Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh no, you're doing it.

Yeah.

I got it.

Oh my god.

I don't know.

Oh, I don't I don't know if that was all of it, but there were something that I went to I remember that.

I also remember how I didn't want to have to be a question.

And so at least it's got how to do this thing and it's going to be all people set up each year and coming into that.

And so these are chat.

Okay.

Oh people make any phone calls.

And so I pick up my camera and I go off and I start over for that.

No, it just went to design.

We walked out of there.

You know, that should have been that's the basic phone stuff.

Usually you can make it public phone calls.

But the way he acted and I was just like this is a guy who has something that high school here.

This is just like you know, the treatment like this is generally have some of the high I didn't hear like three weeks.

I didn't have like four weeks.

I got here in October leading up to the two thousand four.

Um just but we can try my screen.

No, she's very good.

Yeah.

Yeah, yes.

Yes.

So for the only ones here, do we just get the bottom of the colour?

Well, I mean, we don't get out of the way.

But it would be better than that.

Um I thought you're imagining.

So we're gonna do it, which you miss.

Yeah, we're over me while I'm not talking about your talk about it.

Okay, I will be right now.

What do you want to talk about?

You know, like you're talking about just a little bit.

Well that was different.

So it works on the dog.

Oh, yeah.

Yes.

Good afternoon.

The monthly meeting of finance debt and budget oversight committee will come to order.

The clerk will call the roll.

Surround two.

Here.

Driscoll?

Here.

Gaddis.

Here.

Hobbs.

Jones.

Here.

Martinez.

Four present.

Thank you.

Let us begin with uh the finance department.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Director.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chairman Sarantwood, Vice Chairman Driscoll.

I'm happy to be here today reporting on the uh March revenue and expenditures.

Uh joined today at the table by our tax commissioner, John Zavisha, accounts commissioner, uh Thomas Buckley, and our purchasing commissioner Natalie Brona.

Um we will jump right into the reports and I'll turn it over to Commissioner Zavisha for an update on income tax.

Right.

Good afternoon.

Commissioner, good afternoon.

Uh I'll start on page two of the report with the twenty twenty-six uh year-to-date numbers so far.

Um at this point for the year to date, again, it's early in the year, we're less than sixteen percent of income tax collected.

Um for the month of March, uh withholding was up down about two hundred and thirty-two thousand dollars.

Business just shy of eight or just over eight thousand, and individual was a little over twenty-eight, so about two hundred and sixty thousand dollars off.

Um but a key at this point is the total revenue for the city of Toledo through March is thirty-nine point two million dollars.

April will be our key month here.

Uh during the month of April, we will probably collect between twenty and twenty-five million dollars in a single month.

Um so although we are slightly one point six behind last year's pay, so six hundred and forty thousand dollars, um, April will definitely be our deciding factor of the direction of how the year is going so far.

Um as I continue on to page three of the report.

Uh right now this puts us at approximately two hundred and forty-four points two hundred and forty-four point six million dollars, which is slightly behind pace, but again, at this early stage, not a um concerns at this point, um, but we'll definitely see next month um what'll end up happening is your for not profits, your first quarter estimates will be due.

Uh withholding quarterlies, April 30th will be their first payment of the year.

And then not to forget that for the way withholding works is each month is paid.

So the March payments were actually the February withholding.

So at this point we actually only have two months of withholding numbers at this point.

So a little behind pace compared to last year, but early in the process.

And the goal for uh fiscal year 26 is how much in total tax collections that we're projecting.

That is 200 and 246.5.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh you want to comment on the uh stacks unit IRS collections.

Sure.

Uh IRS units slightly behind last year's pace.

They're down approximately sixty thousand dollars.

Um they are converting over um our old information uh with us switching that we're now doing collections with the Ohio Attorney General.

Um every individual needs to receive a sixty-day notice in regards to that.

So whether we've taken the case to court before, had previously assigned it to an outside attorney, or just haven't taken to court as of yet.

All of those um accounts need to be redone with the proper wording and given the time frame.

So that's part of the reason why their assessments are down and with assessments being down so far this year.

That's where the collections, like I said, about sixty thousand behind.

Again on that one, um, you're comparing that to last year's six point two, six point two was the second best collection year um ever for that unit, and that's been in existence for 25 years.

So going after strong numbers from last year, but again, thinking that once this gets no concerns about that, not being able to get up to six point two again this year.

Sure.

Kind of like winning the Heisman two years in a row.

Which I think did happen.

Okay.

Uh anything else under tax?

Uh no, again, like I said, so just early in the year for us.

Okay.

All right.

Uh director.

Thank you.

Uh moving into the overall general fund revenues on page four.

Um, you'll see that total collections through the first quarter at 61.7 million or 16.9% of budget.

Um looking through the report, um, just highlight a few areas.

Uh we did receive the first half property tax settlements that are reflected there towards the top of the report at 50.7 percent, uh, so in line with um the budget estimate.

Uh license and permit revenue running a little bit ahead at 30 percent.

Um you might recall, I think um last month we mentioned um there's a one-time permit that comes in of about 350,000 that was received already this year, causing that positive variance.

Um in the intergovernmental category, um, we do have several areas here that are either um semi-annual or quarterly, and we haven't seen those collections yet.

Um, that would be in the the homestead and rollback area with um some of our JEDS revenues as well as casino revenues.

Um local government funding though does come in monthly, and that's been on track with the budget estimate so far for the through the first three months.

Uh charges for service revenue overall um at 16.5 percent.

We do have some quarterly items here um like the cable franchise fees that we wouldn't expect until next month's report, um, and then in the EMS and BLS transport, um we do have monthly um billing that comes in for transports, but we also receive a one-time payment from the county um that one we haven't received yet.

Um that's why we're at 13 percent in that budget estimate.

Um court fees and fines right in line at 25.6 percent.

Um, and then as you look through the rest of the report, um the other transfers that come in uh to the general fund from CIP, we make that at year end, and then the transfer in from the toll lot is reflected there at about 30 percent of the budget estimate.

Uh question director, when does the EMS and VOS transport fees when are they paid to us?

The uh billing that there's some that comes in monthly through uh billing.

There's also a one-time payment that comes in from the county.

Um I'll have to check when we receive that last year, but I would expect it relatively soon.

Okay, all right.

Okay.

Next.

Uh the next uh two pages uh reflect the general fund expenditures uh by category and by department.

Um as you look at page five, you'll see overall labor expenditures are at ninety-one point five million or twenty-three point five percent of the budget, so just under that 25% benchmark for the year.

Um, overall labor costs are about 255,000 ahead of budget on a year-to-date basis.

Um we do have a variance in fire overtime.

Uh we did have a class that graduated at the end of February, which will help with recall overtime.

Um, and as you look at expenditures from January, February, and March, we've seen those start to come down a little bit.

Um other labor expenses, those are one-time contractual stipend, so at 68% of the budget at this point of the year is not unusual.

Um, supply and service costs, uh, both running under budget on a year-to-date basis.

Um, the capital item that you see in the general fund is um for the purchase of multi-function printers.

Um, so as departments are replacing those, you would see that reflected there.

Um, again, overall where we would expect to be at this point in the year.

Um is it uh unusual or not uh to have fire overtime with the class that just graduated uh at 35%?

I think the fact that um there was a class in the academy earlier in the year and late last year, and there would have been men or women pulled off the line to do training in the class, there would have been some recall overtime with the class graduating that should hopefully help with the recall overtime.

Okay, all right.

Okay, anything else?

Uh no, the general fund expenditure by department is on page six as well as um the revenue and expenditures for all funds.

Okay.

I'd be happy to take any questions before we move to CIP and ARPA.

Umtifications at 41%.

Uh why do you think that?

Um urban beautification that would include encumbrances that they have set up the year for their demolition program.

So it's funding that they've encumbered and will spend throughout the year.

Okay, great.

Okay.

All right.

I don't see any questions from members yet.

So go right ahead.

I will just mention that we did um put our March capital improvement project report out there for members.

It does include all of the 2026 approved projects are now reflected in the report with the passage of the budget.

Be happy to take any questions.

Okay.

Okay.

I don't see any.

Okay.

And anything else?

Just the last piece to mention.

Our ARPA report there, one-page report by project, is uh you should have it in front of you.

We're at 93% of the total budget expended at this point.

Okay.

All right.

Any questions uh from members on ARPA?

Okay.

All right.

Anything else in addition?

Uh no further updates from finance.

Okay, all right.

Uh any updates from purchasing or anything?

Okay.

And uh Dan, any updates you have?

Things are going fairly well.

Yeah.

Okay, great.

All right.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next, we'll have a collection update from the Department of Public Utilities.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, uh Director, good afternoon, Chief.

Um Thank you, um, Chair Seranto for having me here today as I present our monthly water bill collection update.

Umward, I apologize for not giving those copies to you electronically.

Um I will submit those to you.

Um you'll have them this afternoon.

Um, but going forward, I'll get them to you sooner.

Um so our team has create created um the monthly report that you see before you now.

Uh the report provides a monthly and year-to-date snapshot of our installment plans and current collection figures.

Our goal is to provide consistent and comparable information for you to view.

Um per the committee's request from your last from the last meeting.

Um we've included under the utility installment plans 2026 chart, the running total of how much has been collected and in total, a chart to show the outstanding balances for residential customers, outstanding balances, and commercial and high um high strength industrial customers.

Currently, we have a total of a little over five thousand two hundred residential payment plan accounts in the month of March.

We collected over five hundred and seventy-one thousand nine hundred and twenty-one dollars on those accounts, bringing the year to date collection total to a little over one million five hundred and fifty-five thousand three hundred and fifty.

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

We are resuming the process of turnoff for our commercial accounts.

Um because we have not shut off residential water in some time, which we are um making plans to do hopefully soon.

Um we want to make sure that we're developing a quality um program that is fully communicated to council and to all of our residents.

Um we want to take a responsible and phased approach.

We will be providing a comprehensive customer assistant and financial support overview in addition to our plan.

We are scheduled to present this plan to council May 13th.

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

I I have a question uh on the chart, the upper left-hand uh corner.

Total scheduled to be paid, uh $6 million uh $322,000.

What what does that represent?

Is that pay people that have enrolled in a payment plan?

Um that's yes, for the residential on the residential side, yes.

And would that be just during the month of March or is it since January 1st?

That's based on their payment plan that they're currently on, based on whatever that increment is.

So on those um those 906 residential payment plans that we have, we have 6.3 million dollars scheduled to be paid back through those installment plans.

Okay.

All right.

Uh councilperson Gaddis.

Thank you.

Thank you for this.

This is really, really uh nice.

This this I'd love to see this as a standard for other things.

I'd love to see this is in code compliance and anywhere else we're collecting fees uh and fines.

My question is on the top it says for residential and commercial.

Does that mean our industrial are all current nobody owes back water bills for our residential or for our industrial customers?

The commercial does include those industrial.

Okay, I just see it that they're all grouped into one.

What this represents is those that are currently on some type of installment plan with us.

Okay.

I seen down at the bottom it was broken up by industrial, commercial, and residential.

So therefore I thought maybe there weren't residential.

So thank you for the clarity.

No.

Um do we have a numbers on I love how we have the the data, but do we have how many residents and how many commercial are back bills to pay?

Like do we have the totality number?

We do, and we will be ready to present those on May 13th.

Okay.

That's that's wonderful to hear.

Thank you.

Thank you for your hard work.

This is this is really outstanding.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

But that's I I appreciate that, and I will share that with the team.

They've been working very hard.

Um we have a number of uh different finance and accounting um uh charts and um uh uh best ways to communicate and to show you exactly what we're doing.

We're working on those, and that's why we were hoping to be able to present um this month, but we need a little bit more time.

Um and we still have other things that we're trying to get on board.

We've been working with um RAF Tillis, um, who did our rate study um and we'll be doing the this the next um modeling for the water?

Um along with that, they've presented some tools that other utilities around the country that they work with are utilizing.

So we're reviewing those now and seeing if maybe that's something that would fit.

So when you ask different questions about well, what happens if you try this program or what if you take out this affordability piece or you want to get to the 300 percent, we'll be able to show that a lot faster.

Um if we sit down even one-on-one, we can put the numbers in and then give you a graph and show you what those looks like.

So that's what we're looking for in the horizon.

So bear with us.

Yep.

Thank you, council person.

Before I get to Vice Chair Driscoll, I want to make sure we understand in the middle of the page, outstanding affordability as of March of 26.

Residential comm customers, we've collected 10 million two hundred and eight thousand.

Commercial uh almost four point seven million, and industrial about nine hundred and forty-three thousand.

So year to date um or since we started the collection program, restarted it, we've collected fifteen million eight forty-six.

Am I reading that right?

That's correct.

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

Um let's go to Vice Chair Dr.

School.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh I want to echo the statements made about the presentation here.

I think it's it's good.

I just want to be sure I understand this.

The column total scheduled to be paid represents people who have agreed to a payment plan, the the sum of all of those accounts.

So we have not actually received six million dollars, but if those people who have agreed to a payment plan continue to pay into that payment plan, that is the total that will be collected.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

Is there any interest or fines associated with that?

Or is that just stretching out the amount of money that they owed over a defined period of time?

It is um stretching out the amount of money they owed over a period of time.

Um with that, they they agree to some type of installment plan that works with uh their budget, they get set up on that installment plan with the city of Toledo, and then that helps them make a payment to not over to not only cover that back amount owed, but also help them to pay the water bill that is still a key.

But we don't penalize them, there's no like interest or no like penalty associated.

Is there anything okay?

Do we do that at all for any of our water customers, commercial industrial either?

We um we have done late fees and have had that um as you'll see when we kind of present our plan for moving forward and getting out of that moratorium that we had.

Um we we are gonna make some recommendations that um you know the the goal is to help people get in the habit of paying their utility bills, and to do that, we want to make sure we have really accessible um programs and installment plans for them to get on payment plans as a part of that.

We will recommend that maybe those late fees get waived and makes it a little more affordable and helps them pay those those bills on time.

So we have that all as a part of um some of the research that we've done through other municipalities and and some of the recommendations, and then of course, as our team's been looking at different scenarios and calculating those against our um our budgets, et cetera, and our current rate models.

We'll we'll have all of that information for you.

Okay, and so when so this outstanding affordability chart, when did so you said we said collected 16 million almost?

What's the time period for when did we start?

You know, when did that uh ticker start running on that with the affordability programs?

I could get that date for you.

I don't know off the top of my head.

Because that's this is not a year to date figure.

This no, it's not a year to date figure, it's just like a running balance total.

Now, if we can modify this if you think it'd be helpful to do that.

No, I think that's fine.

I just want to understand when it started this started.

And also understand too that that that number some of those numbers are going up, obviously.

Yeah, so there's still people getting behind on and when we do our May presentation, we can make sure that we provide you with the numbers of when we've collected as part of our um a part of the these programs, and we can break them down.

And and that's a presentation to the water committee, presentation committee of the whole, how's that?

That's correct.

It's a it's in the water committee.

Um it's a presentation for our plan for non-payment disconnection and reconnection.

So getting a plan and process together because um, you know, we put the moratorium into place in um 2020 when COVID happened, and since that time, we have not been doing any disconnections for residential customers.

So is order to in order to use that as a tool to help people become successful at paying their um water bill, we want to make sure we have a really defined plan and process.

We want to make sure we have some very clear installment plans and debt forgiveness plans and uh customer assistance programs and all of the tools that we have.

We want to make sure we define that very well and have a plan and process that uh council is comfortable with and um that we can use and do some outreach and communication for our residents before we would start before we would start actually you know shutting off water if it got to that.

Okay.

Will that require is there gonna be any associated legislation or is this just the administrative policy for how DPU is being run?

Um there is not any currently there is not any legislation associated with it.

This was at the request of um Councilman Martinez, who is the committee chair.

Okay.

Um that's all I don't skip ahead, so we'll see on May 13th.

Thank you.

Sure.

Okay, so thank you, uh Councilman.

Uh so on May 13th, the presentation will center on a thorough discussion and report on collections.

Yes.

Will you also advise counsel uh how and when you will institute water cutoffs for residential customers and any commercial or industrial yes, that's correct.

That'll all be part of the presentation.

All right.

Um, originally, memory serves me right, we were told by DPU that we had about 66 million dollars in uncollected uh bills.

This page uh in the middle says 61 million seven thirty-four.

Um can anybody reference that?

Because I weren't we told sixty-six million at one point.

I thought we were um this is this is the document that was run by our team.

We can go back and check.

I I can go back and look um at maybe when that was announced.

One thing we were trying to do also is keep this consistent report because as um director Bannister mentioned, there are several different tools and uh financing tools, and that number really does change every day.

Okay, it really does.

So um we're just trying to keep a consistent report and consistent way on that we're drawing the data, so we're giving you accurate information on a monthly basis.

But I can go back and check on that 66 months.

Yeah, because that's that's what Director Stevens told us several times.

Um now another question in the uh the the uh lower third of the page affordability total due versus collected.

Okay, 52 million one fifty-seven, that's residential, and then seven million uh six six fifty-two or something like that.

That represents uh commercial and industrial, or is just commercial for the purposes of this schedule, we did um separate commercial versus industrial industrials below the commercial, and you'll see that's at 1.9 million dollars.

Okay.

All right.

So um then collected in the as of March a total of uh 10 million 208 is on residential, but if you take everything commercial, industrial, you've collected over 15 million, almost 16 million, correct?

That's correct.

Yeah, about 26 percent.

That's correct.

Now you also mentioned other um cities that you've talked to.

Um have any of these other cities did they ever have uh uh winter averaging on the sewer bill in the past from your discussions?

I do have that information, but I haven't had an opportunity to really look into it and digest it.

But I do have some information by way of referral, uh could you get that information to us uh in all of council, obviously, in terms of you know, did they have those plans?

Do they have them now?

Uh we obviously ended our winter uh uh averaging program.

And I guess my next question is is there any hope to reinstitute part of that or s all of it to bring it back?

Uh well if the rate paying experts say well, the first thing is um the pool discount, which we will start May 1st.

Um and then the second piece, which we've talked about before, is the irrigation program.

Um we're not ready to um we don't have all the details at this point, um, but we will have something that we can present.

Do you think you'll have that May 13th?

The irrigation program?

Yeah, um that won't necessarily be part of that presentation, but we will have information that we can use.

Well we're gonna get back together again anyways.

So that's what I'm doing now is gathering the information for us to get back together before we're ready to present anything.

All right.

Uh council Dr.

Jones.

Thank you, Chair.

Um thank you for putting together that report.

You said you were gonna send this electronically as well.

Okay, perfect.

I was just wondering as far as the payment plan um sign up makeup.

How many uh or a percentage of them are first timers versus those who may repeat have been on repeated payment plans.

Do you have that on hand?

We have that information.

I don't have it on hand, but we're happy to get that by way of referral.

Okay, I can do refer to because we do have the that information.

Okay, and for those who are I guess been on there repeatedly, how are you working with them to ensure that they are paying on time?

Now this time around.

Sure.

So there's a couple things we do, and we try to really work with our residents through our um customer service representatives through the installment plans and and what is affordable, what is something they can pay, and how we can also um make them successful and help them be successful, right, and paying their utility bills.

So um uh Jenny Jakeway and her team work really, really closely um with the building team and actually do receive the calls in to engage Toledo and have the ability to set residents up on installment plans.

With that, we also use Promise Pay as a tool as well where they have um they have um payment plans that residents can be set up on, and with those, what is really nice, especially with Promise Pay, et cetera, is is those residents get reminders, they get text messages, they get information that just helps them know that a bill is upcoming.

Right?

It's it's not helpful to have someone set up a payment plan that's unrealistic and something they can't afford.

So we really try to do our best in making it accessible to all of our residents as an option and a tool that they can use.

And do they receive like text messages and emails or is just text message?

Um I know it's text messages.

We also do we also offer emails.

So the um my TOL, the tool that you can use for your water bill, um, that can be emailed as well.

You can set up like your notification preferences.

Okay, yeah, I was just wondering because a thought popped into my head of how you can track when an email is read.

I'm not not sure if you can do that with text message, but just to ensure that one, the email address is correct, and then two, if they are seeing these emails but still ignoring, then that's a whole different way of trying to approach that as well.

Okay.

Okay, perfect.

And one more question.

Um not sure if this is covered under your department, but it makes sense.

The water tap program.

Has there been any discussions of trying to get that started or trying to look back into it?

Because you know, we're hearing of the farms are growing basically.

So what are we what can we tell people at this point?

Sure.

Um do you know what information on that?

Um the best thing to do is um they can either call engage who forwards that information on to water distribution.

Um I think I will I will get back to you.

I believe there's still a page on our website.

Okay.

Um so we are collecting and taking all that information, and then we're starting to review water distribution in some cases might need to go back out and assist um those that that already have them, um, making sure that over the winter there wasn't any damage and they get turned back on.

Okay, so perfect.

And then as far as newer applications, they're still on pause right now.

Is there any date in sight when they can see some action per se?

Um I'm we are hopeful that um within the next uh month or two we're able to do that.

We we do have someone that's taking that responsibility on, and we're getting that person up to speed.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for all you do.

Um looking forward to the presentation about um the updates and uh looking forward to the the email as well.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Dr.

Jones.

Okay, um are there any other questions uh on this matter?

Anything else you want to present?

Okay.

No.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Next on the agenda will be the city auditors report.

Good afternoon, John Ravalsky City Auditor.

Today I have the city auditors monthly report.

I have two items to update on.

The first item is the grass cutting audit.

Uh as you know, that's in progress.

And um given that mowing season is upon us, I think I'm adding additional procedures to include certain observational components that weren't possible during the off season.

Uh I think that that could yield improved or additional recommendations.

And I do want to be clear here, that's not to say anything that I've seen so far has led to any increased risk that could result in additional procedures.

This is more to uh add additional procedures given the timing that this is being performed uh to see if it could result in improved or additional recommendations.

Um given that this will uh be expected to be released at the end of the Q2.

Um the second item is we met uh the audit advisory committee to discuss the 2024 act for audit results, and that's a committee with uh count certain council members, myself, and uh outside committee members that were appointed to the committee, and we walked through the audit adjustments and had a good working meeting around that.

Uh that's all I have for now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And then uh Mr.

Auditor, we're did the committee have any uh suggestions for any changes in terms of reviewing the last year's audit.

Uh the the committee did have some good suggestions.

I noted all of those and uh plan to review those and make sure that um you know finance was uh in on the meeting as well, so they're aware of the recommendations as well, and we'll be following up on that.

Very good.

Thank you.

Um are there any members in the audience who would care to address the finance committee?

And any members of council?

Any issues?

Okay, with that, we stand adjourned.