I'm calling the Middle Survivors Properties Committee.

Let's start off with uh city planning.

All right, ordinance number ordinance number 1218 2025.

This is by council members Harrison, Bishop, and Griffin.

Uh departmental request, an emergency ordinance determining the method of making uh public improvement of constructing high comfort pedestrian and bicycle improvements at various locations, authorizing the director of city planning commission public works andor capital projects as appropriate to enter into one or more public improvements and professional services contracts needed for the improvement, authorizing the mayor and the commissioner of purchases and supplies to acquire, accept, and record for right-of-way purposes, real property and easements authorizing the director to accept rights of entry from private property owners, authorizing the director to enter into various written standard purchases and requirements contracts needed to effectuate this ordinance, including electric slash no emission vehicles and equipment, and to enter into other agreements or execute documents necessary to conduct the program.

Okay, director, that is a lot of um words describing what this ordinance is.

Can you give us a synopsis of what this thing this ordinance will do and what's the purpose for of it?

Thank you.

Yes, good morning, Chair and Committee.

Um my name is Callie Merzman.

I'm the director of city planning.

This piece is a follow-on to ordinance number 851 2025 that came before you this summer that was authorization to apply and accept a congestion mitigation and air quality grant from NOAACA, our metropolitan planning organization.

This piece has all of the implementation authority for that grant.

And so that grant includes two key components.

One is um quick build for the most part, implementation of bicycle and pedestrian connections that follow on our Cleveland moves, three-year um rapid implementation plan for high comfort bikeways and pedestrian connections, as well as a pilot project for electric vehicles in the waste division.

So I can answer any follow-up questions to the bicycle and pedestrian element of the grant.

Um Director O'Keefe is here to answer questions as it relates to refuse vehicles.

Okay, uh, I got a couple uh questions.

I'm gonna go to um to my colleagues.

So the um this piece it states um says we want to accept 5.4 million dollar grant, right?

To apply and accept and and the apply and accept piece listed 11.9 million at 851.

So can you just can you explain what's the difference?

Why is such a big difference in the dollar amounts?

Yes, so when we were here um this summer, we were here and we had just submitted the grant application.

So we asked for a total that was much larger than what we were awarded.

There was an all there was also an e-bike rebate program that was proposed that um the CMAC evaluation committee ultimately elected not to fund, and so this piece here and the updated council summary are revised to reflect our recommended award rather than the total amount that we had applied for.

Okay, all right.

First, let me back up.

Um this piece is uh ordinance number 1218 2025 as amended, and let me read the amendments.

Um there is no legal objection to this legislation if amended as follows.

Number one, in section six at the end at the end, insert the rector of city planning commission shall provide written notice to the clerk of council whenever any purchases is is made under this section, which notice shall include details of such cooperative purchases.

Number two, in section 12, line one after shall insert not to exceed 6.85 eight one five five three two million and shall number three insert a new section 13 to read as follows.

Section 13 that a copy of an executive summary has been placed in file number 1218 2025-a.

And number four, renumbering existing 13 and 14 to new section 14 and section 15.

two million and shall number three insert a new section 13 to read as follows section 13 that a copy of an executive summary has been placed in file number 1218 2025 a and number four re-numbering existing 13 and 14 to new section 14 and section 15 okay all right um okay so director also let me uh let me see if i i got another question here um i'm gonna go to uh councilman starr first okay my question to the chair to the um the director regarding this actual acceptance of this grant as some of the plans that you have regarding this have you met with each council member um where this would take place at in their ward to get their understanding and their support for this initiative through the chair to the council member through the chair we did meet with council members as we were creating the Cleveland Moves plan over the last year um we also have reached out to every council member that has a project in this offering to meet with them we have not met with everyone yet but these elements are reflected in the overall Cleveland Moves plan I'll also mention that these dollars are available starting in state fiscal year 2030 and so there is quite a lot of process between identifying the construction funding and moving forward with the project so there will be additional engagement we'll have to go through detailed design of what the connections look like and council members and residents will be part of those conversations this is just identifying the money to move forward.

Okay to the chair that means you're just basically identifying and asking for additional support to to accept the difference of dollar amount than from the initial ask that you would gain from council at the last committee I think what is it last year was that ordinance number eight something eight one five to the councilman through the chair this is the CMAC program congestion mitigation air quality is a federally funded grant program available through NOACA so we know that we don't have enough local funds to do everything that we dream of doing on our streets we really try and leverage the local money that we do have as much as possible through external grants so this piece and the piece that came in the summer are authorizing us to pursue these federal funds that will make 80 percent of the total project cost with a 20 percent local match this ordinance allows us to accept well the summer ordinance allowed us to apply for and accept the funding this this gives us the authority to enter into contracts and actually utilize the grant funding for the projects listed.

Thank you and through the chair when you say the local match where's the local match coming from it will come from future bond sales in the year of the project future fund sales can you elaborate on that road and bridge bond sales so we're gonna bond out and use that dollars to be able to um complete do you have a total cost or estimate of what this actually will look like for this entire project to be able to fulfill the wars that are listed on the map yes um so again with that 80 percent federal 20 percent local split for the Cleveland moves portion specifically the pedestrian and bicycle improvements the um recommended grant award which is the federal portion is three point four five million dollars the 20 percent local match required for that is 86532 dollars then there's the second piece that is the um electric waste vehicle pilot program that cMAC grant award amount is two million dollars with a local match of 500 thousand dollars so in total our local match is 1.3 uh million dollars on this initiative and when through the chair we will use um bond sales from the future to be able to provide the 1.3 million dollars on what brings this total overall up to six point eight million dollars to the chair to the councilman through the chair yes that's correct okay I just um definitely so um if this ordinance is passed today um I definitely would make sure that um you reach out to council um members to make sure they're in agreements with some of the goals that you are trying to um achieve within this ordinance just to make sure you have the support of council members in their ward for some of these upgrades thank you chair and I thank you councilman starr um director now who picked the locations of these um street improvements who who who uh who came up with the locations for this they're based on the recommendations in the Cleveland Moves plan that was adopted in April so as you may recall that's a citywide plan that looks at high stress crossings and pedestrian needs as well as citywide bicycle connections um cMAC as a grant program really looks at regional connectivity and is focused on projects that can reduce emissions and so in the Cleveland Moves plan many of these are key connectors across neighborhoods or key gap fillers between where we already have trails but there's just a little bit of a gap connecting folks through a couple of them are where there are schools but no sidewalks that sort of thing um okay so I noticed that the vast majority of these um locations are on the west side uh it's a few downtown but very few are on the east side um so I was just wondering that we don't have as many trails connected on the east side is that is that the reasoning for this to the councilman through the chair there are differences in in distance as well but several key east side connections include east 55th street we're working on the entirety of that corridor through the safety action plan community college avenue and quincy are a big connector as well as St.

Uh it's a few downtown, but very few are on the east side.

Um so I was just wondering that we don't have as many trails connected on the east side.

Is that is that the reasoning for this?

To the councilman through the chair, there are differences in in distance as well, but several key east side connections include East 55th Street.

We're working on the entirety of that corridor through the safety action plan, community college avenue and quincy are a big connector as well as St.

Clair on the east side.

So we are striving for representation across the city, but really looking at where there are key connectivity and safety concerns, which are on both the east and west sides.

Okay.

Um I'm gonna go to uh councilman case.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Mr.

Chairman to the director.

Nobody reached out to me about the project that was in my ward.

The only conversation that I've had with anybody was when I was meeting last week um regarding a different topic, and we just happen to bring this up because I just saw this uh when it was introduced in the legislation.

So can you tell me what you have planned for Berea Road between Trisket and at least 117th?

Or to do it it says Detroit Detroit here, but I only represent the 117th.

Sure.

To the councilman through the chair.

I believe you also received an email from us to tee up this conversation.

Um Berea is identified in Cleveland Moves as a key connector from the neighborhoods you represent up to Detroit and the West Boulevard connection to the lakefront.

At this point, the projects have not been designed, but these are all um for the most part, like on Berea, we would be looking at a quick build construction that would put protected bike lanes in some configuration to make that connection between neighborhoods.

The configuration hasn't been determined yet.

That comes in the design phase, um, which will also include traffic counts and analysis to understand the best way to make the connection for that um corridor.

There's also some potential that as we get into design, we start looking at alternate, somewhat alternate routing to connect from point A to point B if we find that the specific routing recommended here is not viable.

Mr.

Chairman to the director, were these 15 streets uh included in the grant to the councilman through the chair, yes, CMAC has very specific calculations around emission reductions and those regional connections that I mentioned.

So the locations that we're connecting are included in the grant.

All right.

So what happens if we'll just say I'm just gonna take the first one, East 55th Street from Opportunity Corridor to Broadway Avenue.

Uh, if that's not supported from the local council person and that street goes away.

Like we you're not you're that won't be done.

What happens with the grant money then?

Do we give that back for whatever portion was left out of for that street?

The way the legislation is written with these specific locations in it, we I think there would be a two-step conversation process if we were in that reality.

Um the first is that we would talk with NOACA, our grant administering agency to see if we could possibly use that share of the award for an alternate location that would maybe meet the same sort of emissions reductions that they were looking for.

If they were amenable to that, then we would come back before council to try and add an additional location.

They may say no, and in that case, we would just forfeit the funds.

All right, and then Mr.

Chairman to the director, when is this pro when is this project supposed to happen?

These funds are available in state fiscal year 2030, starting state fiscal year 2030.

So that's July of 2029.

There are cases when the project is ready.

We can work with NOAAC to find dollars in advance of that.

And so we are trying to get the projects ready as soon as possible.

We know that costs are growing, et cetera.

So um, and and all of these are based on community conversation and key gaps that we would like to fill as soon as possible.

Oh, Mr.

Chairman, uh, see how this isn't until a 2029 project.

I would I'd recommend before passage of this that every council member knows exactly what the design is for their streets before we go ahead and and pass something that uh will be a tussle later on because this is a lot of streets, this is a lot of change.

And um I would I know for the portion that I represent, I would definitely want to see the construct how it would be constructed, how it would be designed prior to prior to me passing any.

So this won't be without objection.

Um, but that's I would definitely want to see what it's gonna look like and how it's gonna play out prior to prior to passing it.

Seeing how we've already accepted the funds, and this isn't a project that's gonna happen until January 2029, maybe sooner.

Um, however, this is four years out, and I believe that every council member should know exactly what this is gonna look like um prior to giving the uh administration authority to to just start changing streets and and neighborhoods.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Okay, all right, thank you, Councilman Casey.

Chairman, can you get on the list, please?

Can I get on the list, please?

Councilwoman Marr.

Uh thank you.

I just want to be clear that I understand uh or reflect on Councilman Casey's point.

I want to be very clear that Sarah Davis from City Planning reached out to my office.

I there is a Ward 12 project here.

She was very clear offered to meet.

I would wonder if you also had an invitation from Miss Davis to have a conversation about the project in your ward.

Um, I want to make sure I understand if we hold this, what I I don't want to lose the chance for a very badly needed improvement in on Jennings and in Ward 12 uh because we couldn't take meetings that were being offered.

Um, so I'd like to make sure I understand the implications if we table this legislation um at this stage.

Yeah.

For it to be held.

Oh, just a minute, just a minute.

Everything goes to the chair.

Okay.

So councilman, councilwoman Murray, you you're saying that um you want this piece to move forward.

Is that what I'm hearing?

Yeah, that I I think I would like to make sure that if we're holding it, thought there's a clear timeline for passage, and I'd like to understand the implications of what happens if we don't pass it today in terms of locking in the dollars and ensuring that these projects are on a path to happening.

I I don't want to hold something that then has a negative implication for up some badly needed projects.

I just like to understand what is being proposed through the chair.

Okay, all right.

Is there is this is this piece time sensitive, Director?

To the councilman through the chair, because we have authority to apply and accept already.

Um there is no immediate urgency for this piece.

Okay.

Um so councilman starr has has uh have not been uh briefed on this, and councilman casey has not been briefed on this.

Um and I'm not exactly sure how many other council members have not been briefed on it.

I I hear my councilwoman more has been briefed.

Um, but can we uh ask that did um your your your uh department brief the council members before we pass this um today yes to the to the councilman um I have two questions I guess one clarification to council member Casey so if council members are not comfortable passing this until we know the specific design that will be maybe a year to 18 months into the future so then that just helps me know when to come back versus a briefing conversation about the connection and what that could look like, which we could have right now in sort of a philosophical or theoretical sense.

I also want to know that I am talking mostly about the bicycle and pedestrian elements that are the roadway changes.

There's also this separate element that is the pilot project of the EVs in waste and um would want director O'Keefe to speak to the potential for delaying that piece, or if council wanted to move that portion of the grants forward if the concerns are around the roadway changes, um, we could work to do that as well.

Okay, all right.

All right, well, I don't have any problems uh moving it forward.

Um if you can um if you can contact councilman casey and councilman starr and brief them before finance, okay.

If not, we'll just hold it at finance, okay.

Councilman Starr.

And also through that through there, you also one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, TN.

So there's other eight other wards too, chair.

That's that is going to be where these maps are um affecting some of the changes in their neighborhoods from the point that council member Casey brought in.

Um, just making sure, like if there's something that's going to be later on down the road within the future of council, um, making sure those council members or making sure members know exactly what's going on.

I what I heard through to the chair from the director, the director saying, you know, this is not something that's going to be needed tomorrow.

Um she mentioned something around an 18-month timeline.

Um, so therefore, I don't know if we wanted to make sure we crowd out, I mean, dot our I's across our T's that each member is comfortable with it.

Uh, rather they can say they met, they had a discussion, or they said, hey, I don't need to discuss, just making sure members know is got exactly going on because what happens is construction start, things start happening, the next you know it members get calls and start discussing this, and then also from the standpoint of these decisions, have we had any community input as far as this this project?

I know you mentioned bike lanes and some different upgrades.

Have we talked to the community about what this is actually going to look like in their neighborhood from the vision or gave any updates because sometimes some of these plans were implemented um early years ago, and then as you know, we come up with it years later, and then residents still are not brief on any changes or updates.

So to the chair, have we brought these plans or talked about vision zero uh within a recent year or two on what residents at where they identify these locations of upgrades for this application through the chair.

To the councilman through the chair, we did community engagement around the Cleveland Moves plan um over about the last 18 months.

We adopted that just in April, and for some of these segments, there has been additional engagement specifically around them, like on East 55th Street.

We have an additional more specific East 55th safety action plan.

As we think about a citywide plan, you know, a concept recommendation that we're trying to advance, finding the money to be able to do the things is a really important step.

We we're trying not to talk with community members about things that we can't do because that leads to expectations that we can't follow through on.

And so there's sort of a balance in having the overall vision out there and the concept that we're trying to connect, then going after resources, trying to pull as much into the city as possible, and then having those more detailed discussions about um as we're going through design.

We have we have this budget for the project, these are the goals that we're trying to achieve based on our past plans, and we can talk about the specifics in a more applied fashion with residents and council members.

And so that's sort of why we have the big picture citywide plan.

We identify priorities, find funding for those, and then get into the details of the individual segments.

And that's and that's fine, and I understand because what I what I don't want to see is we pass something, and then next you know we get all this social media and all this media uh attention regarding some upgrades that's supposed to come to happen, but then it's not going to happen for four or five years.

Four or five years, but to the media, they believe it's going to happen, similar to um the one-way access that we're dealing with with Huron and Prospect right now, currently.

I've received calls about that.

Some are in support, some are not.

So I'm saying, hey, we don't even got the funding yet, but we put out this this design that looks great, but we don't really have the pathway to be able to achieve that.

So now we're just stuck with it and um some changes that people said is gonna come, but it's not something that's going to happen today or tomorrow or much later than anything.

So is this something similar to that?

We pass it today.

Next you know, now we've got we got these future designs that's floating around, and residents talking about hey, safety, but then they're not see no action because we got to wait to 2030.

That's where where I'm trying to make sure we are in line of what we're doing and if it's going to happen now or later, we'd much rather have the community know because they have some different developments that's happening in downtown part of the ward that I represent.

And therefore, from that standpoint, they see something and somebody may be developing something right there in their neighborhood, and they see their future plans, then they told, well, you can't do your part yet, because we don't got the money to do other parts of the design.

So, how fair is that to someone who's ready and possibly doing construction, and then the other ones who can't do it because the city don't have their money yet.

I mean, just want to make sure that I'm clear on exactly what we're actually doing.

If this is something that we're planning to do in 2030, but if we're saying we already gave you authorizations in the 851 to go after the grant, then you receive that money.

What is this actually here?

What are we actually doing right now with this?

To the chair.

To the councilman through the chair, you touched on a couple of topics there.

I'll try and catch all of them and then let me know.

Um, to the question about the timing and the project development process um for roadway projects like this, and and again, most of these are quick builds, some of them are a little bit more intensive with concrete and things like that.

But for quick build, we we start with our citywide vision, then we need to go into a design phase.

Some of these here are streets that have existing bike lanes already, and so we're just enhancing them with separation, maybe moving the parking from the curb to the outside of the bike lane, so there's a little bit of design work there.

Community college is a good example of that where there's existing bike lanes, we would just reconfigure the street to make those more comfortable.

Um, other streets on here like Berea don't have bike lanes at all, but are a key connection, and so that would be a little bit more um of a detailed design process to understand what the best new configuration of the street is.

We do have funding for that design through a grant that council authorized previously, so um we will be ready to put an RFP out, get a design consultant in place to start showing progress and having those conversations with more project specifics in the very near future.

This money here is for construction, and so that follows on after the design part piece.

It's important to know the budget that you have to work with when you're designing, right?

So we can design something that fits within the budget that we have.

These dollars in the grant cycle that we are in, they're always two years in advance.

So we always have to be thinking a little bit in it in advance and really be foresightful about what we want might want down the road.

So the starting point for these dollars is there that they become available in July of 2029 through ODOT.

However, if we can show that we're ready, we can go to NOACA and Odot early and ask for our dollars early.

So what our goal really would be is we're trying to line up all these pieces so that we can execute in a um in a fashion that meets the expectations of what we're talking about with community, and that we can get the changes ideally out on the street as soon as possible once we go through that process so that folks aren't waiting between design and construction for a couple of years.

And so that's what we're trying to do here today.

This legislation specifically authorizes us to enter into those contracts and actually perform the construction.

So it's it's all of the legislative authority that we need to be able to use the dollars and get the improvements out on the ground.

The previous ordinance earlier this summer was authority to apply for the grant and then sign the grant agreement to accept the funds.

So this is the third piece that we need to be able to actually implement the grant that we've applied for and received.

Okay, and that makes a little bit more sense and understanding.

So I know you mentioned a lot about bike lines.

Um I wanted to ask um can you provide the pros and cons of bike lanes?

Because I'm keeping hearing bike lanes a lot of times, and I have different groups and with different opinions in Ward 5 regarding bike lanes.

Um, some residents are very heavily in support of, and then some residents are not so much in support of.

And I just want to understand what is the approach of the city with these bike lanes to make sure we get to a happy medium, uh, which makes sense because safety is always a top priority.

Um, but sometimes you put bike lanes in certain areas in neighborhoods where they don't got bollards, but then you got other areas where you do got bollards.

So creating a lot of bike lines can be confusion, can be driving.

You know, problems out by take for instance for example, um coverted Quincy from 55th and Quincy up to East 79th was converted into one lane or one lane back and forth or two lanes.

And therefore it cut off, and now you got this bike lane.

And if you don't know, you will not understand that it's a bike lane now.

But then you go somewhere else in the neighborhoods, you'll see a bike lane with all these bollards that just shows hey, you can't obviously go through that with your car.

You know, so if as we increase these bike lines, what is the standard that we're trying to set, or are we just doing it case by case, project by project?

Do we have some parameters of saying, hey, this is where we go for bike lanes to ensure that those individuals that's riding on our bikes are safe, but also the ones who are driving their cars through the chair.

To the councilman through the chair, that's a great question.

So when we think about bike lanes, there are kind of two key priorities that we're trying to achieve with these.

Um the first is you're talking about is comfort and connection for folks who are actually riding bikes, who are out on there trying to get through the city on designated pathways.

The second priority is overall street safety.

So there's a lot of research that shows, and especially in a city like Cleveland, where um we know through our vision zero work that some of our most dangerous streets are the widest, biggest ones that tend to be much more empty of cars than they were originally built for.

Um bike lanes can actually reduce the the extra space and the width of those streets that um encourages and sends mental and visual signals to drivers to drive more slowly, pay more attention, and actually makes those streets safer for anyone using them, whether you're in a car, riding a bike, walking on the sidewalk, et cetera.

And so on some of our key arteries like East 55th Street, like St.

Clair, where we have seen big safety needs and there's a lot of extra capacity.

Bike lanes both provide that connection for people riding bicycles as well as creating an overall safer street design for everyone.

Now you asked about the difference in how bike lanes look in different parts of the city.

One of the key things in Cleveland moves that we're shifting toward right now, so we're in the middle of this transition, is moving from conventional bike lanes, which are just stripes on the street painting, to um separated bike lanes with vertical protection or some sort of physical separation between the vehicular travel lane and the bike lane.

That helps make bicyclists more comfortable and it's more intuitive where they should go, and it also helps drivers to understand which part of the street is in their space.

Um when we talk about quick build and many of the projects that are in this specific grant, it's actually to upgrade our existing painted bike lanes like on Quincy to something that does have that vertical separation, maybe clearer markings, so that that is a high comfort bike lane rather than just um some markings on the ground that folks who are very um you know, maybe a little bit more in tune with infrastructure markings can follow.

So we're working on rolling out the ballards across the city.

This grant is an important way to help us continue to make those improvements.

Yep, and I'll wrap up, Chair.

Um, thank you, Director, for that in-depth conversation and answers.

Um, but that's something that goes into to planning.

When we start to talk about doing things and we actually do it, it's important for us to talk those things through a community.

I know you said you have has some community input.

Is there a way that we can request to our staff to get um actual signing sheets of which communities who was at meetings to be able to understand um what the community thoughts and what's the questions and um the notes that was taken for these meetings uh as it goes to this, and then also not to belabor on something, but um some of the things that we got downtown with the Huron Road and Prospect A, um, made me think about the businesses.

When we create these infrastructures and create these different changes, what are what type of direct impact does this happen happen on those businesses that operates?

Prime example, right now, if you're trying to um have a truck to unload equipment or supplies to a business right now on prospect, they then the whole street is blocked off.

Like you have a whole bottleneck and the street is blocked off because of the designs and the upgrades that we've made to the city, the city made, without being able to understand the importance of um unloading things early in the morning, unloading things during the day.

So have you looked at these areas where we have businesses that operate and they use the street to be able to unload their supplies to their business.

Do we have any data on that within these areas that we're trying to make these changes to through the chair?

To the councilman through the chair for these specific connections, those are all things that will factor into the design process, which is our next phase that we'll be moving into to touch briefly on Huron and Prospect.

There has been quite a lot of sort of door-to-door business engagement signs posted on the corridor, et cetera, around the new design.

Um, I know that the bikeway is on one side of the street, but they're still on street parking and other things on the other side of the street.

We're also investigating different ways of managing curbs for dynamic loading zones.

So all of these things are things that we're trying to factor in and can be responsive and are being responsive to businesses as they highlight these needs to help problem solve their individual challenges.

And and thank you, but uh to some some point in the back of my mind.

Um, I don't know if I'm in support of just moving in this direction.

I am in support of the upper grades and the safety measures to make sure we have um good areas for bike lanes, but also making sure we have support to be able to assist with um individuals who have a business to be able to offload the things.

Like I said, I I traveled through, um, see downtown and I see trucks unloaded, and next you know when a car coming through, is there's not no give.

There's there's an accident waiting to happen.

Um, so I don't know if the best approach is saying, hey, we pass this ordinance, um, give you your give you the dollars obviously you need or to accept the grant that you are receiving and then come back with the actual plans.

I mean, I don't know that makes sense.

I mean, I rather you say, hey, this is the actual plans.

This is the layout, this is who we spoke to, this is where we got a yes from, this is where we got a note from.

This will make sense.

This is how I was gonna look on it.

It's you know, there's so many things that I think um we just got to be thoughtful and mindful because, like I said, there's just one day I looked up and I seen bike lanes change on a street.

And then I'm like, if I know didn't know it, I know for a fact that a lot of residents that travel in that area, as well as businesses have not been directly contacted.

And then next you know, you look up my office receiving calls about what does this look like?

How does this change happen?

Well, who did this stupid thing in some of the languages that our residents may say?

And I just want to make sure we we we got resident input as well as all of our dot and our odds and crossing our T's to communicate what changes we are happening and how it is, and I yield chair.

All right, thank you, Councilman Starr.

Or is there any other questions on ordinance number um 1218 2025?

All right, director.

What I will do is uh I'm gonna temporarily hold this piece and please contact the members um that's listed uh the ward members uh they have the wards that these streets are affected.

Please could you contact the members um and give them briefing on this whole piece of legislation and what it might mean to them, and then I will relieve this to finance.

Okay.

Thank you, Chair.

All right, thank you.

That's fine.

Thank you.

All right.

Um I'm gonna go to next.

I'm gonna go to ordinance number 1307 2025.

This is by council member Spencer.

An emergency ordinance changing the name of Herman Park located at at Herman Avenue and West 59th Street to Judge Raymond L Pianca Park upon completion of Herman Park renovations and site improvements.

Okay.

Um councilwoman, do you wanna um give us a uh um your thoughts on coordinates number 1307?

Director, you wanna come to the table?

You can come to the train.

Do you need somebody at the table?

Yeah, okay, she's supposed to represent this piece.

Uh I'm not I'm not sure.

It's a council piece, but we're we're okay.

All right.

I'm gonna go to councilwoman Spencer.

Yes, please.

Thank you, Chairman Bishop.

It's an honor to be at the committee table with the MSP committee this morning.

I'm not always here on Monday mornings, but this is a big day.

So um, but thank you so much for having me and for hearing this piece.

Uh, this has been a long held dream for the community, which was to find a significant way to honor the legacy of Judge Raymond L.

Pianca.

I think almost all members are very, very familiar with Judge Pianca and his legacy.

Uh he was uh most recently prior to his passing nationally renowned as the uh founding judge for our Cleveland Housing Court among his many many other acts of public service and his encyclopedic knowledge of the community, including all the streets surrounding Herman Park.

So this is a bit of an unusual piece in that I uh am putting it forward for members' consideration now.

However, the actual renaming would not go into effect until such time that park improvements are completed.

So the park is is due for capital improvements, it is not scheduled yet for capital improvements.

There are uh there's actually a public-private partnership underway to uh amass funding for the park.

However, a date for those improvements has not been set.

So this is just sort of a marker and a bit of a line in the sand to say that when we get to that point and the park is reimagined and upgraded at that point the formal naming will go into effect.

So that's the purpose of this piece.

Okay, all right.

Members, all right.

Seeing no questions on ordinance number 1307 2025 is approved.

Please sign it.

Thank you, Chairman.

All right, and uh so I'm gonna go to resolution number 1097 2025.

This is by council members Spencer Bishop and Griffin.

This is a departmental request.

Emergency resolution requesting the director of transportation of the state of Ohio determine and declare a reasonable and safe prima speed limit of 30 miles per hour for Lake Avenue between West 117th and Detroit Avenue.

Okay.

I'll speak to this director.

Yes, sir.

Uh thank you, Councilman.

Umerts.

He's a uh relatively new hire in uh the mayor's office of capital projects, and his focus is on vision zero.

Um, and he can he can refresh council's memory on the goals of vision zero.

Um, and then I'll I'll set the table for this ordinance and then hand it over to Mr.

Roberts to discuss.

But essentially, this is the entire stretch of um of Lake Avenue that goes from West 117 Street at the Lakewood uh border to Detroit Avenue.

And so the request um that we've been working on with Odata is to reduce the speed from 35 miles per hour to 30 miles per hour.

So with that, I'll hand it over to Mr.

Roberts to discuss.

Thank you, Director.

Uh good morning, uh Chair and Council Committee members.

Uh so as was stated, this is a resolution requesting that the Ohio Department of Transportation reduce the speed limit of Lake Avenue from 35 miles per hour to 30.

And this is an initiative that began last year following the City of Lakewood success in reducing their section of Lake Avenue from 35 to 30 miles per hour.

This is also an initiative that directly aligns with the city's Vision Zero goals to reduce uh traffic deaths and serious injuries on Cleveland roads.

We know that there's a direct correlation between the speed at which a vehicle is traveling and the risk of injury, and even reducing uh carts car speed limits by five miles per hour uh can go a very long way and potentially saving a life when a crash does occur.

Uh so as part of this process, um ODA has to approve a request for a speed limit reduction.

And to do that, the city had to complete a speed zone study, uh, which involved collecting uh speed data and traffic counts along the corridor.

Uh that was done over a week long period, and the results of that study found that the majority of drivers on Lake Avenue in the city of Cleveland are already driving below the post-speed limit of 35.

Uh so those results were in our favor for this request.

Um, along with that, uh, we also looked at crash data and also the context of the road.

Uh so Lake Avenue has changed pretty significantly over the past 10 to 15 years uh with reductions in the number of drive lanes, uh narrowing of drive lanes, adding bike lanes to some portions of the road, as well as concrete median islands, all things that have likely contributed to uh traffic calming, slower driving speeds, and the presence of more uh multimodal usership of the road as well.

Uh so all of those factors combined, uh, we submitted those result results to ODOT, and they did um they have voice support for this request, acknowledging that 30 miles per hour would be a safe and reasonable speed limit for Lake Avenue.

Um, and passage of this council resolution is sort of the final step in getting their written approval to move forward of implementation.

Okay.

Um, Councilman Spencer, do you want to make a comment?

Thank you, Chairman Bishop.

I do, and first of all, through you, Chair, it's nice to finally meet you, Cameron.

I've heard a lot about you.

We've corresponded, hadn't met in person yet.

So thank you for stewarding this this uh effort.

I really appreciate it.

Great to meet you.

Uh no, this is um I do I do have one question through you, Chair for Mr.

Roberts, um, which is first of all, obviously I fully support this piece, and this has uh been years in the making, and it's gone through extensive process.

So I'm thrilled to see this piece come up today for passage and ask for my colleagues' support.

My question through you, Chair to Mr.

Roberts would be presuming uh this passes out of committee today, passes out of finance committee, and passes out a full council.

How quickly do we believe the notification can go up so the public has advanced notice of the change and then the speed limit change itself?

Uh to the council member through the chair.

Uh so our plan right now um is as soon as we get that written approval from ODOT to move forward.

Uh we are planning to set up uh signage along the corridor, informing community members about this upcoming change.

Uh we would like to have those signs out for at least a couple weeks to get people advanced notice before we um implement the speed limit reduction.

Um but um we can do the implementation fully in-house.

So it would be uh the division of traffic engineering going out there to replace the speed limit signs uh from the 35 to 30.

Um so I would say um, you know, after we get that final written approval from ODOT, we're maybe looking at a three to four week period to do that advanced notice and implement the signage change.

Thank you, Chairman Bishop.

And again, I fully support this piece and ask members for their support.

Thank you.

Oh, and actually, one more item.

Sorry, Chair.

I also want to shout out I see Mr.

Rick Switalski in the in the room today.

He has also been uh just phenomenal with this project, as with so many others.

Just really appreciate your work, Rick, and thanks all for all you do, and thanks to director as well.

All righty, thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilwoman Spencer.

Um, just to set the table, we have uh, you know, I I know it's a lot of streets in my ward um that I would sure surely love to reduce down from 35 to 30 just for safety reasons.

Um you you mentioned that you did a study, and most of the drivers in this road was going below the speed limit anyway, correct?

Um, but you know, we have roles where folks are exceeding the speed limits on a regular basis uh on on high traffic roads.

What's the chances we can start to get those streets um into the queue uh to get those reduced?

Through the chair.

Yeah.

Uh to the chair.

So um I think the important thing to acknowledge here is all of those changes that have been implemented on Lake Avenue over the past 10 to 15 years that have likely resulted in drivers now driving at the speeds that they are doing now.

Uh so things like the median islands, uh reducing the number of drive lanes, the width of the drive lanes, those are all things that help contribute to slower speeds in traffic homing.

Uh so for other roads where we might be interested in the speed limit reduction.

Um, I think a good first step there would be you know really looking at the design of the road, whether there's ways for us to uh do a road diet, implement some type of traffic homing, things that would set it up well for then pursuing that speed limit reduction.

Uh just acknowledging that if the speeds are already very high, if there's a lot of people already driving above what the posted speed limit is, if we were to do a speed zone study at this time, it's very unlikely that the numbers that we get from that study would support the reduction.

So if there's ways for us to change the context, change the field of the roads first, uh that can go a long way in setting that stuff for success there.

Okay.

All right.

Um, I'm gonna go to uh councilman Brian Casey.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, Mr.

Chairman and Mr.

Roberts.

How many traffic fatalities have there been on Lake Avenue between 117th and Detroit that you know of uh to the council member through the chair?

Um so for the study, we looked at crash data over the past full three years of crash data, which was 2022 to 2024.

Uh there were no fatalities during that time, uh, but there were 15 crashes that resulted in injury.

All right, that was my second question.

So we've had 15 accidents, and then Mr.

Chairman to Mr.

Roberts.

Um, what was the average speed on that street?

Uh to the council member through the chair, the average speed was 29.3 miles per hour, and the 85th percentile was 33.1.

Okay, and then Mr.

Chairman to Mr.

Roberts, have you um had a conversation with uh public safety about how to enforce this?

Uh to the council member through the chair, we have not had that conversation yet, but we could certainly do that.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

All right, is there any other questions?

On resolution number um 1097 2025.

Seeing no further questions, resolution number 10 97 2025 is approved.

Please sign it.

All right, director, I think you have another uh piece right here, right?

Yes, sir.

All right.

Resolution number 1096, 2025.

By council members Bishop and Harrison, this is departmental request.

An emergency resolution declaring the intent to vacate a portion of East 81st Street.

Okay, Direct.

Yes, uh Mr.

Chairman, so um there's a portion of East 81st Street, which is south of how do we say that preble?

Pre-preble preble.

Um Avenue.

Um, and it is um at the request of uh Cleveland Gears to vacate a portion of this street so that they can do um a new uh building that would be constructed across the current right-of-way onto land that is currently owned by Cleveland Deer Gear Company, Inc.

Um I I do uh in it kind of a butts against another piece of East 81st Street that had been vacated in the past um back in 1966.

Um I I do want to highlight uh we're seeking council approval, councilman stars in support.

But I I did a little research on Cleveland Gear because I had I I really didn't know this company, but they have quite the history.

They've been at this location since 1928, and they're worldwide leaders at gearing and enclosed gear drives, and they've had some innovations that have been uh world uh world innovators in gearing.

So just wanted to highlight and on their website, they have a nice little brochure about their uh company.

And again, I don't know them from Adam, but I I thought it was a really great uh Cleveland uh story that's right right there in Word 5.

All right, uh thank you, Director.

I'm gonna go to Councilman Richard Starr.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Director Um DeRosa as well as the MoCAP team, Rich, uh, for just helping get this project off the ground.

Uh so just a little bit about the reason why they're looking to vacate this portion of the street.

Also, I should be added to this ordinance when we get a chance to our staff.

Um, is the fact that Cleveland Gears is expanding.

So the location that they are at on East 81st is where they're having another expansion so they can be able to continue some of the services that they provide.

As far as in the manufacturing company, um they're expanding because they do a lot of work with the military.

So a lot of different tools, a lot of different products.

Um, it's something that is very important.

And if you're listening at home right now, uh or you or you know some folks, they are hiring.

One of the things is they try to hire local individuals, um, starting off a good pay job on roughly around plus um 25 to 30 dollars an hour.

Um they do really, really good work.

Um, one of the things that we definitely want to make sure is being able to provide an opportunity for them to continue to work at capacity.

I've had multiple encounters with their HR.

I've actually sent residents from War 5 to their neighbor to their um business, and they were able to get jobs and get connected.

Um things I would tell you is in a uh manufacturing and industry right now, uh, we're at a real uh real pivotal point in history where we have to get those jobs and get individuals um in involved and getting the mire.

So I'm also working with them to be able to connect them with different high schools in the neighborhood, such as East Tech for other young people to look at ways that they can work in in manufacturing, rather is with the electric power generations and different manufacturers.

I did a tour of Cleveland Gears um a couple years ago as well as earlier this year to talk about this project.

So they're actually building another location to make it uh more feasible for them to be able to continue to work.

So I do support this ordinance and look forward to the ribbon cutting of this um new facility that's gonna create more jobs in War 5.

All right, thank you, Councilman Starrers.

Any other questions on ordinance number 1096 2025?

Resolution number 1096 2025.

Seeing no further questions, resolution number 1096 2025 is approved.

Please sign it.

Thank you.

Um so ordinance number 1068 2025.

Chairman, um I'm supposed to be a co-sponsor of uh this legislation.

I don't know why I'm not on here.

1068.

Yeah.

Okay, duly noted ordinance number 1068 2025 by council members, Bishop and Griffin Apartment of Request.

An emergency ordinance authorizing director of parks and recreations to accept a donation from Changeover or its design to allow and accept improvements to two tennis courts located at Harmony Park as a gift to the city.

Okay.

Uh Director, are you uh representing this piece?

Thank you.

Uh to the chair, um the Department of Parks and Recreation, along with MoCap will present on this item.

And I will turn it over to Suzanne De Janeiro um to uh share some information and background on this item.

Thank you, Director.

Changeover is an Ohio nonprofit corporation that works towards community better uh betterment by revitalizing tennis courts in order to foster a sense of community uh recreation and wellness.

In 2024, Changeover renovated the tennis courts at Thurgood Marshall Rec Center in connection with the tennis and the land tournament, which was a women's, it's a women's tennis association tournament.

Um, and they intend to continue to renovate one uh a new court per year or set of courts uh throughout the city.

So for 2025, Changeover has selected Harmony Park in the heart of old Brooklyn as its 2025 project, it intends to renovate the two tennis courts that are there, and it will place private logos on the sidelines the um of its project partner, Rocket Mortgage LLC.

Um the court improvements have a value of approximately 30,000 dollars.

The improvements will be donated to the city, but we are seeking authority for the director of parks and recreation to accept the donations and also for the placement of the private logos on the sidelines.

Thank you.

Okay, all right, thank you, Ms.

And uh Chairman.

If I could hold on just a minute.

Thank you.

Um I'm gonna go to um now.

Where is Harmony Park uh located?

Uh Commissioner.

Uh to the chairman, it it's in old Brooklyn.

It's an old Brooklyn.

Um what street do you have the street?

Treadway and Mayville.

Treadway and Mayview.

Okay, all right.

And uh so have change over did any other tennis courts in the city so far?

They did, Chairman.

They renovated two tennis courts at Thurgood Marshall Rec Center last year as their 2024 project.

Now, what logo do they put on at Thurgood Marshall?

Unfortunately, I don't know who their project partner was.

Um on their website, they do list um Rocket Meyer and Sports Master Sports Serfaces as their partners.

So it may have been Meyer or Sports Master Sports Services.

Um as the logo for Thurgood Marshall.

I'm not sure though I can find out.

Well uh so our the my question is that are they putting different logos on different courts or is it the same logo across the city?

It's I don't know the answer to that.

Um like I said, there's three uh project partners that are listed on their website.

I know they intend to to uh place Rocket Mortgage LLC's logo at this Harmony Park location, but I'll have to find out for you in terms of which logos are intended to go where.

I think it depends on who their project partner is at a specific location.

Okay.

All right, Councilwoman Moore.

Thank you.

Um I I just want to express my strong support for this legislation.

Um this improvement from Changeover and Rocket uh was part of a coordinated effort to uh essentially uh do it a down payment is what we called it on a full renovation of Harmodee Park.

Um it it uh we were able to uh leverage these dollars to also get investments at the Treadway Creek Trail, and I contributed enough funds for additional improvements that are also coming to Harmody Park.

Uh the tennis courts have significant issues and uh you know sort of were not uh as usable in their current state for people who are tennis enthusiasts.

Um these improvements will make a significant difference, and we're really proud to follow uh the similar renovation at Thurgood Marshall.

Um the other thing I'll note is that the uh additions of the logo have already passed through city planning, so they've already been discussed from a design perspective um and uh were presented to the neighborhood as well who are comfortable with them.

Uh so for those reasons I fully support the legislation.

Okay, um to the staff.

Um please make sure that councilwoman Mars added to ordinance number 1068.

All right, is there any other questions to ordinance number 1068 2025?

Seeing no further questions, ordinance number 1068 2025 is approved.

Please sign it.

Thank you.

We appreciate it.

All right, thank you.

Just let me change uh until it gets resurfaced again.

Right, so it's like paying that.

All right, we got public works up next.

Yes, like on the cards.

All right, director.

Good morning, sir.

Um first?

We can uh know what they're gonna do.

It's uh if you're okay, 1299.

1299.

All right, ordinance number 1299 2025 by council members Bishop and Griffin.

This is the department of request.

This is an emergency ordinance determining the method of making the the public improvement of repairing, constructing, and installing various ADA compliance structures, including but not limited to curve ramps, and authorizing director of public works to enter into one or more public improvement requirements contract for making the improvement.

Okay, director.

Thank you.

Uh Chair and Committee, this piece is new for public works, but not new to the city.

Uh in uh currently, what happens for ADA ramps is we depend on MoCAP's contract to do that.

It does put a strain on their resources, and it uh it it we have to kind of wait in line.

So what we uh proposed this time working with MoCAP, talking with them uh over the last couple of months is we want to put together our own contract to be able to take the the load off of MoCAP, but also be able to allow us to move a little bit faster when it comes to our resurfacing projects.

With that, I brought uh assistant commissioner coming and commissioner Rod Matve to talk a little bit more about what um our thoughts and plans are for this new contract.

All right, who wants to go first?

You want to add yeah, this is a collaboration with the uh department or uh mayor's office of capital projects.

What it'll allow us to do is become much more efficient as it relates to resurfacing program, whereas um historically the department was waiting for the 88 ramps to be completed and it was going basically because of the process of certifying that contract um through two different departments, but allowing the Department of Public Works to bid this contract out, we can reduce the number of line items, hopefully getting a better cost, and also let us manage um when and how those get installed.

The other component of that, we will have our own contract, whereas you we're using MOCAPs, we're in competition with all of their projects.

So trying to separate those crews to either be on the resurfacing program or what is uh MoCap's priorities was becoming very difficult.

So this will help us become much more efficient at um the resurfacing program to the chair.

Uh to the chair, as uh Commissioner Mayvaq uh stated, it would streamline our processes and our workflow uh without waiting on uh the final phase of asphalt resurfacing to be complete by uh expediting our own contract within the division of streets, and it will help us uh be able to be more efficient as our resurfacing program has a timeline as we are aimed to try to finish before winter.

We want to be able to control that and it's out of our control when we use outside vendors at some or contractors through MOCAP not knowing when they're going to be able to execute their contracts.

Okay, so um this is uh for two million dollars each year, director, is that correct?

Uh uh yeah, so currently what we do is we from the resurfacing fund money, we start off with about 1.5 million dollars, and as we get further into it, if we have to transfer more over for new projects, that's kind of how it works.

So it can go anywhere from I don't know, 1.5 to I don't know, maybe two or two point five million dollars, just depending on how much work we're doing.

Okay, so just I'm trying to understand that in a typical year, um, the city allocated what 12 million dollars for side street resurfacing, and then they added then it's council um lobbied for another eight million dollars this year, so it was total uh 20 million dollars for the year.

But in a normal typical year, if it's 12 million dollars, you mean uh I'm trying to understand we spending two million of that 12 million on 88 ramps, or is it 12 million dollars resurfacing plus an additional two million dollars for ADA ramps?

To the to the chair to the chair, uh it's within that that uh allotment is all folded in the 12 million, it's no additional.

So typically how how as a percent, how much does the cost of the 88 ramps takes up in a typical resurfacing street?

Is it is it 15 percent, is it 20 percent?

Um do you have that figure depending on the location?

Some are required some locations are required more require more than others, so it depends on the locations, because it could be five percent, or it could be it could be all the way up to 20 percent.

20 percent.

Okay.

And now do we have um are we moving to a model where we have this done in-house, or we're particularly looking down the road, we're trying to keep um basically getting vendors to um kind of shortest work out.

So um the the big answer for this is for the residential, our our goal, we would like to take it all in-house.

Um, but right now, what we realize when the 20 million dollar uh when we got the eight million dollar increase, what we realized is that we we've got some equipment and people uh expansion that we need to have happen as far as what those streets that MOCAP does, because of the size and and because of the all the planning that needs to go with it, I can't speak to if they we would be able to do their work in-house because of the things that they have to do on on the larger streets.

But for residential, it's always been our plan to try to bring it in-house, but we realize that this is one of the first steps to help us get there.

Um but the 88 ramps, because of the complexity of what they are and all the the uh requirements that you have for it, we prefer to use the contractor to be able to do that so we can focus our energy on doing the things that we can do a lot better, and then we can do a lot faster.

Okay, director.

Now, the 88 ramps, um the maintenance on these 88 ramps.

I noticed that and I'm not exactly sure where I was, I'm not exactly sure if while what if I was in my ward or if I was on a city, I was on a city street, but the 88 ramp, the it's damaged.

So who typically takes care of the maintenance of 88 ramps to the chair?

Uh councilman, we have uh what you call uh truncated dome pads where we can do the maintenance in-house for those repairs, and we as a division of streets are are able to do those repairs in-house.

Okay, all right.

All right, I'm gonna go to uh my colleagues on ordinance numbers.

Any questions on ordinance number 1299?

Uh Councilman Casey.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, Mr.

Chairman to the director.

This is for the sidewalks, right?

On the corners for street resurfacing, right?

Uh through the chair to the councilman, that's correct.

Because it doesn't say that in here, and it just says ADA compliance structures, right?

It just says ADA compliance structures, right?

So the first thing I'm thinking of is the ADA compliant ramp at the first district, right?

That needs that needs some help.

So that doesn't include this, but even though it doesn't specifically say this is for residential street resurfacing, this is for the corners of each of each residential street.

Correct?

Yes, that's correct through the chair.

All right.

And then Mr.

Chairman to the director, will this speed up the process of redoing residential side streets?

Because at least in my ward this year, they move like molasses.

They came out, they were really quick at the mill part, but then they just sat and sat and sat four months and months and months waiting on the ADA compliant part portion of it.

So will for going into next season or even finishing this is gonna finish up this year.

No, it would be and and for or is this for next year's through the chair to the council.

It would be for next year, and I'm gonna let uh commission uh Mr.

Coleman speak to the first part of your question.

Through the chair uh to the council member, yes.

This will absolutely speed up the process.

It's definitely something we definitely looking forward to.

All right.

So there's a possibility, Mr.

Chairman, to the director, that next year when a street's getting redone, and if the city is redoing the street and not a contractor, that it could just be one crew that's out there that does the resurfacing, another crew comes out there, does the ramps at the same time, and we move on, correct?

Through the chair to the councilman, yes.

Okay, and then um Mr.

Chairman to the director or whomever, can you just explain why um we have to when we redo a street, make sure that every curb is or or every corner?

I know the answer, but I know some people don't know why why we have to make those ADA compliance.

Through the through the chair of the councilman, that is a requirement federally as part of the ADA um requirements.

A few years back, the city actually um was sued over not having compliant ramps, and so in order to catch the city up with a compliance all the resurfacing program um then we're mandated to have the ADA ramps in compliance.

And um, so that's kind of where that lies or why it lies within the local resurfacing program, but it is a requirement of the ADA Act.

All right, and then my last question, Mr.

Chairman, to the director is we have streets that are concrete that we know we're never going to be able to resurface through the asphalt program, right?

But yet the corners and the curbs of those streets are not ADA compliant, right?

We still have the curb going around the corner.

How will how can we or is there a plan to address uh being non-ADA compliant on streets that are concrete that we're not gonna asphalt over through the chair that councilperson um I think we would like to have a list of your where those concerns are so we can look at them and see if it's something that we can be inclusive as part of this program?

Um I'm not aware of funding set aside specifically for that particular request, uh, but it's certainly something we can look at.

Right, but we uh we do know, Mr.

Chairman, to the director, that we are according to the feds in the ADA, we are supposed to be ADA compliant with all of our corners, even though there may be portions of the city that are not because of the the structures of the streets, correct?

Uh the chair to the councilman, yes, that is correct.

And to the commissioner's point, we can work we work with MOCAP as well.

Okay.

Uh because there are some areas where they take in their areas that we take.

But um, if we have a list or if you have something you know of, you can pass it on to us and we can make sure we talk about it in our pavement.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thanks, Director.

All right, thank you, Councilman Casey.

Is there any other questions on ordinance?

Councilman Kelly, you got a question?

No.

All right.

Is there any other questions on ordinance number 1299 2025?

Seeing no further questions, ordinance number 1299 2025 is approved.

Please sign.

All right, ordinance number 1222, 2025 by council members Bishop and Griffin.

This is the department of request.

An emergency ordinance authorizing the director of public works to contract with one or more consultants or firms for consultants to provide professional services necessary to manage the nuisance abatement process that oversees the cutting and cleaning of vacant and occupied structures that are in violation of building and housing and or health co ordinances for a period up to two years.

All right, director.

Thank you, uh Chair.

This piece is uh last year was our first year of doing uh something like this with uh external contractor where we have one external contractor pretty much manage all the other contractors that we use for our vacant property grass cutting program.

Uh so we're we're asking, we did I did I believe we had some success with this.

Uh so we're asking to be able to do this again uh as we tweak it uh before two year uh period.

I found that we got started a little late, and once we got into it, we were able to see that um the contractor was able to do some things, uh help us move a lot faster.

Uh so we're asking to be able to do this again with this piece.

Okay.

Um so director, the the um so how did it go last year with the one contractor?

Did it did it there?

Was any improvements to the delivery of our service?

Uh I I believe so.

This contractor did about 14,000 work orders.

Um which really did help us concentrate more on things like bacon lots.

Um one of the one of the areas though that we did find is that we did the we were able to get through the vacant lots a lot faster, but it was a trim work.

Uh and that was the area that we, you know, once we've kind of you know put your got your finger out of one hole in the dike, you found another.

But uh, I think being able to have this contractor gave us a lot more flexibility to kind of to pivot more than what we were able to do in the past.

Okay.

Um director, the um the money where it is coming is the the these dollars are coming from.

Um can you can you talk a little bit about the money where the the sub the funds or the sub funds where this where these dollars are coming from?

Yes, sure.

This comes from the general fund.

So with this all funded for the general fund.

What we did was uh this the Snyder Blade contract that we typically use, we took some of that funding away and we use it for this contractor.

And so in this year coming up, we want to take a little bit more, just kind of slowly uh moving some of this money over to this contractor using less because using our contract, we don't have to rent trucks, we don't use as much gas.

Um we we don't have to worry about the people issues uh when we have a contractor.

So just uh methodically trying to move a little bit more over uh to this contract, uh just testing out, seeing how it works.

Um so that that's where this is coming from.

Okay, so there is no um C D B D dollars uh used in this um contract.

Uh through the chair, no.

Okay, all right.

All right, is there any questions on ordinance number 1222?

Uh councilman uh Brian Case.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Just have one question.

Is this citywide?

Uh through the chair to the councilman, yes, it is.

And this is not project clean, correct?

Uh no, through the chair to the council, this is not project clean.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, uh Chair, I have a question.

Councilman uh Councilwoman Deborah Gray.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Um Director, um, to in this ordinance, it says uh the service is necessary to bad extended abatement process that oversees the cutting and cleaning of vacant and occupied structures.

Could you explain that to the uh audience for them to have an understanding oversees the cleaning and the cutting and the cleaning?

Councilwoman, can you talk into the mic?

Yes, I am talking to the mic.

Thank you.

Do I need to be myself?

All right, could you explain the specific part of the nuisance abatement process that oversees the cutting and cleaning of the vacant and occupied structures that are in the violation of building housing?

That particular part, could you explain that to the residents who's watching pertaining to the vacant uh properties that you know lots that we constantly get calls on because they're not um clean enough for them, and they have to be and uh and sometimes the tractors have to be called back to recut and then after the fact they still full of debris and trash.

So could you explain that particular part of this process in this ordinance?

Sure.

Thank you, to the best of my ability to chair to the councilwoman.

So the ordinance 209 gives the city of Cleveland the ability to abate nuisances, which uh I like to try to make sure that folks understand that we're not necessarily doing the work of a landscaper.

What we're doing is abating a nuisance, whether it be trash or a grass that's too high.

Uh that is ultimately the goal of this pro of this program.

With that being said, uh, we try our best to uh do a quality job.

In the past, we have not been able to because our of the lack of resources adding this contractor will allow us to get a little bit better on quality.

Uh it's for um if we can focus more on one area, our contractor can do some other things for us, and we want to try to use them more to do more of the quality work that we have here.

Now, as far as occupy structures, which is part of the residence first program, we use these contractors as well to help us when there is an occupied structure that has been cited by uh the um building and housing, we actually use these crews to go out with the help of public safety to go out to maintain these these areas.

Um but when there is uh when you have situations where we've gone out and we we need to do better, please make sure that your residents let us know.

They can call us directly so we can uh get if we haven't done it the way we need to do, we can get back out there and get it better.

Okay, thank you for that answer.

Second part of this uh of this question that we constantly get calls from is that when the tractor comes out to cut the partial, they come out only to cut.

Now, after they cut, we know they don't tidy up the debris and the trash and also cut the bushes and the uh hedges around the perimeter of the partial.

Now, who does that after they cut the partial chair to director?

Absolutely, through the chair to the councilwoman.

That was when I mentioned trimming, that is what I mean.

So our tract we have there's about three phases to what we do here.

The first would be the rough cut when you see the tractors go out and they're able to take their name, can move quickly and do the very, you know, the the larger areas quickly, but they can't get to the trimming or those kind of things.

So we after that what we call the trim crew.

That would be the crew that goes out and they will clean up and they would do the detailed work around fence lines and things like that.

This is where I want to use these this contractor more because that is the area where we we still have a pain point that we weren't as effective as we needed to be.

So we want to try to use this contractor to help us get better at that.

The third part would be we have uh the next group of folks will come and they'd actually pick up the trash once those folks are done, just depending on how much trash it is.

We break it up in those pieces because it helps us just move faster uh to be able to have a person, if you you know the person goes goes out there into the tractor cut and they have to get up and they have to do trimming, it just would take too long.

Right.

So we want to try to specialize to make to see our folks go faster.

But again, that's that area of what we call trimming, which you mentioned about detail work and cleaning up, that that's the area where we need to get better, and why I want to use this contractor to help us.

Okay, thank you for that.

And I have a couple more questions, Chair to the director, because we constantly get questions on this all the time.

So, what is the process?

What is the timeline or what will be the timeline of this process once the um detail of the partial was cut, and then your trimming crew comes out to trim, and then the last phase of the next group to come out to pick up the debris.

What is a you know what's your timeline?

And or are you still trying to set up that timeline?

Because this is a detrimental question.

We get calls on all the time.

I know I do, and I particularly have to come out to that area to try to explain to the residents who are uh dealing with a bad cut partial at that time, and they want everything trimmed also chaired to the director.

I apologize.

They also want the trimming done off their fence.

We have a lot of uh uh uh of uh weeds, weeds and bushes that grow against homeowners' fence on the outer side of the fence on their property.

They um feel uh they don't that they shouldn't cut that uh uh you know the uh the weeds and the bushes off their private fence.

They feel that um your department should come out and cut that off their fence.

So is there a process for that too, along with these three steps, chair to the director?

So through the through the chair to the councilwoman, I would say that um in the past because of resources, because it was nuisance abatement driven, we really did uh we we were doing our best just to cut the vacant lots.

So we weren't able to get to the finer detail of things like uh what you're asking for, things like bushes and those kind of things, which um again in the past it was just something that we just couldn't do because of the uh capacity.

We want to try to use this contractor to help us get better at that.

Um I will say that the timeline between when we actually have a crack tractor cut by the time we got to go out there and trim, the average is about two weeks.

Yes.

Um we're trying to close that down, but again, it uh it really does boil down to our resources.

Yes.

Being able to have enough resources to be able to tack it quickly is is the issue.

Um some wards are a little bit easier to do, some are more difficult.

Um, and the war for traditionally has been a difficult area for us to do.

But um, again, with this contractor, our goal is to try to get better at that, uh try to close that gap.

Um try to close that gap.

But right now it's about average about two weeks.

Two weeks, okay.

And then uh I thank you for that.

I hope the audience is listening.

So but that final last part of my question.

When the when the weeds and bushes grow onto a private uh property of an owner from the uh from the city lot, they want those bushes and weeds cut off their private fence, whether it's wood or uh wood or wire.

Who does that from your department?

So through the chair to the chair to the director.

To the chair to the councilwoman, just depending on what kind of weed it is.

If it's larger, we we may have to get some help from urban forestry.

Um if it is not as large, we may be able to do the announcement, but again, it would be it would have to be something that would uh it had to be something special.

And again, our folks are going in the grass cut, trim what they can clean up, pull the trash out.

So things like that may not be a part of what we do.

So if that's something that the the homeowner says, well, hey, we you can put that in through the 311.

And you've done that.

We we've talked about a couple of instances.

So we may have to do that now until we can actually get a better system where we are able to because right now our resources just won't allow us to be able to do that in every instance.

Yes, and that's true, Chair.

One more question to the director, and that's true because I had these conversations over and over with some of the homeowners, the fence, uh wooden fence have actually been damaged from uh so much uh uh uh weeds and bushes growing onto their fence, and their fence are now like uh uh damaged or broken apart from uh overgrown uh uh bushes and trees that have grown on uh from so many empty partials around the property now per se.

So I'm just asking these questions because I got flooded the last week with a lot of this uh from the homeowners uh that was told that there's nothing much more that um public words can do, can come out and cut these uh weeds and bushes off their private fence that is now damaged, and they are extremely upset about that, which they believe the council should have more power to push to have public works to have that done.

And I know a lot of them have submitted a more claims because their uh uh fence have been badly damaged.

So, due to them taking another step, they are more extremely upset about all the uh process of the steps that they have to take, and the process is extremely slow, and they feel um they feel um violated because the uh because the uh city has not done a great job of uh trimming of the second part of trimming because we know at one point you had a crew come out that did the trimming three days after the cutting, but they have not seen that in a while due to uh the city being unstaffed.

So I'm just making a point of this because today I have to go out.

Um a resident requested me to come out to look at uh bushes that have grown overgrown over on her fence uh from a partial on the next street that she feels unsafe in her house because she's an elder and she don't know uh who who might be jumping who might jump over that fence into her property, and she would question me.

She called me twice this weekend.

So that's not that's not the much I can do per se in my position, but however, I'm going to over there to take pictures of all the weeds that's on the back of her fence because she feels unsafe.

But I'm going to take those pictures, I'm gonna put them in 311, and I'm going to uh email that those pictures and that reference number to you so you can see her concern of her uh being feeling unsafe in our own house because of the partials that's behind our house and the weeds and the trees have grown so high, she can't see anything otherwise.

And there's another uh homeowner that literally was told that there was nothing that public works can do, and she called me several times, but I will take pictures of her fence and get that reference number she already given uh she already gave to me this weekend, and I send you those uh send you that information.

So that's why I'm asking these questions uh because I have only so many out.

I only can answer the questions, you know, thus far.

A who's concerned that need to be looked at during this new process and the uh and the um and the company that you going to bring on.

That's something that needs to be looked at too, because residents uh private property is being damaged by so much of the bushes and uh and the weeds growing and growing with um in these partials, you know, they uh feel violated and they don't want to take the time to cut this uh you know, cut the bushes and uh weeds off because they feel that they're not responsible because these are elders that need this assistance and then a fixed income, and they can't hire someone to cut these uh bushes and weeds off their fence.

So these things need to be looked at and taken consideration of a homeowners that's on fixed income, that uh property is now being damaged about the assets of the weeds and the bushes uh being um growing onto their property.

Thank you, Chair.

Councilwoman, I will uh through the chair, I will look for your emails and anything we could do uh that we can do that to help with this, we'll make sure we do.

Okay, thank you.

All right, uh, thank you, Councilwoman uh Gray.

Uh Councilman Richard Starr.

Just brief on to the chair to my colleague, Councilwoman Gray.

Um, I know you may have uh um do you have a grass cutting crew in your neighborhood?

Are there different lots for vacant lots for you?

I don't need to have that.

No, I was no, I was saying I'm fine, thank you.

I don't have a grass cutting crew for that.

So but over in your neighborhood, there also is like a unit leader over there.

Um I was gonna ask through the to the chair to the to the director.

Do she have a unileader over there that helps with the different vacant lots over there?

Yeah, so through the chair to the councilman.

Uh that that would probably be, I think uh Earl Jewels and in that area.

Yeah, is it possible um to the church of the director?

Could you get that individual over to councilwoman Gray so she can have that contact with the person?

And the reason I bring that up to councilwoman is um I have a unit leader in War Five.

So when I get a call about something from a vacant lot growing it to somebody else's um property, they usually come over and help me get some extra stuff up so it could be easier for me to get it to the director.

I mean, I directed to the unileader, and then they make it more easier for me.

So with that relationship I have with Brandon Roscoe, I'm able to send on some stuff and he'd be able to pull up to like the resident house you're going to go see.

He'll pull out with me and see you some things that he can do, and then he can expedite it to if you need another department of help, so it could be easier for you.

So I would just want to make sure you know if you got it, if you if they got a unit leader over there that can help you out so you can get something to take care of.

So through the chair to the councilman, both council people, yes.

That and I do want to make sure that in some cases, um, sometimes these are trees that we're dealing with.

And if we're dealing with trees, the vegan property folks don't have the uh they don't have the capacity to deal with trees.

And this is where we have um a contract that we use, but again, that list we've got some major issues.

So we have a kind of priority trees that are on people's houses, trees that are, you know, those kind of things.

And so it may take a little bit of time before we get to those.

But again, um absolutely whatever we can do to help, we will.

Okay, I appreciate that.

I had no idea that that can happen, but I know some of the residents that have uh called me talking about a unit leader that that you know leader tells them that they still have to call in director to the chair to the director, they still have to call in to get permission to do that in those uh uh you know, um, in those partials around the property because they just came up and just do it without without it being called in and submitted in the system to the city.

So some of the residents have called on that and they just said they can't can't, they just can't get off one job to do another job because it's not on their list to do.

Well, you you you chair to the director.

You're through the chair to the council, but you keep me in uh in your loop.

Uh so if you got something, I mean uh I think most council members they they email me directly.

And if it's you can't get it through, just let me know.

Okay, I will thank you.

Thank you, councilman.

Appreciate it.

All right, any other questions on ordinance number 12, 22 25.

Seeing no further questions, ordinance number 1222, 1222 25 is approved.

Please sign it.

And last but not least, uh ordinance number 1221 2025 by council members bishop and griffin is the department of request.

An emergency ordinance authorized the director of parks and recreations and or director of public works, and or director of finance to contract with one or more temporary employment agencies to provide professional services to supply temporary and seasonal personnel for the departments of parks and recreations and or department of public works and the project clean program and for various other departments of the city for a period of one year.

Okay, director.

Thank you.

This is the uh annual piece of legislation that we request to be able to solicit a uh a contractor to be able to provide labor to the city.

Um so again, this is not to select any specific vendor.

This is just for us to be able to go out and solicit a vendor to be able to provide uh temporary labor for what we use for grass cutting uh parks uses it as well.

Uh different the agencies throughout the city use this contract uh as well.

But this this legislation just allows us to be able to go out and to um request okay, director.

So now we have three different um directors here on this piece, parks and recs, public works, and finance.

So this is a piece.

So if we pass this piece, the the any any one of these directors can get folks from this um your your temporary service, right?

Correct.

Yes, that is correct, Chair.

Okay.

Now where does the money come from, Director?

Uh so through to the chair, there are multiple uh sources.

There is general fund, there's community development block grant money, uh the the wards, uh actually each councilperson puts up my funds for this as well.

Um so there are both multiple areas where this these fundings can come from because of the the way this contract's used.

But as far as public works, we use general fund community development block grant funds.

Okay, so so director, it's been a it's been a great debate about um council people putting in uh their councilmatic dollars for um services that comes out of the general fund budget in other parts of the city, and in some parts of the city, um the department's looking for council members to put up their funds.

You want to talk a little bit about that, count uh director?

Yeah, uh chair.

I uh what I think was a great partnership were the council folks that uh donated or putting uh money into it for crews.

Um they were able to do um uh more in their areas.

Uh for instance, um Ward 7 litter was a big deal.

And so we were able to uh have a crew that address just litter.

Um five, they actually used a crew to be able to do extra things.

Well, so when again, as our this project or this program allows us to do roughly about four times throughout the city if if we use our our funds right and if we are able to get everybody and every piece of equipment is running, we can get through the city about four times.

But in some places and some times that's just not enough.

Uh so the war crews really do fill in the gaps when uh there is a need in your area.

We are able to quickly dispatch that war crew to be able to take care of things that are needed in that area.

So that that's really that you don't have to, you know, war members don't you don't have to, but I think a lot of those who use it find that it's very helpful to be able to dispatch those crews when we're not in the that we're not in that uh part of the cycle in your work.

Okay.

Um also director, in uh section two uh of the ordinance, it says the cost of the contract or contract shall uh authorize shall be paid for fund number and it lists the fund number and any other funds approved by the director.

Can you comment about any other funds used up by the director?

What what is what why is that piece in this legislation?

So again, if uh you know if a council person wants to use um casino funds or if they want to use some different type of funding, it allows you to be able to do that.

Okay without that, we wouldn't we we wouldn't be able to do it.

Okay, all right.

All right, I'm gonna go to uh I'm gonna go to uh councilman starr, and I'm gonna come back to Brian Casey.

Thank you, um director.

I know you you served as in the pleasure of being assistant director for public works for a numerous years.

Um, and I know you're you're now running as a director.

Thank you for that um support that you do.

Um one of the things I definitely would like to ask um regarding our vacant lots, you know, vacant lots is a it's a major issue in the city of Cleveland for various different reasons.

Some some ways we are moving moving the needle to be able to do different things.

One, I would definitely like to ask um within the Snyder and Blake Business Service contract.

Is that a contract or that's the entity that the city has contracted out for one-year professional contract services?

How does that actually come about for Snyder and Blake to be the ones who always get the contract?

Yeah, so through the chair to the councilman, that that is um uh we we I I I would we send this RFP out to probably about I think about 20 or so uh groups, and I typically get about two or three that respond.

And when we go by the lowest lowest price, uh typically this organization comes back but the lowest price.

Okay.

Um so that I mean that that's kind of what it boils down to.

No preference or anything, it's just they come up with the lowest price.

And again, you have to stretch these dollars for a long time.

So and then through those dollars and through that RFP process, if I can ask to our staff, can they reach out to your office to see the last three years, how the contract or the RFP went out and what was the actual response?

Absolutely.

That would be something that is great.

Last three years?

Yep, the last three years, that'd be perfect.

And then also and also with within this um process that we have when it comes to dealing with the actual vacant lots.

Do we have any weed killers that we use?

The grow weed killers, do we use that in these vacant lots?

So through the chair to the councilman years ago, we used to use that, but now EPA restrictions, stormwater, things like that.

It does limit.

So I actually have uh on rental Brumfield helping me try to find uh something that we could use that is safe to the environment.

So right now, uh all the things that are out there are not as safe what we've used in the past.

Okay, so therefore you're gonna you're gonna this offseason rather, I believe.

Yeah, you'll look into different ways to be able to say, hey, if this is a device or this is some different um usage that people are using that is not going to damage or environmental um approval to be able to help mitigate some of the actual weeds because what you say when a three or four cuts, you know, you get a cook cut, and then two and a half weeks later, yeah, the weeds are they grow far.

No, they go further.

It's like you cut your beard and then your beard come back, it's full even more because you can cut it.

So within that terminology, um being able to get something in place to make sure we kill some of these weeds that we know that it's just a vacant lot that's just overly growing.

I think that can definitely help.

So I definitely look forward to um being able to work with you on this.

And I understand through this legislation process, we are now be able to use on CDBG funds, which is that can be very helpful in certain neighborhoods to be able to utilize these funds.

So thank you so much, and I appreciate the work that you're doing and your transparency and open cut line of communication that you always have through the chair director.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilman Stark.

Councilman uh Brian Casey.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, Mr.

Chairman to the director.

When it comes to Snyder Blake, sometimes the least isn't the best, right?

The the cheapest isn't the best because you pay for what you get.

Or you get what you pay for.

Um this is a citywide project, Mr.

Chairman, to the director.

Through the through the chair to the councilman, yes, that is correct.

And then any council member who puts in additional dollars gets additional crews to stay to stay in their ward, correct?

Through the chair to the councilman, that's correct.

Is this the first year that we're adding parks and recreation to this?

Uh through the chair to the councilman, no.

No, they've they've been doing this as long as we've had this contract, parks and rex is also use laborers as well.

So that we've used this for parks and cemeteries through the chair, that's correct.

And stuff.

All right, and then what so the 900,000 that's coming from the general fund, that's what's used throughout the city, correct?

Citywide.

Through through the chair to the councilman.

That 900,000 is specifically for public works, what we use just to do vacant properties and public works.

Okay, there are other departments that'll have their funding as well.

And it's citywide though.

Yes.

Through the chair to the councilman, that's correct.

So what's the difference between this piece of legislation, 1221 and 1222 that we just passed?

So 1222 through the chair to the councilman, 1222 gives me the uh ability.

I I really want to try to my my big picture, right, is to be able to at some point use as little amount of Snyder Blake as possible and as much as an outside contractor as possible.

So I so this uh 22 is an outside contractor where I don't have to, I'm not responsible for the people.

I'm not responsible.

22 is not the outside.

I'm sorry, 20 21's the outside contractor, right?

No, I think 22 is.

Yeah, I think 22 is the outside contractor.

But we're both using outside contractors here.

So this the 22 outside contractor is they supply trucks, they supply, I don't have to hire the people.

I don't have to worry about the landscapers, landscaping companies.

Okay.

And then 21 is Snyder Blake.

Snyder Blake through the chair, that's I hire those four, I supply the trucks, I supply the guys.

All right.

So between 22 and 21, both outside contractors, what are our own employees going to be doing?

So through that's great question through the chair to the uh council person.

Our folks are actually focused on the actual so the way we kind of separate the labor is our folks are doing more of the if you see the folks on the tractors, those are city people, those are not outside contractors.

There are also people that we are using now in alleys, those are gonna be city people, those are not contractors.

But I don't have that kind of funding.

So to be able to do what I can, I'm trying to move more uh of our funding into pots where I can get the best bank for my buck.

And right now it's experimentation.

The con this contractor did well this year, but you know, sometimes over time people kind of slap off.

So I want to be able to have the the Snyder Blake piece as well as the outside contractor.

And if I feel like this is getting better, I move more of that money over to the outside contractor.

All right, and then Mr.

Chairman to to the director.

For those council members who put their up who put their allocated dollars in there, do those crews remain in that ward?

Through the chair too, the council members, they do.

Okay, throughout the whole year.

Through the whole year.

Which frees up the general fund dollars.

Correct?

So if somebody and I'm just gonna take ward uh somebody who's not at the table.

Ward one, ward one is an I'll take ward two as an example.

All right.

So ward two has their own crew through this piece of legislation who never leaves ward two.

So we should really never have a complaint about a vacant lot in ward two because he's got a crew there five days a week, eight hours a day.

What could be right?

I'm just yeah, sure.

Bear with me.

Sure.

But then Ward 16 doesn't give you dollars.

Correct?

Correct.

Because we've we've been through that path.

Sure, right?

In the past, you do.

Right.

Right.

In the past we have, right.

But Ward 16 is not giving dollars now.

But because we're not utilizing the general fund dollars in Ward 2, because he's got a constant crew there five days a week, it shouldn't take six to eight weeks in between passes and ward 16.

So through the chair to the councilman, I I I wish that were the case.

But again, do you we because we're going citywide and because we need to be able to move throughout the entire city?

There are times when we take the West Side folks and we bring them east.

We know.

So because there is just there's a lot to do.

I I'm not saying there's there's not a lot to do.

But when you but that doesn't mean you neglect the little bit to do either.

Absolutely.

Right.

So through the chair, that's we would not neglect.

And then let me ask you one other question, Mr.

Chairman, to the to the director.

Um are CDCs allowed to cut vacant lots and properties.

So through the chair to the councilman, that that did happen in the past.

Um didn't work out well.

Um so we we I don't promote it.

Um not saying it couldn't happen.

It's just because of what I've seen in the past, we we try to keep everything um under our hands so we were able to control it.

Okay.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

All right, thank you, Councilman Kenzie.

Um go to Councilman Harrison.

Yes, uh, thank you.

Uh Mr.

Uh Chairman, uh, through the chair to the director, thank you for your hard work and the commitment that you you showed to the resident of Cleveland every single day.

Appreciate you.

Uh you and your team have been excellent for War 10.

Uh, whenever we've reached out, you've responded um immediately, you've addressed the situations, and we just the residents and myself, thank you for your your swift response every single time.

Um you have a great team, you know.

The the the uh the crew that you've had for a while, Tamisha, Mike, Ingram, who you took from Ward 10, that's okay.

You still have to.

I'm still mad.

That's okay.

Yes, I am.

Uh to the chair to the director, absolutely I still am.

Um, but he is still working on our behalf as he is working for the entire city.

Um, you know, he's from the neighborhood, and so he's he's there, he still sees a lot, and thank him.

Uh he helped us out recently over on Bellvor.

We've been having issues for for years and just have since he's been gone to try to get that done correctly.

But he came through and he uh made sure that it got taken taken care of like he's done in so many other wards across uh the city, east and west.

So thank you.

Um thank you for you and your your team.

Uh I will say through the chair that the war crew that I have uh provide additional dollars to support and supplement the the citywide uh normal uh crews have been excellent for us as well.

Well, we've had issues, we've been able to quickly reach out to your team, and they've been able to quickly dispatch uh the supplemental grass crew and the key work supplemental, right?

That we all every seven every all 17 wards, uh the uh systematic crews flows through the neighborhoods, and each council member who chooses to, and those who do not choose to provide uh additional uh grass cutting crews to uh have really worked well, and I can say for ward 10 they they've they've been excellent.

Uh we had uh we've had a two-person crew, we've had a three-person crew through the chair to the director uh in the past.

Uh and I was concerned that the two-person crew would not be able to achieve much, uh, but through the chair to director, they they they they knocked out the part uh this summer.

Uh whether you have uh abandoned building where uh the the additional uh manicure needs to happen where the weeds are growing up through the sidewalk and the curves, right?

They've been able to clear places like that when we've had uh these small uh connectors like along Rayburn between Hillsborough and Dural.

They've been able to go through and weed whack and like really clean it up uh better than just the normal uh crews because it's a timing thing.

They need to hit and keep moving, right?

So through the chair to direct, I appreciate you.

I appreciate your team, appreciate that that war crew that I've been able to uh supplement every year that I've been in office to support the residents of war 10.

Uh it has been very great.

Uh it's been a great process.

It's been great for us.

The process has been uh has been great, and I look forward to uh funding that crew again in 2026 uh as we roll back into the uh the grass cutting process.

But I will say, Mr.

Chair, do the do the uh to director to the chair, we got to figure out a solution for these noxious weeds.

Like it's they come, they do the work, and they're back in a week.

Growing through the sidewalk, going through the curves, right?

You can ride down Nottingham and it's a beautiful street.

Cabadas is there.

Tent Max redid his building.

Uh Peace of Cleveland is a brand new short room on Nottingham that we helped bring there, right?

And you ride down, all you see is these high weeds that are two feet tall growing through the sidewalk.

It just it just makes the road look yeah horrible.

Right?

Yes.

And I know there's some some home-based solutions that we've been we've been discussing.

But really, if you all can really do some some uh take a deep dive and really do some homework on what we can do.

I know the roundup and the ortho and all those things have been you know subject to a lot of you know controversy, you know, over the over the years.

Yeah, but maybe if it's applied right and you know in the right manner, maybe we can consider using that.

I mean, we just we gotta get a solution because uh we spent a lot of time just trying to trim weeds and cut down the the stuff that's growing through the sidewalks and the curves, you know, and it just it it's we spend a lot of time on it.

Absolutely and so a better way would be would be uh appreciated.

So uh just my comments to the chair, uh to the director.

Again, thank you for your um your hard work and and your team.

And the war crew has been fantastic every single year that we've had them in War 10.

In fact, we've had them every year that we've been in office.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilman Harrison.

I'm gonna go to uh councilwoman Gray.

Yeah, I just I don't have a question now, Chair to the Director.

Um Councilman uh Harris has summed it up.

Uh he clarified on one of the questions that I wanted to ask pertaining to the city crew and then the crew that is the extra crew that is hired into some of the awards.

How often do you collaborate with the rotation of cutting the uh cutting the partials?

So he uh kind of summed that up for me.

All right, otherwise I just want to say that you do an excellent job.

Your crew is tremendous, but you know, you just have some areas that the elders have the uh unsafe uh problems when they dealing with the tall weeds and bushes that's around their house when they have partials next to their home that's empty.

But otherwise, I do appreciate what you and your department um in the ward.

Thank you, Council.

You're welcome.

All right, thank you, Councilwoman Gray.

There are any questions, there are any other questions on ordinance number two one 2025.

Seeing no further questions, ordinance number two one 2025 is approved.

Thank you.

Is there any uh miscellaneous for the director before we adjourn?

All right.

Seeing no further, I hereby um adjourn the municipal services properly to the next call of the chair.