The Dayton City Commission meeting will now come to order.

Would you rise, please, for the invocation, remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance?

Commissioner Shaw is giving the invocation today.

Commissioner.

Dear God.

Thank you for the blessings upon the city.

Enable us to deliver the sympathy and empathy necessary to touch the lives of the citizens and grow this community.

I'm in.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And through the revolution for which it stands for nation under liberty and justice for all.

Ms.

McClendon, can we have the roll call, please?

Mayor Turner Sloss.

Commissioners Joseph.

Aye.

Shaw.

Aye.

Fairchild.

Aye.

Beckham.

Aye.

Thank you.

May have a motion to excuse the absence of Mayor Turner Slaus, please.

So moved.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded to excuse the absence of Mayor Turner's Laws.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the January 21st, 2026 meeting?

So moved.

Second the motion.

It's been properly moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the January 21st, 2026 meeting.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

Mr.

Clendon, any communications or petitions?

There are none, Your Honor.

Thank you.

We do have a presentation this morning.

Here comes our favorite, Mr.

Steve Gondel for the demolition update.

All right.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Deputy City Manager, Ms.

McClendon, Clerk, Steve Gondel with the Department of Planning, Neighbors, and Development with your December 2025 month end uh Dayton Recovery Plan Demolition update, as well as there'll be some few additional slides for the entirety of all of 2025 with a forecast of 2026, our final year of the program.

All right.

So when we looked at um kind of where we are in terms of Dayton Recovery Plan year end, as you know, we began the program with uh a goal of about uh a little, you know, 1,168 properties.

Uh you can see how we have ramped up year over year.

So we are in kind of that home stretch.

We have a balance of about 334 properties.

I'm gonna talk about that at the end of how I think we're gonna achieve that number or get close to that number.

But um, you know, I I'm really happy that we are on the right track in terms of meeting that goal and meeting the promise we made to the city of Dayton and its residents.

Our piles at the end of November were 27.

We were able to remove seven of those in December.

We unfortunately had two of those added in the month, so we are at um uh 22 piles uh ending the year 2025 in the month.

Unfortunately, though you'll see those um where those two emergency demolitions occurred in our city.

And then again, our monthly uh 2025 activity continuing um still in some of the the Dayton Recovery Plan focus areas with a few additional other areas there, but mostly really heavily in that western, uh northwestern or north central corridor.

And then our our work year to date for all of 2025.

And again, I I like to reiterate that um while you know our we had our focus areas, our team was able to um manipulate the funding so that we could touch almost all of the city.

I know there's a lot of um, you know, uh there's need throughout the city, and I felt like for 2025 we did a phenomenal job of actually seeing activity throughout the bulk of the city where we have a higher concentration of blighted properties.

Okay, this is one of these expanded slides.

Um we have been adding, you know, as we've been tracking.

I think Commissioner Fairchild, you're asking, you know, you you kind of started this inquiry about um unfortunately, as we still come across properties that need to go into structural nuisance.

Kind of what does that look like as we're achieving gains, removing blight, we do have occurrences of where properties go in structural nuisance.

As I always remind people, it's not always necessarily gonna result in demolition.

It's just uh sometimes a notice and a process for notified owners to take action uh on their properties.

Um you'll notice here in 24 we had 476 structures.

Um I'm breaking this out because you know when you look at the numbers, it's kind of panicking, and then um the process requires us if there's a house uh that goes into structural nuisance, we also have to place the garage uh in there as well.

And so those get counted separately.

So I kind of you'll see in those numbers I'm breaking them out.

So 352 structures, 124 garages.

For 25, that number, again, I would say progress in a sense of coming down 113, 82 of those structures, 31 of those were garages.

Um as we kind of finalize the numbers, I wanted to be clear because I have been giving you these numbers every month.

Um when we we looked at the final things, you'll see there the first number is what was presented.

The second is the final auditing of really when those properties were uh properly uh processed for structural nuisance, which is our team makes the final determination.

So you'll see some movement there, but it does come out to 113 uh for the year.

We did have three properties in December that were added.

Our pipeline slowed down pretty um, I mean, as we expect.

Uh so you know, we mostly were uh doing some additional asbestos surveys, but a lot of our previous remediation work um has carried us where we have a pipeline of properties ready to go.

So this kind of landed where I thought it would at the end of the year, where a lot of this work was done in advance of the year.

So we're kind of just uh trailing trailing off.

Um you'll see we'll be picking up again in 2026 with the start of uh some of our newer demolitions, especially around our community development block grant funds, those uh survey and remediations will uh be occurring.

All right, our before and afters.

Um as I mentioned, I think uh one or two uh presentations ago, um, here is some of that ongoing work, especially in that southern Dayton View area near um kind of where our partners are in the Negley Riverview um area, 312 North Williams had long been a pile um there uh close to the river, 1517 West Riverview, 1856 with West Fifth Street, um 57 East Great Miami.

I really like this one.

Uh if you if you notice that one of the things that I kind of will occasionally remind you is that in addition to either the structure or the pile um when is needed or applicable, we also do remove trees, not wholesale.

You know, we're not uh but when it it is also um problematic to the site, and you can see that that evergreen there that also had to come down, how much that opens up that that lot and that adjacent house and really cleans up that area.

So we are always um conscious of if we need to take out brush uh uh trees less than six inch diameter, or trees that are creating a hindrance to the lots potential reuse or the neighbors, we will we'll corporate incorporate that into the contract for that site.

And so that's a great example of the team going just a step above to do quality work and not just do the base the base level of just taking out a pile but leaving uh these other problems there.

3800 German town.

Um again, uh the after photo is actually just a really beautiful view of the landscape.

I mean, you know, removing the blight, and so um really nice work over there, and then um 115 Delaware.

Another kind of if you look closely, um I won't say I'm not gonna take credit that our removal of that pile, but if you notice the house next door was redoing their siding.

So maybe it was just coincidence, but again, where our investments are allowing people to make investments in their property um and have you know uh encouraged uh for the future of their property.

So uh another great uh kind of before and after there.

Um these two 21 light, 23 light, these are side by side, and then you kind of see they were really side by side, because if you look in the after photo, that was the site the two of them were on.

And so um clearing those out, opening up that area there, um again for potential reuse or other kind of um improvements to that site.

So um, you know, just another great uh before and after of of their work, the team's work.

Okay, so where do I think we're gonna go in 2026, knowing that uh what our goal was?

So we have uh 120 remaining ARPA funded demolitions left to go.

Um we have about 70 to 75 State of Ohio Department of Development funded demos.

That fluxes because um very grateful for their support, but it's always never guaranteed.

We'll they'll say you have no money for this year, and then they'll come back to us and say, all right, you have money for 50 demos.

So we're always ready, but we do believe that what we have with them and what we think is coming, we're gonna be around 70, 75 of those funded demolitions.

And then we have 60 to 80 of our C D BG funded demolitions and a reminder, those are split between Burkhart and Westwood.

And a reminder, those are split between Burkhart and Westwood.

So we have uh uh in those areas.

So we are pretty much with our ARPA funds, we're either expensed or encumbered.

Um and I have um full confidence in my team that we're gonna meet um all of the timing goals, reporting goals uh of those funds um in this last 12 months.

And so with that, I will uh take any questions or comments you all might have.

Thank you, Mr.

Condo, as usual.

Uh excellent job.

Commissioners, any questions?

Uh thank you.

Uh Commissioner Joseph.

Um Thank you, Mr.

Gondel, for today's presentation.

Always look forward to seeing these updates.

Um truly, truly transformative work for the neighborhood, so uh much appreciated.

Um very glad to see that we're on track to meet the number that we initially advertised.

Uh the only question I have is um once we have completed our planned demolition for 2026, how many will actually be left on the nuisance list?

Um I'm just curious what that remaining number will be.

Yeah, so that um let's go back.

So you're uh you'll see here that um, you know, just from 24 and 25, we're already looking at uh uh over uh 500 uh plus properties.

And so, and again, there's a clarification there that not everything on that list will have to be demolished.

There's a number of properties that um come off that list.

But um so we're looking between probably 500 or 1,000 that probably remain on that blighted list.

It's kind of a flu or structural nuisance list.

It's uh fluid number there.

So, you know, with the end of this program, it's not the end of our work, it's just kind of refocusing our work, working with the city manager's office about okay, where do we go after 26 with the funding we have through general fund through C D B G, hopefully continue through ODOD and then um anywhere other sources.

So we're gonna have to kind of re retune our program to really, you know, knowing that we might have limited resources like you know, after the end of the ARPA, is where are we going to strategically make those investments, where are we going to try to get properties and owners for cooperation to get those properties back online, um helping them uh working with resources to get them off of the structural nuisance list and back into reuse.

But I would say uh 500 to probably a thousand is probably where we're gonna be.

Thank you, Mr.

Gonz.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner.

Yeah.

Um some more questions about the I think it would be helpful if we had the total number of houses on the structural list so we can monitor through that monthly, knowing as we're demolishing but others are getting added, we can see if we're making progress or if we're just kind of keeping pace.

Um the houses on the structural nuisance list, would those all be fives in our housing survey scoring?

They they could probably be somewhere between the three and a five.

That could be like a really bad three, because either it's um let's say the house, the walls are fine, windows are fine, foundation, but like there's a hole in the roof, right?

That's a significant issue, but it's just that one.

And so that might be a bad three where we'd say, yeah, it's a three because it's a major repair.

Um's and fives definitely, usually because it's either major rehabilitation or or considerable blight.

Um when's the survey or comprehensive survey that's come back out?

That's a great question.

Uh so they've been um we exceeded of let's say 52,000 properties about a week or two ago.

We exceeded 30,000.

Um obviously the last week or so has not been helpful.

We've uh I was just telling Mr.

Jackson, my supervisor for nuisance abatement that uh, of course, when we have to do the housing condition survey, we've had the uh probably uh um abnormal number of snow incidents, as you might say, like not to this degree every time, but um it it is not ideal to survey with snow on the ground.

If there's snow on the roof, it's very hard to really get assessments.

So we've had a lot of uh stops and starts this year.

But um I will provide the city manager's office that that current number of what has been completed to date and what's left to go.

So um once we can kind of get back out on those sidewalks and roads, they'll be back out there.

But we are over halfway in uh but I'll I'll give you the accurate number through the city manager's office.

No, I when I asked the question, I was hoping that you were gonna tell me that it was completed.

I wish.

I think the inspectors wish it as well.

So um you know it it's it's uh that's another fine-tuning process of timing.

You know, there's that desire to wait till all the leaves are off so you get clear, you know uh uh prospectus of homes at the same point.

You uh on you know, unpredictable Ohio weather, you run into these situations where you have uh uh you know uh a snowfall in late October, early November.

So that's another thing we're gonna look at is like where's where's our sweet spot where we can really get out there and not be hampered by these intermittent snowfalls.

But uh I do I am comfortable that they are they progressed to a point where they're um we should be able to get it wrapped up uh fairly quickly because of the amount that they have already surveyed.

Um I was looking at the numbers for this coming year.

It looked like that total is 275, and I from if I remembered the earlier slide, we still have 334 to go.

Yeah.

Um how are we gonna get that's like 60 gas uh Yeah, that's what I'm that's what I'm you know, kind of looking at as like if if you look at the the balance of what was the the eleven sixty-eight and then where I think our funding is looking to see kind of where that ODOD number lands.

Um the other one is uh we do have some general fund funds that uh you have all provided us.

So looking to complement that I would say to meet an objective versus just meeting a goal.

I don't want to just use money to say I made I did I hit 1168 where we might miss a mark where it's like, hey, I need to I might come short on that, but we're gonna tackle a really big problem here.

So that's where I'm gonna probably have to talk to the Teamander's office about that that strategy and have them uh work with you all in terms of like if there is that delta, where do we think, you know, where do we think we're gonna land on that?

I'll probably know, especially as we get into the first quarter, there's uh a number of announcements that might be coming out from the State.

So I might have a better idea of where we're gonna land as I do the future updates.

I'll be mindful to kind of if something does change to maybe amend this to say, okay, we got news that we are going to do 80 ODOD demos, so that we can kind of really look at that that gap there.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that, and I appreciate you thinking about it strategically and not just numbers-wise.

Um, I'm a little concerned.

I think pre-ARPA funding, we usually try to do a hundred um demolitions a year using primarily general funds.

I'm not sure we ever hit that.

It seems like now we have the capacity to hit that.

I don't know if the funding will keep up.

But if we add 113 structures and we only have the capacity to take down a hundred, we're just going to stay there.

Does the team have any work on like intervening to stop properties from going to I mean we got the survey now, so you know, it seems like if we can stop threes from becoming fours, we'd be in a we could we could interrupt this.

Yes.

And we need to.

Yeah.

I mean, I think looking forward, we we don't we're not guaranteed that we're gonna have additional ARPAs.

And I don't think demolishing properties is our way out of this.

So I am confident with, I mean, my team is talking daily with Eileen over at the Dayton Home Repair Network about uh, you know, uh intervention through that program, intervention through the issue six program, because just because a homeowner owns a property and is qualified for issue six, they still could have a uh a structural nuisance property.

So really being strategic with aligning those programs to make those necessary repairs.

Um our work um we'll be announcing the uh the C D BG awards to the partners back on home repair.

Again, I think those funds are going to help address that very problem.

We're getting these properties off of that list back in because if the owner doesn't have the funds, we might be able to connect them to a resource.

So I'll I'm encouraged between the work that our community development division is doing with the C D B G funds and our partners in the home repair home repair arena with the work that the home repair network and eileen's doing and with our issue six, that that is at my strategy to try to intervene.

So we're not, you know, we're stopping that three becoming a four.

We have to.

Right.

Yeah.

So it's gonna be it's gonna be a lot of that probably, that that transition from this is gonna be into that.

Is that intervention approach?

We're always gonna have demolitions that are gonna need to occur, but I think that that intervention from getting back properties stable again uh is gonna be uh my team's kind of pivot focus uh between 26 and 2027.

Okay.

I remember when we had the task force around poverty, one of the early indicators we had that people might be struggling is um their their water bill and water shutoffs.

And um exploring that a little bit more.

I think it's when people get put on a payment plan and then they miss payments.

That that shows that's an it's probably the earliest indicator we have that this family is not doing well.

Um are we monitoring when people um stop making payments and their payment plans on water and then a taking sending a you know a caseworker out there to see what we can do to either keep them in the home or get them into the right housing.

And secondly, what we can do to because if if the water gets shut off, that's a path to the three or four or five.

Oh yeah.

Commissioner, um the finance department manages the um uh call center that takes the payment plans and works with our um utility water utility customers.

And so yes, that we monitor that.

We have information on um, you know, who's how many payment plans we have at any given time, what those payment, what's the nature of those payment plans, the the value of those payment plans, how many people are breaking payment plans, because that's usually an indicator too that there's something wrong.

And our staff works again with um several third nonprofit agencies around here to refer those individuals to to get assistance on those plans.

Uh and then when we know that um water has been shut off in a particular property for a prolonged period of time, we work with the partners in housing development to go out and kind of see what's really going on there, if that place has been still inhabited, and the water has been off for a really long time.

So we we sort of collaborate with um internal departments, but we also uh then do referrals and work in conjunction with those nonprofit partners that can provide assistance.

And to follow up the WCM manager's point, um my colleagues in water, we actually are we do work with their um GIS staff to layer in that that data set.

So I we don't do the intervention in terms of the bill pay or the payment plan.

We're we're layering that into our our housing tracker data so we can see we can get those layers of like, okay, it's a three or four.

Um there's a delinquency in water for however long.

Uh there might be no mail being delayed.

A number of factors.

So uh my colleagues have been phenomenal with uh working with us to build this data set so we can you know turn on these layers to look to say what's happening at this house?

Is there additional kind of stress or strain?

So that is one thing that we are kind of communicating with on a on a routine basis with our data analysis.

Great.

Now I think that's the same thing.

Because yeah, it's it all signs like there's just these uh number of steps where if the conditions fading and then you find out that there's issues with the payment, you know.

So we we try to kind of look at that to see where there that intervention needs to occur.

Great.

Thank you.

I think that intervention interruption piece is going to be really crucial for us.

So thank you.

I agree.

Thank you, uh Deputy City Manager and the whole staff who are looking at that.

All right.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner?

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you both for those uh great questions.

I those were really things that I was thinking about myself.

Glad to hear that you have kind of this dual strategy.

The goal is bite removal, no matter if it's demo or if it's just assisting folks to get their structures together.

I I was really interested in hearing kind of what that frequency of structures being um uh added to to the roles.

Uh sounds like we need some more information through the survey, that makes sense to me.

Yeah.

But uh just really appreciate this information.

Um I think we're on the right track.

But you're right.

You know, there are different ways to address this issue.

We should be exploring all of them.

So thank you for that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Uh just want to uh add my my voice to to what's been said here, the concern for the future.

Uh you know, as as you do your analysis, I'm really curious to see if the rate of new houses coming onto the list, especially those that require demolition is increasing, is it slowing?

Um and are our is our funds uh our potential funds anyway going forward going to be sufficient to to take care of the ones coming in.

Having been given this this awesome gift of all these houses being taken down in our neighborhoods, uh I want to make sure that we're uh we're doing as as as well as we can to be sustainable with our our consistent taking down houses as they come on the list.

I know that uh in past years, because our funding is so unstable, uh, you know, we will get millions of millions of dollars for a couple of years and then nothing for a couple.

Uh there have been years where we've we've demolished only a dozen houses or a couple dozen houses, and we can't let that happen again because that's not nearly enough.

So uh I know you are all looking at it and we're anxious to hear what your plans are for the future and how things look.

And I think there's certainly support to keep uh uh as high a level as we can sustainably maintain to make sure we're taking down houses that need to be taken down.

Thank you, Mr.

Garner.

Yeah, and uh one thing just on that structural news when I do uh when I send over the the the comprehensive list, I really do, and I think for the public's knowledge is that it is all structures.

Uh there are buildings in downtown here that are on it.

So I don't uh it it could be daunting, you know, when you look at the whole number as these are all homes in neighborhoods, and that's not necessarily true.

There's a number of properties downtown here even.

So it is we are the authority for all structures in the city.

So not that it's better, but it does when you start breaking out that um because it it's like the there's it's downtown properties, commercial properties, apartments, and then homes.

Understanding that, and then so that's why I said I I'll work on uh cleaning out that list and get into the city manager's office to have that whole picture.

But uh appreciate your time you allot me here every month.

Um I want to thank my staff for a phenomenal year.

Uh James McDaniel, division manager, Ken Jackson, Newsom Bateman Supervisor and his team have just done a phenomenal job this year.

Uh your patience when we we pivoted to do all those ODOD demos by June, uh pausing our ARPA demos, but um again, they're running at such a high speed that I'm uh really confident the fact that we can accommodate that kind of flux of funds that have to be, you know, um spent in a certain time that you know we're ready for any kind of opportunities, but we're also ready to really fine-tune our approach if need be uh with limited funds.

But we're also ready to really fine-tune our approach if need be uh with limited funds.

So thank you all again for your time and your support.

Thank you, and thank you to your team, Mr.

Yondall.

All right, Ms.

McClendon, are there any additions, deletions, or comments in the calendar?

Yes, Your Honor.

I would like to note that there was a typo on the agenda which was initially posted for the CJ Hughes Construction Company service agreement.

The amount should read $3,997, 134 and 13 cents instead of $33,997, $134 and 13 cents.

Thank you.

That is all, Your Honor.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh Ms.

Lofton, any additions, deletions, or comments on the calendar?

I have no additions or deletions, but I do want to briefly highlight two important investments on today's City Commission agenda.

Item A2 is a five-year technology services agreement with Ring Central Inc., and this will replace our current voice over Internet protocol uh phone system, which will reach its useful end of its useful life at the end of this year.

Um so we um want to make sure that we are putting something in place that when Ring Central or when the uh current phone system does not um happen in at the end of this year, we will also have no support for that system.

So it's uh urgently needed that we replace it.

And the Ring Central platform will provide a secure, fully supported, unified communication system which will bring voice, video, messaging, and collaboration into one modern platform for our employees.

Uh this investment ensures we have continuity of service, improves our efficiency, and positions the city for any future technology improvements that we would make in our system.

The total cost of this five-year agreement um will not exceed 1.33 million dollars.

I also want to call attention to item B3, which is a major water infrastructure investment.

Uh it's an award to uh ward of contract to CJ Hughes construction for the installation of a 36-inch water main along Rudbanski Lane in the amount of $3.99 million.

And this project is funded through the Ohio EPA's DIFA loan program and the bipartisan infrastructure law as a principal forgiveness loan with full reimbursement anticipated.

It is the third and final phase of a new redundant water main connect uh system connecting the north and south sections of the Miami well field.

Um so it includes installation beneath the Great Miami River.

And the project supports also our PFA strategy, expands production capacity and reinforces our long-term commitment to delivering high quality water to our customers for decades to come.

Um the completion of this project is expected in mid-2027.

And that is all.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Clendon, any citizens registered to speak on calendar items this morning?

Your Honor, there are no citizens registered to speak on calendar items.

Thank you.

Commissioners, any comments on the city manager's recommendations?

Commissioner Beckham.

I have none, Your Honor.

Commissioner Ferrell, nothing.

Nothing.

Great.

Well, then may I have a motion to approve the city manager's recommendations?

So moved.

Second.

So properly moved and seconded to approve the city manager's recommendations.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

Legislation, Ms.

McClendon.

There is no legislation today, Your Honor.

All right.

Well, then, Ms.

McClendon, are there any citizens registered to speak this morning?

There are three citizens registered to speak.

I would like to remind everyone that there is a three-minute time limit.

As you address the commission, we ask that you state your name and address for the record.

At that time, I will turn on the green light.

When the green light comes on, you will have three minutes to speak.

After you have spoken two and a half minutes, a yellow light will come on and you will have 30 seconds remaining to speak.

When the red light comes on, you will be asked to cease your comments and to take your seat.

To the audience in attendance, please be mindful this is a business meeting, and we kindly request that during this portion of the meeting you refrain from any hand clapping, finger snapping, and conversation that will prevent the city commission from hearing the speaker's comments.

I call to the podium Paul Kerrigan.

Good morning, members.

Good morning.

How's everybody today?

Paul Kerrigan, 1525 Pershing Boulevard.

When I was here last week, I was able to present to you the results of the black box traffic data.

I'm just here again to just to remind you.

I don't expect you to jump and solve everything miraculously.

But just so we're we're here and we're looking for some sort of solution.

The uh failed and flawed petition that was circulated back in the summer.

I'm not going to go over that again.

It's not that I'm screaming for a speed bump.

I'm screaming for some action to happen on the street because this has been going on for decades.

This isn't a new thing that's happening on Pershing Boulevard.

Just to keep us in mind, please.

I'd like to be included and us members of the neighborhood and any decisions you're thinking about, any recommendations you have to run us bias, or um I want to be the old man on the lawn screaming to get off and to raise the eyebrows.

There's a lot of crazy things going on in this city right now, and you guys are doing your best to address them, and this is a minor little thing, like I said, my first address.

This is a layup.

We should handle stuff like this easily.

This shouldn't be going on this long and this bad.

And now you know how bad it is.

We have proof.

The only other thing I'd like to say is in regards to what I just heard about the demolitions and Mr.

Fairchild's idea or uh notion that we have to get to these people before it becomes a block, before it becomes a problem.

And having retired from Dayton Public Schools and uh E.J.

Brown in that area up North Main Street.

I know those are humble people, and they may or may not know about these programs.

And if they do, probably too intimidated to even consider doing anything.

So their hands are kind of tied.

But if you have somebody in front of them, one-to-one, a person there and explain it to them.

This is what we do, we can fill this out for you.

You might have more success.

That's what I wanted to say about that.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you.

I call to the podium, Mary Sue Gaminer.

Mary Sue Gaminer, 1418 Arbor Avenue.

Good morning, Commissioners.

I have comments about the budget public hearing last week.

It was disappointing to attend a presentation that didn't really provide the kind of information the public needs.

The 11 minutes were just a summary of what should be the most important presentation to the public each year.

The earlier presentation at the Commission meeting on October 29th of last year was twice as long, provided far more detail, and something like that should have been provided last week.

The budget is not easy to understand, especially the relationship between community service areas and funds.

The CSAs were created so that priorities, objectives, and outcomes could be more easily tracked.

This is what citizens care about.

The budget work session videos do offer a look at priorities, measures of progress and future goals.

Nothing was said at the public hearing about these other than a general referral to the recordings and transcripts.

At a minimum, links to those sessions should have been included in the social media announcements of the budget public hearing, in a slide in last week's presentation, and in the minutes of last week's meeting.

Also, it was suggested that Dayton Open Data is a good source for review, but I couldn't find a 2026 projected budget there.

Without getting into too much detail about the budget itself, I would like to suggest that an important metric that could be added to the community engagement measures of progress would be the number of neighborhoods that have active neighborhood associations.

Recreation and youth services is doing some impressive new programming, but they are only doing wreck your hood events for four neighborhoods a year, and they want neighborhoods with strong leadership.

That leaves out a lot of people.

Also, thank you for your continued funding of the mediation response unit.

Has there been any analysis of the optimal number of staff for the MRU?

Are they able to handle all the calls that would normally come their way?

Or if they had more staff, would additional staff be kept busy as well.

Finally, thank you for your support of Beacon Place Village, the Tiny Homes Project for the Unhoused that is being developed by Miami Valley Housing Opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I call to the podium Ed Jeske.

My name is Ed Jesky, live at 1462 Pershing.

I'm just another little squeak on a squeaky wheel trying to get a speed bump on the road there, okay?

Uh lived there now about 20 years, come June 6th.

And uh as you saw in the speed box results, just that 12-day window snap, right?

Extrapolate that out to 356 days a year, right?

So it's it's a lot.

There's a lot of speeding goes on there, and there's a lot of kids, a lot of cats, a lot of dogs, a lot of old slow-moving men that get frightened out there.

So speed bump would be definitely beneficial.

And at the least, some of those nice yellow bright slow signs put in the right places to help slow people down.

But unfortunately, human nature needs a bump.

Some people can't read those slow signs, apparently.

But it's again, I'm just here to squeak a little bit because it would be beneficial and helpful.

Thank you for the time.

I don't know new people.

It's the first time to be in something like this.

But uh I want to mostly support Paul Kernigan because I know he's been here a lot, passionate about it.

And it's mostly a supportive friendship for me to be here today, just to just offer moral support.

Thank you very much for the time.

And uh give me the asphalt, give me the advanced post and the sign, and I'll put them up for you.

All right, thanks, guys.

Thank you, and welcome.

And that is all, Your Honor.

Thank you.

Well, Ms.

Lofton, any closing comments today?

Certainly.

Thank you, Your Honor.

Um, to um Mr.

Kerrigan and um the gentleman who is here for moral support.

Um, just want to also let you all know that our Civil Engineering Department and the Department of Police have uh collaborated and are reviewing the re results from that report.

They are formulating some recommendations, and we'll make sure we follow up with the community in the neighborhood uh to assess the viability of those those recommendations.

And then finally, um I'd like to, on behalf of our city manager, Shelley Dixtein, I want to pause just a moment to publicly recognize and sincerely thank the incredible men and women of our city organization for their extraordinary work in managing this historic winter storm.

Uh storms of this magnitude, they don't happen often, but when they do, we are prepared.

Through planning, ongoing training and regular tabletop emergency exercises.

Our teams know how to respond decisively, collaboratively, and safely to various emergency situations.

Under the leadership of our fire department, we stood up our emergency operations center on Friday evening at 8 o'clock.

We met regularly throughout Monday to address winter storm fern.

In these meetings, departments coordinated in real time their response to this storm, aligning staff, checking equipment, monitoring resources, evaluating and problem-solving potential risks.

And when necessary, we adjusted our response to whatever the current conditions were.

We immediately collaborated with county and regional partners for support to ensure community and employee safety was held priority throughout this prolonged and intense weather event.

To put the magnitude of this storm into context, more than 12.5 inches of snow fell in a single day, nearly the entirety of the 15 inches we accumulated overall.

All of that accompanied by high winds, blowing snow and dangerously cold temperatures.

But despite these conditions, our teams did not cower to this storm.

In fact, we descended upon it with grit, precision, and passion.

Some of those crews worked 16-hour shifts, and others nine-hour shifts, and we ran those nonstop.

Their recent snowplow radio rodeo training late last year was critical.

And it put operators through a challenging obstacle course designed to simulate real world conditions, tight turns, narrow lanes, backing maneuvers and emergency scenarios like avoiding stalled vehicles or navigating around unexpected hazards.

This rodeo uh helped test their precision driving, equipment handling, and situational awareness under pressure.

That training paid off.

Our operators maneuvered safely through hazardous conditions without a single injury or accident, a testament to their skill, profession, and care for this community.

Across the organization, departments worked seamlessly to support public safety operations, coordinate with shelters, and maintain emergency preparedness.

Our police officers and firefighters staffed up, hunkered down, and made sure this storm would not be the reason they could not answer a call.

Indeed, they were able to respond effectively to every call of service placed.

At the Dayton International Airport, our snow operations, maintenance, and airfield crews worked around the clock to keep runways clear and planes moving safely, those that could get in or out.

Ensuring that all of our passengers could travel and critical commerce would continue.

And I also want to recognize our support teams, public affairs who kept residents informed with timely updates and safety information.

Our recreation center, who opened up their centers as warming centers, and whose staff bravely came in from the cold to offer home to those who may not have one.

To our water department who ensured that our system was stable and supported our downtown snow hauling and cleanup operations, and our IT team, who we thought had actually managed to escape any issues over this storm until yesterday when the phone system went out.

Even that was resolved in less than an hour, and we were back up and operational for our community.

And finally, I would I want to thank our residents and our business community.

Your patience, cooperation, and partnership made a tremendous difference.

This storm showed us what is possible when local government plans ahead and serves with excellence, and when our community stands behind those efforts.

Together, we turned preparation into performance and challenge into success.

This was truly a citywide effort, marked by teamwork, professionalism, expertise, planning, and collaboration.

And on behalf of the city manager's office and the entire leadership team, I want to thank every employee who served and every resident and agency who partnered with us and those directors that are in the room today, if you will please stand to be recognized.

Thank you.

And that is all I have, Your Honor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Lofton.

Well said.

I don't think we could have said it any better.

I know that we are going to have comments on that for a moment, but we'll let those rest.

But thank you very much for recognizing folks.

Ms.

McClendon, any closing comments?

I have none, Your Honor.

Thank you.

Commissioners.

Commissioner Beckham, any closing comments?

Thank you, Commissioner.

I do.

I also just want to uh lift up high praise for the organization, uh the excellent coordination uh that we saw, obviously, over these past couple days, given this historic snowstorm.

Uh definitely a remarkable response.

I uh clearly uh see that we were prepared, uh, which is which is wonderful.

And um thank you, uh Deputy City Manager Lofton for your leadership, uh obviously in the city manager's absence, all of our directors, staff, uh truly, truly wonderful work uh these past couple of days to make sure that our city is still functioning.

Um very much appreciate that.

Um I also want to thank the citizens who came and uh spoke uh this morning.

Uh glad to hear that Mr.

Kerrigan's uh concerns are being responded to, and we'll see those recommendations.

Um lastly, um just wanted to highlight Super Refund Saturday.

Uh it will be February 7th from 9 a.m.

to 3 p.m.

at the job center.

Uh that's uh 1111 Edwin C.

Moses.

Um IRS trained volunteers will be providing free tax preparation uh for eligible residents uh and help to ensure that you can receive credits like the earned income tax credit as well as the child tax credit.

Uh free tax help is also available at VitaTac sites uh across State and through April 15th.

If you need more information or would just like to learn more about uh how to get help, uh you can call the United Ways help link at 937-913-2000.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Fairchild.

Yeah, thank you.

Um I want to thank our citizens who came out in what is it, five-degree weather?

Three-degree weather to uh bring your comment.

So thank you.

Um also pleased to hear we have an update from Mr.

Garrigan in process.

I think there's a question for us, Commissioner.

Um I think we need to rework the speed bump petition process, particularly given the fact that we are now 48 percent home ownership and a lot of landlords who are out of here.

It seems like the obstacle is getting everyone to respond.

So I think there's uh a way to um tweak that to uh to get it to a place where citizens have more control, the people who are living there and have ownership of their um of their neighborhood.

I think that actually might be underway, Commissioner.

All right, we'll get to the case.

I know we've talked about it, so um it would be great to get that in place.

Um thank you, Ms.

Minor for being here.

Um There is a question from the budget um presentation that I didn't ask and I'd like to ask, and I don't expect an answer now, but if we can get that before we pass the budget.

Um since I've been on the commission, we've been fortunate that we've always had a surplus of income above what we had projected.

And so that allows us throughout the years to do a couple of reappropriation of funds.

We I've got to believe that our team is prepared for the reappropriation.

I think if we pass the budget, we should have some guidance on how we're gonna use those reappropriated dollars as we move into the year.

So when they come up, we we already kind of know where we're headed.

So I would like if we could include that, um, I'd appreciate it.

I think the public would as well.

Um today, uh, four of our libraries, the Southeast, the Northwest, the West, and Burkhart um branches of the Dayton Metro Library will host free dinners for children from four to five PM.

And so that's today at those four libraries, but also on January 29th and February 2nd at the same time.

And those are being provided by the Children's Hunger Alliance.

Um an opportunity if you know someone who's um hungry, that um children can get a meal.

Likewise, I appreciate the our team, all that they did, those the team who've gone into the warming centers um in this cold weather, so critical for our neighbors and encourage all of us to extend care uh to one another, check on a neighbor um along the way.

Thank you for your great words around the staff.

I was coming home around midnight last night from Dayton Children's.

The crew was out there on monument working.

Um there was quite a production that that was going on.

And uh and and I came in tonight and I could see places that where they had worked throughout the night to um clear snow.

So uh thank you.

Thank you for the public for your patience along the way.

I would like to know when the rodeo is, because I would like to come out and watch that.

So if we could get the date of the rodeo, um, I'd like to s to see that training and the preparation that the team does.

Um finally, the um, you know, I made comments last week about the the nature of our society and our nation.

And I'm mindful of Benjamin Franklin's comment uh when asked what type of government they had given us a republic, if you can keep it.

And so this week I've been thinking about uh me and all the people in the room who have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution.

Every elected official here, uh I believe the city managers take that oath.

I know our law enforcement take that oath, service members take that oath, lawyers take that oath.

So there's a large number of people even in this room who have taken the oath to uphold the Constitution.

And so um I'm curious to what that means when we have federal law enforcement officers not upholding the Constitution and our responsibilities then to hold the Constitution.

And um I think there's a question back to the law department.

I know a citizen asked about what we can do, and we uh stated the supremacy call prevents that, but I don't think that it um supersedes our oath to the Constitution.

So I'll formulate a question for the law department, maybe some of my colleagues can too, around what we can do.

And then um I'm mindful also that um our our society holds together around this social contract that we have with one another, and that's rooted in our consent to be governed and how we're gonna be governed.

And so while we have an oath to protect the Constitution, collectively, as we the people, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of this democracy.

So this is gonna be a we the people, all hands on deck to address the issues in our society.

So I look forward to working with you on that.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Shaw.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you for that.

Um thank you, Ms.

Lofton.

Uh, you did a great job of kind of uh celebrating staff and the department heads.

But I just want to thank you uh directly for your great leadership during this uh very challenging time.

You overcommunicated, which is great.

I think we need we need to do much more of that.

Uh but I just really appreciate you and and your and your work um here in the absence of our city manager.

So thank you.

Um great comments from my my colleagues today.

I think um there are a lot of things to think about and talk about um to make the city better.

And uh I really appreciate that dialogue.

Um this week is Winter Restaurant Week hosted by the Maya Valley Restaurant Association.

For every meal you purchase at a participating restaurant, one dollar is donated to the MBRA Education Foundation.

Uh in Dayton, Coco's Bistro, the Foundry, the Amber Rose Restaurant, Dublin Pub, and Jay's Seafood Restaurant are all participating.

Uh so please go warm up and have a nice meal while supporting your local uh businesses.

They they need it.

Uh they they really need your support.

So that's all I have today.

Thanks.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Uh I'm gonna add my uh voice of the course of thank yous.

We have had in the past less serious emergencies that were handled that took longer to handle, took a whole clear up.

This was a huge one, and you all have done really an excellent job.

I I also agree that overcommunication is good because it helps us also uh project out.

We can use social media in our conversations.

People call us.

If we know what's happening and what's going to happen, uh we can project that out too.

And I think we all did a pretty good job of that.

So but thank you for your leadership.

Thank you all the way down to the staff, everyone who worked hard on this.

Uh I have to say that I haven't gotten a complaint call from a resident.

And usually I would have gotten 50 by now.

Fifty.

Yeah.

Uh so you all have done really excellent work above and beyond here.

So thank you, and please make sure that all folks who who have participated know that we really do appreciate your work these last couple of days.

Thank you.

Uh I want to also second the motion for going to the rodeo because I know that especially every five or six-year-old kid would really enjoy watching that.

Uh so I I mean I would too.

I I can't lie.

So if there's a way to do that, that might even be something we can sell tickets to.

That might be worth seeing.

I would love to see that.

Uh I'm looking at staff to see what the reactions are back there.

Uh and oh, I guess I want to mention that uh good news in Madden Hills.

If you know that uh remember the last couple years we've been trying to work on infill housing in Madden Hills and new housing up back there.

Uh the land bank has been leading that effort and they've done an excellent job.

Those of you who walk around back there can see the house is going up, and it's wonderful to see in an area that that was what it was supposed to be used for, and it's sort of been the situation has been frozen over the years because of housing situation, right?

Uh so the houses are going up, and they announced this week that they sold their first Welcome Home Ohio house.

So uh there it's it's a program that's designed to help first-time homebuy.

Uh it's working, and they're still accepting applications for the houses that are going up now, the ones that you see going up.

So go to the the Montgomery County Land Bank website, MC Landbank.com if you want to apply.

If you want to be a first-time homebuyer, uh there are houses for you, and we really appreciate their cooperation.

Uh, we work with the land bank on a whole range of things to try to combat the crisis that's in front of us here.

So uh it's good news all around.

And I think that is everything I have.

Uh so with no further business to come before the city commission, this meeting is adjourned.