Oh does it's a good thing?

Yeah.

Yeah, but if I can't remember okay, that's the thing.

Um should that has to be small eight and then surprise.

Okay.

So we have some I don't have any questions.

Oh, we can go in barrel, so it's probably you include therefore leaders would be here to make the hand twenty one.

Yeah.

I think that's like well.

Okay.

Twenty ninth.

Twenty-ninth.

Yes.

Good afternoon.

Uh the finance debt and budget oversight committee will come to order and the clerk will call the role.

Sorry, here.

Driscoll here.

Gettys.

Here.

Hobbs.

Jones.

Martinez.

For present.

Thank you, Clerk.

Good afternoon, everybody.

First on the agenda will be Chief Robson for an update on our DPU past due collection efforts.

Good afternoon, Chief.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, members of Council, Chair Sarantu.

Thank you for having me today.

Our team has created the attached report, which I hope you all have a copy of that we anticipate to be providing you on a monthly basis.

The report provides monthly and year-to-date snapshots of our installment plans and current collection figures.

Our goal was to provide council with something consistent and something that you can use as comparable information.

If there is any additional information you would like included on this report, we're happy to do that and have it prepared for the next uh finance committee hearing.

As you'll see from the report, currently we have a total of a little over 5,200 residential payment plan accounts in the month of February.

We did collect over 45,000 on those accounts, bringing the year-to-date collection total to a little over $93,000.

Currently we have a total of over $145,000 that has been collected on our commercial high strength industrial accounts.

Our team has been working on updating our process for non-payment and water shutoffs.

Because we have not shut off residential water in quite some time.

We want to make sure we develop a process that is fully communicated to council and our residents.

To take a responsible and phased approach, we will be providing a comprehensive customer assistance and financial support overview in addition to our plan.

We hope to present this to council within the next month.

Our goal is helping our customers to be successful at paying their bills.

I've had a conversation with um committee chair uh Martinez about this as well.

So we hope this to be a uh a collaborative process.

We'd like to bring this information to council so that we're all on the same page before we start implementing this plan.

I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have regarding the information.

Okay, well, thank you.

So uh you know, we started these collection efforts last year.

Where do you what's your estimate of terms of how much money we've actually brought in?

Sure.

I think we're probably at about um uh I'd say roughly 4.8 million dollars.

I know at the end of last year we had about uh 4.5 collected.

I can get that exact number for you by way of referral.

Um and so then if you add in the additional amount that that we've collected.

Um if you include commercial, actually, we're probably we're probably over that five million dollar number, we're probably closer to 5.5 million.

Yeah, I I do want to include uh commercial because we had some very large accounting.

Yes, we did from businesses that are operating that had not paid us.

Some of them were exceeding 100,000 dollars.

We'll do that.

I can get that by way of referral, and what I'll do is for the next meeting, I'll actually just include on the bottom of this report a running total, if that's helpful.

Okay, that that would be helpful uh and as I've stated before uh you know, Councilman Driscoll and I are vice chair, uh we met with Don Zurniak and uh Don uh has been with the city a number of years, obviously, and he indicated to us that uh years ago when they would do shutoffs, they had the crews that went around and residential accounts to shut off, and the minute they showed up suddenly people were coming out of their uh homes with money to pay the water bill.

So I I really think we've got to get serious about this because um ninety-five percent of the ratepayers are paying on their water bills, and we really need it's not fair to them.

And uh, you know, I think it was well over um like sixty-five, sixty-six million dollars that's been owed.

I recognize for the most part it's gonna be hard to collect uh a significant amount of that, but nonetheless we do have to make that effort and uh get serious and uh notices to people, door hangers and that.

We've sent out many notices.

We have a payment plan that I think is very equitable for folks, and and you know, we just need to get moving on that.

So I appreciate in the next month.

Our next meeting will be um April 29th at 4 o'clock, if we can have an updated report uh on total amount of collections, residential, commercial, industrial obviously.

Um then we can move from there.

But I'm hopefully we'll we'll have a plan laid out prior to that.

Yes, that's our plan.

Okay.

Uh with that we'll go to Vice Chair Driscoll.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Yes, I uh I think uh running total will be good.

I think you know we're about a quarter of the way through the this this reflects two months, I suppose.

So we're on pace for a little bit more collected this year if things hold.

Um I think a running total will be nice to know, but I also think as long as it's uh we're gonna report to finance, and I know you report to water quality committee as well.

I think it'd be good to know the total outstanding amount of uncle to bills too.

Uh just to see what kind of progress we're making.

Um I'm curious though, do we do reporting to credit agencies for people's water bills if they don't pay them?

Um so currently I don't believe we are.

It is something that we have discussed as a part of the process and collecting on some of that outstanding debt.

Okay.

If if we don't, then the only tool in our toolkit really is to shut is to do shutoffs.

And um I don't think we ever really want to get to that point, but we price in delinquency into our rate structure, which means everybody else, 95% of the people who do pay the water bill are paying a higher water rate to account for the people who don't.

And that's and there's there's a fundamental question of fairness, I think there.

Um but I'm I'm I'm I know we have I I don't know what the disparity is between commercial and residential, so I think it'll be good to know the outstanding um relevant for both of those.

Yeah, the outstanding debt on both.

Thanks very much.

Thank you, uh Vice Chair.

Uh Council Person Gaddis.

Thank you.

I had a question, it's it's uh around this, but maybe a little bit off.

The um appropriation that's in front of us to pass um for the um customer assistant grant program.

Do you know about how many people it will help?

Um that's already in the rears.

Like have we done any analysis on that?

Uh um, I believe we have, and we can get you that information of based on what we have outstanding, how many people could potentially qualify for that.

Um that specific grant that we have is just one piece of the comprehensive customer um assistance and financial support programs that we offer um for that one specifically, it hasn't been utilized as much because we haven't been shutting off um water.

What we want to do and what we hope to do when we're presenting our plan and our process when we are getting to the point um to start shutting off water in hopes that we're we're supporting and helping our residents to pay their bills, is um that we're gonna have a complete overview of all of those financial assistance programs that would be available, and then we could give you a clear understanding of how many of our residents would qualify for each of those.

Okay, that would be nice if we could do the senior as well.

Yes, because as I am pushing this out into the community, I'm finding a lot of seniors that aren't utilizing it because they thought it was attached to finances, and it's not our programs are different.

So there's not people have misconceptions on some of our programming I I agree with you, and we want to make sure that we have clear and concise messaging and that all of our council members are aware of that so that we can get that to our to our residents.

Okay, and I just want to reiterate that I have the power of junction, the Broadway Corridor Coalition and One Voice, they are willing to help us through this.

So I'd really like to partner with my community groups to work out.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilperson.

And you know, again, I would reiterate we really need to do everything we can, like with the mailing of the bills, notices that there's a senior discount, yes, uh, and uh payment methods if you're having problems.

Uh we we just need to really continuously inform our citizens because again, I think you know, we had a hearing here a few months ago and we had people that did not know about the senior discount.

Now there's limits on that.

If you use quite a bit of water, you don't qualify for that.

But for the most part, most seniors would.

So all uh any efforts that we can have in the with the mailers that we have, social media, media announcements, it would be very helpful, I think.

Sounds good.

Anything else?

Does anyone else have questions on that?

If not, uh Chief, thank you very much for being here.

Thank you.

Next on the agenda will be the Department of Finance report and Director Campbell.

Good afternoon.

I'll wait for your team to join us.

Thank you.

Um good afternoon, Chairman.

For the sunshine, by the way, today it was nice to see.

Thank you.

Uh good afternoon, Chairman Sarantu, Vice Chairman Driscoll, members of the committee.

Um, we're here today to present February Finance Committee reports.

Um at the table with me, we have uh tax commissioner John Zavisha, um, our accounts commissioner Thomas Buckley and Wage and Hour Compliance Commissioner Dan Morey.

He'll give an update at the end of our presentation.

Um, also with us today in the audience is our purchasing commissioner Natalie Bronaw.

Um we will start with the finance committee report packet um and dive into income tax collections, and I will turn it over to Commissioner Zavisha.

Good afternoon, sir.

Good afternoon.

I'll be covering pages two and three of the report and then the um compliance unit attachment as well.

Um through the month of February, overall the city on a year-to-year basis, we're down 371,358 dollars.

Now it should be taken into consideration for taxation at this point.

We have less than eight percent of our collections for the year.

So, for example, in the withholding category, the first monthly payment was due February 15th, the first quarterly payment will not be due to April 30th.

Uh so in the withholding category through the month of February, uh, we're down 327,629 dollars or about 1.7 percent.

Uh for the business and individual categories for net profits, if our calendar year filer, obviously the returns are due April 15th, but also the first estimate payment is due as well.

So at this point, you're sort of getting fiscal payments on businesses, you are getting some early estimate payments, um, but not a lot of money coming in through um this part of the year.

For the business category for the year so far, we're down $36,841.

Individual category, we're down six thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight uh dollars, but at this point, no reason for concerns at this point where us being this early in the process.

Okay.

Going forward to page three, then um, so we do have now the so the 25 unaudited.

So again, that 13th period that we always talk about did end on February 28th.

So there might be some still some minor auditing changes, but we're pretty much getting into what our true 2025 tax number was.

Obviously, we have the projections out there then for the general fund for 26 and road improvement as well.

Um again, sort of showing there that we expect to get to about 272 million overall.

Um in addition to that, um, I like it.

I also like to say the compliance unit uh attachment was there.

Um so far this year we are up about 21,000 um compared to last year.

Again, last year's 6.2 million was the second best collecting year in the 25 years of the program, so it's nice to get off to a good um start in those categories, and um open for any questions.

Okay, great.

Um council person gaddis.

Thank you.

Thank you for your report.

Um as things are going and we're seeing more indicators of the recession slowly uh trickling in.

And um you said that right now you don't see any concerns.

When what's the number that would start to concern you?

Like what percentage down?

Um usually uh once you pass about one and a half percent, you do you really want to start looking at it.

Um at the same time, I would make the argument that until April's numbers are officially done.

Um you wouldn't want to jump to any conclusions one way or the other.

It's very easy this early in the year because there's so few numbers coming in that you can look good or bad in the beginning.

So you would definitely want to get through the first quarter completely, have that first round of estimate payments, calendar, tax years filed, um, a couple of months worth of withholding.

Again, at this point in February, you get one month of monthly withholding, quarterly withholding.

We don't even, you know, like I said, it isn't due till April 30th, so sometimes that's actually even into the May numbers.

But I would say when you start to look at the numbers as in hey, going very good or very poor, you would want to get to that point, and then like I said, it's probably getting about one and a half percent, two percent away from the budget that you would want to start really digging deeper to see what's going on, because especially like last year we had it for the business net profits.

It's very few companies control the majority of that number than for profits within the city and stuff like that.

So those are where you're looking at individual companies and less of the overall total then on that um as opposed to withholding it.

There's a top 75 companies that we're mainly looking at to look to see okay who's up, who's down, and then what's the reason?

Is it a one-time payment that maybe happened in a prior year that doesn't happen this year or vice versa, or truly, hey, this company's laying off employees, and we're now starting to see what that is affecting us on a monthly basis.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

So in terms of the top 75 that you just mentioned, do you are you seeing any trends that we should be concerned about?

Um again at this point, we've got one month, um and we can sort of compare it a little to last year.

So we sort of look at it too from two different angles.

One is sort of almost doing like a February versus February look, um, because in a case like that this year, for instance, we had one company where it would have been a one-time payment that we got last year, didn't happen this year.

So we're not as worried that that company on a monthly basis is going to be lower.

Um, but you're still starting to try to watch for that.

Um we also had it that last year was a year where from withholding, it was the second half of the calendar year where we were really strong.

If you would think back or look back on reports, you know, through April, May, June, you know, we were still negative through that point to then have the strong second half where you start to hit you know, some and you know, especially like construction and stuff like that, much stronger in the second half of the year, the holiday season and stuff like that.

So at this point, too early for anything at this point, but that's what we're sort of looking for year-to-year basis, um, and then it does it, is it a one-time event or not?

Okay, thank you.

Uh Vice Chair Driscoll.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh so it's on audited, but is we won't be changing any, I mean, unless because of an audit, but we won't be receiving any more tax payments in the general fund for 2025.

Is that correct?

Correct.

There, yeah, there might be some little small changes, less than 100,000 probably would be, you know, I would think almost at a major change at that point, but um pretty well set on that number with the closing of the 13th period.

Do you know approximately what the 13th period collections were in like 2023, 2022?

Because this seems to be the biggest driver of uh the difference between 2024 and 2025, almost an 11 million dollar difference uh between those two years and projecting an increase in general fund collections of nine million dollars going into next year now that we're thinking about the upcoming budget.

I just I just wonder why you know is there sh I when we do sort of right size our projection a little bit, but do you understand my question then?

Yeah, well, what ends up happening again, a lot of that 13th period number, there are definitely again getting back to there's a couple of major employers in town where it's their net profit return um that affect the numbers.

We'll sometimes get some estimate payments in for those, and sometimes we won't get those until they truly file their tax return, which usually is October or November.

Um, so usually even when that number comes in, like a couple of years ago, we had a very strong number.

We still verify with the company that everything is correct on that, because on that one, you could very easily have something be one year be zero and a different year to be 10 or 12 million dollars.

So we like to just sort of verify to go, okay, what is your estimate payments?

What is truly that net profit?

Um, and what ends up happening is there's an opt-in program that major employers end up using.

So they're truly filing with the state, and then the state reports it to us.

So once they report it to us, then that's us looking into it to go, okay.

We just want to make sure we got the right number reported to us, um, because in the end it's just you know, hey, company A, two million dollars, then looking into it to go requested, we're able to then request copies of an 1120 or a 1065 or whatever and stuff and be able to look at it for ourselves because they've taken um advantage of that program with the state.

So on the surface, they don't report to us.

We just have to then get the information and then we check into it.

And then that usually causes that 13th period number to fluctuate so much because it's such a major player.

So, do we have any concern about our 2026 projected budget?

Now that we basically know the amount of money we collected in 2025.

Do we have any concern?

Not necessarily at this point in time.

You know, we're definitely introducing a couple of new programs that we're looking at, probably getting about four million dollars in collections in.

Um, so we're getting those up and running and stuff.

Um again getting back to where those major net profit companies sort of ebb and flow a little bit last year was a you know poor year compared to the prior two or three years, so we are expecting a little bit of a bounce back on that.

We'll be able to tell that a little bit as they make estimate payments.

Um will help guide us on that one direction wise.

Um but again, like I said, that's usually why we'll wait till first quarter completions to be able to really see, hey, we like this number, this one's concerning for us, and whatever it happens to be at that point.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Um a couple of things I wanted to ask you about.

We get daily reports at council on engage Toledo, what questions are coming in.

And we're seeing usually tax questions are number one.

How is that going?

Because I know from previous reports, you're able to get uh back to uh our taxpayers pretty quickly when they have questions.

Is that continuing?

Yes, actually we really loved how this program sets up, so you've got to figure so a person will end up calling in to engage Toledo.

What then excuse me happens is one of our supervisors will be able to look at that because in tax it can go in so many different directions.

It could be a garnishment case, it could be a court case, it could be someone just wanting their estimate payments, help with filing the tax return, um checking their payments on their account, can they get on a payment plan?

All that stuff.

So what ends up happening is those calls come in that same day, then they'll get assigned to someone on our staff, and we just sort of set it up where it's like these two people cover audit, this person will cover collections, this person covers compliance, and then that's what we do.

We hold our staff to hey that call.

Obviously, we would really like it done in 24 hours.

As we get closer to April 15th, we sometimes push that 48, but our goal is within 48 hours to get all of those cleared out, and the nice thing with it is because of in the city work system, you have to mark that it's done.

It's an easy way for supervisors to be able to see, okay, here are the three calls that fell between the cracks or whatever and stuff like that, and be able to get on whoever it was assigned to to be able to get those completed, or maybe that employee has been off sick or something, then get someone else onto that call to take care of it.

But we've really loved the the system and the setting.

So that's that's good news because I mean the taxpayers need answers, especially with April 15th fast approaching.

So uh we appreciate that.

Also, the new program with the state attorney general's office.

Tell us how that is going on.

Yes.

So so far on that one, we've assigned the Ohio Attorney General about 2.6 million dollars.

Um to date we've collected or they've collected for us 249,000 already.

Um so it has actually been going really well with that.

So what ends up happening is the person still goes through our system, you get your foreign notices, and um each of those notices is noting that hey, if this doesn't get paid, it could go to them.

And then once they get it, sometimes it's the name on the letter head, um, sometimes it's federal or state refunds and stuff, but um they work and um it's been very successful so far, and we've really liked it.

Okay.

And the stacks unit or IRS unit?

That's going yeah, yeah.

Well, uh 880,000 already in this year for them.

And yes, it's really being able to use that IRS data.

So again, you've filed your federal taxes, certain employees in our office have access to that database.

They're comparing that database to the city's database to see, hey, you're filing um at the federal level, you're not filing at the local level, and then it can be checked into to be like, okay, does that employer have a Toledo account?

So if so, we can match it that way, and then when that doesn't happen, we can start the letter system of saying, hey, you might have something here, we would need to talk to you about it and go forward with that.

All right.

Anything else under taxation, Commissioner?

That covers it for today.

All right, thank you very much.

Uh Councilman Hobbes has joined us also.

Um Director Campbell, next.

Thank you.

Um next page four moves into the rest of the general fund revenues.

Um you'll see overall here through February collections are at 8.6% of the budget.

Um we were at about 10.6% of the budget last year at this point.

Uh the primary driver there for that variance is in the property tax section, you'll see um a second kind of box on your report.

Um we've got some payments in on the property tax, but the large um settlement that we receive um came early in March as opposed to in late February of last year.

So we'll expect to see that then reported and be probably at about 50 percent of the budget when we report to you next month.

Um still early in the year, so we have some quarterly payments that um we have yet to receive in intergovernmental that impacts our JEDS revenue as well as our casino uh revenue and our charges for service services area, cable franchise fees are quarterly payments.

Um we continue collections through um EMS and BLS transport fees.

Um that one's at 9.2 percent.

We do get one payment that comes in from the county.

Um that one has um yet to come in yet.

Uh that's why we're at 9.2 percent in that category.

Um court fees and fines on track with what we would expect, running a little bit ahead of budget in the other revenue category.

Um we have received um some of our school resource officer payments already.

Um and then as you look at other financing sources and uses, um, we do have the CIP transfer.

We make that at the end of the year, and then the transfer um in other areas comes in from the TOLA as well as from ARPA funds.

But again, overall here through February in line at this point overall with our revenue projections.

So the the CIP transfer has occurred for 2025, yes.

Okay, all right.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any questions?

Okay, next.

Our general fund expenditures are on the next two pages on page five by category and on page six um by division.

Um we're at 14.2 percent of the budget.

Um we do have positive variances overall within our our labor expenditures, um, as you see, base labor as well as um pension and employment tax costs are running under budget at least through two months.

Um the overtime category we do see a variance um against the year-to-day budget in fire.

Um they did have a fire class that graduated at the tail end of February with those officers um now on the line that should help with recall overtime.

That's something we'll want to watch over these next couple months and see if that uh number starts to stabilize a little more closely to budget.

Um service and supply costs are running under in both categories.

Um on the service side, um we will record as we get that um settlement from the county our health department costs.

Um we had those at this point last year.

Um but overall again on the general fund budget as you see on this page and on the next page running under the budget on a year-to-date basis in several areas.

Okay, and then we uh just had a fire class graduation, so I assume that should have somewhat of an impact on fire over time.

Yes, yes, that's something we'll want to watch over these next few months and see if that does um start to come closer in line with budget.

Okay.

Councilman Hobbes.

Thank you, Chair.

Ms.

Campbell, you have any idea what our retirement is gonna look like this year for fire and police, any idea for 26?

Um, I don't know offhand.

I think they're typically in the 20 to 30 range for each, but we could get some more specifics on their projections from police and fires.

With the um just with the budget and everything, you know, just think it's important, but we're you know, with the classes and all that, so I just wonder what we were looking like, possibly.

But it's okay.

I understand it's hard to know you know what people are thinking about doing and not doing, and someone could say and then just decide, hey, I'm out, I get it.

But I just I didn't know if you already kind of had an idea what we were looking like.

Um when I first came on council, um we dealt with um I think councilwoman Gaddis remembers.

I think she was the only one that was here at that time, but we dealt with um that spring and that whole summer.

Several of our fire stations, they were closed throughout that, you know.

We remember we were constantly getting emails about stations being closed because they didn't have enough.

Um I'm just thinking ahead with vacations coming with retirements, um, will we have the numbers we need for our stations to be active each day?

That's all.

So thank you.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

Uh next.

The last two pages are the all funds uh revenue and expenditure reports.

Um be happy to answer any questions that you might have before we move into CIP and ARPA, which were also um attachments in your packet and be happy to answer any questions on those as well.

Okay, seeing no questions, we'll why don't we move into that.

Okay.

Um so the CIP report for February 2026 shows all the active projects in total, including all grant and loan funded projects.

There's about a hundred and thirty-three million dollars of CIP capital ongoing.

Okay.

All right.

Any questions on CIP?

Any surprises?

Anything unusual?

No.

No.

Okay.

All right.

And then you also have an ARPA.

Um we did uh submit the one-page ARPA summary through February, um, which reflects again full obligation of all the projects and 12.6 million approximately remaining to spend by the end of the performance period this year.

Okay.

Uh Vice Chair Driscoll.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I um I appreciate last month when we got an update about this, but I think I didn't set it at the committee here, and then I think probably maybe halfway through the year we need to do that update again.

But we also need to be very, very clear.

Um I don't really care about the content of the program so much.

It's all nice.

I appreciate it.

I care about whether or not we're gonna spend the money that's on the page.

I know they all believe they're gonna spend the money.

Of course they do, but we need to know.

I want I think we should communicate very clearly to them how are you going to spend the money in between now and the end of the year?

Uh and I think we can we have a few months to work that out.

Appreciate it.

Yeah.

And I you know, again, I I think all of us would appreciate if if the finance department can reiterate that uh with the recipients that because what we don't want to have happen is December 10th, we're suddenly informed we've got three million dollars left, and we have to make a decision where it's gonna go.

We know the federal rules indicate that it has to go to a very similar program.

Um if we have money for uh a facility that serves youth, then it has to be in that area.

You can't uh deviate and send it uh uh to a fire station for improvements.

Am I correct on that?

You you're correct, Councilman uh Sarantu.

And our team has and continues to reiterate with all the departments the um need to make sure that they have a plan in place and the dollars are spent by the end of the year.

Um we work closely with law to make sure that contracts are awarded.

Our purchasing team works to make sure things are moving quickly through the system.

So we are all cognizant of the deadline at the end of the year and um plan to spend every dollar.

I I I uh I would appreciate monthly monthly reminders uh to our uh department heads that are dealing with that.

Uh councilwoman Jones, Dr.

Jones.

Thank you, Chair.

Um for the ARPA projects.

Could you add the column of just the percentage that's been expended so far?

I think that would help also with the discussion um concerning projects that may have a certain percentage where they're not even going to hit it by the end of the year, and that's so that can be a trigger for us to really start these conversations just to make sure that things are online and if we have to call a committee meeting, we know specifically who to call because based upon that percentage.

Yes, um, Councilwoman Jones, I can add that, and I apologize because I think you asked me that last time and I forgot.

I think I did, yeah, no, I will you are fine.

I get what you go.

I understand what's happening.

But yeah, I think that will help a lot.

Um and also I don't know if you will be able to provide the update, but I'll have to act I have to reach out to Brandon to ask about the CIF situation concerning that 500,000.

Um I know it's under the Healthy Food Incentive program, but I've been getting calls and conversations about what exactly is going to happen with that money.

And all I have to say is that we have to wait for SIFT and see what's going on.

So I'll catch up with him, but I think the percentage will definitely help to keep us on track and just to red flag programs that and projects that we need to.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Dr.

Jones.

Uh Councilman Martinez.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So I was looking at this, and for the most part, the majority of this money has been um allocated and expended.

And you know, one of the big concerns I have looking at this is really the uh Starbase project.

Um just do you have an update by that?

If not, I can do it by referral.

But that that's a significant amount of funding not being used, from what I can tell.

Um we can get the details from Director Fosno, but I think he reported um last time that the work is happening and there's a you know they get um the work gets done and then the city has sent invoices and pays them.

So we'll have to see on the timeline for when those reimbursements are expected.

So we are having a star base.

I I don't think the star base program itself, but the the build out of the space is still happening.

Okay.

Thank you, Councilman.

Uh Council Person Gaddis.

I did want to um uh address uh councilman Martinez that we open working with um uh captor representative captor's office and the Metro Parks, and they are in um in the works of getting that construction completed.

So, yeah, so we're doing the build-up, but we're not gonna have a program there.

So we're gonna have an empty really nice box of something we can use for.

There's programming, it's just not that programming.

Okay, to my understanding, I don't want to say anything.

I'll do it by referral.

Yeah.

The star base was through the Department of Defense, and I think that that money has been the programming from the Department of Defense has been altered to something else.

All right, thank you.

Yep, thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much.

Uh next.

Um we also have an update, um, a packet for wage and hour compliance.

Yes.

Um and Commissioner Morey will provide an update in that area.

Okay.

Good afternoon, Commissioner Morey.

Good afternoon.

Thank you.

I'm happy to provide an update on the wage and hour compliance uh division.

Um as a reminder, uh brief review, our division is tasked with enforcing ordinances 545-22, the wage theft ordinance, uh, the 796, an employees' right to file a wage theft complaint, which can involve uh any broken promise to pay uh misclassification of employees of subcontractors or a threat of retaliation, kind of sums up those 11 items.

Um and then 798 contractor and subcontractor registration requirements for the city of Toledo.

Uh our enforcement is primarily field driven.

The majority of violators uh aren't on paper.

They're um worker for cash or haven't filed in a number of years, we've lost track of them, so we catch them out in the field.

Uh we do field audits to check for tax registration and compliance with the wage theft ordinance.

Our most common violation of that is the misclassification of an employee as a 1099 subcontractor.

Um we have a good partnership with the building inspection department.

Uh nobody could pull a permit for construction without having a valid certificate of income tax compliance.

This gives us a good first contact point with an employer and helps us start those conversations.

And then uh we are continuing our partnership that allows us to place a stop work order on behalf of building inspection if we find that a project started that uh does not have permits.

We do that in uh consultation with the chief building official.

They're fully aware they sign off on it and authorize us to do it so we don't have to duplicate uh city time by sending an inspector then out to somewhere we've already been to.

Um some recent highlights.

I believe you should all have a copy of the postcard that was recently mailed out.

This was sent to all Toledo employers, either by uh email or via mail if we did not have an email address.

Um approximately 9,300 postcards went out, over 20,000 emails went out to employers notifying them of the uh requirement to hang a poster in their um, you know, where the federal compliance wage and hour compliance posters go.

There's a notice that the employees can then read that tells them about their rights under the wage theft ordinance to report any um any theft from their wages.

Uh to date prior to the posting, we've uh processed 11 employee complaints under 796.

Uh we would expect this to increase now that the posting requirement is, you know, the notification as more people become aware of their rights.

We expect an increase in call volume.

Uh average uh recovered for workers, um both wages stolen and damages, about 1,575.

Uh and then uh we did have a goal of no court cases.

Uh unfortunately we had an employer that we had to take there and this morning we settled that case uh and received three thousand dollars for the employee that experienced theft.

It took uh a little over six months to get them that money, but uh they were very happy to receive that check this morning.

Um and then as far as our other enforcement efforts go, uh we uh broke over the one million dollar and recovered uh and owed taxes from employers, averaging over $9,000 per week from field stops uh related to our registration efforts.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Well, I think that the million dollars is significant, and I I know that I think as you uh uh continue your hard work that we'll probably see even uh higher amounts uh just because this is a real real problem in our community.

Um what would you say are um are the most common methods uh of finding out about wage theft that that you're encountering?

Uh people call in or how um so the ones that where there's an uh somebody calling in and complaining um prior to the wage theft notification going out, the most popular one was just Googling.

Um I had my wages stolen in Toledo, and it would it would generate our website visit.

So that's how we got the majority of our referrals.

Um the rest of that was due to field stops.

Um Mark Wilson and myself, we do field stops as often as we can and get out there and just visiting construction sites.

We focus uh specifically on owner polled permits is a high abuse area.

Um contractors who are not registered or perhaps don't have the credentials to pull a building permit will often talk the homeowner into pulling that permit.

And um they have to sign on the line that says they're gonna perform the work themselves, but then they'll have a contractor do it.

So we do review the uh through our partnership with building inspection, review the owner polled permits uh for both commercial and residential, and uh those are high high uh success rates.

Right.

Right.

And it it would seem pretty easy to observe construction crews and equipment, you know, residential areas, business areas, industrial areas.

Sticks out quite a bit.

Yep, great.

Councilman Martinez.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh great work.

That's awesome.

And I have uh seen your field stops because you stopped at my house.

So I I certainly appreciate uh you guys uh being very thorough, and it doesn't matter who you are, you're still subject to the law.

And thankfully my contractor was appropriate and had the proper documentation.

Uh I say all that in tongue in cheek, um, because I I think what you're doing is not only unique, because I have never seen in other municipalities, but very important, and so thank you for doing that on top of the fact that you're actually helping the worker um get what's rightfully his or hers that they have lawfully earned.

So I I really appreciate that.

Um I just had one random question.

And has anyone taken like so the contact information have they like just tried to be vindictive and you know go against the the employer just for any reason other than just to be vindictive?

The like uh like a disgruntled employee just wants to get the owner in trouble for something that happened.

Have you ever seen any abuse like that?

Uh we have had several cases that we have declined to take further.

Um I don't want to necessarily speculate what their motivations were, but they did not have the evidence to back up the complaint.

Gotcha.

So we have the discretion to uh examine the evidence that is presented, and we have you know communication with the employer as well.

What documentation do you have?

We try to consider it all um, you know, with the benefit of the doubt given to the employee.

Many employees uh unfortunately do not keep very good records.

Um they just you don't need it until you need it, so they don't know to keep it sure.

Um but we have had a few cases we have declined to take further.

Gotcha.

I and I can't imagine there's a lot of abuse of this.

I'm just curious what you know to make sure that business owners are also protected though, too, so for unfair or um for whatever reason they're their employees, disgruntled employees just want to get back at the from whatever reason.

So good to know that there's some discretionary you know conversations that are had and um not everything is guilty until proven innocent, right?

So yes, no, we uh there's one case right now that most likely will be uh dropped just from the employer's provided plenty of evidence and the employee has run out of time.

So thank you.

Okay, thank you, uh Councilman.

Any other uh anything else, uh Commissioner, you wanted to bring up?

Uh no, thank you very much for the time.

Okay.

Anything else, Director?

No, thank you.

Okay, our next meeting uh will be uh April 29th, Wednesday, April 29th at 4 p.m.

We appreciate everyone being here.

Uh Councilman Martinez.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Before you leave, um I I know we're having a budget hearing.

Um and I'm not sure if this is the appropriate time to discuss the finance uh recommended budget cuts.

Yeah.

Um Director Campbell, are you aware that there was a suggested budgetary cuts for the finance department?

Yes, I think we had a vacant position as well as some software.

Correct.

And I just wanted to know if there was any impact uh on that or kind of like your thoughts on it.

Um I think with the software is um for prevailing wage compliance, but we do have three staff members and they're confident that they can handle what they need to um and accepting reviewing prevailing wage um for our city contracts without the software.

Anytime we have a vacant position that we lose, it can always be a challenge.

But it is one of our vacant positions that is in accounts and has been a manager in the past over AP and AR.

As we move forward with some potential enhancements in procurements and payments, it might be a nice position to have, but we do understand that it's vacant at this point and that if council decides to unfund it, we we'll figure out how to get it done.

Okay.

So I guess my question is I know some positions in your departments are revenue positive and versus regular never uh negative.

I which position is this just kind of neutral or yeah, the positions we do have some vacant positions in tax, and we would not recommend making any adjustments to those positions.

Um the one that is um on the list is in accounts, so it wouldn't have an impact there on on revenues the same way a tax position would.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

That was my bigger concern.

All right, thank you.

Okay.

Any other uh business before the committee?

Uh is there anyone in the public that would care to address the committee in our audience?

If not, seeing none, we stand adjourned.