way up to and through the foundation of someone's home. So you have restoration of that. If there's damage to foundation, if something else happens, the potential liability that creates for that it creates for the city uh could be very costly. And maybe nothing happens, but you know, maybe in some of these there are there's damage, unintended consequences. So um I agree with Ryan. I think this is going to get litigated if it's enforced the way it's presented right now, but at minimum, we know we have a legal obligation to go out and replace anything in city publicly owned right away. And that in and of itself will be a pretty significant expense.

And when when did we take this program on starting? We've already implemented the program. There's already a number of of milestones in terms of, like I mentioned, the the public communication. We've already done that here in the past year. Uh, and I think it's a 15-year period. we have to certify within 15 years that all all of these lines have been removed from our system. So that changes our sale disclosures as well. If that law passes, it's passed. Yeah. Well, then at the at the national level, we we have already been directed by the US EPA and we have already had to notify all public people and that will have to be disclosed because we had to notify them.

Yeah. So it's it's bad enough you do a lead [cough] based paint disclosure. Now you have to do a leadbased plumbing disclosure. I think you're probably going to have to and you know you're familiar with this as a realtor. Those those disclo disclosures as required under rule. I don't know how you'll avoid it with this one. It actually poses theoretically a greater risk than probably the paint. Um but to to Councilman Ursel or Mayor Ursel's point, the um these are federal rules and now the state is in kind codifying it um to add it to to statute in the state. So if again if you know we're pretty much going to be under mandate at the federal level but the doubling down on that is is what the state is in the process of doing. Thank you. Any further questions? The one thing can I make one? Yeah, go ahead.

So and Bren, back me up on this. There there were a few large municipalities like Cleveland. They got fairly substantial amounts of funding during the COVID time to go implement some of this, but none of the rest of us got any of that funding. So they're being held up as examples of what to do, but it's an example without the f, you know, I guess [clears throat] they went ahead and did the initiative and they got federal funding. Now the rest of us are being required to to go field that out. And I I don't know, Ryan, what was our initial just off the cuff thought of what that might cost us?

I I have no estimate on I mean [laughter] it would I mean we're talking about probably half of the homes in Zenaia that were at least a question mark. Well, maybe it wasn't that. Do you remember the percentage? It was a It was a large percentage of homes% in Zenaia that that could potentially and you're talking, you know, anywhere from 3,000 to $10,000 to replace a a water line. So, this is a tens of millions of dollars of unfunded mandates to us. Yeah. It would literally be billions of dollars across the state of Ohio. It would be millions per municipality. Yeah. It's a big deal. Well, that's huge. Well, we'll hear more about this later on. Yeah, sure. I'm sure you'll hear about some litigation, too.

We've already So, I got this right. We've already as we've been discovering them in terms of our mains, we've been replacing them up to this point. And so, that's just part of the the normal upgrade program that's been ongoing and and is planned as well. So, I think we have some assurance that within the 15-year time period, we'll have our portion of that addressed. The question is, do we have to go out to 4,000 homes? where where we don't really understand the legal basis of us other than we have a mandate from the federal government.

We we have no easement, we have no warrant, we have no legal basis to go do this. We have no no format to do the the contracting with that and then the liability. We have no idea of that. I mean this is this huge set of unknowns that are on the next phase of that side. Right. So interesting.

All right. So on that note, I'm going to open up the public hearing. Uh, congratulations. And, uh, no, actually ask anyone that would care to come in favor of the city amending the city's fee schedule due to some of these items. You can come up, speak either for against that. All right. Thank you. We'll close that public hearing. This item, ordinance [clears throat] 202531, this was originally introduced by the mayor at our last meeting. Would you care to move for that for? Thank you. and and seconded by Councilman Crawford. Is there any other discussion? All right. Thank you. Um, city clerk, we'll go ahead and get a roll call, please. Mayor Ursel, I. Councilman Reynolds, hi. Councilman Crawford, Councilman Walker,

I. Councilwoman Sice, hi. President Smith, hi. Motion carries.

Thank you. Next on the agenda is also a public hearing for ordinance 2025-32. This is amending sections 1402.04, 1404.04, and 1406.03 03 of title 2 known as building standards of part 14 of building and housing code for the city of Zena. This um we'll go ahead and we'll turn the floor over to Mr. Maramman who's speaking on behalf of Mr. Henry. Yeah, this uh this legislation would essentially um put into practice in our code uh relative to our building inspection fees what we've already done with water and other utilities, which is instead of doing um having council annually approve rate increases, this sets the rate increases um to a cost of living factor. Um so this would would uh allow us to avoid what's happened this time where we haven't done any increases in the last 3 years and keep a more regular schedule. So that's in line with what council's already approved uh with our other recurring fee schedules and so we're just bringing consistency to that.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayorman. Any questions for Mr. Mayorman? All right. This time I'm going to open the public hearing for [snorts] ordinance 202532. Ask anyone if they would care to come forward either speak for or against this ordinance change. All right, we'll close the public hearing since no one's jumping up there and we're going to go ahead and um this was also introduced by the mayor at our last meeting. Would you care to move that for passage? Yes, I'll move with passage. Thank you. And we'll entertain a motion to second that. I'll second. Seconded by Councilwoman Sice. Any questions? Okay. Get a roll call, please. Mayor Ursel, I Councilman Reynolds,

hi. Councilman [clears throat] Crawford, hi. Councilman Walker. Hi. Councilwoman Sice. Hi. President Smith. Hi. Motion carries. Thank you. Next is new business. Our first item in new business is item A known as ordinance 2025-33. This is seeking an introduction tonight. This is for approving the major change to the concept plan for 52.36 acres known as Timber Ridge Plan Unit development. This time we'll turn the floor over to Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, sir. Uh the city has received an application from Arbor Homes uh seeking approval of a major change to the Timber Ridge PUD concept plan. The proposed change would increase the number of homes permitted uh within um the remaining undeveloped area of Timber Ridge. Um as proposed, the PUD change would allow 88 single family home lots on the remaining 34.48 acres. The original Timber Ridge PUD concept plan was approved in 1988, allowed 63 homes on 52.364 acres. Section one was platted in 1989 with 24 lots of which 19 were developed after which development activity ceased uh and has remained um stagnant for the past three plus decades. Uh the proposal uh retains the land use designations established by the original PUD concept plan but increases the residential density. In accordance with the land development code, any increase in PUB residential density requires review by both planning and zoning commission as well as city council. Uh Arbor Homes has incorporated uh several staff recommendations to enhance the quality of the proposed major change to the concept plan and to safeguard property values and quality of life. Um some of the highlights of the proposed concept plan include a new second entrance for Timber Ridge neighborhood from US 68 and a connection to uh existing Ridge Road. Uh 30% of the site set aside is private open space. This includes buffers between proposed lots and existing lots as well as uh with US68 space for trail and and for a trail and playground, storm water detention, uh preservation of existing vegetation wherever possible. Um sidewalks on all new streets and on the west side of 68 from the existing neighborhood entrance to the south property line. Uh this includes 60 foot wide lots, variable minimum home sizes with the largest being 1,600 square foot um on lots adjacent uh to the existing neighborhood uh enhanced architectural standards to ensure quality and some other things. Uh developers also agreed to some additional requirements the final stage which includes conducting studies to

evaluate need for improvements to US68 potential of a speed limit reduction feasibility of pedestrian bicycle crossing that connects the neighborhood to Little Miami Scenic Trail. I would add at this point that in talking with our planning and engineering staff, I think uh evaluation of the traffic implications is a very reasonable uh part of this and um I think our staff would endorse so long as it meets ODOT merits um that some adjustment to speed limit be uh be incorporated there. Uh staff has reviewed uh these and determined the proposed uh change uh and ensuing development to be consistent with the next plan recommendations. Uh for the planned housing product is in line with contemporary market demands and while differently in the existing products in the constructed neighborhood uh provisions have been included uh to try to protect property home owners. Uh we note that uh since 1989 the city has considered multiple proposals for development of the remaining acreage at the site. This includes an 85 lot uh proposal in 1993 that was withdrawn and two proposals for assisted living facilities that were denied. Uh planning and zoning held its required public hearing on November 12th. Uh there was considerable interest and participation u from residents um both before and as as part of the public hearing process at that meeting. Uh planning is declared to recommend that council um approve the application for major change to the Timber Ridge Council plan as as submitted. Uh we present this ordinance this evening for council consideration.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And again, tonight's just an introduction. Um anyone that wants to speak on this would highly encourage to come back on the 11th at 6 p.m. for the public hearing. Great. Thank you. All right. So, noted. Any questions for Mr. Mayorman? Anything to say? Does Brian have anything he would like to add this time? Do you have anything to add at this time in regards to planning? Okay. I can we ask questions on this?

So So [clears throat] Brian, I I just want to make sure [snorts] I understand the development um uh this when did this come under did this come under new ownership recently? [clears throat] No. Um but is that that's being sought I believe. Okay. It's been for sale. And then to the south of of the proposed units, are we going to be talking about additional lots being built beyond if you look to the south that there's more land? Are we talking about continuing on? No, this this proposal is just what you see in front.

The proposal is, but what would you potential of continuing on with this continued on with additional lots being built to the south of this one? to the south. So if this is west, east, you know, that would be the south. That would be the back side away from 68. Can somebody build an addition and add to this complex as well? Are you talking about beyond the site? Yes. Uh that is currently outside the city. Okay. So somebody would have to so somebody would have to annex that into the city and reszone it and uh submit a proposal for development consideration. Thank you. Any other question?

Other questions? Yeah, comment. You and I talked, we're required to introduce this. The you council had to take some action. Um there are appeal rights here um on both the neighbors side and on the developer side. Um you can't file or exercise your right of appeal um without a final appealable order, right? which requires sh decision by council. So, we have to take an an action so that can occur.

Yes. Introduction does not mean you're voting for or against it. It just means we're putting it before you at your next meeting for the public hearing at which time you can either um vote yay to pass it. You can vote nay um or you can amend it. Right. And the reason I brought that up with D is I'd ask her a question, what if no one chooses to introduce? And she says that's not really an option. We we have to introduce and we have to take action. Yes. Yes. Legally we do something. Right.

I'll just add that um you know as staff we we understand uh that you know there were quite a few residents showed up at the planning and zoning commission public hearing expressed a number of concerns. We understand those concerns. uh we take them seriously and uh we appreciate everyone's participation in the process

and we we also as staff we anticipated I think a number of these concerns and that's why um before this plan got to planning zoning commission we requested the developer make a number of changes including adding you know the buffering between the existing homes and the new homes uh providing space to preserve trees providing buffering preserving areas to preserve trees between the new homes in 68 8 to address some of those concerns. Um, and also requiring that the developer conduct a traffic study and a speed study on 68 uh to you to try to get that speed limit reduced and address some of these existing concerns that that residents have. So, but happy to answer any other questions you might have.

So, can I ask a question? So, like one thing that was asked tonight and then and then an email or two I got it. One is like a request for second access onto Well, really the the one request is is to terminate the existing timber ridge. So, it would not connect to the new development, but we also discussed that would require a second entrance into the subdivision because it's if there's a single entrance, they're limited in terms of the number of

Yeah. the fire fire code limits um if you're if you only have one entrance to your neighborhood, the fire code limits you to 30 30 lots. So, because the developers proposing more than 30 lots, there has to be a second access point and uh they're using Ridge Road as that connection um that was originally planned to extend through in the original one entrance. Where's the second? It would be 68. 68 right here. 68. Yeah. So this would be the 16 entrance here. This is the bridge entrance. See, there's a 16. Okay. Yeah. I didn't know if that was a possibility to open up there. This to the pace line, but that's not owned by the developer.

Paseline would require an additional property acquisition and we don't know whether or not that property

Okay, that makes sense. Yeah. Um, also Ridge Road is currently um exceeds our we we have a maximum dead end street w length of 600 ft. Ridge Road is currently at 900 ft. So if any more work is done in that, we require that it be connected to to another street instead of permanently deadended. So that the combination of those two fire code requirements and zoning code requirements are why we're [clears throat] requiring this connection. Now, I I think that in this new development, um you're not going to see 88 homes worth of traffic coming down Road every day. I I think the majority of these homeowners are going to use the new entrance because it's going to be more convenient uh than driving through the existing neighborhood. So, uh for that reason, I think um you know, the those there there shouldn't be a big concern about cut free traffic. Got it. Okay. Very good. Any questions for Brian? Okay. At this time, I'll ask if any of our colleagues would care to introduce this and there will be further discussion on this on the 11th.

I'll introduce. Okay. So that we can move the discussion on. Yeah. All right. Great. Thank you. introduced by Mayor Ursel. Can I make another comment? Yeah, go for it.

So, I I appreciate what Danette had to say and this is very important because information is provided to us prior to a public hearing. We we need to adjudicate based on the public hearing. However, getting information ahead of time helps us [laughter] think things through. So, we appreciate you folks coming out. Uh feel free to contact us outside the meeting. We're always available to have discussions. And I think there's been uh uh pretty much everybody that lives there has has offered that if we want to come out, you'll you'll help us walk the area. And I know I'm personally going to do that and try to encourage some of the other council members to go out there. You get a much different feel when you're you're physically out there doing that. So, uh so anyways, I when we had a lot of folks came to the planning and zoning committee meeting, had a discussion. I guess I would also say that just for everybody's information, Brian helped me with this. Our our planning zoning commission is made up of just citizens here in the in the in the community that are concerned for our community, but we we give them a set of criteria that they use and they evaluate that based on that criteria and we also don't allow that committee to bring in other criteria, do those evaluations. So they, you know, the uh the staff does the initial uh evaluation, makes recommendations to that committee. that committee hears and then makes that discussion and recommends on to us and they approved it and and recommended on it because it met the criteria and that criteria is a criteria we the council gave that committee. So so they they operated exactly as we have asked them to do in that situation and now now it's coming back to us but but it's good for us to hear everybody else's input at this point and make sure that we're educated when we come to that meeting as well.

All right, thank you. All right. Our next item is resolution 2025-60. [clears throat] This is waving uncollectible amounts due to the city as authorized by the Zeno city code. We'll turn the floor over to Mr. Duke.

Thank you. Uh Mr. President, uh we are requesting that council wave uncollectible amounts uh for a variety of of different types of outstanding uh receivables. Uh it's been a couple of years since we've uh requested the council write off any of these uh uncollectibles. The first uh group of of receivables is in the parking fund. Uh these are outstanding parking uh tickets and then some of the fees that uh go along with that when uh they're non-responsive or uh when they when they fail to pay the ticket. Uh the total on that is $19,720.34. Uh all of these tickets and there's a complete listing of all of these different uh receivables in your in your packet attached to this item. Uh all of these receivables are from 2021 or earlier. Uh anything that's occurred in

council on that list just uh there may be I had not looked [laughter] through thoroughly. Uh we may need to pay that mayor will I wrote it in [laughter]

any anything more recent we uh we are issuing default judgments and sending that through the municipal court. Now, I don't know that that mechanism has been incredibly successful either, but we're doing everything we can legally to collect uh on these tickets, but these are beyond the period for us to uh still collect them. And so, we're requesting uh that they be written off. Uh we're also requesting uh some fees for weed mowing, trash cleanup, and demolition be written off. That totals uh 23,718 uh for the miscellaneous or for weed mowing and then another 6,613 for miscellaneous abatement charges. Uh these are primarily for uh properties that the city ultimately uh came to to own. And there are some other uh different types of circumstances that would make it um uh inappropriate for us to assess these. Typically, when we have outstanding weed mowing fees, we assess it to the property uh after a certain uh time frame for delinquency. Obviously, when the city owns that property, it doesn't make sense to do that. And these are properties that were uh not being properly maintained. The the taxes and the fees, the weed mowing fees were acred over time and then the city uh came to own them through the foreclosure process. So, these weed mowing fees all occurred prior to the city taking ownership, but we can't recoup those dollars. So, uh, there those types of circumstances as well as things like bankruptcies and, uh, and such that would keep us, uh, from being able to assess these as we typically would. So, we're requesting that those be written off. Uh, there also reinspection fees that are related to code enforcement. Those total $37,000. Uh, we have we have looked at different options for trying to to collect these fees. This typically happens when there's a citation, the issue isn't resolved and code enforcement has to go back out and and reinspect uh uh that particular property. Uh there isn't really a good mechanism. We've looked at

um we've requested, you know, that the Ohio Attorney General, for example, uh pursue these. This isn't something that they were willing to pursue. There's a certain type of criteria that they require uh only certain types of fees that they would pursue, and there really just isn't a terrific mechanism. So most of the time uh we try to uh use compliance uh as the the mechanism. Hey, if you come to do this then we'll wave the reinspection fee. Sometimes that doesn't happen or sometimes uh that compliance did happen and then the waving of the fee never actually got into our system. So in some of these circumstances the the code enforcement issue was in fact addressed and it just was never removed as a receivable in the system. Uh but we're asking that those be um those be waved. Uh extra strength search charges. We've we've actually tweaked the code for both this and bulk water fees. Um in in the last few years as we updated the utility code uh these are some older fees, fairly minimal amounts, $65.97 on the extra strength search charges and $15063 on bulk water fees. Both of these programs have been revised. Bulk water, for example, now requires a deposit. Uh so that ideally we're not left holding the bag. If somebody uh if somebody uses us for bulk water and then doesn't pay an invoice, uh we've also got much more aggressive processes to um to turn them off as a potential vendor who can receive bulk water if they're delinquent at all. Uh and then finally, we're requesting uh that some loans for homelessness be written off. These have actually been on the books for 17 or 18 years. Uh these were grant revenues from the federal government. Uh so these were not city funds. This was a CDBG uh uh program that provided some funds to try to address homelessness issues back in the early 2000s. Those folks were

supposed to pay fairly minimal amounts uh monthly, you know, maybe $10 a month. Uh and the program was intended to provide housing to these people to get them into a better situation. Um, unfortunately, there were a few uh that never did repay those amounts in full. Um, again, this wasn't city money. This was federal money. And so, we're uh requesting that those be written off um because it's it's very very unlikely at this point that we're going to receive those. And those have been on our loans receivable list for for uh for quite some time. So, uh those are the types of of fees and the amounts that we are uh requesting the council write off this evening. and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about any of those uh requested fees to be written off.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Duke. I'll open up the floor for questions for Mr. Duke. Two questions uh on here. I see that we the state of Ohio owes us around $450. We're waving them after all they do to us. We're going to wave them. I mean, they're taking away all of the local, you know, regulations and all the stuff saying what we can and can't do with our city taxes. If you have a mechanism through which you think we could get the state to pay those fees, uh we would certainly um we would certainly be willing to pursue that.

But we've been I mean it's it's part for the course. The state takes these properties, they don't maintain them. We end up having to maintain them. There's no way for us to assess these properties. They don't the state doesn't pay property taxes. So if we do assess it, it just sits on the property. And and so it's it's really difficult there. We don't have leverage in this in these circumstances to get the state to pay these these fees. But if if you have some ideas, we're we're certainly willing to pursue them. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if you have to reach out to the Department of Administrative Services. Uh they're the ones that handle all the state properties.

Yeah, we've we have in the past reached out to them. It's been a little while. This is not a new problem. It's been this way for uh for decades. Uh we could try again. if if you want to exclude those from uh being written off, you could keep those on the books and we can we can try to pursue them. I just I I don't I'm not optimistic that we're going to be able to recoup those dollars. And the last one was CSX the train like they owe us the money as well. And yeah, um again same thing.

Yeah. Uh I I don't think there's even a mechanism through the county to assess those particular railroad properties. They they have some special rules that apply to them. And so again, getting them to to play ball and to pay these fees is just it's it's one of those things that we again we have no leverage uh because we can't assess them. [clears throat]

So you I was sitting down with with Brian a while ago. I said, "Ryan, why are we carrying all these old debts?" I said, "Either we need to pursue collection or we need to write them off because just continue to carry the debt in the book when we have no hope of collecting it isn't helping us with our with our uh you know process. What we ought to be doing is identifying the ones we think we can collect on and at least you know advertising those out or making a decision on those." So anyways, Ryan, I appreciate you putting all this package together for us. I think it'll help us clean up our books. Sure. Yeah.

And and and we we have done these um these write-offs in the past, brought them to council. It's been a few years. We've had several changes to code that have we kind of wanted to see how some of those processes worked for things like parking and bulk water and search charges. Um, and now we've been through those a couple of cycles and [clears throat] um, it was time to to start to clean up some of those things that we we're pretty confident we aren't going to be able to collect and get those off the books. Well, and a lot of the properties on this list, a lot um, I mean I can give you names if you want. Bulk of these we've gotten through tax forfeiture.

Correct. So, while we've written off the the weed and mowing assessment because we'd just be paying the county for that money to come back to us, we've ended up with the property instead. Yeah. So, the the point of that is when we sell the property, then we recoup some of that money charges because it's the ownership of the property to do that. Sorry, can I ask a question? Yeah, I've got I've got one too. So, no disrespect, but how does the postal service, the United States Postal Service get away with owing us $500 that we're discharging? How did that happen? [snorts] Just curious,

is that under the the uh weed mowing piece? Um, it's under custom receivable invoices. It's a just a miscellaneous abatement. I mean, and again, not joking, but I would just dump $500 worth of letters in the system to make up for that. I mean, honestly, I would almost go to the postmaster and show them an invoice. I I would think somewhere they would have to they would have to honor that or our congressman would honor that. I don't know. I mean, we've had significant um yeah,

there there were there were issues specifically with the post office uh a decade ago with the postmasters directly where there were some dollars that were owed to the city and it it's been very difficult uh to collect. The federal government kind of plays by its own rules. I think that was something to do with withholding. Yeah. um the federal government didn't feel like it was uh required to abide by city code for some different tax regulations. So we we've we've been through this with the post office on on some other things as well. Again, we we can try to pursue it. I just

trying to recoup something from the federal government, the post office is is going to be very very difficult. And I think I think yeah I think what we're getting at though is is our city actually showing a lot of grace to a lot of these entities that we don't always get that grace shown to us when we open those. So just kind of putting that out there. Go ahead.

And I I want to tag on what you're talking about. [clears throat] I I just wonder thinking outside of the the normal realms the way money flows, the way we charge, the way we look for the the money. thinking outside of and I I was think I just wrote down a couple of ideas hiring a third party attorney who would love to have 50% of these the these these rewards and then they would go after it. This is something they do. The other thing is I didn't know if we tie in to our city taxes some of the charges for just you know you have an outstanding charge but you're you're filing city taxes and you you're getting a refund. Yeah. And then um the other thing the permit pro process the these are all these are all departments at our reach and I just curious is it possible and you you correct me if I'm wrong or if I'm thinking too crazy but why can't we reach into another department that has interaction with these folks and I and the other part of this was uh mechanic leans I've seen I've seen where cities put put a mechanical lean not cities, but other people that want money and aren't getting paid. They put a mechanical lean on the on on the actual property at closing, they're getting paid. The title companies ensure that they get paid. My question in all [clears throat] of this is is there something that we can do, you know, hire a third party attorney. Is it possible?

Well, well, for which which kind of fees? Well, the third party attorney would love to go after these these these invoices for Zena, which is parking. I mean, that's an easy one. Well, the the parking I mean, those are all civil judgments. So, yes. Um, for $19,000, I don't know if you're going to get the money back. I mean, I guess if they took Yeah, they get they get 50% or sometimes they take oneird. I don't know what what does an attorney get on on a

All you can do is if there's an actual civil judgment and and I can tell you we would there's just no way we can add it to our bandwidth. Um you have to ask for a DTOR's exam then try and get through garnishment process. What you can do with these civil judgments once you file them um and finance has started this process. The Bureau of Motor Vehicles has a program. Once you hit three of those civil judgments, those then get filed with the Bureau and you cannot renew your car registration until you come in and pay your ticket. Beautiful. So, you were just saying.

So, we're working on that. Yes. Yes, we are working on that. These are all pre um 2021 and earlier tickets when we weren't doing that yet. show any tickets really after that. Finance is currently pursuing that. The weed mowing and trash cleanup. I I'm not It's specifically in state law that you can assess for those. Um I don't know that it does you any good to try and sue for those. And here's why I say that. If it's somebody that can afford to pay it, then they will usually pay it as part of their property taxes. But if [snorts] you're weed mowing or you're demolishing a property, it's typically because the property owner is not taking care of it or the property owner's passed away. Basically, you're trying to get blood out of a turnup.

Okay. Um those properties end up in tax foreclosure because not only is the assessment unpaid, they're delinquent on property taxes. So suing the the property owner in that case if they're already in tax work order I don't know what you're going to get out of them. Okay. It was just and a lot of these we end up with because the properties don't sell at sheriff sale. They're offered twice at sheriff sale and nobody buys them. So if it sells at sheriff sale then we get our assessment money back that way. That's part of the assessment um okay

that we get back at the sheriff sale. But if it doesn't sell at share sale, then it either goes the property goes to the state in which case we can't assess any future mowing or we take it. And that's that's what we've been doing. We've been taking most of these. And we we do use collection agencies. Typically, we used [clears throat] to use private uh collection agencies, but the Ohio Attorney General, they've been far more successful because they can pursue withholding people's tax returns. Uh whereas a private company wouldn't have access to that. So, we are using the AG's office uh for certain types of of fees that qualify, but there are certain things they just say, "No, we're not going to pursue that."

Okay, go ahead. So, we are we are pursuing that where possible. So there there are obviously a lot of receipt pools you don't see here and those things we are sending to the AG's office or we are pursuing through other um avenues. These are a few of those that just they they don't check the boxes for us to to have a good avenue for recouping. And it's it's unfortunate that there's not a better way to to find you know a mechanism for leverage and enforcement. But I understand and I only threw that up. As you know, we're coming into a tight season for 2026 and I and it's really tough to watch this and but I know you got to get off the books. I understand that and I I support you guys. Whatever you decide. Thank you for hearing us out.

Sure. Thank you. I appreciate I guess I'll speak for you guys. There's only so many hours in the day and we we have some massive things that we're asking them to do. Yeah. And yeah, we can spend and they get paid so much an hour, right? And so if you look at, hey, go spend 10 hours pursuing $150 charge. We can do that. I've spent more money paying them to pursue that than the charge is worth.

I understand. So So there's there's a point where I get it. you know, let's pursue every dime, but at the end of the day, if if people's time was unlimited and it was no cost, let's do that. But there's a point where we have limited time, they've pursued multiple venues. And I and I yeah, I wish these people would be responsive to those kind of things. But there's there's also some point we're saying, why are we carrying this stuff on our books if we've been down this pike two or three times? And and we can keep going. We don't have to take them off. We'll leave them there. But I I I don't know who is going to have the time. Maybe one of us says, "Hey, our time is we got plenty of time. We can pursue it, right?" I'm only exploring, right? I'm only exploring.

Well, I I think with the finance department um using the BMV's program with the civil judgments, you you'll see an uptick in the parking. The one thing that we do as far as the weed mowing and abatement, um I I make sure we get I get served on every tax foreclosure the county files, right? Um and I make sure to file an answer and I'm involved in the whole process to make sure that if that property sells at sheriff's sale, we're not only getting assessments that we already have on the books, but if there's any uncertified assessments, we're getting those as well. So we we are trying to make sure we get every scent we can. So I I agree. I understand.

So for this one, we're writing off $91,691.94. I mean, uh going forward, have what have we been able to do? Like this is what 23 previous, correct? 203 previous. So have we seen that number go down since are we close to that number in the last two years? So 23 24 25. Do we know where we're at on those collections? cuz we're literally I mean we're about to go into budget discussions today arguing over $100,000 and we have 91,000 right here. Well, okay.

I mean so I get where you're coming from the question that has with us assessing the properties right that are underwater. That that's that's that's today. That's tomorrow. That that didn't change forever. Yeah. Well, I'm guessing I'm asking what are we doing to curtail this? Well, I will say I think some of those especially on those assessments for weed mowing and such, I think those numbers will get smaller because the treasur's office is doing a better job of foreclosing on these things quickly. So, the problem was before the auditor and the treasur sitting on these properties for a decade where we just keep mowing them and mowing them and moaning. So, so we we started to incur some pretty large amounts. I do think some of those numbers will start to get smaller as the treasur uh continues to do a good job of of foreclosing on these quickly when people are delinquent rather than waiting for a decade of back taxes and we're still mowing it.

Uh so I think some of that's going to get better. We, you know, I I had some conversation with with the city planner with with Mr. Forser. I I want to try to pursue some some different options on uh these reinspection fees, but I I can't promise you that it's going to get better, but but if we this is again for multiple years and so I think as we stay on top of that, those numbers if we were to bring this back annually are going to be smaller. Um but there's only so many enforcement mechanisms we have. I mean, we talked about assessing it. Do we just assess it and see if somebody challenges that? Oh, on the on the we could potentially, but I I don't know that we have great solid legal grounds to do that.

So, we're looking at all the the different options. I think some of these things, parking for example, I hope that it will be a smaller number because we're sending these civil judgments and and hopefully we can figure out some um some remedies. That's the bulk. Yeah. And and those are the those are the three big ones. The others are minimal and I don't expect that you'll really see much in the way of bulk water loans. Most of the ones we have, there is a lean. You know, we've got some that are really old. They're not paying, but there's a lean on the house. So, when it finally sells, we should recoup those types of things. So, um I don't think you'll see much in those last three categories. Cool. Thank you. All right. Any other questions? And the auditor is having an auditor sale finally for the

I I can't remember how many parcels the state of Ohio owns that they have not been maintaining. Right. Right. and we're we're finally going to get an opportunity to get those sold to someone who will maintain them now. Right now, yeah, I think the the city manager sat in on those auctions. It sounded like it was really successful. So, those those properties went back to private hands. They're going to be developed. They they haven't had an auditor sale in 25 years, right? So, all right. Thank you. All right. This time, we'll entertain a motion to um pass resolution 2025-60. I'll move. Thank you. Move for passage by Mayor Ersel. Do we have a second? I'll second.

Seconded by Councilman Walker. Any further discussion? Okay, we got a roll call, please. Mayor Ursel, I. Councilman Reynolds, I. Councilman Crawford, I. Councilman Walker, hi. Councilwoman Sice, hi. President Smith, hi. Motion carries. Next item is resolution 2025-61. This is appointing members to the city of Zenaia Charter Review Commission and designating the time by which the commission recommendation shall be filled with council. So, we'll go ahead and turn the floor over to Miss Fischer. Thank you.

Good evening. Uh, as council will recall in 2019, um, the citizens of Zenaia approved an amendment to the charter creating a charter review commission. And in 2020, we started the process. Um, we did the first major review. uh of the charter in over 20 years. Um the charter had not been updated since 1998. There was a series of amendments presented in the different three different elections in 2022. One of the requirements of the new charter language is that you appoint a new charter review committee every 5 years um for them to review the charter, see if any other recommendations or updates are are necessary. Um, you also have to set a filing deadline of when the commission is to have their report to you. Charter amendments work a little differently than most other elections um because how charter is amended is set forth in the state constitution rather than state law. So the 90day filing deadline that typically applies on levy or other election matters does not apply on charter amendments. It's a 60-day deadline. Um, so your deadline would actually be September 4th. Any amendments to present for the November ballot for next year. Based on that, we're going to um suggest that you set a deadline for the commission's report to you of July 31st. That gives you the entire month of August um to review those changes. is now granted. The committee may be done before that, but that would be the drop dead date to have their report to you. As council directed us, we did uh publish public notice to invite interested citizens to participate. The filing deadline for

that was October 31st. We received six letters of interest, four of which were from prior charter review commission members, which was great to see those people want to be involved in the process. Again, um we would like to see at least and recommend at least one member of council serve that is authorized by charter. We found at the last review it was nice to have that person that could act as a liaison uh for the rest of council with any questions that you might have. Um so we are recommending this resolution to appoint five members to the charter review commission. It's the members that council picked. Uh we're recommending one alternate member. We always recommend an alternate given the timelines. Um, we hope that alternate will participate. If something would happen, one of the regular members would have to drop out, that alternate can step right in. So, based on um the letters of interest and council's recommendation, the five persons plus one alternate would be Chelsea Garrett, Howard Horseman, Nancy McPeek, Thomas Scrivens. Uh, they were formerly on the Charter Review Commission. Councilwoman Shice would be our our council representative and then Megan, I hope I say this right, Ivory would be our alternate. Um the report deadline will be July 31st, 2026. Um I've got the binders ordered and filled. So once council makes these appointments, um we'll uh get with the committee and see about getting the first meeting set up. I do serve as the non- voting legal adviser to the commission and then the city manager and the finance director both also serve um as non- voting advisory members to the commission as well.

Right. Thank you. Question. If let's say council representative uh counciloman sice is not able to attend, is she able to ask an alternate council member or would you prefer that it's filled by the alternate of the selection? You you'd rather be the alternate? No, I meant if she can't attend like Yeah, you you could do that. You could add another an alternate just for the council member. Okay. Okay. Very good. All right. Thank you. Okay. You just need to make a motion to amend them. Adding [snorts] whoever your alternate is for for council like to do that. Who would you want to be the alternate to that

for her? Yeah. Yes. Or or council I don't think James wants it. Okay. Can we amend that and the alternate to Councilwoman Teres would be Councilman Crawford? If she's not able to make it, we will add him as the alternate for the council member. I will just need you to make a motion to amend. I move that we amend. Have James as the alternate. All right. Thank you. We need a roll call for that amendment. Yes. Motion and second on the motion to amend. Roll call on that and then a vote on the resolution as amended. So we have a motion by Councilman Reynolds, seconded by Councilman Crawford. Is that correct? Correct.

Okay. to uh appoint Councilman Crawford as the alternate on the charter review commission and is as council representative in case Councilman Sice would be absent. Is there any questions on that? Okay, we'll get a roll call for that, please. Mayor Ursel, hi. Councilman Reynolds, hi. Councilman Crawford, hi. Councilman Walker, hi. Councilwoman Sice, I President Smith, hi. Motion carries. Thank you. and and we'll entertain a motion to pass resolution 202561 to appoint the five member charter review commission as required by as amend the charter as amended. Thank you. Who would like to make that motion? I'll make it.

Thank you. Made by a motion by Councilwoman Sice. Do we have a second? Seconded by Mayor Ursel. All right. Any questions? All right. We'll get a roll call for that, please. Mayor Ursel, hi. Councilman Reynolds, hi. Councilman Crawford, hi. Councilman Walker, hi. Councilwoman Sice, hi. President Smith, hi. Motion carries.

Thank you. Next one on our agenda is resolution 202562. This is opposing House Bill 503 as unconstitutional, unnecessary, and harmful to Ohio municipalities. So, at this time, we're going to turn um that language over to Mr. Maravan for explanation.

Thank you, sir. From time to time, uh the state pursues various legislative matters um where it seems uh appropriate to consider uh council taking a stand pro or against um such measures. Uh we presented two items this evening. The first is uh with resolution um 62. Uh, as detailed in your agenda report, House Bill 503 proposes substantive changes to state policy concerning reciprocity uh, or in other words, local income tax uh, uh, credits policy. If approved, the bill would override constitutional home rule on the matter of income tax credits and supersede local regulation with state policy. Uh, since publishing of this report, HP503 received an additional hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee. Uh resulting from this, a substitute bill was adopted uh which removed the retroactivity portion uh and made one other change which uh essentially the the second change is that any um increase of the credit would not be require would not require a vote of the people only a decrease. Um so again I wanted to note those changes since this was originally um uh published in your agenda report.

Say that again. So there were two changes. One was that the retroactivity provision was removed which was in most views patently right unconstitutional or legal to begin with local jurisdictions taking action that they're empowered to take and then you want to force a recision of that. The second piece is that um it modified the language such that any councils would still be able to increase tax credits but not decrease them without going to the

so if this you know I guess the point they're being I if if the people should make that decision in one direction they should probably make it both but that there's an inconsistency with the legis the state legislature. So, um I think that regardless of how you feel about the credit issue, it's another incursion on home rule and the Ohio Constitution is one of a couple in the country that establishes uh the right of home rule um for various matters uh you know issues reserved to local jurisdictions particularly chartered communities and this is yet another foray by the state legislature uh seeking to force localities um you know to to limit their their their local home rule. Um I think the other concern is that uh we have heard for 6 months maybe maybe longer um we have to reform property tax property tax property tax you know local should be reserved to income tax. Well in the midst of that conversation you now have you know another attempt to limit local control over income tax matters. So um we we offered this up for council's consideration. Um, this resolution would essentially um instruct the city clerk to forward to uh the relative state actors um the council's official position opposing the bill. [snorts]

Happy to answer any questions. I think I covered all the key the key points. Question. So, how many certified letters do you send do you to send to the two state reps that to our state? It depends on the issue. Usually governor's office um will send it to our local reps. Sometimes we'll we'll include copies to the respective uh the speaker and the the president of the senate senate. This is the bill sponsor perhaps. Um just depends on the issue and in in the group that we reach out to. How effective would that be to send to all state legislation?

I actually am opposed to this. I told Brent earlier only because the the sponsor of this bill uh is also the chair of the ways and means committee and we're going to be asking for some money in the upcoming budget. And I think we send this to him or, you know, to chairman Romer, he might say, "Hey, well, you guys oppose my legislation, so why do I want to help out Zena um during the capital budget request?" So that's why I'm actually voting on this tonight is that we're going to ask the money from Representative Rome. So, well, h how are we Okay, so let me ask you this. This is just a Yeah, okay. So, we don't get to vote on this. Yeah,

we have two representatives that do. Okay, we can choose to not inform them of anything and let them make their own decision, which seems to be how they operate anyways because they never talk to us about anything. I mean, we haven't gotten pulled by either of our two state representatives on this specific bill, which has to do with local municipalities and I spoke to the mayors of Fairborn and Beaver Creek today and they haven't asked them either. So, we can continue to let them operate in isolation of us, right? or at least we can inform our state representatives of how we feel about I understand what you're saying. You can call them also directly and tell them how we feel individually. There's seven of us. We each have Levi's number. He served with all of us. Right.

We Kyle K who here and gave us his number. We can inform them of our choices. I just think that it's a bad position for us to put ourselves into to go ask Ror tell him that his bill is garbage and the we use a word in here. Let me explain this. an absurd new step. I don't want any sort of that language in there as we turn on and go ask him in January for money. Just saying. So that's just my opinion of it. Well, I'm I'm not necessarily saying we have to send him a certified letter. Yeah. With that. Okay. But we ought to we ought to be educating our two state reps. And if we need to have a position paper so that we can help us out with that, I think that's a good thing. Okay,

that's fine. We all have our opinions on it. My my only issue lally with this, you know, Mr. Duke made the comment earlier, it would be the attorneys and lawyers that would decide. And I wish that was the case. I wish it was the attorneys and lawyers that were writing the law, right? Because most of the people in Columbus, you have to remember these are lay people.

Um, this is a bill you already have initiative and referendum. This is a power that the people already have. So you're doing another bill to give the people a power they already have to limit municipalities in a way they are already limited. [snorts] It doesn't make any sense. It's not necessary.

So why are we taking this up here? Why are we doing why do we even take it up is a question I have. I'm I'm exploring again. No, I mean it's it's an opportunity for the council to establish its collective will. You're all entitled to your individual opinions, but a majority would would issue a resolution of his collective will. I think in this case um my suggestion to you is it as much as anything it's a statement that um you oppose further incursions on home rule. We have seen this with issue after issue. We saw it 20 years ago with um oh what's the um the local fees the cable um franchise fees

franchise fees you know we and it's just been a domino effect. We've seen further and further um incursions into into home rule. Um a lot of the legislators that complain about the federalist system and the federal government establishing increasing control at the federal level are doing the exact same thing at the state level to municipalities. So you know it's is this necessary? No. It it just comes back to if if you're concerned about the topics as we've raised, then this establishes the collective will of the council. Well, I would personally be in favor on um revisiting this again and giving myself time to contact these folks and let them know

what I feel about it. And then if I don't feel like I get any satisfaction or any response or whatever, then what do you think about that? Yeah. Well, we have the information here for us, right? I we got our few state reps and we we need to tell them. Yeah. Right. And they're not working hard to get any information from us. Right. So, we need to provide to them whether we do it jointly or we do it individually. Sure. But we need to we need to let them know.

I'm also really concerned when I talk to the mayors, the other mayors, none of the rest of the mayors knew about this. And so, anyways, they're getting information now, too. I wish our state reps when they have a bill that's before them that's addressing municipalities might actually think about going and talking to municipalities that they're representing. I totally agree with that. The fact that it's you and me and Ryan and dad that are the ones deciphering these things as they come. It's it's kind of scary. So yeah. So well the good thing is we we've got the information for each of us written down so at least we can speak intelligently to them. I guess the only thing we would strike here is the you say the retroactive piece has been removed. Correct. Right. And that occurred since we published ours.

Yeah, that was like Friday or Monday. Yeah, late Friday. Is it still in committee? We we don't send the cover memo. We only ever send the resolution. The cover memo is just for you. Okay. Can Can I ask that we send this just to our two state reps at this time? [clears throat] Yeah, that'd be good. All right. Or would that be good? I feel better about I'm okay if we just send it to the two reps. I definitely don't want this to go to Chairman Ror. That's for sure. Right. Because if you're going to send me in January to go ask for money and he's going to say, "Hey, Ethan, right here you said X." Good luck getting any money out of him. Actually, we were going to send you to ask anyway. [laughter]

Well, I'm not going to take it to RO. All right. All right. So, we have um So, we're just sending it to ROR, correct? So, if I vote yes on this, it's just going to go to ROR. Sorry. Dean Taylor. Cool. Right. All right. I will vote yes then on that as long as it doesn't go wrong. All right. Do we have a motion? [clears throat] I'll make a motion. Move. Moved by Councilwoman. Second. I'll second by the mayor. Any further discussion? All right. Clerk, are you clear on everything? Sure. Yes. Clear's my All right. Thank you. We'll get a roll call, please. Mayor Ursel, I. Councilman Reynolds. Hi, Councilman Crawford. Hi, Councilman Walker. Hi,

Councilwoman Sice. Hi, President Smith. Hi. Motion carries. Thanks. Our next item is resolution 202563. This is supporting Ohio Senate Bill 307 to allow tax increment financing known as TIPS as a critical tool for public safety infrastructure development. So, we're going to turn the floor over to Mr. Maramman

at the risk of ripping the lid off the can of worms. [laughter] uh in this case uh you know credit where credit is due. I think it goes both ways. So um uh staff is recommending that council in this case uh approve a resolution to endorse um Senate Bill 307. Again, this bill would allow the uh the function of tax increment financing which has historically been used uh for a focus on assisting with the devel uh with new development by offsetting cost related to infrastructure for roadways, utilities and such. uh this would modify that language to incorporate into statute the opportunity to use tax increment financing uh for the construction of public safety facilities. And I think that's the portion that we're particularly uh concerned about. Uh based on our our analysis of the bill, um if this was to be approved, it wouldn't necessarily give us everything we would need, for example, for a new fire station, but it would provide additional resources over what is available to us today. Um and uh again I think this is good out of the box thinking um and and where good legislation comes forward that brings benefit um to our community and to our organization uh we feel compelled to to make these kinds of recommendations. So uh lots of bills floating out there at the end of the year. Um these are two that stuck out. Um but again this is one we're recommending that you authorize a resolution that actually endorses that um that bill and uh and again if you have specifics as to how you would like that delivered we can do that.

All right. Thank [snorts] you. Questions for Mr. Mayorman? or comments. I think this is an awesome bill. Senator Timkin's wonderful. This is a great uh resource for us if this passes. I think we should definitely send to her uh to Chairman Rogner uh and to the rest of the Senate committee uh on federalism that has this bill. So, I think it'd be a good idea and to obviously Kaylor and Dean going through it. Yeah. I just say if phone calls to them are good, but the next time an election comes around, okay, and somebody's running for re-election from now and we said, "Hey, we we formally notified you on these five things. Let's take a look at how you voted,

right? Were you working for us or against us in these situations, right?" And and there's no accountability with a phone call, unfortunately. But there is when we pass a resolution and we send it on to these guys, right? And at least that's documented. We can and we can go back to our constituency, right? Because we we I get it. We represent municipality and they they've got a lot of municipalities and a lot of villages and townships and that kind of stuff. But at least we say for folks in our community, hey, we notified them of a position and this is how they voted, right? And that's important to let everybody know about those things. So, all right. Very good. Any other comments? All right, we have a roll call. Or wait a minute. Has this been introduced?

I'll move to introduce resolution 30 seconds. Introduced by Councilman Reynolds. Seconded by second. Seconded by Councilman Crawford. Thank you. Sorry for that. All right, we'll get a roll call now. Mayor Ursel, [clears throat] I. Councilman Reynolds, hi. Councilman Crawford, hi. Councilman Walker, hi. Councilwoman Sice, hi. President Smith, hi. Motion carries. Thank you. Next on the agenda is appointed official reports. We'll start with Mr. Duke. I have nothing else this evening, but I'd be happy to answer any questions you have. All right. Questions for Mr. Duke. All right, you're off the hood. Madam law director, you're up. Okay, I have Thanksgiving to all of you. Thanks.

All right, thank you. Any comments for Miss Fischer? All right. Thank you. All right, Mr. Mayorman.

Oh, sadly I do. Um [laughter] first want to remind folks that uh uh first uh as as uh our staff gives thanks uh this week we will be closed uh for the Thanksgiving holiday Thursday and Friday to um to all business functions. So we ask folks to adjust their uh business needs with the city accordingly. Um remind folks that leaf collection we're uh not collecting leaves this week because of the holiday. We will start the second round of leaf collections next week. That'll run through December 14th. Uh reminder, zone one uh is through December 5th from next Monday through December 5th. Um and then uh zone 2 December 8th through December 12th. So if you've not put your leaves out, we'll do that second round of collections. We encourage folks to do that. Um do want to remind council spoke with um uh uh the council president. We will want to exercise our executive session option for your next meeting on the 11th. We have a couple topics. Um so we'll we'll do that at the end of the meeting and may have some business uh functions after that. And finally um it was mentioned earlier but I did want to report the council uh had the opportunity with uh the assistant city manager city planner um to attend the uh auditor sale of delinquent properties. This is the first in nearly three decades. Uh I want to give um the county auditor Craig Hegler credit uh for following through here.

Uh I'm very happy to report that every Zena parcel sold. Isn't that amazing?

Uh, and almost all of them, I think all but maybe two, had multiple bids per parcel. Uh, some up to, I think the highest one for, I think, 18,000, somewhere in that ballpark. Um, so, uh, I think there were probably five or six different home builders that were there. Um, and and all very interested in the buildability of these lots, most of which were um, were buildable. So, uh, want to give credit to Craig. Uh, he's doing a great job following through on this. Also want to acknowledge uh Denise Persal who is our county treasurer. Yes. Um Denise has picked up the baton uh when Craig left the treasur's office and we they continue to coordinate with us um uh on on some of these foreclosure issues. And again, we really appreciate that. We're trying to get these properties out of um no man's land where the state owns these properties and uh or these properties that are for uh are are in foreclosure proceedings.

Blight in the neighborhood and costing us. We talked about it tonight. you know, once these properties end up with the state, um the state isn't maintaining them, so we're maintaining them locally and there's demand in the market, and that's the exciting thing is that folks want to purchase these properties to make new investments on them. So, that's that's good on good. Thank you. That's all I have this evening. All right. Thank Mr. Mman, any questions for him? All right. We're going to move on to council comments and reports. We'll start with Mr. Crawford.

Okay. Yeah, we had a a a busy day meeting um this past Monday. We only had one agenda item. Um the gentleman basically without mentioning his name, he basically was requesting a sixoot fence where we where we allow for a 4ft fence. But because of the uniqueness of where his his house sat um and then based on Brian's evaluation, his analysis for the for his recommendation, the um the board of appeals went ahead and granted his request because of the uniqueness and the uh just the the uniqueness of his request and and just the positioning of his the fact it was on the corner lot. Um it really is almost neutral. You couldn't even tell that he you wouldn't be able to see initially. We had a 6ft fence thereafter. It's done. So, uh, anyway, we only have one agenda item. I'm glad we met and that's all I have to report.

Great. Thank you, Councilman Crawford. Any questions for Councilman Crawford or BZA? All right. Next, we'll move on to Councilman Walker. Do you have anything for us tonight? No, I don't have anything. Only thing I want to wish everybody happy, blessed Thanksgiving. Oh, yes. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. We'll move on to Mayor Elect Reynolds. What do you have for us? Um, let's see. Thanksgiving's coming up. Hope everyone has a good time with that. Uh, December 5th is our Christmas uh event downtown. So, it's got fast. I mean, this year has completely flown by. It's so hard to believe that it's already uh well, we have Thanksgiving, but it's almost Christmas. Uh, that's week that's a week from this Friday.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Holy cow. Time is Okay. Well, it's exciting. Um, so yeah. So, come down downtown to see that. Um, and that is all Santa's house going to be this year downtown. What time is that? Uh, 5:00 p.m. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very [clears throat] much. I appreciate that. Appreciate your work on that hometown Christmas too and uh chair x-ray. It's really good. I love it. That was my committee before I was on council. You guys want to do that next year too or something? Oh, yeah. Okay. I mean, we have to obviously decide with our Okay, very good. Uh, next we'll move on to Councilwoman Sice.

Well, my body says it's [laughter] 6:30, but my brain says it's almost midnight.

So, um, we had the distinct pleasure of going to Ghana, Africa, um, to represent the city. uh we went on our own accord meaning we paid for it ourselves. No taxpayer paid for the trip. It was we felt that strongly about it. But we had uhou signed um by the chief and the district which we will explain in another presentation how that works. So we are now a sister city to Ghana. It was um an amazing experience. We will have a presentation next time. We will not do that tonight. Um, I would say that in light of the fact that Thanksgiving Day will be this week, I am I can't even tell you. I just almost get vercleimped thinking about how blessed and lucky we are in our country. It is truly humbling and amazing. Uh when you can turn on a tap in your house and have water that's safe to drink, it is mindblowing. And these people were so thankful and grateful for what little they had. And there's so very little infrastructure there that it didn't matter. And so um everybody was very very welcoming and um I will say that I tried to give away Will as a natural n national treasure to

Ghana but after 5 days I got to know him and they declined. So [laughter] I I tried my best. I tried my best people. I did. They did try to arrest me. Yeah. But he was he was he was arrested. We were there five minutes and he went on a walkabout and called us and said, "Hey, I'm over at the presidential palace and I just got arrested and we said we're going for ice cream." [laughter] So, good luck with that. But yeah, we had to Yeah, we had to take him back. So, I tried my best before. Yeah. So, you can't take a picture of the presidential

just in case you go to Ghana. It's not It's illegal to take a picture of the presidential palace. Yes, I did learn that. That's right. Yeah, we learned a lot. That's right. Every so often a sword would come across my shoulder and tap me to let me know if I got out of line, which that's a little different, but but it was an amazing um experience and I definitely would go back But probably not with Will. [laughter] I'll get make sure my homeowners has bail bond insurance. But no, but thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you very much. Mayor Ursel, what do you have for us?

Yeah. Well, said Face said it all. That's great. So, next uh council meeting, we have a lot to share with the rest of the council. Yeah. Uh about the what we learned about the community there. Some great opportunities to be perfect

continue our engagement with them culturally in a lot of other ways. And I and I I think uh to see a nation of people like you said have so little. I mean I I could tell you a hundred things that we have we just take for granted. they don't have and yet they they are so they were so gracious with us and uh wanted uh us to feel at home and um gave us their all. Yeah. So, uh, anyways, more to come, but I think, uh, I think there's going to be some real opportunities for us to engage with them from a lot of different aspects to encourage them.

But they probably have a lot to share with us, too, about community and family and uh, what it what it means to be satisfied with very little, but also to be satisfied with a rich community. And there's there's a little that that we have lost in America. Definitely. Because we're very isolated from each other. and to be in an area where they are very richly connected was [snorts] was humbling. So, they're very good and very kind to each other, which is amazing cuz that's something we have we've lost. We've lost Yeah. Yep. out in public. We have lost

and that's one of the reasons we do these uh sister cities programs is to help us touch some other folks we probably would never ever do. Right. Yeah. Right. So, uh, Thanksgiving, I just encourage folks to to know that there's a community meal. It's going to be at the Schindler Banquet Center from 11 to 1:00. Free community meal. The chefs there at the banquet center are going to be providing the food. It It's a If you don't have [clears throat] plans, if for some reason you're by yourself, you need to go.

Once we talked about community, um, you'll go there and they'll seat you. they'll they'll bring you uh you know come they'll serve you at your table. Um and uh it'll just be a very peaceful, joyous time to go and be with the community and and I would encourage you even if you have some family things going on, uh think about somebody in your neighborhood maybe that's going to be by themselves and give them a call and say, "Hey, I'm I'm headed over. Um why don't you come with me?" Right? because we we need community and this is this is a great opportunity for that. [clears throat] No charge for the meal. Uh and thank kudos to our our city workers. Uh the city staff provides the pies for they and they're planning on serving 900 meals on uh on Thursday. And kudos to our city workers have provided all the pies for that um out of their own graciousness too. Uh and and also if if somebody needs um a meal delivered, I would just encourage you to Google uh uh you know, Zena Thanksgiving meal and there'll be a

thing that'll pop up for you there to tell you you can you can ask to have meal [clears throat] brought to your house. They're planning on delivering about 300 meals.

And if you need transportation, the uh senior center has graciously provided their vans. uh the same way you can call and they will uh if you schedule right ahead of time they'll actually bring you out there. So from 11 to 11 to one this Thursday. Thanks for all the folks that that are involved. There's just multiple organizations are involved with that and and once again just a great opportunity for us to come together as a community and give thanks, right? Give thanks for what we have because we we are so rich here in America. Yeah. So that's all I got. Well, one one last thing we had and I would also say thank you to the other mayors in Green County. We get together once each month just to have a lunch and share with each other what's going on and uh we have men of real wisdom that are leading the city of uh Riverside and Beaver Creek and Fairborn and they are so gracious to share what they're doing and and look for any opportunity to encourage us as well too. So, uh, it's just humbling to be able to go and sit with those guys and listen, the other things are happening. But that that's once again, that's a that's a great thing about our county is that they they're willing to step up and say, "Hey, what do you guys need? Let let us share what's going on." And, uh, we we spent some time bring, we talked about 503, and I think they're going to be doing the same thing as well, too, in this next week. So, yep, that's all I got.

All right. Thank you very much. Got a note here for you. So, just a couple things. As council president, I get a lot of mail from uh a lot of organizations and then I try to distribute that to the rest of the council. I just got this in my mailbox today. So, I'll make copies of this for you guys. Um we are invited to Zena Township's annual Christmas lunchon. That is on Thursday, December 18th. They do want us to RSVP. So, and you've been to that many times, guys. That's uh a a great way to go over and and meet the

the men and women over there. Um it's their staff, their maintenance folks, their their firefighters, and uh uh they they put out quite the spread. And once again, they they're inviting us to come and be there with them. Zena Township. Zena Township. Yeah. Yeah. It's over at their Township building. Okay. Very nice on 68 North.

Very nice. Yeah. And then I did put in everyone's mailbox or uh Amy did there's a letter we got from Green County Republican Party Legislative Priority Committee um regarding uh property tax reform. Um so I made a copy of that for you guys too. Um of course we got to let them know we don't have millage much to rebate back. Um but anyway, so we'll reply to that [clears throat] as well. Okay. And then um so at this time um we're going to take a a short recess and then we're going to come back for work session. Are we doing that work session in the next room?

Uh yeah, there's room. I don't know if there great. So we're going to take um 10 minutes. We'll come back at um 5 till 7 and we'll go into the conference room. That is an open session uh for the public. Um and that'll be a work session on budget and fiscal policy matters. So at this time we're adjourned for um recess a recess recess. We're going to take a vote to recess since we're going into All right. Thank you very much. Okay.