The Dayton City Commission meeting will now come to order.

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

The invocation will be given by Commissioner Fairchild this evening.

On the occasion of our 250th anniversary, I found a poem by Jesuit Priest, a prayer for our nation.

Loving God on our 250th anniversary as a nation.

Help us to be just loving, merciful, grateful, compassionate, and above all, kind.

Help our nation mirror the kind of people we want to be.

And help us to avoid envy, cruelty, violence, boasting, prejudice, nationalism, scapegoating, and malice towards anyone.

Help us to be loving as you are loving God.

Yes.

Amen.

One nation.

Under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

All right, Miss McClendon.

May we please have a roll call?

Mayor Turner Sloss.

Aye.

Commissioners Joseph.

I Shaw.

Aye.

Fairchild.

Aye.

Beckham.

May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the June 24th to 2026 meeting?

So moved, John.

Second motion, Your Honor.

It's been properly moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the June 24th, 2026 meeting.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

Any abstentions.

There are none, Your Honor.

Thank you.

And this evening, the commission will like to recognize Commissioner Shaw for his 10 years of service to the city of Dayton.

Thank you.

More than welcome.

So we have a gift for you.

Oh, thank you.

You're more than welcome.

Thank you very much.

Congratulations.

Do you have any comments or anything?

No, it's just been a wonderful journey.

It's it's great to be able to serve this community.

It is a great community.

Uh and have appreciated sitting here over this these 10 years to watch it grow in such a meaningful way.

We've got a lot of work to do, there's no question about that.

But um I'm very confident uh in the future for our city, and I I appreciate working with all of you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Congratulations.

And this evening, I would like to call Ms.

Dixteen.

We would like to call Mr.

Stefan Marcellus, Director of Recreation, to present the lights in flights event.

I will tell you, Mr.

Marcellus, there has been a lot of anticipation about this presentation.

So people are excited and they want to know where to go and what time and all of the particulars.

Also, uh good evening to commissioners and city manager and clerk as well.

Um if you can see that on the screen.

No, not yet.

I believe they're working on it.

One second.

All right.

Thank you.

So uh wanted to come here and talk about the license flight.

So this year's a little special because we're celebrating America's 250th.

So we're doing that by having a parade this year.

Uh the city manager challenged us with doing something different, and so we're doing a parade and we're having our fireworks show.

So our parade starts at 12 o'clock in downtown Dayton.

And we have over 30 groups participating in the parade this year, which is outstanding.

We were a little worried because a month ago we only had five.

So we were very scared and now we're we're relieved for sure.

But on July 3rd, we will be having our parade and our fireworks show.

We'll start um on uh second in St.

Clair, and then we will we will uh go to Patterson and then end the parade right in front of uh Riverscape.

Um so we are definitely looking forward to this.

We will also have additional um entertainment uh for the uh the parade.

We'll have street vendors there, we'll have food trucks, we'll have entertainment, we'll have a kids' zone as well in Don Crawford Plaza.

So it's really gonna be a great event for families.

We encourage everyone to come out.

We um we want you to bring your water bottles because it's gonna be a hot day.

So definitely do that.

But it's gonna start the parade's gonna start at 12 and it's gonna end at 4.

So that evening, we'll be actually we'll have our fireworks show, which actually starts around 10 o'clock or when it's darkest out.

Uh we'll be shooting our firework show from uh Kettering Field, which is located at 444 North Bend Boulevard.

Um it is a 22-minute show.

Last year, if you remember, we had a great show, and so we're planning on having the same great show, if not even better, uh, this year.

So a lot of people have been calling us asking us, okay.

So where do I view the show?

And our answer for that is wherever you think is best.

We don't have a specific place for you to view the show, but we do want uh families to come out just a little bit early.

There will be some road closures, so we want you to be prepared for that.

Uh and we want you to be in a great place uh to view the fireworks, and we want you to be able to get out safely.

So, you know, we encourage everyone to uh definitely know where the the fireworks are being shot from and where they plan to view that from view it from so they can come in, see the fireworks and get out safely.

But we plan to have a great night, um a great day, actually, with the parade and license flight um display, and we hope everybody comes out to view it.

Uh just some of the other highlights.

Um we have a lot of our I just want to actually thank our um our fire uh department, police department, and our public works department.

Without them, we definitely couldn't make this happen.

This was a very um for us very challenging because we had never done a parade before.

We have heard that the city has had parades years and years past that the city has done, but we had nothing to go from to to plan the parade.

We were at working with local partners trying to put this parade together, and we really hope the city will be proud of us once uh they see this parade.

So that's the end of my presentation.

If any of you have any questions, I would love to answer them.

Thank you, Mr.

Marcellas.

Commissioner Beckham.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Marcellus, for the presentation.

Um I don't have any questions, just thank you for uh the recreation department's work on this.

Looking forward to participating.

Thank you, Commissioner Fairchild.

Yeah, no, thank you.

This is exciting.

I love the addition during the day.

It'll be great.

People come out and um enjoy the community, build community, and uh look forward to the fireworks in the evening.

And do we have uh an estimate on the uh the weather for Friday?

So right now, um I think the last forecast I looked at, it was gonna be in the low 90s.

There was a slot small chance for rain, but it's gonna be a beautiful day, and we don't know what rain means.

So, you know, we just you know it's gonna be really hot for sure.

So we want everybody be prepared, have your water, have your fans, uh, and pay attention to your bodies when you're out there uh at the parade and at the fireworks show.

Great, thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Shaw.

Yeah, likewise, no no questions.

Just want to thank you for the work.

I know it's it's been difficult to uh to get this done and organized and coordinated and all that.

So uh good luck to you on on the actual day, and I look forward to um to the show.

Thank you.

Commissioner Joseph.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh thank you for stepping outside your comfort zone.

You and your staff put this together.

Uh there was a time when the city had a number of parades, so I'm glad that we're reviving this tradition a little bit, and now you all after this will have the experience to maybe help others too.

So thank you for for uh doing that.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

I just wanted to echo my my colleagues their their comment comments.

Um very excited about the uh the number of things that you've added to the firework display itself um and just really allowing the families for the event overall to be family friendly.

So again, kudos to you and your staff, as well as our uh safety services, public works.

I know all hands on deck to make sure that this event is going to to be a success.

And from my understanding, this will be in fact noted on the city's website.

There is a graphic that is circulating social media, so please share that with us so that we can make sure we push it out as well.

Yes, um definitely look on the city's website for all that information.

If anyone has any questions about the parade itself or the show, they're more than welcome to call our department uh line at 333 937 333 840.

Yes, thank you.

And we want all of our um our residents, visitors to enjoy the celebration, but make note, uh curfew will in fact still be enforced.

Absolutely.

So that is from 11 p.m.

until 5 a.m.

And so we ask that please parents, guardians, um, all of those who will be participating in this year's celebration.

Please be mindful if you're under the age of 16, you need to be in fact a company with an adult.

Um we will make sure that we are in fact enforcing our curfew.

So thank you, Mr.

Marcellus.

Mayor.

Mayor, if I may, I just I know that they're very excited and they've done great work, but I want to point out that remind everyone it's July 3rd.

Yes.

We're missing a date on the slide.

But it is July 3rd that we will be having our festivities.

Yes, it's July 3rd.

Excuse me.

Thank you.

It and I would note too that that's probably on the graphic, right?

The date itself.

Because I is this the graphic that you're using that you have on front of us.

Yes, but the the date is definitely online.

Okay.

Um, all our own material.

I don't know how it ended up missing.

But anyway, July third is the date.

July third.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms.

Dixine.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

And next we have a presentation uh for the monthly demolition update.

I would like to call to the podium, Mr.

Steve Gondol.

Let's welcome back Andrew Estevez to the room.

In the old days, yeah.

Or the foil on the serious than I thought.

Thank you.

Yeah, please.

Um Mr.

Gondel, if you wouldn't mind, please proceed.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, good evening, Mayor, Commissioner, City Manager, uh.

Steve Gondel, director for the Department of Planning, Neighbors and Development, with your monthly demolition update for the month of May.

So now that we're getting specific about dates, we make sure we're covering the right time.

Um so for the month of May in our demolition uh program.

Uh again, we are looking at a a goal of 334 demolitions for the year of 2026.

In May, we completed 28 structures.

Of those 28 structures, six of those were uh using our ARPA funds, 20 of those were using our Ohio Department of Uh Development Funds, and two of those were using uh our federal CDBG funds.

That number um brings us up to a total number of demolitions of ninety-seven uh to date.

The bulk of those are ARPA funded, 66, uh with ODOD funds uh 29 and again CDBG at two.

We're looking at uh 29% of planned 2026 demolitions as we are at 42% of the way through the year.

So um staying fairly on track.

Um note is your you know the CDBGs, uh the two of those demolitions, we actually fast tracked those, and that was an opportunity to support our friends with the Conscious Connect and their demolition at the Lawrence Avenue site.

Uh we were trying to help them with their kind of kick-off of that new park over there in the Westwood area.

And so uh our team kind of uh pulled some uh maneuvers to get those uh two properties, and you'll see those later demolished so that uh for the launch of that park, we'd have those out of the way.

So that's a little bit of how the those CDBG ones started.

Moving on to our status of our piles, uh we began um uh we ended the month of April with 24 piles.

Uh we again have not started our new contract, so no piles were removed in the month of May.

We did have four that were added to the count, so we ended the month of May with 28.

Those four um were at the following addresses: 2643 Germantown in the Lakeview neighborhood, 40 North Jersey in the Springfield neighborhood, 1116 Rosedale in the South Dayton View neighborhood, and 900 West Third in the right Dunbar neighborhood, which we all probably know was the Tasty Bird store.

Uh some great news.

If anybody went by West Third today, you may have noticed that work has commenced.

They had uh about a half dozen trucks of debris removed by 8 a.m.

this morning.

I do want to note that the fencing that was put up and the work that is occurring out at that site is all done through the owner's insurance funds.

There are no city funds spent on that work.

I know that that was uh a huge source of interest for the community to get started on that, and so just noting that uh you know, working with the owner and his insurance company from a May emergency demolition to July 1st, getting action on that uh is really an incredible partnership between public-private partners.

So that is a really exciting thing to have an emergency demolition and have it already being cleaned up so soon.

Um so if you uh you we will one we will see these maps shortly, but just the map showing where those emergency demolitions were.

Moving into the uh planned demolitions that I mentioned, um we had the map that when it when it does appear, you'll see that in addition to the locations in the city, there are two dots outside of the city in Jefferson Township.

That is our work with the land bank through the ODOD funds.

So we don't count those in our numbers, but I do show them on the map because it was work that was overseen by city employees, but those numbers don't go uh into our numbers.

I just show visually to see where they are.

Um so we added um uh last month we had 17 unique neighborhoods experiencing uh demolitions.

We are now up to 21.

Uh Carroll, uh which had two demolitions, Northern Hills one, Westwood two, and Wolf Creek five.

Those are the four uh neighborhoods who had not yet had a demolition removal in 26 that had one last month.

So 21 unique neighborhoods that are experiencing blight removal.

Southern Dayton View continues to lead uh with 31 demolitions, while Santa Clara follows shortly behind with 14.

Uh moving on to our uh structural nuisance.

In May, we added 15 structures to our structural nuisance list.

Nine of those were houses, three were garages, and three were commercial structures.

Eight of those were for blight, seven of those were from fire.

Uh to date, we have sixty-six structures in our structural nuisance list added, fifty-nine of them uh structures, seven garages.

Our pipeline uh of note, our asbestos remediation.

We had 39 properties in May uh complete the asbestos remediation that brings us up to 108 for the year.

And so all of those those 39 were all through our OD, our our state ODOD Ohio Department of Development Funds.

Um before and afters that we'll share uh 321 Bowlander in the Caroline neighborhood.

Um I do want to note that uh we also did 340 Bowlinger, so two two homes on that same street in the Caroline neighborhood.

Moving on to the Lakeview neighborhood, 358 Royal.

Next was Edgemont neighborhood, 719 Ward, further kind of working on that northern edge of the neighborhood.

Next was 2011 West Grand in the Southern Dayton View neighborhood.

The before and afters look much better with the before and after photos of just kind of remote.

And you know, the wild factor is our 167, 177, 171 Lorenz Avenue in the Westwood.

And that is a picture of both the collaborative effort uh within the city team, the conscious connect team, um, and the neighborhood in terms of getting those houses down and the work that is underway.

There's great there's information on their website about that process uh of establishing a new park uh in the Westwood neighborhood.

But um the future park will be located at the former addresses 151, 155, 159, and 163 Lawrence Avenue.

That's where the park will be.

These properties were just adjacent to it.

And so that was uh a kind of a shared dialogue about how you know, kind of again, leveraging other investments of removing these so that it further helps the improvement of that park.

Wrapping up, uh so to date, uh we have sixty-six of 120 ARPA funded demolitions done, 29 of the 70 Ohio Department of Development funded demos done, two of the 60 to 80 planned C D B G funded demolitions done.

Um again, most of our ARPA budget is expensed or encumbered, and we have 51 months completed of this work with seven months remaining.

So, one thing to note uh for the month of May, I noted that the bulk of the work was ODOD.

Uh we had 20 of the 28 were were through that.

That was another situation where those funds, like we had last year, uh working through a deadline from the state to get those completed by June 30th.

So uh when talking with the team, we again uh prioritize those to meet a deadline and then returning back to ARPA funded demolitions uh in the following months.

So with that, I will cease any comments and take answer any questions you all might have.

Thank you, Mr.

Gondo, uh Ms.

uh excuse me.

Commissioner Beckham, any questions, comments?

Thank you, Mayor.

Um uh questions, just uh thank you for the work on the Tasty Bird, saw that update today.

So uh we were all of course very eager to get that um site remediated and uh back to normal for the neighborhood and surrounding area.

So I'm glad this is done.

Other than that, no more questions for me.

Okay.

Thank you.

Commissioner Fairchild.

Uh appreciate the update.

Um look forward to the comprehensive um housing inventory survey and uh look forward to continuing this work.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Shaw.

Yeah, uh also that no well, I do have a question.

So about the Tasty Bird.

Well, thank you for your work.

It's I appreciate the update uh also.

But um on the Tastybird project, do you have any intel?

Are they planning on rebuilding that or that I'm not sure?

You know, we were our our uh small bite was just trying to get them uh to first take to care of the the pile and then let them work with their insurance company on any remote where the go.

But really grateful that they've been so cooperative with first erecting the fencing, which uh and then proceeding with uh hiring a firm to remove it.

So um it's just a huge win for that area.

That's right.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Thank you, Commissioner Joseph.

No further comments.

Thank you, Mr.

Garden.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate the the work in the update.

I do have a couple c uh comments.

Um first I want to acknowledge you and your staff for the the work that is being done.

Um, and especially in regards to I know it probably was uh lengthy and number of calls, emails, all of the above that go with the the Tasty Bird location.

So thank you for your efforts there.

Um couple comments.

Thank you for noting.

2604 German Town.

I'm so glad that that hit the list.

Um thank you very much.

Um question in regards to Rosedale and Lexington Avenue.

Um if you can provide an update um from my understanding, there's a partial demolition there.

Okay.

Um there is great concern that is uh that is warranted from many of the residents because of the debris and some of the other materials that are causing we'll look into that.

Yeah, please do.

And then Home Avenue and Jane J McGee, the former RTA bus barnyard, I believe that is the location concern there and some additional cleanup.

So, yeah, that was uh on that demolition.

We had that was in agreement with the EPA to where we were clearing the the above surface um structure, but leaving the um foundation in place, which is serving as a cap because that would have actually taken more money and a more extensive like until we can get more funds to do a more thorough cleanup.

So yeah that was uh on that demolition we had that was an agreement with the EPA to where we were clearing the the above surface um structure but leaving the um foundation in place which is serving as a cap because that would have actually taken more money and a more extensive like until we can get more funds to do a more thorough cleanup we at least wanted to get the the collapsing structure down and so we had done that actually in the three locations uh on the east side on Tacoma there and up off of Salem those were kind of like agreed upon like we'll let you take it down and leave the foundation for the time being while we work with our partners at the state and federal government to find more money to do the full on removal of that foundation so that's part that's why that looks like that and those other two lessons locations within the same uh kind of spirit.

Right.

So thank you.

I I appreciate that and that's this the same information that you gave um prior to but there's still concern there are a number of bricks that are still there on the ground there are um some vegetation that is still on the ground and even with the Salem Avenue location because you're right the contaminations of the former dry cleaner sites all of the above we know that that's going to take some great um remediation with that work but if there is a better way for us to secure it um so one that it can look more aesthetically pleasing to the eye being that both of those locations are on major corridors so if we can find some way to to make it look more finished if you will.

Yeah because we're absolutely we're actively looking to try to secure funding to do the full yes removal but we can definitely talk about some uh intermediate steps to either further minimize kind of what's left there so okay I appreciate that and then last comment just want to bring to your attention again and I know it's out of your wheelhouse but if you there's some um an opportunity rather to work with uh public works whatever have you uh one of the sites on Brimar in Oxford it was a recent uh delum the can't talk demolished site and with that the overgrown vegetation the trees they were not removed and the concern is that that particular area is habitual for illegal dumping okay and with all of the um the in fill of the the growth and the maturity of the the trees the overgrown vegetation it is causing a screen if you will and so more dumping will start to work with the public works to uh do a coordinated brush clearing there and also we will work make sure that our contractors fulfilled their obligation when they're doing the site of clearing all of that brush on the site so if they missed any we have to go back but if it's something that's outside of that we'll work with public works.

It's another area too on Broadway.

It was a recent demolition too yeah I appreciate it thank you all right thank you.

Appreciate it Ms.

McClendon are there any additions deletions or comments to the calendar this evening?

Yes Your Honor I would like to request the addition of legislation pertaining to the public hearing at the desire of the commission.

That is all thank you.

Ms Dixtein are there any additions deletions or comments to the calendar this evening?

Your Honor I have no additions or deletions to this evening's calendar there are a few items I'd like to highlight um item two is a service agreement for 2060 for the upgrade of playground equipment in Bomberger and Berkham Parks.

So we're excited to be bringing that investment to our community.

Item number three is a service agreement with NPOR we're continuing our partnership with NPOR who has a great um program training young people in IT um coding etc.

They have the job machine program that helps place graduates into careers and our ID department is thrilled that this partnership is continuing since we have been fortunate to hire uh some of NPOR's graduates item number four is a service agreement with the Oregon landing zone LLC.

This is a contract modification it is to complete the there's a share the the landing space at the flight line is a shared common space privately owned by the um developers who did 53 McDonough the motor car um not 53 McDonough the the 53 million dollar motor car project um in Oregon East.

And these um dollars for this evening are coming from the TIFF that was associated with that project.

It is a project TIFF this is the perfect kind of project for a for TIFF dollars to go into because it is um it does have to stay to benefit the project um because it was generated from the project it's not a 41 TIFF which is where the city's in um ownership it's not a remote TIFF it is a project TIFF to support this that supported this project.

And this is a 10-year guarantee for the use of that park to be public.

It's actually shared amenities, parking, walking paths, et cetera, that will support not only the motor car development ongoing, but will also support when the flight line comes on line or you know becomes active.

And so this is what you know using using TIFF dollars for public infrastructure improvements associated with projects is exactly the kind of stuff that that we do.

And sometimes it's owned, it's property owned by public, and sometimes it's property owned by a private entity.

But it's about the use of the public infrastructure, and the private entity is maintaining the public and the grass, the open air, the open recreational space, as well as keeping the parking lot clean, et cetera.

So the city does not have to do any maintenance on the property and is benefiting from this shared community space being developed.

And 6943-26, item numbers eight and nine.

This is a petition to establish a citywide new community authority.

New community authority is a tool to help attract investment into the city.

So it has to have market strength in order for this tool to work because if you don't have room to come up and add extra costs, then it's not a tool that would be effective.

So like many of our economic development tools, it is one tool out of a large toolbox.

It is that that is not necessarily fit for every project, but it is a citywide tool that we are setting up.

So we have we have to identify a city parcel.

We also have a partner at the Montgomery County Convention Facilities Authority who wants to use this tool to help fund the headquarters hotel.

So we are putting our flag in the ground in a parcel downtown.

But it is something that we can take out to you know by Dunbar if the project makes sense.

We can take out all throughout our city because again, it doesn't have boundaries.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager.

We're going to tag team this particular presentation.

The first piece, my name's Joe Tus.

I'm with JT Development Consulting, and the city manager's office engaged me to assist in providing staffing as well as analytical support for the Greater Downtown Dayton Fund Committee.

Uh we had uh folks from citywide, both Shane Wilken as well as John Gower, who's sort of the you know the elder statesman of uh downtown development.

Uh we had uh both Chris Demick and David Kittridge from the idea collective, who are the owners and developers of Swainio and Tender Mercy, and do lots of uh restaurant and food and beverage consulting and interface with other folks uh in the food and beverage uh business in the downtown area.

Uh Carly Dixon, who is one of the owners of the bright side, so that we had someone who really is a participate in what I like to call the night economy, the events uh events, whether it's weddings, whether it is musical concerts, uh a whole host of things.

Uh we had Gabriel Van Alst from uh Dayton Live, so that we had someone at the table who really has a broad sense of the arts and cultural institutions in downtown.

Andy Horner was uh on the committee representing the University of Dayton, obviously, with the uh the development of on Maine and the things that are starting to happen with the redevelopment of the old county fairgrounds, they are a key player, as well as their partnership in the hub and the development of the arcade.

Joe Garrity from the uh Port Authority, uh Scott Korndike from the Entrepreneurs Center, and lastly, Steve Stanley, who was uh serving sort of a dual role, both he's a development consultant, but also was engaged in providing some assistance uh at the time we put this committee together with the uh downtown Dayton partnership.

So a robust committee, lots of really smart people representing a broad swath of a community in the various sectors.

So the purpose was really pretty straightforward.

One was to look at increasing investment revenues in the greater downtown.

And that was really driven back in February and March of 2025 when this first started, with the fact that the Greater Downtown Plan was going to be updated through the downtown Dayton Partnership.

That's still an ongoing process, but it's our recommendation that we move this piece forward and bring this to you for your action uh in terms of the the recommendations of the committee.

Uh second thing is when we look at that, look at what sort of recurring and sustained revenue streams we might be able to derive and do that in a way where ideally it would allow for the potential to free up general fund, general government revenue so that they could be repositioned, reutilized, and leveraged in other areas of the community, particularly in the neighborhoods.

The third piece of the puzzle was you can use these things as one-time dollars, or you can use these things to leverage funding and create larger pots of money.

Wherever possible, we are interested in in looking at what are tools that we can use that actually can create leverage so that that dollar is worth more than just that initial dollar.

And then the last piece is to try and do something that's going to build some sort of predictable, durable revenue, so that for you as commissioners, for the city manager and the administrative team, to be able to look at those things and bring you a budget on an annual basis that reflects some strong, repeatable, durable sorts of revenue streams uh that you can have confidence in and that the community can have confidence in as you look at how you might use those revenues for various downtown development purposes.

So that was really the the task in terms of the charge.

What we did is we we didn't want to go to the answer without working our way through a process.

So the first thing that we did was we looked at existing incentives and revenue streams.

Because there's been a lot of discussion about can you take the current incentives and revenue streams and various things that developers use and take those and redirect them towards other uses.

The answer to that, the short answer is it's really not something that makes sense.

It doesn't work.

And the reason it doesn't work is because the nature of those incentives don't lend themselves to being redirected.

Some of them are real estate tax abatement related, like CRAs.

You can't take that money and move it someplace else.

There's a whole host of tax credit incentives that developers use, whether it's federal, state, historic tax credits, uh low-income housing tax credits, whether it is tax credits through uh, you know, the the various uh uh products that that citywide development utilizes.

Uh so there's a lot of those things, but those are very much also project specific.

So that when we looked at this broad range of incentives, they really were not the sort of things you could very easily or effectively redevelop, redirect.

And also they were really essential for making the development happen that is happened in downtown Dayton.

So what we also did is we said, let's take a slice and look at it.

So we looked at from 2020 through 2025 and said, Looks look at somewhere between 14, 15 major projects, big ones, big developers, some smaller ones with independence, and let's see what that world looks like.

And what's interesting is it's you know, there's this notion that you know the city hasn't effectively supported downtown development.

I would submit to you that the data says that's absolutely not true.

I mean, the the between 20 and 25 there's been almost 700 million dollars of investment.

Local participation and assistance in those has roughly been somewhere about 20 percent of that total value.

So there's been a leverage ratio of about four to one, so that for every public dollar that goes in, whether it's tax credit, whether it's tax abatement, whether it is programs that are low interest loans through the port authority, that you've got a leverage ratio that runs somewhere between three to four private dollars for every public dollar that goes in.

So that the analysis shows that the city has been not only a great partner in trying to assist downtown development, but has also been very prudent about how those incentives work.

So the first thing is recommendation is keep those incentives for the developers.

That's great.

But the other aspects that we're going to talk about are really not for the developers.

They are for the broader downtown community development and needs that are outside of specific developer financing needs for the most part.

So that what you end up with is how do you come up with some new flexible financing mechanisms that are really driven by the value that those private development investments make, and also are driven by the users and the visitors.

This is about how you derive a dollar out of, quite frankly, my pocket.

You want me to be a person who comes to a downtown restaurant, goes to a show at the bright side, and you want to be able to generate some additional revenue from me as a visitor.

And we think there is some significant potential over time to do that.

So that the three recommendations that came out of this committee in summary, is one, as the city manager indicated, you have the two resolutions on your calendar today.

Those really get us to the starting point.

What we're asking you to do today is to be the starter at the race and get us started and pull the trigger on the starter's gun so that we can get started with this process.

The second piece is we strongly recommend that the city consciously dedicate all of the current remote TIFF revenue that comes from downtown development for downtown development.

And what we would also recommend is that then allows you to offset funding that currently is general fund that goes into your development fund.

So that if the remote TIFF generates 1.2 million dollars per year in rough numbers, that that'd be dedicated for downtown development, but that the development fund then really doesn't need 1.2 million dollars for downtown development.

That can be redirected back to needs that are outside the downtown and are the most flexible dollars you can have.

So that's kind of the second one.

The third piece is here again.

While this is a citywide NCA, it's starting very small.

This is really, while this is not a new concept, what we're proposing is really sort of a unique take on how you would apply this tool and use it.

So that we would recommend strongly what I like to call a uh uh crawl walk run strategy, where you start small, you identify a couple of key pilots that allow you to set the thing up, put together how administratively it's gonna work, learn from your pilots on the first couple of things you do, understand where the strengths are, understand where there's pinch points and potentially some things that you really because there's always unintended consequences.

There's always things that you no matter how well you think it out, there are things that come up and you go, Oh, we really should not do that that way.

So that the convention center is sort of one piece of that.

The second recommendation is about having the city adopt for downtown what I will call a corridor development strategy.

Downtown has got a bunch of great assets, but those assets are in various places in the greater downtown.

And the challenge with downtown is the connectivity between those assets.

So you've got assets up around the ballpark, you got assets down around the arcade, you've got assets down around the convention center.

But what are the corridors that actually connect those things?

So the third recommendation is to pursue that and to look at doing an initial pilot project on the East Third Street corridor from Main Street out to Kiwi Street.

Probably has the largest concentration of first floor food and beverage retail and night economy businesses in the entire downtown.

Um these NCAs are voluntary.

So folks, businesses and developers have to agree to participate in them so that this will create an opportunity to look at a corridor strategy, work through a process with the business owners, and with the folks who are stakeholders who are on the first floor, and really work through what that process would look like, what those development charges might be, and how those dollars would be used to improve downtown and more importantly, generate specific outcomes and specific positive impacts for those businesses that you know in the end, what's the ultimate measure?

Are there more people?

Are there more folks coming to those businesses?

Are they more successful in terms of uh their businesses?

So those are our three recommendations that come out of this committee.

Um obviously the NCA is the big one.

I'll stop here and answer any questions before I turn it over to Carl.

I have a number of questions, but I am going to uh defer to my colleagues, uh Commissioner Beckham.

Thank you, Your Honor.

Um, Mr.

Tuss for the um comprehensive explanation.

Of course, we've uh been briefed on this idea and these proposals.

I just want to clarify a few things.

Um, right, this is a economic development tool that um is positioned to create revenue, right, to the city.

Um that revenue can then offset the general funding that we're already using towards downtown.

Um and if I heard you correctly, uh those freed up dollars can then be targeted based on priorities of this commission, say demolition, right, or new housing.

Is that correct?

Yes, that is correct.

Um it's project specific, right?

So uh for a developer, they would have to voluntarily agree to participate.

We're not forcing this on anyone.

That is correct.

Okay.

And then just how common is this tool, right?

Uh obviously it would be new to the city of Dayton, uh, specific to right this organization, but um how recommended is this for the type of growth we're trying to create.

Well, I don't want to steal your thunder.

Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Yes.

So um my name is Cole Headman, thank you, Commission and Mayor, for having me tonight.

Um this tool is prevalent.

Um it is not experimental, it's being used in 55 other communities throughout the state of Ohio.

Um so it is a proven concept that is working, and it's actually moving towards cities creating the NCA.

Rather than it be project driven or driven by developers, the cities are taking interest in the projects.

They are creating the menu of the community development charges and are able then to bring this forth then to commission because at the end of the day, you as commission vote to approve these projects and these parcels to be part of the NCA.

Those are all my questions.

Thank you both.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Fairchild.

Yeah.

I'm curious to hear the presentation on the NCA, so I'll hold questions till after that presentation.

Okay.

All right, Commissioner Shaw.

Well, I'll hold too.

Me too.

Okay.

All right.

Y'all.

All right.

Okay.

I will continue on.

So I'm gonna give just a high overview of the NCA, and then we'll be happy to answer questions.

So what is a new community authority?

A new community authority is an economic development tool authorized by Ohio law.

It supports development within a defined area by collecting voluntary community development charges from property owners, which are reinvested in improvements and services that are within typically that same area.

These improvements can entail public infrastructure, so um safety for civilians, um, crosswalks.

Um it can improve our lighting under our underpasses, it can improve public spaces such as parks, plazas.

Um it can expand upon um parking.

So let's say a business owner has issues with um parallel parking.

We can perhaps look at you know modifying parking spots.

So a lot of different areas of opportunity here.

Um, as I was saying, when the city is in um ownership of the NCA and is acting as the developer, we are able to look at different projects, and we're able to encompass many different examples.

So, some examples that I'd like to bring to the commission would be a mixed-use residential project.

Um this type of project might prioritize streetscaping and pedestrian infrastructure.

The NCA's community development funds can be collected to then invest back into that project so that we are not using our general funds.

Another example would be a commercial or hospitality development.

Um here we might need um utility capacity upgrades.

Um, they might need access to water, they might be expanding some services.

So there could be some assistance with the utilities and providing um access to those.

And then finally, we might have a creative or cultural destination, um, and they would benefit from improvements to the plaza, um, community facility services, those types of things.

So, overall, my point here is is that the NCA can serve all of these scenarios with a single governing framework, which would be the NCA board.

So the NCA board is made up of seven members.

Three of the members are appointed by the city manager, and four of the members are appointed by city commission.

Um one of the four is the city manager who will be leading strategy then for the NCA trustees and the board.

The NCA board is um they are in control of the process of looking over the parcels, looking over the community development charges, working through the details, and then providing their recommendation to commission.

Once this recommendation is provided to commission, commission grants the ultimate authority to either accept the parcels part of the NCA or not accept and maybe revise it based on your recommendations and your plans.

When we come into a marketing strategy, we are looking to market this to projects that best align to use this economic toolkit as Shelley has mentioned.

Um this is just a single tool to be utilized and can be um placed with other tools such as the CRA, the TIFF, or the SID.

So those are other examples.

Um sorry, moving right along.

Um I want to explain then how do these um community development charges work.

Some examples of the community development charges would be a retail charge that would not exceed 5%.

So it's up to the 5%.

Um another example would be a hotel charge.

This would be up to 3%.

Um an additional charge could be a dollar twenty-five uh dollar and twenty-five cents per square foot on a retail space that gets collected, or there's um a mile a millage um assessment of no more than eight mills as well, and that's all established within the NCA um charter itself in the petition that's before you.

Um so in order for this then to get to commission, um, we're first going to have um the NCA be established.

They're going to submit a consent form to be to ask to join the NCA.

Because as Joe mentioned, this is all voluntary.

We cannot force any property owner, we cannot force any business to join the NCA.

They have to come to us with a deal.

Once they come to us, we will then begin to negotiate the charges.

They're gonna select a menu.

It could be a five-course meal, four-course meal.

They're gonna select different types of charges.

We are going to work the community development charges to best fit the project at hand.

Um an example of one such project could be a new gas station along 35.

Um, we have a lot of transient travelers, we have a lot of visitors that are on that.

We could install a three percent community development charge on all retail and all products sold.

We would have to get permission though from the developer in order to do that, and then those funds that are collected go back to improvements that the commission and the NCA board decide upon.

We do have to disclose these charges to the consumer.

So these are not hidden charges.

There are state mandates, state laws that state that you have to post what they're being charged for.

And I'm sure we have all seen an additional charge on our receipts when we've gone out and traveled to Atlanta to Detroit, um, even to Columbus, the short north.

Our partners right across the way are utilizing this.

So we are technically missing out on an opportunity to provide an additional tool for funding improvements in downtown.

And what's neat about this is it's a commitment from our business owners and our property owners.

They are committing and reinvesting in their space, in their place and in our city.

With that, um I am happy to um answer any questions.

Thank you very much.

Um I do have a couple questions for Mr.

Tusk, but if that's fair to my colleagues, because I don't want to.

So the first question that I have is you mentioned uh heavy hitters, right?

Uh a think tank, if you will, in terms of the the members to that made up the initial board to review the NCA to actually vet the the process and all of the mechanics itself to go along with if in fact this is something that we wanted to entertain.

The question I have is did you in fact have any neighborhood representation on part of that board?

In terms of residents who live downtown, yes, I don't believe so.

Okay.

And then the other question that I have, thank you.

Um let me say this as well.

I am very excited to see this come before uh the commission.

Um I think that the NCA, I I know that the NCA is in fact uh a viable a tool that could be used to help spark a lot of the development that we so desperately want to see in downtown, our corridors, and throughout our neighborhoods.

And I think that this is in fact uh the right timing for us to do so.

Um again, I do have a couple of questions and concerns about how do we utilize this tool where it's equitable and there is fair and that we can really start seeing the development um throughout throughout the city.

So you mentioned the three recommendations.

So the first recommendation was in fact for the petition itself.

Remind me again the recommendations.

The first recommendation is to move forward to establish and adopt the citywide NCA.

And the resolutions you have on your calendar today do that because it is a petition process where petition is submitted, it is then the first action is for the city commission to accept that petition as well as then you have to set a public hearing.

Right.

Because it's uh no no earlier than 30 days, no later than 45 days.

Okay.

So so the but the goal is to do that as expeditiously as possible, particularly given the needs and and the things that are happening with the convention facilities authority in the convention center uh as sort of the first participant that would be added to the NCA.

Okay.

So with the first recommendation in the petition, it wasn't necessarily initiated by the first project.

Do you think the recommendation was to move this forward as an overall tool for downtown development as part of the revisions and the updates to the greater downtown plan, as well as in parallel, the convention center is moving forward with a fairly significant set of improvements, projects, development initiatives, both in terms of acquiring some additional surrounding properties as well as trying to move forward to finalize the financing and move forward with a convention center hotel uh at the uh I guess that's what the South Southeast corner of so you really have these two things happening simultaneously parallel, and it's really more serendipitous than anything else.

Actually, Mayor and Commissioners, they asked at the end of, they asked us over a year ago, they wanted to set up their own NCA.

And that's when we were starting to have conversations about how do we drive strategies that better align with our priorities and lift all boats versus being responsive to developers.

So we have been putting the convention center on, we put them on hold so we could do this work, and now they're circling back and coming back about the same time because they've been in the wings waiting for us to get done with our work.

Okay.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

And and I I apologize.

I'm I'm going to go back to the I have another question in the first recommendation, but please, the second and third recommendation.

Excuse me.

The second and third recommendation.

Second recommendation was to dedicate the revenue that's generated by the remote TIFF, which is downtown development.

So that what you would do is you would take that remote TIFF money, which is generated by development downtown, and dedicate it to future reinvestment in downtown, so that you are driving the notion that the funds that get invested in downtown are funds that get generated by what happens downtown.

And that that allows you to look at if that's the pot of money you're gonna jet you're gonna dedicate for downtown, it allows you to look at the development fund and say, how do we rethink how we use that development fund, because a portion of it was used every year for downtown development.

How do we rethink that and look at how that might be utilized out in the neighborhoods because you've now got this dedicated fund that's generated by the investment in downtown?

Okay.

And the third recommendation?

The third was to really look at, we spent a good bit of time looking at the investment that has occurred, where the assets are, and where the gaps are, and what we kept coming back to every time we looked at these, and we had multiple discussions, both at the committee level as well as with the various staff that were working on it, is we've got a great collection of assets downtown, but the connectivity between those assets is just not what it needs to be.

In some instances, it's okay.

Some instances, quite frankly, it's not very good.

And the way that you really generate the dynamic sort of activity in in a downtown is when, here again, using me, when I'm on Third Street at Swainio having dinner, what's the connectivity that's gonna get me up to the Schuster or get me up into the ballpark district?

And how does that work?

I really don't want to have to get in my car, drive someplace else, figure out where I'm gonna park, blah, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

There's all there are a lot of things that can be done if we have some revenue that is flexible and dedicated to solving those problems.

And looking at the corridor and also getting them the buy-in of those first floor businesses, we think is a really critical approach in terms of how you can identify what the needs are, get buy-in in terms of actually participating in the NCA, and then utilizing those funds to address those needs that are specific to that particular area, because they are voluntarily joining.

So then it creates the kind of sit the kind of synergy and the kind of connectedness that you want.

Yeah.

And that is not it's not easy to achieve.

Sounds easy when you talk about it.

It's much more difficult to do it when you're when you're on the ground trying to make it happen.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um I'm gonna be very quick because I know my colleagues have some other questions.

So you have to establish the the legislation that we have, I'm just trying to make sure that I'm tracking the recommendation in which it is moving forward by all of the members that bring before to the commission for their support is to want to establish and adopt a citywide NCA.

The question that I have though is if we're establishing a citywide NCA, why do we keep referencing downtown?

Why is the language not inclusive if in fact when you really go in deep dive into the documents itself, it's saying citywide, which we all want, right?

We're all in agreement of that.

But in the document, when you really do a deep dive and you look at the language, it's pointing out specifically to downtown.

So just I'm I'm just really want to understand.

If we're saying a city wide, why are we only identifying downtown in the petition in the language itself?

There's probably two pieces to that.

Please.

One is, and very simply, with these sorts of initiatives, you have to pick a place to start.

Okay.

Okay, and you also have to have a city-owned asset that you use in order to start.

Okay.

The second piece of the puzzle is while it's called a citywide NCA, the reality is you also have to have the economic activity, and you have to have enough market so that you can actually look at how you might generate additional dollars through community development charges.

And downtown is the place where you do have that kind of critical mass.

The goal would be in the future, that critical mass is going to start moving out along the various major corridors, which then also is the reason why we're talking about a corridor strategy.

So that if we can actually build a corridor strategy that starts to make sense over time, you should be able to take that strategy and apply it to major corridors that are not in the downtown.

But it's going to take time.

This is not something that's going to happen quickly.

But strategically, it is from my perspective, the absolute best tool and best approach that the city can take in order to start to figure out how you generate different sorts of revenue, how you generate it from people who visit who are the users of downtown and of the city as opposed to the folks who all live here.

Okay.

So when you mention you mentioned in the petition, and like and thank you for that, I appreciate that.

I follow you in terms of identifying a specific project, parcel, whatever have you, and we have MCCFA, which is the convention center, whatever have you, and then we also have the fidelity built fidelity building, which is in fact under the possession of the city, city owned parcel, whatever have you.

Um but you mentioned East Third Street and Kiwi, right?

That's a part of this conversation, right?

That would be the pilot for this corridor strategy.

Okay.

Here again, you have to pick a place to start.

Okay.

When you look at the corridors even in the downtown, if you look at that corridor, you have food and beverage.

Right.

You have actual retail, which is extremely rare in downtown Dayton to have a retailer who's selling clothing.

Right.

Okay.

You have the what I what I like to call the night economy.

You have events and music venues along there.

You have service businesses there, uh, you know, hair salons, et cetera, so that you have a broad range of uses so that as a pilot, it is probably the best opportunity to figure out can this work, how do you make it work, and how do you design something that really is responsive to all of those various users because they all have different needs.

I would submit to you that if you work through process, you're probably going to come down to some key elements.

And that's probably where ends up being a priority, and that's probably where funding would go from the community development charge.

But it's really about here again, you got to pick a place to start, and I really am a strong believer that you pilot these things.

You try to go too big too fast.

When you have something that you need to fix, it ends up being a really big fix instead of a small fix.

So thank you.

I appreciate that.

So everything that you just noted, that same philosophy, if you will, that same notion could be applied to West Third Street.

So in terms of the pilot, we have East Third to Kiwi.

We also need to include West Third Street because there is great development that's happening on West Third Street.

We have the Sims development that is taking place.

We have Magnus Capitol, who is in fact, they will be soon redeveloping the Zion, uh, the first African American church in the area, the RTA Culture Center, prime for development.

We have the again the the 41 uh veterans, recipients that will be honored right there on that corner.

Um again, that's that connectivity that we're talking about.

And so let's bring it across the river and let's make sure that again with East Third Street, West Third Street, we can complement all of that work, all of that development, bring it right down to the core in downtown Dayton.

So that will be my axe for that.

Um the last thing that I want to I'm sorry, thank you.

We want to make sure we're respectful.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Um the other thing that I wanted to make mention to Mr.

Tusk, and I know that you're wear vo well versed in this, and I really do appreciate it.

Um see if I have my question.

Oh, I know what it was.

Yeah, I got it.

Uh so my question is in regards to um you mentioned about this potentially freeing up dollars and that we can divert uh the dollars, the development funds that we have currently, right?

So, and this probably is more towards the city manager.

Um, where does that commitment for 2027?

Are we making that commitment to reduce our development fund for 2027?

Is there what is the what is the leverage, if you will, being that how do we show the community that this is in fact a win-win for all of us, which I honestly do believe it is, and I agree everything with Mr.

Tusk said, uh, this is a tool that we need to exercise probably 10 years ago, but here we are, we're we're here now, and I'm very excited about it.

But just what's that level of commitment?

So, Mayor, that was the that was the point that was made in all of your briefings.

Yes.

When I talked about the fact that this would free up dependency on general fund, and it could create opportunity for us to shift into the community, the the million dollars from development fund into community for housing for demolition, et cetera.

And I uh and and said I would need policy direction from the commission.

So that's that is exactly the opportunity, and we will have more conversations so that I can get poly good policy direction for the 2027 budget.

Thank you, Ms.

Dixon.

I appreciate that.

Okay, Ms.

Jackson, we got work to do.

All right, we got work to do.

Thank you.

I'm gonna pose it, um, shift over rather, turn it over to my colleagues.

I know they have some questions for you both.

So thank you, Mr.

Tuss.

I really appreciated uh Mr.

Cole and Commissioner, Commissioner Beckham, excuse me.

Thank you, Honor.

I think you made a great point in terms of uh our intention to extend this down third street.

Uh I definitely support that idea.

Um, but other than that, I don't have any more questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Fairchild.

Yeah, no, I appreciate the presentation.

Um I'm curious, it feels like we've got like half a meal here.

Um just kind of the conversation, it seems like it generates more questions as we learn more about this.

And you know, I was briefed last week and saw the petition just um because of the um the issues with the website on Tuesday night.

So still trying to make sense of that.

Is there any possibility to delay this so that we can get to a place where this is more um better formed and we have a complete meal?

Excuse me.

If that's a question for me, Commissioner Fairchild.

Um again, as I said, we have um been delaying this for the convention to the convention center who's been ready to go and and that's jeopardizes their potential closing and for getting that hotel funded and moving.

Secondly, this is we've been working with outside council to make sure that we are structuring this.

This is exactly how other communities have structured moving forward.

You start and then you organically grow.

And so we have been replicating what the a large portion of what those other 55 communities have done, all with slight changes, you know, like the short north is a perfect example.

They are a mature established retail district with 50,000 students who are frequenting it every day.

So they have they have you know the greatest example of something.

But like cities like ours, our outside council who has been doing this across the state has helped guide us in how we start.

So I don't know how a delay would help us do anything more, because we have to now get it in place so that we can have conversations with the retailers and the service providers in the corridors.

And you that's the next step after we get it established and get the board set up so that we can start generating, start using the tool.

That doesn't make sense to me because you just use the short north and they had a hundred businesses lined up before they adopted it.

So they were able to have the conversations.

You just said you couldn't have the conversations till we adopted it.

That doesn't make sense because we could have been having those conversations, right?

There is a marked difference between the short north in Columbus and Dayton, Ohio.

Sure.

We've been having conversations with developers, we've had some conversations with businesses.

We are at a point where we want to try and align what we haven't been able to do, because we need the direction of the commission with the remote TIFF and all of that is put the full package together to say, okay, what in the corridors in in Wright Dunbar district in East.

What is it that you want?

Because that's the what is priority?

What's the high priority?

Do you want twinkle lights all around?

Do you want better infrastructure?

Do you what is it that is that will make that connective tissue for you that we can negotiate so that we could then put the put it in place?

The concern is that is a negotiation that looks different regard uh depending on who you talk with.

And so getting the tool in place gives us the opportunity and the leverage to get attention with our businesses, because we can't model a hundred businesses that are already making X sales that are already like the Short North, they had they had a different approach because they had a mature retail district.

What we have to do is go out and talk with our folks to bring along our retail for the corridor strategy.

We have a development that is ready to go, that is ready to close, that is a $60 million investment for the hotel.

You know, that will help bring more visitors and tourists to to our city using going to our amenities that is ready to go.

And that's why we're starting, that's why we're asking to start this petition.

The corridor study for us, or the corridor strategy is coming alongside that.

So it wasn't a, you know, we had a different approach, but it is still very much a similar approach that many cities have used across the state.

It feels like a misstep.

Because I try to talk all the time about downtown and the neighborhoods.

It's an and.

And this demonstrates, this feeds a narrative that it's downtown first and neighborhoods citywide when we get to it.

And I think that's unfortunate that we continue to feed into that narrative.

Um tonight I'm being asked if the petition is sufficient.

I know that an outside law firm has prepared this, but when I look at the financial plan and the feasibility study that are required by statute, those don't look like anything that I would consider a financial plan or a feasibility study.

Are we confident that this petition is sufficient?

Yes.

Okay.

Um just some nuts and bolts questions.

So let's say West Social Table and Tap wanted to opt in.

Would anything they collect from whatever service charge they would add?

Would that dollars then be allocated within the right dunbar neighborhood?

Yes, that's the that's the strategy that you are supporting those with the corridors.

You know, you want to bring in the investment to try and help improve the corridor and help improve.

That's part of the buy-in.

That's part of the hook.

And the remote TIFF has been mentioned several times tonight.

Is that somewhere included in the petition or is that separate action we'll have to take?

But there's no there is no there is no policy direction redirection that needs to take place with the remote TIFF.

It's been established, it's already maturing.

It's just that the shift is about development funding going into the name into the community.

Say that again.

There's no policy, new policy direction needed with the remote.

Please, excuse me, Ms.

Dixon.

We want to hear everyone's comments.

We want to make sure that in fact the commissioners, all of the commissioners, as well as Ms.

Dixtein and even the presenters are heard.

So I ask that we please be respectful.

There is disruptive comments, laughter, if we can all cease, please.

And let's have a respectable, meaningful meeting.

This is something that we all are are desperately committed to hearing, and so I would just ask for the respect.

Thank you.

Excuse me, Commissioner.

Yeah, the remote TIFF is already, there's no new policy direction.

What I what we were suggesting is because it is now mature and it is generating about a million dollars a year, that there could be relief on the general fund development fund, and that could go into the community.

And that's what that's what the recommendation was.

And that's where I knew that's where the new policy direction would be required.

And where does the how is are the TIFF remote that remote TIFF used currently?

It's it's being used in downtown projects.

Right.

But the recommendation is to exclusively say that it can be used there.

It's to keep what's generated from investment and values in downtown in downtown to support more downtown, you know, improvements and and the the strategies.

That's what the recommendation was about.

And then but what that actually does is free up the general fund.

And so what's the actionable how do we effectuate that recommendation?

You can provide direction about where you want the one million to go.

You can do a res you don't have to do anything.

We've reviewed the legislation that's already in place for the remote TIP.

You could adopt a resolution that would be that would clarify and show support of that recommendation.

If you want to do something public, um you could do that.

Okay.

But if I understand it's necessary for the their financing that we adopt this.

Could you say more about that?

I I'm talking specifically about the the as if we can if we delay um starting this.

First of all, they have charges that they've already approved that the developers approved, that the MCCFA has approved, and so the longer we don't put forward this petition and get this in place, they're missing out on revenue opportunities that they could be generating from those additional charges that they've already identified and they've identified as a way to put forward or to fill the gap and to close on their project and start construction.

So the longer we devo we delay, that's what and they need to have some of the this tool has to be in place in order to get to their closing because they are you know they are going to be selling bonds themselves, and so there's all these documents that will be lining up to our petition, our NCA, and if we don't get it in place, they can't re they can't have the assurances, bondholders would require, banks would require, et cetera, because we haven't set our tool up.

Who will issue the bonds in that scenario?

The MCCFA.

The um and then the last technical question is um in the petition it says that none of the funds can go for private improvements.

But they can go for community facilities.

So I'd like to call Tyler Bridge up from our uh from Bricker to help you answer the legal technical questions.

Hi there, great to be in front of you.

I'm Tyler Bridge.

Um it's great to uh represent the city of Dayton.

We serve as your council.

So I'm here to answer any questions that you may have.

I can start with the first.

Yeah.

So the did you get the question or you need to?

Yeah, I I did.

So when we talk about tax increment financing, for example, we know that we can use those revenues, but we have to use them for public infrastructure improvements.

And public infrastructure improvements are defined by the code.

The same is the true here, it's just a little bit different.

It's much more expansive.

So there's really four different buckets of things we can use new community authority revenue for.

One is community land acquisition, community land development, community services, and then the fourth bucket is what you just identified as community facilities.

Community facilities is a long definition.

It's a whole paragraph in the code.

But it's things like fixtures, equipments, and furnishings to be owned, operated, financed, and constructed under the chapter, but then we get into public community, village, neighborhood, or town buildings, centers, plazas, auditoriums, child care centers, recreation halls, educational facilities, healthcare facilities, telecom facilities, and then we get into bikeway systems, pedestrian systems, all of these things.

So it's kind of everything that you know about tax increment financing, but blow that up.

It's kind of TIFF mega plus.

Um it's just a less restrictive revenue source, so we can use them for many, many things.

And so in the scenario with the um convention center and the hotel using service charges, can those go to the development of their property?

Not directly towards the private improvements, um, but all the public infrastructure associated items that might come along with the development.

Um, yes, a gas, electric lines, energy installations, and there the the things are very, very many.

So it's a very broad list.

Acquisition of land, um grading, dirt, things like that, moving dirt, all those kinds of things, yes.

And it can also be used for debt service for those items as well.

And I think that's kind of what we're centering on.

Um so debt service, obviously we do that with TIFF as well, where a revenue stream can be co-offred cooperatively assigned uh to pay debt service, same is true here.

Um I can give you a concrete example of this uh in Washington Courthouse, which is not too far from here in Fayette County, small community that's having some development, they're having a number of residential developments there.

Um they the new community itself in that instance is issuing about 17 million dollars in in bonds, but it's being used specifically to pay for phase one and phase two of uh public infrastructure improvements needed for the residential development.

And then each new residential homeowner, every single one of them, uh, is coming and they're paying a nine mil charge on their property in addition to their current property tax bill.

Those revenues are then being assigned towards uh the debt service for the infrastructure for those folks.

So in that community, they're saying we have a citywide NCA in Washington Courthouse, and they're saying, welcome to our community, new developers.

Thank you for coming.

We're very appreciative that you're here.

In order to take the burden off our existing taxpayers, we want you to participate in this program, and new is paying for new, new is paying for the maintenance that comes with new infrastructure as well, instead of current folks who are already doing enough, paying enough and have been here for a very long time.

That's their proposal.

Another concrete example is in the city of Circleville.

That's in Pickway County, it's about 60 miles south of Columbus.

It's not inside the belt.

They have a citywide new community authority, and their program is to say we don't care if you're sheets, if you're loves truck stop, if you're a residential developer, if you're DR Horton, we don't care who you are, we want you to join our new community authority, and then we're going to decide later.

They do not have a financial plan in place about how they want to use the revenues yet.

So I've heard a lot of discussion about two things.

One, the setup of the program, and two, well, how do we want to use the money?

We don't have any money yet, obviously.

Um but in Washington Courthouse, they have the program set up.

They're not leaving dollars on the table as developments come through, but they have not had this collaborative discussion yet about how they intend to actually when the rubber meets the road use the money.

A third example, I came from a new community authority meeting five hours ago in Middletown.

And they have a citywide, it's not a citywide new community authority, but it is a city-driven city-started new community authority in Middle Town.

And so we levied a 2% charge on a sheets station that is opening in seven days.

Had they not had the new community authority in place, sheets would have come in.

And once the development is already there, once the property owner has already come in, it's much harder to start the program.

The reason is because we have to come to commission or city council every single time we have any kind of addition to the new community authority.

Nothing can happen unless we come to you and get approval to get that addition in place.

So we just did that about five hours ago.

Uh sheets, basically, pretty much the things that you buy at that gas station, they're gonna have a 2% charge on that.

There, they're pledging the funds over to debt service associated with what may or may not be an arena project.

You probably have heard about that, but I kind of blabbered a little bit and went astray.

So I'll stop there.

Um thank you.

That's helpful.

Um I asked the city manager this question, but you're the the technical.

Um looking at the financial plan, the feasibility study, those are sufficient to meet the statute.

Yes, so what you're seeing in the petition is something we've used probably a hundred times across the state.

Our firm probably represents around that number of new community authorities, and this is a plan that's been used everywhere from the short north new community authority to the shore to um the sh the uh Cleveland just started um uh a coast north coast waterfront NCA for their downtown and associated um lakefront developments.

What the code says, and I I wanted to highlight this is it really just requests a preliminary plan, and that's sort of what it is for a citywide new community authority.

Obviously, we're we're not really here to project we're gonna have this many dollars, we're gonna have this many people.

We're making preliminary indications of how we expect this body to run.

Because what are we doing?

We're setting up a pup a body public corporate and politics.

So we're setting up a political subdivision, like a school district or like a joint economic development district.

The city probably has a number of joint economic development districts.

Those are independent bodies that you set up with your consent.

Um, and what the code simply requires is just a preliminary financial plan about what charges do we want to have in this thing?

Um what minimums or maximums can we foresee having in this thing?

And if you sort of imagine, the city of Dayton really was a pioneer in some ways about using a new community authority because it was doing so for the Delco, it did so for the arcade.

Um, and what you saw was that every private developer for every unique project was coming to you and wanting to start one of their own.

And I think what what the community across the state has learned is we don't really want to be in the movie gremlins because once you start one, you know, don't give it water after midnight, they start multiplying.

And so that's kind of what the state has learned.

And so really, and in my practice, I do not see any more developer-driven NCAs because their city has to staff the board, there's resources to do that, you've you've got to, you know, monitor these things.

It it's a it's its own body, but this developer is sort of running it, are they really running it?

Is it working?

And so communities are pushing back off of that and saying, no, we want to start you know our own thing, we want to lay out the general parameters, and that's what we're doing in this document.

We're saying let's start this thing as the broadest possible way we can with the broadest possible parameters, nuance in ways where we can, because in the petition you see there are minimum floors to the types of charges, there's maximums.

We obviously don't want to price people out.

That is not a good thing to do right now in the world, especially with inflation and things like that.

Um so we're setting up this very broad system, and it's sort of like the constitution.

And then what'll happen is with the MCCFA, for example, they'll have to, and we're kind of running this at the same time.

MCCFA is just the first property owner that says, yeah, we want to join this.

And so you will have to simultaneously with this go through a process that takes a month about to formally process that addition.

The MCCFA for that project will have to come back and they're gonna have to record on the properties, all the properties in that development, a specific supplemental declaration.

It's actually a covenant on the ground.

And that covenant is then gonna select from all this broad stuff and actually get granular for that project and how that project specifically works.

Um it's a little different.

If we had a developer-driven NCA, we would come to you with everything because this is the exact project, and that's what they're gonna do.

But we're we're going to get to all that just in a course of business.

And that's sort of why it's downtown driven, just because we're picking this one parcel to start it on.

But nothing happens until we come back to you.

We may have to come back to you a thousand times over the next 25 years.

It's quite possible.

Because every single property owner is going to have to submit a consent.

Because you're you're basically saying they're basically coming to you and saying, yes, tax me more.

I want to pay more to be here.

So we're going to have to come back and all those discussions about how you want to use the funds strategically.

I would have probably no doubt that there's going to have to be some you know hard, very good discussions, and and that's already on on display here about the collaborative nature of how that will have to occur.

But you know, that both things can happen.

You can start the thing, and then if you don't do anything else, nothing's gonna happen with it.

So it's really within your power to do or not, even if we went forward with you know this stuff here.

Um my last question is around this um this structural relationship.

We're creating a new political jurisdiction.

I've been assured multiple times that that that's strong by statute, the city is not liable for any of the actions of the NCA.

In this new the kind of the model that everyone's moving to, which are the city um as the developer.

Has any of those been sued yet on that question?

We have not we have not had any NCA be sued at this time.

I would point out also that and I said previously the city um has many joint economic development districts.

It's basically the same concept.

You're starting a public body that has the ability there to levy an income tax within its boundaries.

You're obviously operating in a township to do that.

Um but it's a very similar structure.

Um I can't really have 32 of them.

Port authorities port authorities as well.

Um you're starting up uh, you know, and another entity.

The city also has the energy special improvement district, which has helped to bring capital to the city for property assessed clean energy financing.

That was a part of the arcade, I believe, with everything else we could probably bring to bear.

Um, but those are also examples of bodies where you know you're setting up a body and you know um there's there's possible liability for that body.

But the other thing I would say But can it go ahead?

Yep.

But in all of those examples, there's multiple partners, right?

There's multiple jurisdictions who are coming and are part of that.

Um in this case, I mean, we are SNC NCA because it's the city manager as a developer and the let the commission as the organizing committee.

I mean, it's us, right?

No, because it it's just a it's a completely separate body.

It will have its own EIN number, it will we have to send a letter to the auditor estate of the formation of the body.

Um that'll it has to file its own Hinkle reporting with the auditor estate, so all of the audits that the city of Dayton's audited by the auditor estate, this entity will be completely and separately audited by the auditor.

Um we represent, so we represent the city of Dayton, and if we were to represent this body, it would have to sign an its own engagement letter with our firm in order for us to do that because everything is is separated.

Um as to the question, you know, is there a is there a legal question as to whether we can do this?

Basically, to start the NCA, the process basically says a developer must submit a petition to the organizational board of commissioners, period.

The developer is defined in the code, and the developer in the code says you absolutely can be a municipal corporation that owns property.

And so that municipal corporation is just submitting in this case a petition to the organizational board, which is just the commission.

Um, and so we do not view that as being legally problematic.

And in fact, as we've said, um I would say all I can't say all because you never say all, but I would say greater than 90, 95% of all communities who are doing this or doing it alone.

I would also say that townships, they're currently lobbying the state house to be able to do what you're doing because they can't.

In order to do this as a township in Ohio, you have to the way that we're doing it, where a township would do it on their own property and submit it to their board of trustees.

You have to be a township with a population of over 5,000 in a county between 200 and 400.

There's only 12 townships in Ohio that can do this in their own right as the city of Dayton can.

The other thousand, you know, are trying to knock down the doors of the Statehouse to do this.

Why?

Because they're scared that real property taxes, which is their lifeblood, not yours, income tax is yours, they're scared that their that revenue source is going to be played with at the General Assembly.

So they're trying to determine and find other stable revenue sources because their general funds are under a lot of political pressure.

So you're in a way, as a municipal corporation, ad you know, advantaged in your ability to be able to do something like this, whereas many political uh subdivisions across the state are not able to do so.

Um in the petition that we adopt tonight, that's one that will presented at the public hearing, or is there opportunity to amend between now and the public hearing?

Yes, there would be there would be I uh two things.

So let me let me outline the process here.

So, as we said, the developer who in this case is the city submits a petition.

The first action is that the commission is is determining whether the petition is sufficient, and that's a general determination, as we said, we have to present preliminary items.

Um there after that will be three weeks of public notice of the public hearing, and your legislation sets the date of the public hearing.

So that will be noticed three times in the in the newspaper here in town.

And then the hearing just has to happen 30 to 45 days after we submitted the petition, which I think was last Friday.

I think that's right.

And so if we didn't hit that date for some reason, we would just have to resubmit it and restart.

You'll have the public hearing, and then the same day you'll have another piece of legislation which says we approve of the petition.

So there conceivably can be amendments to the petition during that time.

The the second point I would make is, and I don't I don't remember the number, so please forgive me, but the code specifically says that the organizational board of commissioners, you can amend the petition in any particular.

So we interpret that to mean that language is very, very broad.

So you're not locked into something with just this.

If we need to come back because of, you know, later on we have strategic planning exercises, or there is you know, uh a great public comment, which there there conceivably will be in this collaborative process.

Um you can come back later, even after you approve it, and amend the petition in any particular to um align this program with the strategic goals of the community and the people.

All right.

Thank you.

And um just one comment in general.

Um I think it's bad practice for us to bring a piece of legislation that has to be passed by emergency without fully vetting it from the commission.

And I think it's unprofessional.

And I think that going forward, it really needs to stop.

It does an injustice to our citizens and to this body and to the work, the serious work we have to do.

And so I just want to uh note my objection to us being briefed so late in the process and it being brought as an emergency that has to be passed this night.

We've done this before, and it's really unacceptable.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Shaw.

Yes.

Um I feel like we had a very thorough uh vetting of this uh a briefing, several briefings, uh back and forth reports.

Uh I appreciate your report that you sent out um the other day, clarifying from questions that both the mayor and I think you uh had um it was enlightening.

And I thought that it was very thorough and thoughtful about the way that it happened what what other communities are doing, how it's spelled out in the hard revised code.

This is a tool, one tool uh that we can use.

And uh what I'm most appreciative of of is the conversation about being able to free up general funding to support the neighborhoods, which is what all five of us want to do.

Uh, this is a good tool for that.

There are some projects that are critically important for this community.

And let's be clear.

The economic development driver for the city and for this region is right here in downtown Dayton.

And that's just a simple fact in how economic development works and communities all over this country.

So uh this came out of a very thorough process, about a year long, where um Mr.

Tuss and and myself and Dave Mellon led uh this this process, a lot of questions back and forth, and this kind of uh rose up out of those year-long conversations, and I I think it was a very thorough process.

So thank you for that, and thank you for all of your questions.

Uh I think they're really important to kind of get this all out.

And that's what this uh this meeting is about to kind of vet it and talk about it, and that's what we're doing.

I think that it's something that we need to move forward on right away because there's it's a very sensitive time.

Critically important that we get this hotel going to support the economic development efforts of the CFA that was stood up with another very thorough process where we talked about the need for more hotel bids and more hotels in downtown to support bringing small and mid-sized conventions to this community, which will support the efforts that we do in all parts of the city, all of the neighborhoods.

So I think we should move forward on this, and I I just appreciate uh my colleagues for for uh all of the questions and uh getting up to speed on this.

We sat in briefings and had plenty of opportunities.

I didn't feel rushed.

I had all of the questions that I needed answered, answered at that time.

Um I'm assuming that you had the same opportunity.

Um so you know, I'm ready to move forward on this, and and I think we've uh had a lot of questions here today, so I'm gonna leave it at that.

But I'm very supportive of this effort.

I think it's gonna do tremendous things for this community and this region, uh, and our neighborhoods, in our neighborhoods.

And uh and I let's move forward on this.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Joseph.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, I think I said this last week or maybe in a hearing we were talking about this is uh when I travel to other cities, especially bigger cities, and I'll pay for something, uh I'll see on the receipt there's a two percent charge or a one dollar charge at a rental counter or a restaurant.

I'm really I'm very excited about finding ways to fund improvements in our neighborhoods by using visitors' money.

Yeah.

Uh that's a that's a nice tool.

I appreciate everybody that's just worked hard on that, including you, Commissioner.

Um and second, all the other point I want to make, a lot of good points have been made here, is that I think it's foresightful to make this citywide.

Um I know that the mayor and I talked today, we're looking forward to those expansion possibilities coming up, because I think there are other places that can also benefit from this.

So I just want to make that good foresight to make the citywide.

Thank you all.

Um I do have a couple of questions.

I am so glad that you're here.

Thank you very much for being here.

Good to be here.

I really appreciate it.

And and I do too, we're like to recognize all of the members that served on the NCA, um, the the vetting board, if you will, thank you very much for your time, your commitment, your expertise is greatly valued.

Um again, this was introduced to me some time ago.

Uh I do have one question that I would ask, well, a comment more so.

Had we all been introduced to this a year ago, then I think that would have gone a long way.

I also believe that we could have put had potentially robust conversations about having the strategy in place and not feeling rushed and not having to do uh legislation, emergency legislation, like we could have all put, you know, our our minds together at the time I was a commissioner.

Um Commissioner Beckham was in fact a senior policy advisor advisor, which in fact he would have served in being a part of those conversations.

So again, I will echo Commissioner Fairchild's point is that if we know that something so vital and so important that could potentially do wonders for our community, let's engage early on.

Um this is a lesson learned.

Um, and my hope is that um we adopt better practices.

Uh the other question that I wanted to pose to you, rather the first question.

Um so you mentioned sheets, great example.

So the question is did sheets come to the municipality, or did the municipality go out and in fact recruit sheets?

How did that relationship and how did that NCA and that additional tax, how was that initiated?

Yeah, so in that community, because it was started on the city ground, they didn't go to that property owner first.

Um that that was a program that was started, and then as development comes, and and and sheet says we would like to be here, we're going to build this there, then the city comes.

So in in the prior examples in Dayton, I think you we're just we're operating f backwards from this, which is no no no, we're gonna develop the arcade.

So the arcade comes and it's a collaborative process, all kind of in one bunch, but this is really different.

It's saying, as with the community I just mentioned, we're gonna start this thing on one little tiny parcel in the city, and then the new developers coming, and then the city reacts to that and says, Oh, well, we want you to join our new community authority.

That's from a development context.

Um and I'll I'll give you a couple examples.

So in Circleville, for example, they're they're just having residential development, and they've got a farm field or or smaller plots of land, and I know that's different from the city of Dayton, but in that context, the div the developer is is entering a marketplace where the new community authority has already been set up.

And the community is saying, This is just what we we want you to join this, opt into this thing.

And one of the things that they do there, as a city of Dayton does, is sometimes they offer a discretionary benefit, like a CRA.

Okay.

CRA is a handout.

That's in in some ways, it could be used to incentivize a project, but it's a reductionary tool in real property tax revenue.

But it's discretionary.

You don't have to give it.

The commission uh for a commercial project votes upon that agreement, as you have many times.

Um but in that case, that community is saying, well, in exchange for this discretionary benefit that we're giving, which we want to give, in exchange, you have you have to join our new community authority because when there's a contractual barter, you know, um they can you can require that someone do something like that.

So that's the second instance.

The first instance in Middletown where I just came from, that was just we have a CDA wide NCA, we want you to do this, you're gonna join it.

And so they agreed to do that.

Um the second instance in this in Circleville was uh we've started started our new community authority, we're negotiating with this developer about you know developing a residential neighborhood on this ground.

Well, okay, we'll give you a CRA, but in exchange, you're gonna join our new community authority because we're gonna keep some of the funds, nine mils, whatever it might be, and then we're gonna use it for general fund purposes.

Um and then the last example was just the city of Dayton example where it's really developer driven so far, where they're coming to your first, and so you kinda go in eyes wide open.

But with this program, it's we started on a city parcel, and then if you don't do anything else, it doesn't go anywhere.

There's nothing that happens after that.

So really it's gonna be, you know, a new developer on the outside of town wants to build, I don't know, my favorite example is what if you did have a KFC or fat.

I don't I don't know if there's a moratorium on that, there might be, but in a community, you know, if you want to build that, that's fine, great, but we'd like you to join our new community authority, you know, stuff like that.

So I hope that answers the question.

Directly the question is no, the new community authority was set up first, and then the city started to say, This is our thing, we want you to do it.

And and that's how they got them to do the retail charge.

Because the city in themselves owned that parcel, so that's why they were able to.

Okay.

So I believe I'm tracking.

Um this may be so directed to that that's extremely helpful because what I was initially um my interpretation was that if you I establish the NCA, then in fact, like if you make the petition broader, if you will, to include it didn't necessarily have to be um project base.

My interpretation was that you could open up to city wide, whatever have you, and then if in fact there were additional projects, whatever have you, then you could go and garner that support.

But you're saying unless the city themselves, the municipality, the developer, owns the parcel uh or whatever have you, the structure, they can't initiate that NCA for them to be included.

And ultimately, it's still they still have to opt in, whichever way it goes.

Right.

I think I think you could do it either way, uh, is what I'm trying to say.

There's multiple ways to do this.

Um, but this this way of doing this is just saying we're starting this entity, and then as time rolls, we'll develop a strategic plan about how you where you want to do it.

So the short north example, um, they they had to have every single property owner consent to join the NCA.

Otherwise, they could it wouldn't be able to be done.

So let's say you start this thing on the city-owned parcel just for now, but then the desire is genuinely that you want to do this along a corridor.

Yes.

You're gonna have to go and have a meeting with every single property owner there and get their total buy-in, because if you don't, it won't happen.

You're gonna have to have every single property owner come back to submit a consent.

The commission's gonna have to have a resolution that determines the sufficiency of the consent.

There's gonna be three weeks of public notice in the newspaper, and then there's gonna be a public hearing, and then you're gonna have to consider a second piece of legislation uh approving of the addition.

So if you wanted to do this short north example, we're gonna have to come back again with every one of those property owners, and they're gonna have to go through this whole process all over again.

So what I'm trying to say is if you did this today and you wanted to do a corridor later, it's gonna all have to come back.

It because if it if it doesn't, it can't happen.

Say that again.

I want to make sure I'm registered.

Excuse me.

So let's say you start let the latter part.

We're starting this on a quarter acre, it's I don't even know if it's a quarter acre.

It's just a flag in the ground.

And let's say eventually, two months later from now, uh-huh, you want to start this program on a corridor.

And I'm not totally well versed in all the corridors.

I have been over to the University of Dayton when I was about ten years younger.

Okay.

Yeah, I know, right?

All right.

But let's say you did that.

Okay.

That's a great example because my colleagues and I have been talking about that.

It was a great time.

Yeah.

Um, but you're gonna have to go to every single property owner along that street and say, Do you guys want to do this?

Do you guys want to create a zone here where we'll have a rider on beer?

Um, and every single one of those property owners is gonna have to say yes.

So I think both things are true.

You're just really you're just starting this in the toolkit, and then we're gonna have to have this long conversation later about how you want to run it.

Um you've probably had a special improvement district before.

Yes.

And that program is a little different.

You can draw a box and draw it creatively to force people to join it.

And this that is not true here.

We cannot do it.

Every tiny little parcel along that corridor over by the University of Dayton, if that's what you wanted to do with the two percent charge, would have to come back to commission, and they would have to do this same process that we're running here all over again with public notice, public hearings, um, two pieces of legislation.

And then after that, every single one of those property owners is gonna have to record on their ground in the Montgomery County Recorder's office a supplemental declaration that says I covenant and agree to pay these charges, and so do so do the successors owners to my property.

So this is a process uh that's gonna have to happen.

Um we're just saying, you know, for for for now, this is a tool that we're gonna put in the toolkit for the city, and then we're gonna explore, you know, with our community members, with our corridors, with whomever else, how we're gonna do this and if we're gonna do it, get the buy, and if we get that come back to the commission, do a whole process for a month, then they're gonna have to record all these documents in the uh recorder's office to get it done if you really wanted to do a corridor thing.

The other the other example we were talking about with the sheets was just the city had the program set up, their policy is if you're new here, we love it.

But you're we're gonna we're gonna take nine mills, real property charge.

And the benefit of doing that is you've done TIFFs before.

The difference is you can only do a tip for 30 years.

These charges run with the land in perpetuity until this thing is shut down.

Um and so it's just a revenue store source that is a it's gonna be a covenant on that ground.

You know, where that property owner, like let's say you did this for a sheets or something.

I know you have gas station moratorium, I think.

Yes.

But I don't know, maybe it's something where you said, well, we'll lift our moratorium, you can build your loves travel stop, but in exchange, you're going to join our new community authority and you're gonna pay nine mills or whatever it's gonna be, a retail charge on transient uh folks who come in and out.

But they're gonna have to go through the same process.

You you're just having so many things go on with this because it's a city.

When we say citywide, we're saying we're trying to develop a master plan for the city to try to use this tool in many different ways.

One of them could be a corridor tool with the retail charge, like is in the short north could be.

One of them could be like Middletown or elsewhere where they're saying, nope, we want to do this, we're for travel stop, we want to make sure our transient folks come in through town or are paying a little something to you know enjoy the benefits we're providing.

Um another in in Washington Courthouse is we're if you're a new residential developer, you know, you're gonna come in and do this.

Another example of using it, which we have in here for you is we'll give you your tax abatement.

That's great.

We'll help you with the project.

But in exchange, you're gonna pay a little back to the community.

Um there's different many ways to use the tool, okay, um, not just one.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Bridge.

I really appreciate it.

This this is extremely helpful, and just for the sake of time.

Um I do have a couple of questions.

Dixteen so the entitled so well maybe you can help me with this um I think I answered my own question with that so I think I might be okay with that one j just really trying to understand like the difference between the city and the municipal corporation with the appointments being the four for the the legislative body but then if you look at the language it also notes that three of the appointments should go to the legislative body but however it's recommended that the three appointments go to the the city manager so let me give you the alternative um when a devel when a private developer as the developer so I would get confused right the developer submits the petition to the organizational board but the developer can be a private landowner it specifically also can be a municipal corporation the organizational board's just always you in the arcade for example or with the Delco new community authority.

I'll give the Delco as an example Crawford Hoying as a private entity submitted as the developer the petition to this commission as the organizational board commissioners because of those facts.

Okay.

The developer Crawford Hoying gets three seats on that board the city commission as the organizational board appoints three plus the legislative member and so you only get four people Crawford Hoying gets the other three on that public body that you started.

Why why are communities starting to not do it that way where the private developer submits the petition to the organizational board because they've learned if I'm the municipal corporation as the developer I get three seats and I submit it to the organizational board of commissioners they get three seats plus they get the legislative authority member you get all seven and so there is this legal thing where the developer is the municipal corporation and we're just interpreting that to mean the developer gets three seats we're allowing the city manager to appoint those seats because the city manager is really the executive of the municipal corporation acting on behalf of the commission with your grace and then the it the code specifically calls out the organizational board of commissioners as the commission you and so you get three plus the legislative member we just interpret there being a wall there between the developer who is the municipal corporation and the organizational board.

So there's just and I would say one more thing you haven't seen this piece of legislation I don't think but as we said the city's submitting this petition you're evaluating whether this is sufficient preliminary economic development analysis which is what the code requires is preliminary then three weeks of public notice in the newspaper then a public hearing then that last piece of legislation that'll come after the public hearing it appoints the seven members we include in the legislation all seven members for you to sign off on.

Okay.

So you're going to look at that and have ample time to say I don't want this person to be the city manager's appointee and I'm sure that that would be a collaborative process to determine but you will look you will see specifically in the legislation each one of those seven people who would be nominated and you would appoint them.

I appreciate that Mr Bridge um let me hurry up and wrap up so the other question thank you for explaining that the process because I know that is my um a personal interest if it's safe to say that the corridors I really want to see how in fact the NCA could really which I know it is an effective tool but I I want to I personally would like to see that development take place on our our corridors to help with our neighborhoods downtown development whatever have you but that's the piece that gives me great anks because staffing capacity right when you talk about adding the corridors then that's additional bandwidth that I safe to say I don't know if we necessarily have that and being that if we were to adopt the corridors at a later date how much staffing capacity do we really have to support that and and and again that's not towards you that's more so to the city manager but your explanation explanation as to that lengthy process versus if we were to get it right the first time right if we were to say let's do this citywide NCA and let's focus on the corridors whether it's the the one and two corridor um because again that lengthy process of the petition and the three weeks of the public hearing of the public notice the hearing and all of that and staff time that it potentially takes away from or council which I'm sure there some expenses that go along with that but how do we reduce that if in fact we were to get it right the first time that that's where my concern is and if in fact we have the capacity Ms Dixtey um because I am as mentioned I am um

If we were to say, let's do this citywide NCA and let's focus on the corridors, whether it's the the one and two corridor, um, because again, that lengthy process of the petition and the three weeks of the public hearing of the public notice, the hearing and all of that and staff time that it potentially takes away from or council, which I'm sure there some expenses that go along with that.

But how do we reduce that if in fact we were to get it right the first time?

That that's where my concern is, and if in fact we have the capacity, Ms.

Dixtey.

Um, because I am as mentioned, I am um supporting the NCA with some um contingencies as to what in fact the other question is again who's gonna lead this effort.

Like we know we have the board, but the board will I ideally they would need staffing support, right?

They would need staffing support, they would need um uh assistance with all of the various uh nuances that go along with that.

So when and where is the where would it be housed?

Would it be housed in planning?

Would it be housed in finance?

You know, I know it's a set it's a separate board.

That would be a president of the board that helps lead it.

They will need some staffing assistance.

Okay, you know, we will have a staff person that we have on there to help with around collections.

They typically need um legal assistance, right?

As they bring on deals and projects and whatnot.

Um so there, but it's a completely separate board that does not land or rest in the city organization.

Okay.

But again, just the amount of capacity, and that's the other question I have.

And so let me talk a little bit about the core as we contemplate adding corridors.

Okay, because we can have a max on our board, is it 16, Tyler?

Yeah, I believe that's right.

16 seats.

Okay.

So we can't, and we couldn't do any less than seven.

Seven's the minimum.

Um and so the idea is as we talk with corridors and as we get interest in adding a corridor geography area, and we get the buy-in from all of the property owners, that they will have a representative board member added to the board so that they have a voice, they have representation, they have, you know, and and they can be a part of that oversight group.

And we can do that up to 16 seats.

Okay.

I I did read that.

So and and the whole reason, again, for going to the citywide NCA versus project, is it takes a heck of a lot less capacity for us to manage a citywide one board looking at the city holistically versus a project, uh an NCA for every project.

Okay.

And as to administrative expenses also, please.

Um, I would say, you know, the meeting I came from about six hours ago now, um, is that they to actually meet the rubber in the road for how do you the city of Middletown's not going in the sheets and saying pay your two percent.

The board of the NCA is going to contract with a third-party administrator like Bradley Payne or incentive review group, or just as would be done with um bonds.

I mean, there's gonna there's someone else that's gonna have to step in to do that.

That happens all across the state.

Um they're gonna have an entity come in and actually do the the management of that.

Where is that paid from?

It just it gets paid out of the charge revenue itself.

So it's a self-sustaining system theoretic, hypothetically, you know, if you set it up where we've got this revenue stream, we're gonna take, you know, four or five, six percent to pay for the administrative costs of actually administering the thing.

Um but the benefit obviously in the with Middletown is well, we could have just had sheets come in and build their gas station and not have an NCA.

Well, then how much money are we leaving on the table?

I don't know.

Um, but in this way, at least you have, you know, a hundred percent of something minus six percent.

Okay, thank you.

Um again, as mentioned, um I I would just ask for as we move forward this process contingent upon the uh the approval of all of the members this evening, is that um we have um an update, a regular update.

Um I will also ask that, and I hope we're all on board in terms of the the corridor.

I think that next phase that conversation need to happen sooner than later within the next um I don't know.

Like how soon can we get the corridors added?

Is it the next 30 days?

No.

No.

Not possible.

No.

I you know, I I hesitate on the bar exam, we're not all the questions that say always or never don't answer those.

But I think in this case it's a 100% no, can't happen.

Okay.

Physically not able.

And I I think that's the key point to hammer home is that actually you could do you could approve the ends.

You could start the sufficiency of the NCA tonight, and if you don't do anything else, nothing happens.

Zero.

Okay.

All right.

So I want to know the next steps, and once we stand up the board and the charge in terms of how we get the the corridors added.

That's where I am in terms of where my support uh for this initiative.

I understand, but again, this just goes back to Commissioner, bless you, goes back to Commissioner Fairchild's point.

And and I apologize for the number of questions, but had I had a conversation with you earlier, this would have been reduced probably about two, three hours.

Um at least two hours because it's eight o'clock now.

But nonetheless, uh, we're here.

I really appreciate you being here.

Uh, Ms.

Dixie, thank you for calling Mr.

Bridge up uh to answer those questions.

Thank you to the work of uh Mr.

Tusk as well as Mr.

Cole, really appreciate the work.

Uh I wish he was a part of the two by two.

That would have gone a long way.

Um, but again, I would like to see the pilot of Easter to Kiwi to West Third Street.

I want to see that possibly sooner than later, because I also think that we're missing an opportunity with the first four.

That is a huge opportunity for us.

There's major development as you mentioned on main, uh Brown Street.

Like, how do we start that conversation now?

And how do we make sure that it lines up before the first four come into town where we know that people are going to be traveling near and afar, the hotel, the lodging fees, the the food and beverage, like that's an opportunity we don't want to miss for 2027, especially with the financial challenges and constraints that we have forthcoming, as well as the various different political nuances that go along with that.

And so my ask is that we move aggressively in the next steps to adopting those corridors, even if we start with the two pilot corridors that Mr.

Tusk mentioned.

Thank you, Mr.

Bridge.

Thank you.

Really appreciate it.

All right.

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 would prevent the city commission from hearing the speaker's comments.

I call to the podium Ebony Hastings one two three eight Wabash Avenue, Ebony Hastings.

Why is this an emergency?

Why are we omitting the cost?

This presentation appeared to be more rich white developers with zero community benefit agreement.

Joe Tus confirmed that you all are in fact paying attention to our social media post.

When are we going to get the forensic audit of the 50k spending?

Middletown, Washington Courthouse, and pick away our apples to oranges in comparison to the city of Dayton.

Predominantly white neighborhoods, smaller neighborhoods.

Don't present us with apples to oranges in regards to what you want us to trust and believe our benefits for the neighborhoods in the city of Dayton.

This goes far beyond just West Dayton at this point.

Because poor white people make the same amount of money as poor black people.

Our city of Dayton employees don't even make an equitable salary.

But seriously, I ask this commission today to pull that 6942-26, 6943-26 from the agenda.

Initiate legislation to make a mayor in this commission full time.

Decrease the city manager's authority.

The city manager is in fact a developer.

She shows us this time and time and time and time again.

Prior to the meeting start.

She speaks to everybody white.

She speaks to all of the developers, and she don't look our way.

She was at Pride, but she was not at Juneteenth.

Thank you, Ms.

Hastings.

So Ms.

Hasting, just for the record, just for everyone in the chambers, uh, there is no associated cost to the emergency resolution number six nine four two-26.

This is the petition to set up the NCA so that in fact we have the legislation in place so that we can start identifying the citywide new community authority.

So there is no cost that will be associated to uh the resolution, uh, the emergency resolution.

And from my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, and please someone chime in, is that the reason why this is in fact is an emergency, because it is a fault, uh, that there is concern as to why this is now just being brought to us.

I get that.

Um, in terms of the conversation was happening a year ago, there was a lot of vetting that took place, all of the above.

The concern is is definitely valid.

However, we have to make sure that in fact this uh emergency resolution isn't in pat is passed this evening so that we could fill the potential gap that is needed and that there is ultimately dollars that are left on the table with the development of the hotel.

So I'll be happy to talk with you afterwards.

I'll be happy to share any additional information with you.

It is actually an uh an a very uh innovative tool that could be in fact used as a means for equitable development.

Um and there is an opportunity for us to have those conversations, but we have to do our part as a legislative body to make sure that the direction is given to the city manager.

So in fact, that is there.

So my axe is that with the commission members, if we are all in agreement that for the the next phase, if you will, within uh an aggressive time frame that we look at those two pilots uh corridor projects that is East Third Street to Kiwi as well as West Third Street, um, and then again lending policy direction to uh Ms.

Dix team for uh the development dollars once this in fact is is issued.

So I I hope that we could be uh and um uh collaborative effort on that and in agreement with that.

Um again, I'll be happy to talk with you more in detail, but it there are ways and means and there is examples on how this model is in fact effective.

I mean, we see it across the country, and we're lagging behind, honestly.

Excuse me, Miss McClendon.

Thank you.

I call to the podium David Kittbridge.

Uh David Kittredge, uh 244 Hadley Avenue.

Um talking about 6942-26.

I also did not know this was emergency resolution today.

Um, I think you guys have asked a lot of important questions.

Um I think we in the East Corridor over there feel very much the same as folks on the West Corridor.

We we really just want to make sure that we're involved in the process of how what determines where this money can go.

I've I've lived in several cities growing up where you know they've had different ways to do what this NCA does, and I've seen great benefits to that.

Um it doesn't ask anybody else to, you know, we're not taxing the entire city as a whole, uh, we're just trying to focus on what can be done in the downtown greater downtown quarter.

So I I show my support for this with more information and more collaboration with the city as well as all the stakeholders downtown, not just the building owners and developers, but the the stake owners of the businesses, so long as those conversations are being had properly.

I am I am a fan of what this could potentially do for the city.

But I I am hesitant to to say that this is going to be a 100% success without the support of the community and all of their input on what they feel like are the beneficial needs to all of those businesses in those corridors.

Thank you, Mr.

Kittchers.

Yeah, thanks.

Thank you.

Timothy Forbus, 1529 North Star Road, Dayton, Ohio, 45432.

I'm speaking about uh the um the Indianola property of which um I have expressed interest in obtaining.

And here are the comments that I would make.

Neither Dayton nor Montgomery County have temporary supportive housing for victims of domestic violence.

Hear that again.

Neither Dayton nor Montgomery County have temporary supportive housing for victims of domestic violence.

Here's how I learned this.

Now the 24th of November in 2024, a member of my faith community experienced a domestic violence attack in the city of Dayton.

It wasn't the first time, it was just the worst time.

Police and the courts did their work with dignity and integrity.

Artemis Domestic Violence Center provided that wraparound service support that we would have hoped.

But when our daughters and our granddaughters suffer assault and are removed from their residence, where do they go?

I had no idea.

They're placed in a motel room with two beds, one bath, no security, and the clothes on their backs for 30 to 60 days while the system starts incorporating and working out details until housing can ultimately be found.

There's no possibility in that scenario for them to cook or store food.

There's no playground, there's no privacy, there's no personal space, and there's no security provided beyond a lock on a door.

Here's what we offer to people that are rescued in the middle of the night from domestic violence.

We offer them survival.

Now, how have you allowed this to happen?

How could you allow this to be the case?

Why have you not provided, as eight other government entities have provided in the region, a safe place for your daughters and your grandchildren to go in the middle of the night?

Why have you not provided solutions to better ensure their safety and the possibility of a genesis moment in our daughters and granddaughters' violent journey?

And I believe I can answer that rhetorical question.

You allowed this to happen because, like me, you had no idea that this crisis existed.

It's very below the radar, somewhat underground.

But now you do know that part of the domestic violence process has no advocate until now, and working with Artemis as a collaborator, uh the issues now being addressed by me and a group of people.

This is what I built my company to do.

Naming our work in Dayton, we have brought forward the Longfellow Commons project.

We were able to uh do a piece of work that um was able to bring in uh other initiatives like for St.

Mary's Development, where we uh brought in housing for people in uh wheelchairs.

The project at Indonola is a part of the solution to this.

It's a part of figuring out how we can provide housing to the women and children that ultimately will need housing.

It's a part of a larger plan, a bigger piece.

I own one of the properties now.

I'm doing two others so that we can find ways to provide adequate housing.

I thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms.

Forbis.

I call to the podium Carly Dixon.

Thank you.

That concludes speakers, Your Honor.

Thank you.

Commissioners, are there any comments to the city managers' recommendations this evening?

Commissioner Beckham.

I actually have an odd honor.

Thank you.

Commissioner Fairchild.

Yes.

Um I respectfully disagree with my colleague here.

I think a work session six weeks ago could have done a lot of good for this whole project.

Um could have helped vet the project, could it help um move us forward and get to a place tonight where we were all rowing in the same direction.

Um, given the situation, people would not know that I am supportive of the NCA.

But I am.

I think it's a tool.

Um and it's just that a tool.

I don't want to oversell it or undersell it.

But you wouldn't know that.

And um, and so I think it's a missed opportunity, as I said previously.

I would like to say that um I'd like for item four, the Oregon landing zone to be voted on separately.

I want to vote no on that.

Um I was part of citizens before I was on the group that worked around Garden Station.

And Garden Station was a park in that location.

And we looked at the development and we asked for mediation to occur because it you could see that there would be opportunity for a park.

And uh we could not get the city that's has a mediation program to work with us to try to mediate um that development with the park at the time.

And so I'm gonna vote no on that.

Um and then finally, um, Mr.

Reverend Forbes, thank you for being here.

I'm excited to learn more about uh the work you're doing and that um care that you will provide to the women and children who are um in jeopardy.

Um last week I asked questions and um I don't think I got an accurate answer if I understand our conversation today, Miss Dixteen.

I had asked um learning from our lot links experience when we sell off properties that are nuisance or need significant work.

Um our experience was it would be helpful if we had kind of clear expectations of when those properties would be um brought up to code and um and if the they don't happen within that time frame for the city to have an opportunity to claw those back because it seems like those would be best practices.

Um that's not true in this case.

Um I would just encourage us as we go forward that we would look at doing that to protect us and the developer, because we all know that when the developer takes possession of that property, the neighbors are gonna then be looking for code enforcement to bring that property up, and I think it's only fair to the developer to have a clear expectation timeline of when that's to occur.

Um, Commissioner.

Commissioner Shaw?

I uh uh have nothing.

Okay, Commissioner Joseph, thank you.

No near, thank you.

Thank you.

Uh very briefly, I just want to pull on that thread a little bit from Commissioner uh Fairchild.

Um Commissioner Fairchild's point.

Uh thank you, Reverend uh Forbes for being here.

I too had the same questions um in regards to why, in fact, there isn't anything noted um for the this the sell of the the real estate of the um the parcel itself and what the ultimate uh provisions in the in the language and self, the clawback clause, whatever have you.

Um what I would ask is that again I echo Commissioner Fairchild's point that that is noted, like we've we've seen and have some some scars from this.

Um and that's not that's no slight or to you, Reverend Forbes, is is the level of of our due diligence as this legislative body.

Um so I would just ask that uh with the development, if in fact we could have a timeline, have a complete understanding as to uh what the next steps are in the in the development of the process itself.

Um because again, to Commissioner Fairchild's point, uh that particular property has warranted a number of concerns, a number of ain'ts, um, and so just really want to make sure that in fact we're protecting you as a developer, the neighborhood, and as this body overall.

Um so thank you very much.

And then the last thing, I don't want to be the deal um I did a horse, so to speak.

Um, but I I need to hear my colleagues' commitment to the NCA and the and the pilot of the corridors.

Uh I need to make sure that that's on record for the quarters of the pilot for Easter to Kiwi to West Third.

If we start there again, just to have some level of assurance that we're all on the same page for us to do the necessary work, and then also for us to give uh the direction to policy direction for uh the city manager as it relates to 27 budget.

Any commitments there?

You have mine.

All right, thank you.

Commissioner, yeah.

Speaking to the mic?

Yes, you have my commitment, yeah.

Commissioner?

Yes, thank you.

It's a good idea to look into it.

I agree.

I I really appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for bringing the recommendations forward.

Um may I have a motion to approve the city manager's recommendations?

Uh your honor, I move to approve the city manager's recommendations except for number four.

It has been second.

It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the city manager's recommendations.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

Any abstentions?

Your Honor, I move to we approve the city manager's recommendation number four.

Second.

It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the city manager's recommendations.

All in favor say aye.

Or excuse me.

Calendar item number four.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

No.

Any abstentions.

Miss McClendon, could you please record the vote?

Yes.

It has been recorded that all in favor all were in favor except for Commissioner Fairchild on calendar item number four.

Thank you, Ms.

McClendon.

Ms.

McClendon, is there any legislation, please?

Yes, ma'am.

First reading, emergency resolution number six nine four two-two-six, determining that a petition to establish the city of Dayton citywide new community authority is sufficient and complies with the requirements of Ohio Revised Code Section 349.03 in form and substance, setting the time and place for a public hearing on the petition.

Authorizing notice by publication of such public hearing and declaring an emergency.

It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the emergency resolution number six nine four two-two six.

All in favor.

All opposed.

Second reading, emergency resolution number six nine four two-two six, determining that a petition to establish the city of Dayton Citywide New Community Authority is sufficient and complies with the requirements of Ohio Revised Code Section 349.03 inform and substance setting the time and a place for a public hearing on the petition.

Mayor Turner Sloss.

Aye.

Commissioners Joseph.

Aye.

Shaw.

Aye.

Fairchild?

Aye.

Beckham.

Aye.

Emergency resolution number six nine four two-two-six has been adopted with five votes in favor.

First reading, emergency resolution number six nine four three-two-six.

Determining the sufficiency of a consent to add certain parcels of real property to the city of Dayton Citywide New Community Authority District pursuant to Ohio Revised Code, Section 349.03 B4, setting a date for a public hearing on such one or more consents as required by Ohio Revised Code Chapter 349 and declaring an emergency.

Being declared an emergency, I move for the immediate passage of emergency resolution 6943-26.

Second the motion, Your Honor.

It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the emergency resolution 6943-26.

All in favor.

Opposed.

Any uh abstention?

Any all opposed.

All opposed.

Any abstentions?

All right.

We get near since late.

Second reading, emergency resolution number six nine four three-two-six.

Determining the sufficiency of a consent to add certain parcels of real property to the city of Dayton, citywide new community authority district pursuant to Ohio Revised Code, Section 349.03 B4, setting a date for a public hearing on such one or more consents as required by Ohio Revised Code, Chapter 349.

Mayor Turner Sloss.

Aye.

Commissioners Joseph?

Aye.

Shaw.

Aye.

Fairchild.

Aye.

Beckham.

Aye.

Emergency resolution number six nine four three-two-six has been adopted with five votes in favor.

Second reading ordinance number three two one nine five-26.

Authorizing the sell of certain real estate located at 25 Indianola Avenue for economic development purposes.

Mayor Turner Sloss.

Aye.

Commissioners Joseph.

Aye.

Shaw.

Aye.

Bearchild.

Aye.

Beckham.

Aye.

Ordinance number three two one nine five-two six has passed with five votes in favor.

Second reading, ordinance number three two one nine six-two-six.

Authorizing the sale of certain real estate located at the corner of Main Street and Helena Street for economic development purposes.

Mayor Turner Sloss.

Aye.

Commissioners Joseph.

Aye.

Shaw.

Aye.

Fairchild?

Aye.

Beckham.

Ordinance number three two one nine six-26 has passed with five votes in favor.

That concludes legislation, Your Honor.

I would now open the public hearing.

Ms.

Dixtean.

Yes, I'd like to call forward Tony Kroger with our planning division to lead the public hearing.

No, I I we don't need to do all the I I need to see the slide, so I can present.

But you we don't need to go through this again.

Good evening.

Good evening.

I'm Tony Kroger, Planning Division Manager.

I would like to uh present uh for the public hearing for uh some zoning code text amendments related to group home and foster care facilities.

This uh case arrives to you through our plan board.

Um it is uh a public hearing being held today for three zoning code text amendments.

Uh one relates to the creation of a maximum number of foster care facilities permitted in this permitted in the city of Dayton citywide as opposed to land use board.

Um and then there's two much smaller uh text amendments that are just more maintenance and cleanup.

So this this board, this body may recall that when in October uh of last year, group home legislation was brought to you, uh you had certain suggestions in terms of limiting foster care facilities to a certain fair standard that that the city can can um has a capacity for.

And that's what this is all about.

So we have a long timeline of group home legislation now nearly two years long, including various moratorium, the aforementioned October 2025 group home legislation that this board ultimately approved at the suggestion that brings us here tonight that there ought to be a citywide cap on the number of foster care facilities permitted citywide.

This has been this particular text amendment has been uh uh been to our plan board at a public hearing, and they recommend approval.

So taking a step back about group home legislation and the city of Dayton and and recent times, uh over the last two years, uh group home engagement and presentations have occurred extensively.

Three plan board meetings, including a work session, three informational sessions with land use boards and neighborhood presidents, three sessions held with regional partners and jurisdictions led by MVRPC.

Group homes have been discussed or voted on at five different Dayton City Commission meetings, including the aforementioned moratoria, several meetings and discussions with group home providers, input from Miami Very Miami Valley Fair Housing, as well as uh local media coverage at a number of those events.

So, like I said, in October 2025, Dayton City Commission adopted an ordinance related to group homes.

That did a lot of things, and that still stays intact uh in and and relates to this text amendment, which is really refining uh the number of foster care facilities allowed in the city of Dayton.

So just as a refresher, that group home legislation that was passed and still is all under moratorium through through October of this year.

Or I'm sorry, August August 4th of this year, I believe.

Yeah.

Uh but that legislation uh set forth uh certain application requirements for establishing a group home.

Uh that no foster care facility shall be located in the same block as a public nuisance uh that the zoning administrator shall conduct an exp uh an inspection uh before occupancy occurs.

It established the 1,000 foot separation between group homes.

Um it uh it established the number of foster care facilities permitted in each land use area.

It said you get the maximum number is 12 in west, 12 in northwest, 12 and northeast, and then 12 in the downtown southeast uh area combined, giving getting us 48, right?

And also that legislation, by the way, clarified and recognized the need to provide reasonable accommodation for protected classes under the Fair Housing Act, which of course every city is held to anyway, but that is gonna be important moving forward.

So when we talked about the group home legislation back in October of last year, I I think I think the commission was right on when they said if if we're saying that the city of Dayton is is is bearing and a disproportionate burden in in in in handling foster care facilities, which we know is true.

That's in that's been demonstrated in the record extensively by now.

Dayton has more foster care facilities per capita than anywhere in the state.

Not the county, not the region, the state.

And so this commission said, you know, if we think 48 is the right number, then 48 should be the maximum citywide.

Well, as we had it proposed to you.

Um, yeah, you couldn't have more than 12 in areas that already had more than 12 foster care facilities, but the door was still wide open in Northeast and Southeast and downtown to continue to add dozens and dozens of foster care facilities in Dayton, which at that time certainly the state had no problem doing.

And so I think uh the Commission was astute and suggesting that if we believe 48 is the right number of foster care facilities to be in the city of Dayton, 48 should be the maximum.

And unless remember what 48 came from.

If there's 600 foster care children in Montgomery County, which is the most recent number, um, and you assume five foster care um residents per unit proportionally to the city's population to the rest of the county gets you to 48.

So that's a reasonable burden for a city, right?

Um not carrying the the burden for the rest of the state, perhaps.

And so that's how we got the 48.

And I think this commission um was right in suggesting we we should improve our legislation, and that's what we're doing.

Um again, in the record is all kinds of maps showing the concentration of these uh facilities, not just in the city of Dayton, but particularly in northwest and the west parts of of the city.

So right now uh there are 21 foster care facilities in west, 37 in north central, but then there's four in northeast and zero in downtown or southeast.

And so, you know, this commission pointed out saying, you're still leaving the door open in all these other parts of the city.

And where do you think all these new facilities are going to go if they can't go in in west or or northwest?

And I'm gonna get back to the foster to that foster care component, but a couple other quick things.

Um this text amount would delete a redundant definition for community residence foster care because the same definition already exists in the code elsewhere for group homecoma, foster care, similarly for community residence operator.

That's code maintenance.

Let's not get distracted by that.

But back to the bigger picture here of of what really was asked of of staff and administration to to bring to you.

Um there's three standards um, both plan board and commissioner to consider when thinking about uh zoning code tax amendment.

The first one says uh is it uh consistent with the intent and purpose of the zoning code?

And so when I look at the intent and purpose of the zoning code, I see things that talk about compatibility between different land uses and protecting the scale and character of existing neighborhoods.

And while maybe if one foster care facility might not be inherently incompatible, a certain saturation of of such, including those with group homes, um, can certainly impact character.

It impacts markets, it impacts neighborhoods.

Um it impacts city resources.

Um, you know, the uh purpose of the code, facilitate development of land uses in a comprehensive and equitable equitable way, equitable distribution.

And in this case, I think it's not necessarily equity among areas of the city, it's equity between the city of Dayton and the rest of the state.

Standard number two talks about um areas that are most likely to be affected by such change.

In this case, it really would be um avoiding now an influx of um new foster care facilities in Northeast and Southeast.

And standard number three says, and this is the final one says, you know, um, when you're considering a zoning code text amendment, are you doing so because of changing conditions?

What's changed?

What's caused this?

I think what's really changed is we've well continued leading up to this continued saturation of group homes in the city of Dayton.

But also um, you know, staff and and city leadership understanding the the call on resources that's such a concentration of group homes, group homes of all types uh have on a city such as the the city of Dayton.

And so um, you know, planning along with our partners and in the the you know city manager's office, city commission office, certainly Department of Police, Department of Fire, uh all are saying, you know, we we have to be mindful of the call on resources, the disproportionate burden that we're carrying.

So uh tonight is not the final vote uh for this zoning code text amendment, but ultimately when such uh occurs, you will of course have your typical um alternatives to approve uh the ordinance to remand back to plan board or to deny by taking no actions.

I think we are bringing you what you asked for, so we hope it's the first of those three options.

That's all I have for you.

Um any questions that may I be happy to answer them if not, we can move on.

Thank you, Mr.

Kroger.

Commissioners, do you have any comments, questions on the public hearing this evening?

Commissioner Beckham.

Thank you, Your Honor.

Not at this time.

Thank you, Mr.

Kroger.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Commissioner Fairchild.

I just want to reiterate, I know in the last conversation it was really important to balance state law that guides these homes, uh, fair housing, and I forget uh the third, but there was kind of three prongs.

I and it was kind of a uh delicate balance.

Yeah.

Have we hit that?

Uh I think so.

Um I mean, at the core of it, foster care is it's not a protected class.

Um a lot of the question is whether the 1,000-foot separation um threads the needle between, you know, reason a reasonable um regulation.

We think a thousand is is reasonable in terms of preventing saturation of all types of group homes, right?

So we're not we're not capping the number of sober living facilities because we can't protect a class.

Um we think one thousand is reasonable, and we think it can, and our Department of Law feels that could stand um a test.

Thank you.

Yep.

Commissioner Shaw.

I'm good.

Thank you.

Commissioner Joseph.

I just want to add my thanks, Mr.

Kroger, to the responsiveness to this.

I think this is a good solution, and I appreciate uh actually Commissioner Fairchild for the suggestion.

Excellent solution.

That's all, Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Kroger, to you and your staff.

We really appreciate it, and thank you for bringing it back before us.

Sure.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I would now close the public hearing.

Point of order.

Yeah.

Were there any citizens who wanted to speak?

There are no citizens registered to speak.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Thank you, Ms.

McClendon.

So, what is the pleasure of the Commission?

Move forward.

Thank you.

Legislation, Ms.

McClendon.

First reading ordinance number 32197-26, amending and repealing various sections of the revised code of general ordinances relating to the zoning code and declaring an emergency.

Your Honor Ordinance number 32197-266 being declared an emergency.

I move for its immediate passage.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded to approve ordinance number 32197-26.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

Any abstentions?

That concludes legislation, Your Honor.

Thank you, Ms.

McClendon.

Ms.

McClendon, are there any citizens who are registered to speak this evening?

Yes, Your Honor.

There are 13 citizens registered to speak.

I would like to state 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 a spoken two and a half minutes, yellow light will come on.

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.

So 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 would prevent the city commission from hearing the speaker's comments.

I call to the podium Noah McAllister.

Greetings, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Alec Johnson, and I live on Lyndon Avenue just south of Dayton's Eastern Hills.

Elon Musk, former head of the government wrecking ball, known as Doge, is in the news having become the first human being worth one trillion dollars.

While appalling, it underscores the transformation of capitalism into what can be best described as financial fascism.

As for the rest of us citizens, we're subjected to a socioeconomic system in which meeting our needs depends on mechanisms that thrive on their suppression.

I repeat, we're subjected to a socioeconomic system in which meeting our needs depends on mechanisms that thrive on their suppression.

The socioeconomic system is capitalism, and the mechanisms that thrive on suppressing our needs are features of what is collectively known as austerity.

In 2022, Clara Matthew made history with the release of her first book, The Capital Order, how economists invented austerity and paved the way for fascism.

Its many revelations include that World War One obscured both the largest capitalist crisis of the 20th century and a fascinating history of class struggle, very relevant for us today.

But Lassai Fair Capitalism was incapable of satisfying the economic demands of World War One.

Crossing a formerly inviolable line, state governments took over major industries.

This repoliticized the formerly naturalized capitalist class relations.

Responding this historic moment, Europe's working class began to seriously shake the foundations of capitalism.

A group of financial technocrats succeeded in helping capitalism survive this crisis by promoting pure economics.

And from this theory, went on to create a set of policies collectively understood by the term austerity.

Austerity, Clara Mattai writes, is a political project arising out of the need to preserve capitalist class relations of domination.

It is the outcome of collective action to foreclose any alternatives to capitalism.

It can thus be subverted through collective counteraction.

The study of its logic and purpose is a first step in that direction.

With so much important civic activism underway, introducing a discussion of austerity might seem to compete with anti-war and working class-led liberation efforts, championed by the GDPC, DSL, PSA, and others.

This is not the case.

The dialogue I hope to spark will open a new front that's already adjacent to and paralleling those efforts while enlarging the gaining ground, working class and oppressed people will increasingly find themselves on.

Understanding austerity is step one in undermining its ability to confound liberation struggles, as it has done for more than the last half a century.

To oppose austerity is to champion authentic democracy with enlarged consciousness and deeper understanding.

In closing, let me point out that New York City, under Democratic Socialist Mayor Mamdani, completed a budget that was a historic departure from austerity.

New York City doesn't have a monopoly on DSA aligned mayors.

With the asset of Mayor Shanice Turner Sloss, those voices opposed to the tyranny austerity imposes, have much to hope for from the civic engagement that will follow on this subject.

Mayor and council members, along with the public, are warmly invited to join our first dialogue on July 11th at 2 p.m.

in conference room 1B at the Dayton Mentor Library's main branch on 3rd Street.

The second section is scheduled for July 18th at the same time, library and conference room 3A.

Everyone's invited.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Johnson.

I call to the podium Christopher Lockett.

Christopher Lockett, 309 East Bruce, Dayton Ohio, 45406.

I feel empowered.

So of the enlightenment.

Great evening to you all, Mayor, Commissioners.

No, I love you.

So uh I know that hearts are still heavy in the community, mind is too.

Uh emotions running high.

You can feel the energy.

It's hard to celebrate the wins when people feel like they steady losing, you know.

So yeah, we over a hundred days with no uh gun violence in our area, the North Riverdale uh area, Dayton, but people are still suffering from gun violence across the city.

So uh I got mixed emotions about everything.

But again, I'm coming here because I believe in this staff, this council, the job building with the with the right uh community leaders, and that we can get it done.

I just want to encourage the people that understand that it's a process, it's just a process.

And sometimes when you're going through the process, it it get it it you go through these ups and downs emotionally, physically, mentally, even spiritually.

You know, um I'm a survivor of struggle, you know what I mean?

So I know what it feels like to go through through the storm.

And you can focus, we got we got a choice.

We could focus on all the darkness around us, or we could focus on that little bit of light that we see at the end of the tunnel.

So I just want to encourage the people in the community that you know with this council working with community leaders like Felons with a Future, uh, the Orangemen uh Brave, we build in resilience against violent encounters, uh, official network and chill, uh, fudge foundation, these programs by the by us partnering with this council, I believe that we can see make the change and see the change that we looking to accomplish in Dayton.

So I encourage all my people in the community to just stay in the fight.

Stay in the fight.

Yes, hold these council uh uh help hold them accountable, but make sure that you holding yourself accountable and making sure that you're doing everything in your power and your household, your neighborhood, your community, to be the best that you can be and put your best foot forward, and that'll help out.

Um got to remember Dayton is a Dayton has been innovative to the world through aviation, music, art, um, technology.

And we're gonna be a we're gonna be an innovation for reducing gun violence as well.

I believe in that.

So power to the people and power to the to you all.

And shout out, I didn't get the publicly shout out and give uh congratulations to the police chief for for his dual position when I came down a couple weeks ago, but shout out to him.

I heard he went the metal deal.

I won't hold that against you.

Thank you, Mr.

Lockett.

Thank you.

I called to the podium Ebony Hastings.

One two eight.

Wabash, I haven't know.

Okay.

Last week I spoke on the budget review and submitted written comments.

I stand by that record.

Four out of five shootings with injuries in the city last year happened in West and Northwest Dayton, the same neighborhoods that were redlined in the 1930s, the same neighborhoods that lost 15,000 jobs when NCR left.

The geography of disinvestment and the geography of violence are the same map.

This is not coincidence.

That is a policy choice made over decades, and it can be unmade the same way.

Scale up cure violence, Chicago cut killings by 52%, New York cut shootings by 63%.

Every dollar invested saves 41 dollars.

One pilot is not strategy, it is a photo op.

Restore the priority boards.

In 2014, the commission voted four to one to consolidate them.

Commissioner Lovelace dissented and warned that citizen engagement is the life blood of democracy.

He was right.

Re-establish the priority boards, fund them, give them real advisory power over CB, C, C, D, B, G, Dolitions, and every incentive deal in their neighborhood.

Our housing, demolish the grade five properties, give Dayton residents first right of purchase on grade three and four homes, one dollar acquisition, forgivable rehab loans up to 75,000.

Five-year owner occupancy deed restrictions, build resident wealth, not investor portfolios.

Because embedded mental health counselors and West Day and rec centers in Dayton public schools during the four to ten P.M.

window is exactly what the research says works.

The evidence is clear, the map is clear, the choice is yours.

Dayton has been consistent since 1913 of racism, of anti-black agendas, even with black mayors and commissioners being voted into office.

The city manager influences the presentations, trust is lost in buckets, gained in drops.

I am appalled that addicts are a protected class and not our foster children.

Thank you, Ms.

Hastings.

I call to the podium Sully Wilson Jr.

All right.

Okay.

All right, please.

Thank you.

The reason I found it blind but not broken is not on a whim.

I became blind four years ago due to a medical event following COVID-related vaccination complication that changed the entire course of my life.

The experience did not stop me.

It pushed me into advocacy.

As an advocate and community leader here in Dayton, Ohio, I have been committed to day-to-day street level support for individuals who are often overlooked.

Blind but not broken was created to serve those in needs, those who are struggling, those who are rebuilding, and those who are trying to regain independence.

We are not about handouts.

We're about handops.

We are about helping stabilize people stabilize their lives, regain confidence, and move towards independence, dignity, and purpose.

Recently, Blind But Not Broken joined forces with Lucky Resource Center to form a united disability alliance collaboration.

Together, we are working to bring resources, advocacy, and direct support to individuals with disabilities, those experiencing homelessness, and those re-entering society after incarceration.

Our goal is simple to bring everyone to the table.

My morals and values are rooted in independence, love, faith, God, and family.

I believe that when we remove division and political barriers, we can actually begin to solve real problems in our communities.

This work is not about politics, it is about people.

Where there is a need in our community, there must also be a response.

We cannot do this work alone.

We are asking this committee, along with partners outside our community, to stand with us and support this cause.

Together, we can help people live, thrive, and strive.

And finally, I must speak on something deeply personal.

As someone with a felony background, I face repeated barriers, even while trying to secure something as essential as a guide dog.

I have been denied access time and time again because of my record.

But a felony does not erase humanity.

It does not erase need, and it should not erase opportunity.

I'm asking this community and this commission to partner with us to break down these barriers so that people like me, people who are working hard to rebuild their lives, can access the tools and support necessary to live independently.

Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your commitment to this community.

Thank you, Ms.

Lucky.

Thank you, Mr.

Wilson.

Thank you.

Yeah, I know you need to tell.

Hello, I'm Stephanie Lucky.

Uh address is 1031 Bethune Circle, uh, Madden Hills neighborhood.

Uh good evening, commissioners and mayor.

Uh, I want to thank you all for appointing me to the HRC board.

Congratulations.

I really like it so far.

Um I am a proud Gym City gym, uh mother, a daughter of Dayton, an entrepreneur, and a community advocate.

Um, I'm not here today as a Democrat or Republican, but just a person today.

Um, I went to Melissa Best Daycare on the same street where the Boys and Girls Club is being renovated, still serving our youth.

Um I believe our neighbors, neighborhoods deserve more than survival.

Before people see my heart, they often see labels.

On paper, I'm a melanated woman, and I'm a person that struggled with learning disabilities in school.

I also have a felony in my past.

But those words don't tell you who I am.

They don't tell you about the doors that close before I could even knock.

They don't tell you what it what it feels like to fight for opportunities while carrying individual invis individual invisible barriers every day.

People talk about social determinants of health, but in real life it's simple.

Can you find safe housing, transportation, food, health care, and a job that sees your value behind your past?

And when you are black, when you live with a disability, when you have a record, those barriers just don't add up.

They multiply.

I'm here to be seen.

And I'm here because I believe in hope.

I believe that hope shows up through second chances, through community, through people willing to build rebuild together.

And that's why I support the renewed Miami Chapel Plan.

Not just as a development, but as a restor restoration, restoring opportunities, dignity, and trust in our communities, not just projects.

When people in our community in my community think about projects, they think of DeSoda Bass, they think of Residence Park, they think of Arlington Courts.

They don't think about Phoenix projects or things that they know nothing about.

They're not in the rooms for these plans.

So real renewal doesn't start in plans.

It starts on the block.

It starts at home.

It starts in churches, so I'm asking us to think differently about access.

If we are investing in our youth and our recreation, then every child should have real access, not just to programs, but to possibility.

Whether it's bikes, golf court, golf clubs, sports trades, or technology, opportunities should not depend on income or zip code.

I know that the Omega CDC has plans that's been going on for 20 years, and I feel like that all of our churches need to rise even higher, opening their doors beyond Sunday to become safe spaces for mentoring, recreation, workforce training, and neighborhood healing.

Commissioners and mayor, invest in the people already doing the work on the ground.

Partner with grassroots leaders and who are inside these communities every day.

Because when one home is strengthened, a block changes, and when a block changes, a neighborhood rises.

So I leave this with you today.

Don't just fund projects.

Time is up, ma'am.

Thank you.

Fun people.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Lucky.

I call to the podium, Mary Sugaminer.

Mary Sue Gaminer, 1418 Arbor Avenue.

Good evening.

Good evening.

In May, I came before you expressing concern at the silence between October of 2025 and April of 2026 about what was presented as a breach of security of the automated license plate readers, the flock cameras.

Now that some of the audit logs are being released, we see that even the press conference on May 1st was a little misleading.

While there did appear to be an increase in immigration related queries in the summer of 2025, actual access nationally goes back to the very beginning of the camera's use.

There are some entries from 2023 and 2024 in what has been released so far.

A quote from the 2023 surveillance technology report.

They could not have looked at the data access in any kind of internal audit and written those words.

They either lied about what they knew was happening or they lied about conducting an audit.

And when I say they, I mean the entire chain of command, from the officers doing the work to the majors, the deputy chief, the chief, the deputy city manager, and the city manager.

This is not entirely the fault of one major.

As the city manager herself noted in the May 1st press conference, these are quote, egregious violations of policy.

I hope your investigators will uncover the truth.

And I hope you will have the courage to hold all those responsible to account.

This also makes me wonder what kind of auditing is done within the Dayton Police Department in general.

When the professional standards bureau is asked to look at a situation, are they thorough?

Are they accurate or do they lie?

Speaking of the PSB, how is the Reginald Thomas investigation going?

We haven't heard anything.

I'm sure it's not complete.

It's not been that long, but it would be nice to know that someone is really working on it.

And I will also repeat my question from several meetings ago.

Is the independent accountability auditor investigating the killing of Reginald Thomas?

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Mary Sue.

I call to the podium Talus Gage.

First thing I want to say is she is terrible.

Second thing I want to say is sure, you terrible too.

Joseph, you terrible too.

Mayor is good to see you.

Fair child is good to see you.

Beckham, good to see you too.

We need more rec centers that I said that thousands and thousands of times again.

We went from eight to now three.

We need to work on the youth.

We need to work on the young people.

We need to just be more focused on the youth, more focused on the youth.

Anything.

I mean, I know you tell me about programs we have, man, but uh when I was growing up, I could just go to the rec center or the YMCA or the boys and girls club.

Not just the boys and girls club.

And I could go when I felt like it.

At six in the morning with the old heads.

Or I could go in the afternoon with the youngsters around my age or younger.

You know what I'm saying?

Whenever I mean, but I could go when I felt like it.

When like I said, they got weight rooms, water aerobics, all of these different things.

We needed to get on that, man.

That's serious.

And like I said before, a dating so small it ain't like Cleveland, what I'm used to, so like this could be a city, a great model for what other cities could copy off of and utilize a self.

And we can get it right.

And sure, I don't care about none of that.

I don't even want to finish talking to y'all because y'all make me sick.

Thank you, Mr.

Gage.

I call to the podium, Sharon Screech.

Hello.

My evening.

My name is Sharon Screech.

I live at 515 West Grand Avenue.

Um, I would first like to address the commission about the mayor's flight plan, the application.

It's ridiculous.

It asked for my education.

It wanted me to upload a resume.

What do we need that for?

If I'm a resident of the community, we have to look at everyone.

A senior that's retired is not uploading no resume.

We have that has to be gone.

It should be, you should have just a willingness to serve your community.

I felt like I was applying for the city of Dayton.

Not the way this commission is going, I would never want a job here.

And my son works for the city right now.

I advised him today to quit and find him something else to do.

Because this is, I would never want to work for this body ever.

Mr.

Shaw, your behavior today was terrible.

It was terrible.

For the mayor to say this, for you to rush to emergency to do something on an emergency, it nothing should never, that was never an emergency.

This NCA should never been an emergency.

That dating commission, that dating convention center been here forever.

I'm I will be 54 in a couple of weeks.

Downtown Dayton is not a priority.

Never has been.

Oh, yeah, I know.

The city manager can with her $300,000.

Come on.

I am tired of it.

I am tired of this commission.

We have felt disenfranchised, not listened to.

Y'all went ahead and approved this NCA, ain't thought about nothing, nothing being said in here today.

It's not a good idea at all.

I don't see.

We haven't even managed the funds we already have to these communities.

What is the NCA gonna do?

It's gonna show up right downtown.

All that development is gonna show up right back down here, especially if we keep her as a city manager.

Thank you, Miss Screech.

I call to the podium.

Mrs.

Carmela Ickpot.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Mrs.

Carmela Ickpot, residing at 150 North Ward Avenue.

This is a mess, a special message concerning the logic of love.

Quote, history is calling for reconciliation, compassion, love, service, and sacrifice.

Today's problems cannot be solved by the logic of power, but only by the logic of love.

These are words from Dr.

Mrs.

Hop Shah Moon.

She is the co-founder of the Heavenly Parents' Holy Community and actually many other organizations.

This message reminds us that many of the world's deepest problems, such as war, division, hatred, loneliness, broken families, and social conflicts cannot be permanently solved through force, wealth, authority, or political power alone.

The quote, logic of power, unquote, seeks to win over others.

It often asks who is stronger, who is right, who has more influence.

How can we control the situation?

On the other hand, they quote, logic of love, unquote, ask different questions.

How can we heal?

How can we understand one another?

How can we serve?

How can we restore relationships?

Throughout history, lasting peace has never come merely from victory over an enemy.

Lasting peace comes when hearts change, when forgiveness replaces resentment, and when people learn to live for the sake of others.

Reconciliation means choosing to build bridges where woes once stood.

Compassion means feeling another person's pain as if it were our own.

Love means giving without expecting anything in return.

Service means using our talents and resources to uplift others.

Sacrifice means placing a greater purpose above personal comfort.

The future that Heavenly Parent, meaning God, desires is not a world where one group dominates another, but a world where all people recognize one another as members of one human family.

Real change begins not in governments or institutions, but in individuals' hearts.

Oh, okay.

All right, I was almost finished, but anyway, I'm very grateful.

Thank you so very much.

Let us love one another.

Thank you, ma'am.

I call to the podium Zakia Sankara Jabbar.

Zakia Sankara Jabbar, 2426, Jerome.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

I want to first by saying, in the name of the law, the beneficent and the merciful, I give condolences to the Honorable Minister Lewis Farrakhan and the loss of his wife, Khadijah Farrakhan, the mother of the nation, and a black woman of such honor and grace that represented black people internationally very well.

And that's a good segue into my comments here today.

Because we have to have a moral conversation at this point.

You all have heard everything.

You didn't receive the emails, you read all the petitions, and it's become apparent that there is a lot of power in this particular individual right here that sits in the city manager's uh seat, the city manager, Miss Dixtein, okay?

And there's some questions that need to be asked.

Because the community for years have been complaining at this podium in this entire commission, with the exception of Mr.

Fairchild for the most part, has turned a deaf ear to them.

People have done everything in their legal power, in their mental power to get you all to move to have the courage to do what's necessary.

I've got some questions for the city manager, because see, I need to know what happened to you.

I need to know why you have a heart of coal.

Because it does not seem you have a beating heart in your body, a humane heart.

Because it's been the policies and practices of this institution of this body that has caused the death of too many Daytonians, particularly black people, particularly black men.

The violence that we see in our community is a direct result of redlining disinvestment in particular communities.

The entire city of Dayton is feeling it.

Yes, Eastside is filling it.

Everybody is feeling it.

But in particular, when I see a picture of the ATF full of working age black men that has been arrested because they've been forced into an underground economy.

The last time I was here, I told this commission that I didn't see any black men on any of the jobs that y'all got out here.

All this money y'all spending, the taxpayers' money, where 38% of the people are black that's paying taxes in this damn city, okay?

And y'all spending it on everybody but them.

This is a crime against humanity.

You have allowed one person to allow crimes against humanity, and I need to know who's protecting her.

Who got the power to protect her?

Is this a sovereign country?

Is it a sovereign country?

Ma'am, your time is up.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

You will not get to retire and go off until the sun set.

God is still on the throne, baby.

And you can't.

Thank you, Ms.

Thank you, Ms.

Jabar.

Call to the podium, Kenya Akbar.

I believe she left.

Kimaru Watenza.

I believe he left as well.

That concludes speakers, Your Honor.

Thank you, Ms.

McClendon.

Ms.

Dixteen, do you have any closing comments this evening?

I have one closing comment.

It's a correction, um, Mayor.

Uh the curfew um is uh effective for anyone under 18.

Thank you.

I appreciate I wanted to make sure that I noted that.

Thank you.

Can't remember the sixteen.

I appreciate it.

Uh Ms.

McClendon, do you have any closing comments?

Yes, Your Honor.

City of Dayton offices will be closed on Friday, July 3rd in observance of Independence Day.

Thank you, Ms.

McClendon.

Commissioners, do you have any closing comments?

Commissioner Beckham.

Uh yes, Your Honor.

I just want to thank uh Mr.

Calvin Wynn for organizing the uh peace rally in March that occurred uh Saturday afternoon.

Uh the mayor was there and joined that walk as well.

Um it went it went well, and I I just encourage the rest of our community to keep stepping up and taking ownership of our neighborhoods uh to do the very, very needed work of reducing violence across our city.

Uh as I always say, it's gonna take all of us.

Um so just want to thank him for organizing and look forward to um more efforts uh from him and his partners.

So thanks.

Uh those are my comments.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Fairchild.

Yes.

Um it's been a long time since Mr.

Marcellus was uh presenting, but I will remind people that on Friday there's many opportunities to come out and observe uh the 4th of July, including the um street fair at Riverscape from 11:30 to 4 p.m., the parade at noon, and then the fireworks at 10 at Kettering Field.

So invite people to come out for all those opportunities.

And I have selected my book for the mini read.

And uh it will be uh the greatest sentence ever written.

And it's a small book, but um reflecting on the declaration of independence.

So my habit every year is to read one of the founding documents, and I think this book will be a good companion.

I invite other people to join me.

Um and I want to thank Deb Debbie Chess and uh then Ben Murphy, a collection and specialist at the Dayton Metro Library who helped identify the book, and then uh there's another book I'm interested in in August.

I'll be reading To Love a Country by Dominic Erderzane.

Um, and then in September, one of the books that uh Mr.

Murphy identified has a title, Obstinate Daughters.

Don't read too much into that.

The subtitle of that is The Rebels Writers and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution.

So that's my September reading, and uh invite you to join me in the mini read and wish everyone a meeting meaningful observance of the Fourth of July.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Shaw.

Thank you for that.

Uh the West Dayton uh Branch Library will be hosting a digital literacy basics program for anyone looking to build confidence using computers, smartphones, and the internet.

Uh join them on Thursday, July 10th from four to five uh in the West Dayton branch libraries tech room.

This program is free and no prior computer experiences were required.

That's all I have.

Thank you, Commissioner Commissioner Joseph.

I just want to thank everybody for coming out tonight.

That's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you.

I'll be very brief.

Mr.

Dongo, um, as well as Mr.

Cole and Mr.

Marcellus, Mr.

Bridge, thank you as well for being here, Mr.

Joe Tusk, the entire NCA committee that was here this evening.

I appreciate all everyone who stayed this evening.

I know this was a pretty lengthy meeting.

I appreciate everyone's comments, their questions.

Um, as noted, I'll be happy to have additional conversations.

Uh thank you, Ms.

Hastings, for your comments.

Uh, you will reply.

You sent me an eight-page email.

So I am taking my time to make sure that I thoroughly address the email.

But duly note that we're all on the same page in terms of making sure that we are funding the CVG pro program, the Cure Violence Initiative.

And so we're having some internal conversations as to how, in fact, um and where, in fact, I should say those dollars are going to come from, being the the number of challenges that we're having.

Um, and again, is not isolated to the city of Dayton.

Some areas are doing better than others, but again, these are conversations that we're having.

Um, and then with that being said, I will happily have a conversation.

As much as I know about the NCA, I do believe that it is a tool.

It is not the silver bullet, so to speak, is not going to be the end all be all, but it's an opportunity for us to to review when you look at comparison, other municipalities, other areas who have um been successful with this model.

It's an opportunity for us to review it.

Duly note that there is in fact a uh public hearing that is scheduled for July 29th, from my understanding at 6 p.m.

in the chambers.

So it may be a good opportunity to learn more.

Again, I'll be happy for whatever it is that I that I know, which I know very little outside of doing a deep dive from what has been provided to us.

Um, I'll be happy to have those conversations on offline as well.

So thank you.

And then in terms of the audit, the audit and in if in fact for the under 50,000, from my understanding, that information is in fact on the website.

Um but I'll be happy to direct you to that information.

Again, there was no cost to that legislation that was noted, calendar item number nine, uh, Mr.

Chris Kittridge, I appreciate you being here and for his comments.

Um and again, the the the goal is and and I'm so happy and thankful for my colleagues and your leadership and your commitment to make sure that we're looking at the pilot to expand it from East uh Third Street Kiwi on to to West Third Street so that we can in fact make sure that there's equitable uh development and really see to your point to Miss Creek's point.

Does this really work?

Is it is it uh advantageous?

Is it fruitful?

Is it are are we going to see the development that we all desperately want to see in our corridors in our neighborhoods throughout the city of Dayton overall?

Uh Mr.

Forbes, thank you for being here.

Mr.

Johnson's good seeing you.

Thank you for being here.

Uh I need to get that information from you.

You mentioned July the 11th at 2 p.m.

I want to know too, and I'll speak with you after the meeting, but if you can pass that information to us as well, that'd be extremely helpful.

There is a group of community leaders, a coalition members who are in fact leading some efforts with some uh, if you will, stop the violence uh peace campaigns, and it is in collaboration with we all we have uh foundation with Mr.

Calvin Wynn, who as mentioned from Commissioner Beckham, he um coordinated well attended March, Peace March, Stop the Violence March in the Southern Dayton View neighborhood.

Again, it was well attended.

So we really truly appreciate everyone that came out and thank him for his leadership uh for being there as well.

But also note that on July the 11th at the Restoration Church, there is again uh the stop the violence um a march or uh a day of hope, I believe, and that is from one to four p.m.

904 um Verona or Bone Vernon Avenue, excuse me, uh getting looking getting Southern Dayton View and Residence Park Miss mixed up.

But that uh more information about that is to come.

Um Mr.

Wilson, appreciate your your comments and your advocacy.

Uh duly note and I understand that uh Mr.

Wilson and Ms.

Lucky had a meeting uh today with Mr.

Davis and provided some additional assistance and support in terms of linking and collaborating with uh his efforts with the access center as well as the entrepreneur center.

So any further support that we can provide with that, making that connection, we're happy to do so.

Um so thank you, Mr.

Davis, for for attending that meeting and to making that connection.

Uh Ms.

Lucky, again, thank you for your comments and your advocacy for Miami uh Chapel in the planning district or the plan for that neighborhood.

Gabe uh Taliz Gabe appreciate your comments and I want to note too that I think there is there's a level of awareness and education that we need to do a better job with as well as the organization overall because there are a number of programs that are available how many of you have and it's a rhetorical question how many of you all know that the YMCA is actually offering free programming as well as membership for any teen in the city of Dayton so the YMCA is offering programs there are a number of programs through the Dayton Recreation Center that is available and so again we do know that there is work that needs to be done in terms of the recreation centers that are are available in the city of Dayton going from eight to three but there are avenues the Boys and Girls Club soon hopefully soon will be online knowing that they are under construction and then there's work that are being done from Sunlight Village the work that's being done there.

The Fudge Foundation they're doing some great work in Miami Chapel neighborhood as well so there is work that is ongoing but more work needs to be done I'm not negating that by one bit.

Miss Greach again thank you for your comments note that the call for the resume is in fact optional but it is also a tool to for us to use to align your skill set and whatever expertise that you may have so that we can utilize those expertise for the various different committees that you may serve on.

So again it is not a deal breaker it is in fact optional for individuals to upload their resumes to uh the application itself and then again as mentioned more information about the the NCA I'll be happy to share that information.

Miss Camilla thank you for your comments Ms.

Kira Jabbar thank you for your comments and thank you for noting the passing of the honorable honorable um Farrakhan and the passing of his wife thank you for uplifting that and uh appreciate your your concerns and I'll be happy to answer any additional questions that you may have offline.

So with no further business come before the commission this meeting is now an adjourned