The Dayton City Commission met on October 2, 2025, to consider a range of routine and substantive agenda items. The meeting began with a presentation honoring the Youth Peace Ambassadors program, followed by a demolition update from the Department of Planning, Neighborhoods and Development, a proclamation kicking off Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and a lengthy public hearing on proposed zoning code amendments to regulate group homes. Commissioners voted to give the zoning ordinance a first reading, allowing the legislation to proceed while additional research is conducted on separation distances, caps, and oversight.
Please rise for the invocation given this uh evening by Commissioner Joseph and please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance Thank you, Mayor. Dear Lord, help us become better servants to those in need of our help. We ask for a servant's heart to serve those humbly and faithfully. Amen. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which he stands one nation, under God, an individual with liberty and justice for all chair, may I have the roll call, please? Mayor Mims. Aye. Commissioner Joseph. Aye. Shaw. Present. Aye. Okay. May I have a motion then to approve the minutes from the September 24th meeting? So move, John. Second, Your Honor. It's been probably moved and seconded to approve the minutes from the September 24th meeting. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Okay. So Black Shearer, we have in communications or petitions. There are none, Your Honor. And none. I know I do have some presentations this evening. And so I'd like to have Mr. Marlon Shackerford and the youth peace ambassadors to the podium to be recognized. Guys are looking good. So as they are moving to the front of the commission room, I'd like to ask any of the parents who are here, would you please stand? Any of the parents who are here with these young men. Got half and half over here. So of course I want to say, and you guys also face me for a moment. The rest the impetus of this uh program, as you know, we've been talking a lot about cure violence and how we do the types of things that we need to do to keep the young men and ladies uh in this city safe. Uh I talked with them about helping to make sure that as we continue to create as many jobs as we can, I need them to stay alive long enough to take those jobs. Okay. That means staying out the way of all the crazy things that are happening and uh being engaged and not just staying out the way but also learning how to love themselves, care for themselves, learn how to identify resolve conflict at its lowest level, and then as we pay them to do that, all right. Check okay, gotta have some check on that, guys. So as we pay them to do that, putting them in a position where they can teach some of the younger men and young ladies those same sets of skills, because we need every single one of them to be in this space to be able to help us create the conditions for everyone to live, work, play, be educated, raise a family, and go old right here in the city of Dayton. I want them to be able to talk and tell some stories of of yesteryear when they were like in the fifth grade, sixth grade, eighth grade, ninth grade, when they're 75, 80, uh, and 90 years old. Okay, you guys probably not thinking about that at this point in time, but uh there's some good stories that we told. And then sometimes you don't have a lot of witnesses, so you can maybe tell a fib or two. You can tell people how many home runs you hit, uh how many uh bases you stole, all those type of situations. But before we go further, I do want to just sort of bring uh everyone up to date, is I did talk with my colleagues and told them that we want to do this program so that we can put them in a position, them meaning our young people in a position to do the kinds of things that we're talking about. And they were all in support of understanding that. So each one of my colleagues up here, I thank you for your support in terms of making this happen. Thank you. And also in concert with the city manager as well, so we can find ways of working out the money. I do want to thank my county commissioners and the county because they also share it in this venture as well.