Gahanna Committee of the Whole Meeting - July 24, 2026
Gahanna Committee of the Whole Meeting - July 24, 2026
The Gahanna City Council met as the Committee of the Whole on July 24, 2026, to discuss several ordinances and a policy framework for ceremonial resolutions. The meeting included updates to the Tax Incentive Review Council ordinance, copy charges for law enforcement records, a helmet requirement for bicycles and electric scooters, and a preliminary discussion on future recognition policies.
Discussion Items
- ORD-0029-2026 (Tax Incentive Review Council): Director of Economic Development Jeff Gottke explained that the City discovered a prior ordinance establishing the TIRC appointment process under an incorrect section of the Ohio Revised Code, although the City had consistently used the correct process. The new ordinance repeals the outdated ordinance, appoints alternate TIRC members as previously discussed, and includes an emergency clause to ensure alternates are in place before the annual TIRC meeting scheduled for August 25, 2026, in Gahanna. No questions were raised.
- ORD-0027-2026 (Copy Charges for Law Enforcement Video Records): City Attorney Tamilarasan presented amendments that add statutory exemptions for costs, covering victims (as defined by Ohio law), victims' attorneys, and insurance companies. Councilmember Bowers expressed appreciation and clarified that the intent is to give staff tools to manage potential abuse from AI-generated records requests, not to create barriers. The ordinance allows discretion for the Chief of Police or City Attorney to address individual circumstances.
- ORD-0028-2026 (Helmet Requirement for Bicycles and Electric Scooters): City Attorney Tamilarasan noted minor changes (addition of “electric” for clarity). Councilmembers raised resident concerns about a religious exemption and civil liability. The City Attorney advised that no religious exemption is constitutionally required because the ordinance is neutral and serves a public safety interest. Regarding civil liability, Section F already states that a helmet violation is not admissible in civil actions and is not evidence of contributory negligence. She offered to research and propose clarifying language to explicitly state it cannot be used to determine liability or damages, but she deemed the current language sufficient. Councilmember Renner supported clarification but urged advancing the legislation as part of the city’s mobility safety initiative. No substantive opposition to the ordinance was expressed.
- Resolutions/Recognitions Policy (2026-0148): Councilmember Schnetzer introduced a discussion on ceremonial resolutions, sharing data from Council Office: pre-COVID (2017–2019) averaged approximately 6.7 per year (3, 9, 8), while post-COVID (2023–2025) averaged about 25.7 per year (21, 28, 28). He noted resident concerns about inequity and consistency, citing an uncomfortable May 4 meeting. He proposed two broad categories for future resolutions: (1) meritorious or longstanding service to the community, and (2) significant local achievements. Councilmembers Renner, Bowers, and Padova advocated for flexibility, with Renner suggesting a third category for evolving community issues, Bowers highlighting the value of raising awareness and bringing residents to City Hall, and Padova proposing alignment with the city’s Our Gahanna Strategic Plan. Vice President Jones suggested also formalizing how resolutions are initiated. President Weaver requested additional research on other communities’ documented policies. No action was taken; the discussion will continue at a future meeting.
Key Outcomes
- ORD-0029-2026 was recommended for placement on the Consent Agenda. First reading will occur on August 3, 2026, with second reading and adoption anticipated on August 17, 2026, on the Consent Agenda.
- ORD-0027-2026 was recommended for placement on the Consent Agenda for second reading and vote on August 17, 2026.
- ORD-0028-2026 will return for second reading on the Regular Agenda on August 17, 2026, to allow for potential amendments to clarify civil liability provisions.
- Resolutions Policy: No action taken. Council agreed to have Council Office research additional communities and will continue the discussion at a future Committee of the Whole meeting.
Meeting Transcript
All right, we transition to committee of the whole, and as President Weaver said last meeting, we do have addition to the agenda. So ordinances 0027 and 0028 will be added for discussion. But let's first get started with uh economic development, Director Grotke. This should only take a minute. Um so my Friday morning was a little a little weird, unintended uh activity. I think uh I think uh the city attorney and and the city clerk were both we were sort of back and forth with each other because we discovered, I don't know who discovered that, but good catch, one of you two, um, that council had adopted um in what 2000, I think, um the improper uh Turk selection method, however, it was never followed. Um and so Turk has always been appointed properly, but we have an ordinance on the books that says that creates a different representation strategy. So all we're doing tonight, basically, like it was it was adopted under one section of the revised code, but then we were appointing them according to the proper section, uh one section below. Um so all we're doing tonight is just asking for a repeal of the old ordinance and replacing it with the proper section uh of the revised code. Um and if you'll recall when we talked about TURC last, um we were gonna do um a couple of uh kind of preventative measures to make sure that uh the city is properly represented by all of the the designees. Uh so one of those would be to appoint alternates. Um the Turk meeting is scheduled for August 25th. It will be in Gehana, TBD location. Um that was one of the other things we said we would do was have it here. Um so that has been scheduled, it will be here. Um, but this ordinance also appoints those alternates. Um, and so you'll notice that there's an emergency uh clause on there. Uh and that is so that those uh alternates could be uh in place before the TERC meeting, should they be uh needed. Uh that's sort of the the belt, and that's the suspenders to the belt of having it, having it here, sort of a double double check there. So that's all this does. All right, that you took longer than a minute. Not us. All right. Any uh questions or discussions? Noted. We'll let it pass. Thank you. Put the little clock up there next time. All right, well, thank you very much. Um this would be first reading uh the third of August, then that will make uh the adoption on the 17th. So thank you. All right. Okay. Uh yes, do we consent? Sorry. I'm a little rusty, y'all, but thank you. Consent agenda okay. Great, thank you. All right, let's move on to we'll move to ordinance uh 00272026. This is the um copy charges. I think we just wanted to uh maybe turn it over to city attorney Tamil Ericerson just to highlight I I know you gave us red line edits, but just to open for questions, discussion if you want to also just share high-level uh the edits as well. Yes, thank you. Um pursuant to our conversation at the last committee of the whole, I did um include the statutory exemptions for costs, which would include any victim as defined by the Ohio Constitution and ORC, any of the victims' attorneys or um insurance companies. So those three statutory exemptions exist in the ORC now and should be mirrored in our code. So I did include those also, and that just created kind of a reformat of how the exceptions were laid out to incorporate them both in the same subsection. Thank you. Questions or discussion on that? Just Ms. Vice President. Just thank you.
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