Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to the City Council agenda review on this May Six, twenty twenty six.

Clerk will please follow the role.

Come on.

Kramer here.

Martinez.

McPherson here.

Meldon here.

Morris here.

Williams.

Here.

Driscoll here.

Get us here.

Habs.

Jones.

Here.

Eleven present.

Thank you so much.

Uh, we will start with the new items from the administration.

Item number one.

Uh please welcome.

Hi, good afternoon.

Megan Robeson, Chief of Operations for the City of Toledo.

Today I have Commissioner Ryan Murphy, uh, Director Joe Fosna, and Commissioner Sarah Stacey joining me.

Uh, this legislation authorizes the mayor to enter into a five-year agreement with the option for five one-year renewals with republic service for curbside refuse and recycling collection.

The first year expenditure is estimated to be 11 million seven hundred thirty-one thousand with an annual three percent increase plus additional fuel charges over the five-year agreement.

We have identified service level commitment language to be incorporated into the contract support in the contract to support timely collection, timely service complaint resolution, quality service, and resident education.

We have a committee hearing scheduled for May 20th at 2 p.m.

where additional information will be shared.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

We will begin with Councilman Martinez, but before I just want to reiterate that we're having a hearing on the 20th at 2 p.m.

Uh, we will also be hearing um the item number three uh pertaining to the solid waste fees as well at that hearing.

I'm sure it'll come up.

So Councilman Martinez.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Yeah, so my question I will actually also put it by referral.

So I'd actually like to know what the true cost of the contract is.

Because it sounds like, especially with gas being five dollars, you know, a gallon, and they're using diesel, it's even more.

Uh I I want to make sure that we're projecting and comparing what this new contract is going to cost the taxpayers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you.

That's loud.

Um, that was my concern as well.

I mean, they're projecting gas to go up another dollar or two with as um the war with Iran continues.

What is that gonna look like for this contract?

I'd like to see specifics, especially for um the committee hearing.

Thank you, Chair.

Absolutely.

Councilwoman McPherson.

Thank you.

And just to prepare you, I guess, for the hearing, um, do the same thing.

Um, can you give us what the bid was initially when we were in meetings with priority versus this?

And then what in it in this contract um safeguards us because it's a five-year contract.

What safeguards us year to year if they are not meeting our obligations, which we have required for them to do in making sure that the residents are receiving the services, and also is there anything in the contract that um could handle subtracting money or funds from them when they do not meet the quota or streets have not been picked up in those uh would like to see that and you can prepare that for the hearing?

Absolutely.

We'll have all of that information available at the hearing.

Yep.

Alright, thank you.

Thank you.

Uh President Williams.

Um I just want to say uh thank you to the community.

Um, your voices have been heard.

You wanted to um make sure that we knew that you wanted to stick with the one we had, and um, I can't wait for the hearing.

That's all.

Um I have sat down with Republic and I've met with Republic on several occasions now, and um, I think we're on the track to rebuild our relationship.

But uh, you know, we'll aren't it all out at the committee hearing.

No need to do a here.

Thank you.

Councilmember Meldon.

Thank you.

Same, I'm not gonna get into too many questions.

I just just for my benefit, though, as I think about how we're moving forward.

So committee hearing on May 20th.

When is our deadline to have a decision made?

Sure.

So the current contract that we have in place with Republic services expires August 31st.

So we would need to have a new contract in place by September 1st.

Okay.

And so from uh from a from our standpoint, you think about like our summer schedule.

I mean, there's only what is that, July, August?

Uh, only one cycle in both of those months.

So as we think about you know whatever comes out of that hearing, I'm I'm trying to just like anticipate how much time do we really have to work through those things.

So okay, that's helpful for me.

I know I'm certainly looking forward to the conversation as well.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Jones.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I don't know if you have this now, but would we be able to get a copy of that contract or would that be after the committee hearing?

Sure.

So we don't have currently have a contract in place.

The legislation before you actually authorizes us and allows us to begin that process and start um a contract with republic Services.

So what we will provide though are details on the service level agreements, those key performance indicators, those KPIs that we've talked about that will hold them accountable that would be included in the contract.

We're currently having conversations with Republic Services and how those would be incorporated into the contract.

So we are going to know those and have those in place by the committee hearing and on the 20th.

So we would be able to share that information, but we would not have a full completed contract at that time.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

All right.

This will go to Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just to piggyback on Dr.

Jones' question.

If you don't have a full contract, is there like a template or an outline of the key highlights?

That would be helpful to help us kind of follow through.

Sure, we can provide something.

Great, thank you.

Wonderful.

That will go to committee.

Item number two.

Good afternoon, council.

Commissioner Sarah Stacey, Urban Vivification.

Thank you for your time and attention today.

Item number two is for the legislation for the set out and bulk compliance.

I'm gonna kind of provide some framing and then an overview of the legislation and what it looks like.

This legislation is about improving neighborhood quality and addressing a persistent source of blight and proper set outs, and the focus is on the trash that gets put out at the right of way and at the curb.

That is not compliant with the current bulk policy, and makes our neighborhoods unattractive and unsafe.

We heard directly from residents through talking trash meetings last fall, and we understand this is part of a top concern for the city to address and improve our neighborhoods.

So a little bit more of this framework.

I kind of have this like smart diagram.

Part of fighting this blight at the curb, there are several kind of like pieces of the pie that go into this.

This legislation addresses the fines and enforcement side, but I just want to kind of as a framework talk about the other pieces.

We have our disposal methods.

I don't, as a personal opinion, feel like it's a right for people to just put everything out of the curb endlessly and just do that unresponsibly.

So there need to be regulations and rules and guidelines.

So we we have that framework with our refuse provider in the bulk policy.

We also have free landfill days as another disposal means.

As I understand is something that the city wants to continue to enhance and improve.

Neighborhood participation, so our community leaders stepping up and working with neighborhoods to do litter cleanup events, and we do that a lot with partnerships in the community in our partnership with KTLCB.

Proper owners need to be held responsible, and there needs to be accountability for that, and that's where the fines and enforcement plays an important role as part of this legislation piece.

And then our bulk compliance is part of that mechanism to help people have a means of disposal for those items at the curb.

So all those things work together.

But again, I'm gonna be talking about kind of the fines and enforcement role of this legislation.

So you understand what the problem is.

What this legislation does, it creates clear and enforceable standards for bulk waste and eliminates set outs as an acceptable practice.

So as an overview, the legislation amends chapters 1725 of the health code and 963 of the refuse code to address blight and illegal dumping.

It repeals outdated eviction set out language and replaces it with definitions and greater enforcement mechanism for accountability.

Again, these are kind of the things we want to address, like these large setouts, where property owners or maybe it's the tenants are acting badly whether they are doing that maliciously or out of negligence and not understanding the rules, um, this is what this legislation is meant to address in our neighborhoods.

So again the purpose is to reduce neighborhood blight caused by these curb side setouts and we want to increase accountability.

So the key changes with this legislation is that it prohibits set outs in the public right of way unless compliant with bulk collection rules.

It applies to all properties so it's not just limited to evictions but also includes move outs and contractor debris.

The enforcement piece of this establishes a thousand dollar fine so through the complaint or review of service requests complaints our inspectors and QCs would issue a thousand dollar fine.

This is a fine that's sent in real time.

So the property owner would receive that a couple of days after that field investigation in our documentation and city works.

They would have through a rubric a process for them to become compliant and show documentation or again through field investigation to show that they've met compliance and we have a rubric that would reduce this fine based on how quickly they're coming into compliance.

The operational impact of this is that it reduces repeat cleanup costs for our city especially the division of urban beautification and it allows those resources for our staff to shift toward better projects more beautification projects and neighborhood improvements.

This might mean more bored ups it might mean more demolitions but spending less staff and labor cleaning up after again like bad property owners and I believe this will lead to cleaner safer neighborhoods.

What the legislation looks like operationally again as the concerns are received they are investigated and a fine gets issued in real time it's a thousand dollars for that first fine and again we have a rubric in place to reduce that fine based on how quickly that property owner is contacting us and getting into compliance around day 15 approximately like two weeks after that first investigation so 15 days to day 30 there's a second field investigation to see if that matter is still outstanding.

If we have not heard from the property owner you know they have not contacted us that inspector QC would know to go back and do a second investigation.

At that second iteration a second fine can be issued so another a thousand dollar fine at that point it will be escalated to UB as a work order to be cleaned up.

So there's this window of time a period up to 30 to 45 days where that property owner is being held accountable for the cleanup until it gets escalated to urban beautification for the actual cleanup.

At that point once the city does do the cleanup that's when we assess the cost for that cleanup to the property owner through the tax assessment as part of kind of the educational piece of this and communication plan we are creating a mailer to put in the utility bill and we're also including information on our website and through social media releases and we're working on sharing this information with the Toledo Municipal Court, RIA, and other real estate groups I think I've provided a good summary we're asking first for first read and I'll take any questions please.

Appreciate the presentation first could you just remind us what this looks like right now like what what kind of enforcement do we have right now that exists and what does that look like currently right now when we receive these from republic as notifications or they're getting called in to engage a service request for property cleanups or improper set outs noncompliant bulk.

Those get sent to urban pupification as a work order to be investigated and ultimately like cleaned up, picked up.

We uh assess our equipment and labor and time to that work order, and that's what end up uh getting charged on the tax assessment.

It's a delayed process, so that charge may not end up on someone's assessment a year, year and a half, two years later than when the work was performed.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you.

Thank you for your hard work.

Um I I'm guess I'm looking for clarity.

Now, if a bulk pilot is set out, does it take 45 days to clean up?

I don't have an average um in front of me for the number of days from it being reported to us UB as a work order for cleanup until that result is resolved.

Um that would vary, and I'm sorry, don't have that average in front of me.

Um it could be two weeks, it could it could vary.

I don't have that information in front of me.

Okay.

The important point um to that the question is that we're really looking to change behavior, and if we have to give the residents a little more time to change their behavior, um it's not so much about uh issuing larger fines and bringing down, you know, the uh the hammer on people, it's about incentivizing them to change their behavior so they come into compliance.

So in some cases, it may be out a little bit longer than it has in the past.

Um it just depends on you know how soon we can get to those service requests.

Um, but uh the goal here is that quickly um we start to see less and less of this because people are changing their behaviors and and we're issuing fewer and fewer of these fines and urban beautification has more and more time to spend on higher level service.

Yeah, and I I hear you.

I think that that's a valuable part of this, but also as someone who's a district rep 45 days is not gonna fly with the residents in that neighborhood.

I've lived next to a pile for I'm I I mean that the quality of life in a neighborhood changes when something sets that long.

I'm just thinking like how many times are the um the guys that pick through the trash gonna pick through it?

How many times am if it was in my neighborhood, am I gonna have to clean it up because the neighbor next to us is is not going to do it?

Like thinking about how that impacts the neighborhood, we have to be mindful of that as well.

So um that's why I'm asking these questions.

When we say 15 days, um you said you would you get the concern, you send someone out from code compliance, most likely, they say yes, it's um out of compliance.

They then have 15 days before they get checked again.

Are those 15 working days or 15 calendar days?

It is 15 calendar days.

Okay.

Okay.

And then are we um having any kind of education rolled out on social media as well?

Yes, a part of this would be on our our website um information, um, the information shared with those real estate groups and Toledo Municipal Court.

Um, we can do community meetings and then also the social media um about this legislation once it's approved.

Okay, and then so by way of referral, can I get what time it takes now for a uh uh a book set out that's out of compliance to get picked up.

Um I think that's good for now.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thanks.

And if I could, when you and I started the talk and trash series, uh just a few months before that was the moment where we discovered on Colburn that there was a set out.

It was out there for two months at the time you and I discovered it.

It took an additional month and a half to get it cleaned up.

So right now it's taking a very long time and not working.

So I'm I'm excited to hopefully try something new.

So I appreciate the the effort.

Council Mendriscore.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I I also kind of want to just dive into the enforcement of this a little bit.

So, yeah, so you're gonna get a notification, they have 15 days to respond to it.

If they don't, then there's gonna be another 15 days, and if they don't again, they would have that point received two thousand dollar fines.

And by the so, what would have been, I suppose, the third 15 amount of 15 days, that's when we'll actually clean it up.

Is that correct?

That's when our team will clean it up.

It's about the approximate timeline.

So we would have the service requester complaint investigate it and issue the fine.

Um, then you know there's like a two-week period um given for that property owner to get into compliance at that two-week mark is when the inspector's QC should be going back out to do that second inspection, and I'm giving them two weeks to conduct those inspections.

They they based on our capacity and resources, they may not be able to be there on like day 16, day 17, but that next two-week window is when they can follow up on that second inspection if they have not heard from the property owner, and there's the stale may be unresolved.

Um, and at that point is when the second fine um can will be issued.

Okay.

Um so I know you don't know the average amount of time a set out lasts right now, but generally speaking, I mean, if and we have a lot of property owners, I think aren't gonna care at all.

So, generally speaking, uh do you think 45 days is longer or shorter than the current average time it takes for us to remediate a situation like this?

I I think it just depends on how it was escalated.

Okay, uh I think insofar as we have that information, it'd be good for us to know because I don't I don't want a policy where this ends up you know ends up having us have trash sit out even longer than it was.

I suppose that's but it's gonna take some time to refine this.

This is a new approach, so I'm okay with that.

But um yeah, I think what we'd want to avoid is trash sitting out even longer.

Um can we uh escalate the fines?

Does it have to be a thousand dollars each time?

Seems like if you've gone a full month, I don't know, I'd be more comfortable with doubling that fine after.

I mean it seems like something we ought to think about at least.

Okay.

Um in the past, correct me if I'm wrong, Mr.

Mulnar.

It seems like we've had some difficulty actually collecting on these fines.

What's gonna be our approach uh to ensure that we actually are you know receiving I think we do pretty good with the assessments because it's attached to the property tax, but unless that property goes to the land bank, we're gonna get that money eventually.

But um, how are we gonna what are we gonna do to beef up that process to make sure that we are actually holding people accountable?

Yeah, thank you, Councilman.

Um, so you know, just to kind of start start from the way it exists right now.

Right now, you know, when the city does clean up the property, we are allowed to, like you mentioned, we are allowed to assess that cost to the tax bill.

Um, however, what it seems like is that cost is less than what the the prop these property owners would have to actually pay.

So they're letting the city clean up for them, they're we're letting the city be their property management company for them, letting them be their disposable disposal system for them, um, because it's cheaper to just have the city clean it up and then pay the you know the couple hundred dollars that we're legally allowed to assess for a service being provided that we're allowed to put on the on the tax bill, and also mind you that a lot of these property owners will transfer the property in between the time because there's a year and a half lag that we're allowed to put the tax lien on the property, um, and then they come back and make the argument well, I didn't own the property, you know.

You put it on my tax bill, you should remove it.

Um, and so it's just become that that's that is what I think is the problem.

Um, so but going back to what the question you asked is what are we doing to beef up?

So we've recently entered into a uh well, in the last year or so.

First of all, we've uh collaborated with the Department of Finance, so they do have a uh collections person assigned to our department, and it would be for with urban beautification as well.

Um, to go in where they have somebody that's going and trying to track down these people and let them know that they're you know they're there could be further action, whether it be wage garnishment, liens, and so forth.

Um we've had we've had uh what I think is a huge success, but that's in relation to the fact that in the last 10 years we've accumulated 1.5 million dollars worth of unpaid fines that haven't been collected.

And so let's say we've collected we collected with with the assistance of the finance department 50 to 75,000 dollars worth of those fines in the last year.

So that's that's first of all, where we've already beefed it up.

Then back in December of 2025, City Council passed legislation that allowed us to enter a into a uh party to hire a third-party collection agency.

That um, and thank you very much because that's exactly what we needed.

Um now people hopefully won't just take that fine that letter that they receive and crumble it up and throw it in the trash, which is what it feels like they they're doing now.

Um so from there, we have we have a collection agency uh in which their attorneys are are for sending out notices to folks, letting them know that there is this fine on your property.

Um they do have 30 days to respond uh and appeal and appeal that case if they if they feel feel that it isn't correct.

Um but then after that 30 days, then the uh the collection agency is allowed to file a civil case against against the owner and put that into court, at which point they can file for a judgment lien.

Um and again, I apologize.

I don't know if it's against I might I don't know if it's against the property and the owner or one or the other.

I did uh apologize for not knowing that exactly, but essentially if the judgment lien is granted, then let's just say it's for this for this example.

Let's say it's against the property.

That judgment lien is granted, that lien gets filed in the recorder's office, and now that becomes part of the title of the property.

If that property owner then goes to sell that property at that point, then uh in theory, in order to get a clear title that that those fines that judgment lien must be satisfied, must be paid at time of closing.

Um and so you have these property owners that the city has been cutting grass, picking up trash, picking up these improper set outs, um, who for I don't know how long, let's say at least a decade, um, have been able to go and sell these properties, put money in their pocket pocket while the city has been taking care of them for them, and they're putting the money in the pocket at this point, at least the city is getting um somewhat paid back for the services that we've been providing to these property owners that haven't been taking care of the properties, haven't been following the rules that ever that the majority of our community has been following and um and walking away.

Did that answer the question?

Yes, I think um making sure that we uh can muddy the title process as much as possible is the only way really that we're ever gonna because the LLCs will continue to play shell games like they always have, and I believe in an independent judiciary, but the housing court has got to take this more seriously, and they just they just haven't I'm frustrated with that, but uh but yes that answered my question.

The last question I have is if if a landlord gets a uh dumpster, are they allowed to is that are they allowed to do that for a certain period of time with this this won't trigger that, right?

Correct, yes.

Okay, that would be another responsible means of disposal and following the rules and that's the cost of them as the property owner or as a landlord, um, and that they would you know follow the procedures to to get that dumpster and place it in the right of way and and you know get a permit to do that.

Okay, terrific, thank you very much.

And to go back to the thousand dollar question, the the the amount is such that you know if they were to get a dumpster and pull the permit, it's gonna be half of that thousand dollar fine.

So it's incentivizing them to do the right thing, of course.

Councilmember Martinez.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, so thank you for this.

Um, I know you guys have been working on this since last fall, I would guess, right?

So one of the questions I had that I still haven't got an answer on the referral is what is our actual cost to clean up?

I know we only charge in the CESF left the time 250 dollars, right?

But you never answered my question.

What is the actual cost?

Based on that equipment, labor, and materials?

Everything.

Um I can do it again by referral.

I don't want to put you up, but this is one of my bigger questions that I have.

Um, and the thousand dollars, okay, fine, but then the bigger question is is this enough?

Because if we have to do it and we're only assessing X amount of dollars, which we don't know really what our costs are, does this fee structure make sense?

So that was from an operational side trying to figure out basic business.

Are we, you know, at least breaking even, or is this really costing us money, right?

So that was kind of like my big question that I've been kind of waiting for.

Sorry, uh second question.

Did anyone reach out to any of the real estate uh investment firms or community like so?

You talk about accountability, right?

Accountability for whom exactly?

Because a lot of these are tenants not paying being set up for whatever reason, it's not the landlord doing this intentionally, it's a reaction to a business model that is unfortunately being stacked against them to make sure that they can at least recoup their property, right?

So if I'm a landlord and this is it, right?

So I'm gonna go first and second cause, then I'm gonna attach whatever my fines are.

We'll see you guys in court, bring the city of Toledo in, so you can actually go after the tenant who caused this, right?

Or I had to hire legal people, but either way, we're talking about accountability, which I totally get.

And there are some bad actors as landlord, but there's also some bad actors as tenants that habitually get evicted and leave places trash and ruin property, right?

So my question is was the business community at least have a conversation about this to maybe find a more equitable resolution.

I get this is a a challenge, and I get this is complicated.

I I totally am supportive of trying to figure this solution out, but it can't be just one-sided and heavy-handed to the landlord.

So if I own a vacant property and someone's continually dumping on it, I'm getting fined and I'm not even aware of it unless I get these notices, right?

I may live in Maumee Perry'sburg, and it's just a vacant lot that I have mowed and you know maintain what I have to because I have future uses for it at some point or whatever.

But if someone's dumping, I'm being charged for it with no recourse, you know, other than clean it up.

Go ahead, so I think there's a couple things for that.

One, we can get you that answer by way of referral.

We can show you the cost of our blight team and the equipment and all of the associated factors that go along with that on an annual basis.

Um with the responsibility of the property owner, and if you do own multiple properties and you're not living in the city of Toledo, I would hope that you would be responsible enough to be visiting that property regularly to be maintaining it and mowing it, and if there is dumping that's occurring on that property, you would be regulating that through the process that currently exists.

This is for the cases when you're not following the proper eviction process through the court system when people are just setting out huge large set outs, like you can see on the screen.

We the intention is not to go after a resident or a landlord or a property owner who is setting out seven items of the five that you're allowed through bulk collection, right?

These are these are the set outs we're seeing where where they are in, you know, people are intentionally bypassing the rules, the law through evictions and you know, handling their um properties, you know, properly.

Great.

Thank you for that.

And I understand that.

So, and again, this is kind of a conundrum.

At the end of the day, we just want our neighborhoods to look nice, right?

There's a lot of reasons not to have trash building up in our neighborhoods.

Totally get that.

So, my my question, my other question is: was anyone in the business community or other landlord oops sorry, uh, consulted on this or at least had a conversation with.

Was the chamber of commerce brought in, or any of our business groups or entities?

I would say not directly.

We met with um representatives from the Toledo Municipal Court to review the eviction process and how that works as far as how many evictions uh per year go through their system and how many actually get uh scheduled with the bailiff.

Um that was um the group that we had uh a couple of uh meetings with um as we work through you know what this legislation looked like, um, and originally it started um as you know, requiring a dumpster um and it evolved um from there.

Um to answer your question, I would say no, other than those uh talking trash meetings.

Okay, great, thank you.

So we should probably look at least have a kind at the very least, have a conversation with the business community to figure out if this is gonna move forward, we have a at least a some sort of input and say, Yeah, here's what we could do different.

Here's you know, here's some other recommendations, right?

So thank you.

Yeah, I I appreciate that.

I I think it is important to hear from all people.

I would also say this, uh, we expect property owners to maintain their property um to a certain level.

We hold our residents to that.

Um and I would expect that we do the same to landlords.

Um the reality is that once a tenant vacates a property, that property that they leave behind becomes the property of the property owner, so it is not the tenants' property anymore.

If they choose to not take it, we're not gonna chase them down, but we can certainly hold the property owner responsible for the property that they own that's on their property.

Uh councilwoman McPherson.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, a couple of questions.

Um, first of all, do we have employees enough to do this work when you're talking about going out 15 days, 30 days?

So this is gonna be a collaboration between urban beautification and code compliance that we're going to team up with with all our with both our QAs and our inspectors.

Um, so we don't know.

I because we don't know how many of these complaints and how many of these things are going to occur.

Um we already you've heard me say it before, we already don't have enough inspectors.

Um but um but this sounds something that sounds like something we can fold into our daily duties, and and it does seem feasible that that um by having this tool is part of in our in our in our tool belt that it can we can enforce this um to some capacity, okay.

Um also have I don't know.

I'm questioning by referral when you sit down with republic, um is there a way that they can communicate this information to you because if they drive by and they see a eviction per se, that then they can notify you of this if they don't pick it up.

Um if they don't pick it up, but if they pick it up, hint hint, um, it's taken care of and we don't have to worry about it, but there should be communication between um beautification you and republic also on this because that helps.

Um secondly, why not fine for a setup?

Why we don't just find when they set out like that, eviction, you know what it looks like.

Why don't we just find for that?

Why are we going through this 15 days?

Because I would be upset if my neighbor got evicted and that stuff set out there for 30 days, uh, once it's notified and is set, that landlord needs to.

If he doesn't, if it's not cleaned up, because he already know he's wrong when he did it, it needs to be fine thin.

That's just to be clear.

That is the process.

When when we're notified of an illegal set out, it's an immediate though.

It's immediate.

Okay.

After that two weeks, if it's still there, they haven't come into compliance, then there's a second fine.

And that's when we come in and clean it up ourselves because it's it's been there longer than we feel is acceptable.

Okay, and then um Martinez was talking about the landlords and um and and charging owners for cost of cleanups and that kind of thing, but landlords do security deposits.

That's for cleanups, and um I'm not really interested in what they do and how they don't, because landlords getting big money these days for what they're charging in these rents and evicting people for some just cause.

So I'm not really concerned with the landlords in the LLCs because they flipping and flopping around here in the city of Toledo and it's offensive right now, and most of them don't even live in the city of Toledo.

So if they were interested in doing the right thing and keeping up their property and seeing they'd have cameras on their houses, they'd be checking on that, they'd be cutting the grass and all of that, and we wouldn't be sitting here talking about this.

So, and all means, I'm saying go after the landlord.

Right now, if you drive down three streets in the city of Toledo, you'll see already where it's rained and we got trash out.

Matter of fact, I took a picture and sent it to Cheryl at Republic today on ranch drive, where the garbage is out there, and I had a resident call me, and it's been out there for three weeks.

Hello, Republican, and I got the picture, I sent it to her, and they're driving by and not picking up.

So we've got to work on this, all of us.

And Republic, I'm calling you out, because when residents call me and text me, and I've been on sick leave, and they're calling me and texting me and sending me pictures about places that have not been picked up.

I got a problem with you.

But on this tip, landlords, if they're not doing what they're supposed to do, just like I said in the press conference, we coming after you.

Because our citizens should not have to live next door to where you emptied and dumped out for a week or two weeks, because you living in California and don't even know that is happening and ignoring the mail.

Um thank you all for the work that you are doing, and I also want to follow up with um councilman Martinez.

I would like to see also what the total cost is for a cleanup when we do the cleanup to help our citizens, because we need to make sure that that cost is we should make sure that that fine is double whatever that cost.

Thank you.

Welcome back.

Councilwoman Morris.

Thank you.

And yes, welcome back.

Um, you know, we have to do something because what we're doing is not working.

Um, I am concerned um about um the ability to wait this long to address what is happening.

Um, living next to a pile of junk for 45 days is not something that I want to do, and if I don't want to do it, I don't want anyone else to have to do it either.

So I don't know if there's a way that we could speed up that process at all.

I don't know the answer to that.

And if that means we need more staff, we need more resources, then we need to perhaps build into that fine.

Um, because what I don't want to see, what we have had happen is that uh a set out will happen.

And depending upon how big it is, sometimes the setouts can be picked up through bulk.

Sometimes most of the times it can't be.

So what I don't want to see is I don't want to see us paying twice.

I don't want us to pay our our uh refuse contractor to pick up things that they're not picking up, and that we end up having to pick up, and so we're paying for it twice.

That makes no sense.

Um, and we need to be fastidious with our with our funds.

We have to make sure that we are tracking down these LLCs, these LLCs are killing us.

And if it's the state of Ohio, if it's the feds, if it's municipal court, I don't know who needs to hear this, but these LLCs are ruining our city, and we need to figure out a way that that we can stop this shell game, because what I see on my neighborhood, it happens all the time.

It's cyclical.

What happens is somebody gets gets set out, and then um somebody actually can even move in before the set out is picked up for real breach, and and then it's just sitting there, and then you got kids playing in it, you've got people picking through it, it's in the street, it's blocking the sidewalk for people with mobility issues.

This isn't what Toledo is about.

We don't need to be dealing with this constantly.

Since I came on council, this is what we have done.

We need new strategies that are going to help us.

And yes, we need the business community, yes, yes, yes.

But we also need responsible business owners, we need responsible tenants.

Everybody needs to be a part of this solution, not just council, not just the mayor.

Everyone needs to be a part of the solution.

So I'm really urging us to have a good figure that we need to know.

If we need more, if if uh commissioner Stacy needs more staff, if code compliance needs more staff or compliance enforcement, whatever you want to call it.

Um, you know, if we need to know these these real figures because it's not getting better, and it's just cheaper for people to not get a dumpster and to let it sit out.

That's not the solution.

And so if we need to speed up this process, let's look at that.

And so I I agree.

We need this needs to be in a committee, this needs to be a hearing.

Um this needs to happen yesterday.

Thank you.

Councilmember Melbourne.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Just three quick things.

I know we have like other stuff on the agenda to get to, and this has been a good conversation.

One, I just want to say on this notion of like talking to the business community and getting feedback.

Like garbage goes in can.

And when can is not big enough, we get bigger can.

Like I don't know that we need to get feedback on that.

And I'm a big proponent of engagement and public feedback, but with all due respect.

I don't know.

I don't see that one personally.

I'm like, we are way too close to this if we're kind of confused about that.

So then that was just my feelings.

Here's two thoughts.

One, I think the fine's too low, I think it's very generous.

And uh, said Joe.

Director Calls, no, sorry.

Um I love the posture, and I think it's visible in this plan, which is very good that you're trying to change behavior.

You're not just trying to like drop a hammer just for the sake of it and show we're all big and bad because then we don't even collect.

And what's the difference?

We're just fighting.

But I do, it reminds me a little bit of like the parking ticket.

You know, I would get like a $10 parking ticket, and then I would just like leave it on my car and be like, this is called a day pass.

And then I got a parking ticket and it was $25.

And I thought, oh no, it's no longer a day pass.

Like it's very expensive.

And it was more of a penalty.

So just an idea, and I don't know.

Maybe it's crazy town, but I'm thinking, what if it was like 10K?

And then if you hold on.

And then if you get a dumpster and you have a receipt for a dumpster within five days, we'll waive it.

And if not, like I mean, like what are we what are we talking what are we talking about here?

Because like if it's two thousand dollars and the cost of a dumpster is five hundred.

It's kind of like a twenty, it's like a $10 parking ticket.

Like there's a there is like some, we're almost incentivizing convenience.

Like I don't live there, I'm gonna pay two grand, and I don't ever have to think about it again.

Fine.

So that's the cost of a couple dumpsters, and I have a full dumpster worth anyway.

Like you I it's just a thought.

I think that you can thread the needle between a posture of trying to change behavior and a fine that might.

I mean, you all reacted when I sent Ted Grand.

Isn't that what we want?

A reaction.

So just a thought.

That's all.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Jones.

Why are you saying my name like that?

Yeah, I was like this.

That's good.

I mean, even the maybe a tiered response, because my question would have been how are most likely piggybacking off of other council members, but the out of state landlords, and especially if they're big, the thousand dollars means nothing.

And then the notifications, they'll probably just get thrown in the trash.

I can see that 10,000 fine really hitting probably not the wave of the dumpster because they'll probably just be like, whatever.

But the like smaller landlords, maybe maybe a tiered fine could work.

But $10,000, yes, that is definitely something to consider.

And then my other question would be, well, two or other questions.

Your KPIs, what do they look like now, and are they going to be different after if this gets enacted?

Um, I can do that by referral as well.

And then also when it comes to um identifying the set outs, love the Republic idea because they're out there going up and down the streets, especially since we don't have a lot of inspectors, there's gonna have to be some cross-collaboration.

So currently, what does that look like besides like are they assigned to different streets every day block?

Are they going the whole block, or is it just to that one property?

Like, what does that look like now?

And then when it comes to this, is there anything that's gonna be different versus just being notified or or anything like that?

Because you can miss a lot.

Case in point, some of these stories, you can miss a lot.

So, how is that process looking now of how you identify set outs?

Uh sure.

So, first question, KPIs, those uh service level agreements will have all of that information for you.

We can take by referral, but also in the committee hearing.

Okay, um the second piece, currently what it looks like now through urban beautification, is we do work with republic services.

So if there is um a bulk collection, for example, that is not a proper set out, or if it's you know pretty large or it's evident it's an improper set out of some sort.

Um, Republic will record those and then they send that information to us so we can log it in our system and get it to our blight team.

Okay, to look at it and investigate.

Um I can pass the microphone to Jim who can go through his code compliance process as well.

As far as how the code compliance would um the code compliance is divided up into eight eight different sectors, eight different zones, and so this would be based on when the the inspectors are out and they do see the illegal bulk set outs.

Um, because it the alert mechanism that we have built in is with with Republic alerting urban beautification.

Um but this is also empowering our inspectors if they see these these book set outs at that point.

If it's in their zone, that's how that would be divided up.

Okay.

And I'm assuming engage Toled to lead those part of this as far as the notifications are concerned.

Okay.

Is that a daily requirement to go through these different your assigned sector to identify those set outs?

A daily responsibility.

I guess I I I don't mean to be facetious, but are you saying we go to go down every single street looking for both set outs in the second?

No, that's impossible.

Okay.

Yes, there is there's uh with the eight sectors, that would be 13,000 properties that we would have to visit per inspector per day.

So that's not possible.

But what is possible is Republic is going down those streets.

Right.

So Republic is going up and down those streets, and we know with the new bulk set out where you are have five items, for example.

If there is something that is that is not compliant to the bulk set out rules, it's gonna get tagged.

There's gonna be a sticker on it, and that sticker is gonna identify what the problem is, right?

So that's one piece.

Also, with that, because republic is sort of the eyes on the streets for us on a daily basis.

When they have those improper set outs, they're sending that to us so we can then work with Jim's team, it gets in the log for his inspectors, so they're not just going out and bouncing around to each street.

You know, we're actually going where we know the problems occur.

We also have the process residents at any time can call in to engage to leave.

So you know, of course, we those go into city works as well, and we're working through that.

Okay, you know, so it's as of now because of the capacity is really heavy reliance on republic right now.

And of course, though that will be outlined in in the contract.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Chair.

Absolutely.

Two things.

We are at 56 minutes, and we are on item number two.

And so I'm gonna take these next two comments, but this will be added to the agenda for the solid uh the day of the solid waste discussion as well for the committee hearing.

So let's keep these next remarks brief.

Additionally, I've heard a lot of requests for referral questions.

Please do not forget to write those down uh and get those to the clerk.

Council member Gaddis.

Thank you.

I'm never a long talker.

Um I just want to be clear in my referrals.

When we do when we identify these bulk set out noncompliances currently, they are either under property cleanup or there's another word that we put it under, correct?

Another category.

So it's property cleanup that as far as the coding and city works.

Um I believe it's under property cleanup, yes.

I might not know off the top of my head if there's another one, but I could look for you and say, and let you know.

Non-compliant bulk.

Oh no, thank you, noncompliant bulk.

Okay, okay.

I just want to make sure I'm wording the questions correct.

And there were approximately 7,000 evictions last year, and most of these are not fully led through the court evictions.

These are fly by night evictions not fully gone through the courts.

So that's why these are harder.

That's why this is harder.

So I just want to make sure that's on record, too.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Councilman Martinez.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

I'll make a quick uh so one last general question for those that are on the dock and do get evicted.

Does the courts let us know that there is a pending set out eviction case?

Yes, we receive a list from them.

Um it's scheduled with the bailiff or without the bailiff.

Correct, and then when does the inspector come out?

Or we're just aware of it and that's it.

The current process, we're just aware of that.

Got it.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Item number three, and as a reminder, we'll also be on the agenda for an upcoming committee hearing.

It's in committee.

Item three is done.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And good afternoon, Chairman Comives, members of city council.

Uh Melanie Campbell here from Department of Finance, uh, to help present agenda item number three.

Um, this item amends the Toledo Municipal Code to increase the municipal solid waste fee.

Um council might remember that uh when we put the budget out last November, we did propose an increase uh to that fee.

Um that's reflected here um in this proposed ordinance.

Um, and it would take effect June 1st of 2026, um, as drafted in this ordinance.

The fee would increase, the monthly fee would increase from 1150 and 650 for non-homestead and homestead properties to 1850 and 1050 for non-homestead and homestead properties.

This ordinance also does propose additional fee increases at the start of 27 and at the start of 28, with the goal of aligning those fee revenues with the cost of collection and landfill disposal services.

Be happy to take any questions if you have them.

Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

When was the last time we increased the fee?

It was last increased in 2016.

2016, gotcha.

So fees are increased, and then is this gonna be what are these increased fees go towards?

The fee covers the cost of uh the curbside refuse and recycling collection and then disposing of that refuse at the landfill as well as the recycling cost of what's picked up.

Okay, great.

I knew that I just wanted on the record.

So with the new potential contracts, contract, and potential increases since we don't know what the real cost of the contract is.

I guess it goes back to my other question about actual knowing the costs to make sure that we are ahead of the curve and not behind and have to keep bumping bumping bumping.

So will these rates be sufficient to cover the potential new contract with all the potential escalators that are kind of in the hidden fees wrapped up in the new potential contract.

Yes, so we ran a trajectory based on what um the estimates that we have, what we know fuel costs are now.

We also have um 10 years worth of data for being in the current contract with Republic that we've used to run some good estimates for um this piece of legislation with the fee increase.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much to committee.

Now, item number four, please.

Good afternoon, Sarah Stacey, Commissioner of Urban Beautification.

This is item number four.

This is for the Ohio EPA recycling grant.

This legislation is to authorize a hundred thousand dollar grant agreement with Ohio EPA for community recycling and litter cleanup.

Uh we will host three clean Toledo recycling events this summer to help collect tires, household hazardous waste, paint, and electronics, and other items.

Um, the project period for this grant is April 16th, 2026 through March 31st, 2028.

Um the grant does require a 25 percent match, and we're asking that to be funded by 1% for the environment.

Um, at our clean Toledo recycling events, um, these will be um marketed and communicated as for Toledo uh residents only, um, and their verification will be the library card, the enhanced library card, a utility bill, or a state-issued ID.

This is to help us um kind of contain those costs.

These events um are very popular, but they became very expensive over the last couple of years.

So we want to make them um for our residents.

Um happy to ask uh answer any questions, and we're asking for SEP, please.

Thank you so much, SCP.

Item number five comes to us from Department of Public Utilities.

Welcome.

Good afternoon.

I am Petit Kapoe Bannister, Director for the Department of Public Works, and I have with me Andy McClure, and he will be presenting um the first three that we have before you.

And the first one is the contract for um renewal options uh hauling and refuge of spent lime.

Thank you, good afternoon.

Um, the division of water treatment is a byproduct of its treatment processes has uh creates spent lime.

Uh the spent lime is disposed of through two contracts.

Um, one of those is through the dewatering facility, it's a mechanical process.

This this legislation does not address that contract.

This is contract for the excavation and removal of the spent lime uh from lagoons.

Uh in the lagoon, we've been uh we've had a good solid tenure program that we embarked on.

Um, and um we are budget the we have an annual budget that we expend, so this uh it's not a it's it's based on the budget that we have to spend and not the amount of material being removed through the past years.

Uh, approximately uh 88 percent of material is is new material being removed and about 12 percent is legacy material.

Um so we have we're we're getting ahead a little bit, but very slowly.

Um it would take till about 2086 at this rate to keep going.

Uh if we keep up at this pace uh to completely clean the lagoons.

If we're unable to award a contract this year, we would lose about eight years of progress because of that 12% that is um the good legacy of material that we remove.

Um towards the end of last year, contractor that had previously had this contract told us they'd be unable to renew.

Uh so we put out a bid for the spent line removal.

Um we received bids.

Um, however, we found out that the legislation we had used uh had expired and was no longer applicable for this.

So we're bringing forward this legislation uh to allow us to award contract for the spent line removal from the lagoons.

We would request SEP, and I'll take any questions.

Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So I have a lot of questions around this.

Uh as you know, I haven't been inquired about them.

Uh I will do a first read.

Um, assuming my questions get answered.

Um, this contract was started, the bid went out in November.

Is my understanding?

You had responses back in December, and now we're in May.

And now you're telling us we have to hurry up and do this.

Otherwise, we're gonna lose eight years of uh potential um moving forward on getting disposal, right?

Correct.

So there's a sense of urgency, and I understand that this is a very real issue for our city, and not just our city, but it's cities across the country.

I want to make sure we're doing it right.

I have questions about the actual structure of the bid and the contract and everything like that.

I will do a referral, make sure, and I have everything by each by tomorrow, so I'm not holding this up, but I have serious concerns about the award.

So I want to make sure that at the end of the day, we have a responsibility to our residents to ensure that they have a safe place to live and reside.

And if they're uh I don't want to repeat of what happened last summer, is what I'm saying.

So I'm gonna try to get all these questions answered ahead of time.

I don't want to hold this up, but if the answers aren't satisfactory, um we'll keep I'll keep pressing until we get some sort of resolution, and then or the by this body can vote as they see fit.

Fair.

Yeah, thank you.

Councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you.

And this might be a better referral question, but I was looking into the mommy area of concern.

We're doing all that work over there by Collins, and one of our goals was that the city of Toledo had to remove ledge uh lime sludge spent lime from Otter and Duck Creek.

By way of referral, could you uh find out how much the city spent removing that from those creeks?

And um, what year that was thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Absolutely.

Council Woman Jones.

Thank you, Chair.

On the same line, um, could I can do this by referral, but could you provide some information about the amount of debt that the water treatment plant had acquired so far?

Up to date.

Okay, thank you, Chair.

Absolutely, and just to be clear, I think I heard first read.

Wonderful item number six, please.

Um item number six is for um, we have two hands though.

Uh item number six is for replacement of a valve at the heaven ounce pumping station.

Um, there's a fill valve that needs replaced.

Uh, this is an application that is throughout our system, so we have standardized on a particular brand of valve.

So it's all does also waive competitive bidding.

Uh, it is strictly for purchase of the valve, be replaced.

City crews will do the labor to install uh the valve.

Would ask SEP and I'll take any questions.

Councilman Martinez, your recommendation.

SCP?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item number seven, please.

Um, number seven is essentially a it's a it's preventative maintenance at the water treatment plant.

It's on big enough scale to consider the project.

Uh this is for the settling basins in basin seven and eight.

They've been in service long enough now that certain parts need replaced before they break.

I would prefer to do this on a preventive basis instead of doing breakdown maintenance.

Uh again, if we were we're waiving competitive bidding here for this expense, and I expect this to occur.

It's in a pair of basins, so we'll see this.

There's eight sets of eight basins total, so this will recur for about three years in a row, and then it'll be another gap that'll recur again as we get to the preventive maintenance timelines.

I would ask SCP and we'll take any questions.

Councilman Martinez, your recommendation?

SCP, thank you.

Item number eight.

We are requesting the Association of Ohio Drinking Water Agency membership fees for the next three years.

Um the Association of Ohio drinking water agencies purpose is to ensure safe and clean drinking water for Ohioans.

It acts as a voice for public water systems, advocating for secure, reliable, and high quality drinking water by supporting legislation that benefits public utilities, and it's a tool that we use to keep us updated on things that are happening in state government.

Um I am uh asking for SEP, and I'll take any questions.

Councilman Martinez, your recommendation, SCP.

Thank you so much.

Item number nine comes to us from the Department of Human Resources.

Welcome.

Good afternoon.

Mike Najelski from the Department of Human Resources.

With me is Lindsay Ward.

She is the co-chair for the uh city's employee engagement committee.

Uh item number nine is uh requesting uh expenditure of thirty-six thousand dollars from the general fund, the employee engagement committee uh account, if you will, for the provision of a of our um activity with the Toledo mud hens.

This is an annual event that we have been putting on with the last at least four or five years.

It's a very well attended event.

Um last year we had um 1,020 uh uh people attend the event with their with their families.

Um, the amount that we're asking for is part of the EEC's approved budget.

It um it's the same as last year, offering giving it provides for the same number of tickets, which is one thousand four hundred and forty, and the uh employees do have to a small cost to each of them for the ticket, and they can get up to four tickets.

It's a we think it's a really well-attended event, it's a family-friendly event.

It provides some, you know, some connection between employees across departments, and uh, I think the employees really enjoy it.

It's it's a it's it is the lion's share of the EEC budget, but I think it it based upon just what it does for the for the morale, the the workforce, it's uh it's money well spent.

So that the event this year is gonna be Friday, July 17th, and we're requesting SCP.

I'm happy to take any questions.

Councilwoman McPherson, your recommendation, thank you, Chair.

Um, thank you for continuing this event for our employees, and I want to encourage our employees of taking advantage of this.

And it's a good thing, it's it's like saying thank you for the work that our employees do each and every day.

And along with uh the pancake breakfast, um, we need to say thank you.

And when employees feel that they are appreciated, they work better, um, they're more effective.

No question.

And um, I think we need to I recommend that we continue to do this and and support our employees, and if you are around any of our city employees throughout the day, whether they're on the street, in a sewer, in an office, whatever it is, say thank you.

Smile and say we appreciate you, because the one thing that we have to do here in the city of Toledo is keep our employees working right here for us.

And if they feel that they are needed and appreciated, they will stay.

So thank you for this and SCP.

Thank you, thank you.

Item number 10, please.

Thank you, and good afternoon, members of council, Tiffany Whitman, chief impact officer from the Department of Community Services.

I am joined here today by Commissioner David Bush and Community Response Specialist Davey On Beach.

Today I will present item number 10.

This ordinance requests authorization for the expenditure of $542,179 from the General Fund for Youth Engagement and Development Initiatives, authorizing the mayor to enter into necessary agreements for these initiatives and declaring emergency.

So after review of more than 100 uh applications, 69 programs were identified aligning with the city's priorities for youth engagement.

Um these represent a cross-section of large anchor programs.

We also have mid-sized specialized providers and also smaller initiatives as well.

Um it's important to note that this cycle, particularly coming out of the general fund, we want to make sure we have enhanced accountability and transparency.

So we did require at the point of application that people submit measurable outcomes and indicators, and also we will be implementing a post-reimbursement and final in-person evaluation.

And so overall, this funding supports high-quality youth investments, programming at scale, creating safe structured opportunities that keep youth engaged and support working families.

And in addition, this aligns with the city's strategic plan, objective three, advancing youth family, and workforce.

Um with that, um, we are requesting SCP and we'll answer any questions.

Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, thank you, Dr.

Women.

I sincerely appreciate all your hard work on this.

I think last year's programming was a huge success.

I heard nothing but good things about one of the questions that I have in terms of marketing.

I know last year we did like um books, and are we still doing that this year?

I'm glad you asked.

We are not doing this this year.

We want to move towards being more cost-efficient, and so this year we are going to go to um QR codes.

Um, and so we will be uh marketing the program, having postcards, smaller postcards, but also we are right now working very hard.

Um, our chief of communications um is trying to coordinate with the schools to ensure that we can also maybe get this submitted through their platforms.

And I know council president Williams has been assisting with this as well.

So again, this is gonna be a big cost savings.

We'll still get something in your hand to give out, um, and something physical, it just won't be a big multi-page booklet that costs a whole bunch of money.

Great, thank you so much.

I I thought that's kind of the direction you guys were going, which I'm fine with.

Um, but a couple things.

Number one, make sure that we have it bilingual.

Yes, um, especially for some of our Spanish speaking uh residents.

Number two, please do not forget the charter schools and the private schools, because a lot of times these programs aren't they're not aware of them until after the fact, and I want to make sure.

Like I physically hand delivered lots and lots of those booklets to ensure that some parents knew about it that would qualify, you know, for these areas.

So please do not forget about them.

We have a I have at least 12 schools in District 2, and maybe three or four of them knew about it.

So I just want to make sure that we're getting the word out.

Uh, these are a lot of cool creative programming, you know, for this year, and I'm super excited, I'm super supportive.

Thank you.

Oh, thank you.

Councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you.

Thank you for your hard work on this.

And along the lines of education, I know I say this often, but the teachers are excited we have this.

They have told me if they know about it earlier, they will roll this into their curriculum, they will help the kids get signed up.

We that's that's something we've not really moved on, and I really think we do.

By the time we got those books out, it was far too late.

Um, I think that I love the QR code, but we have all if educators are willing to help us, we need to utilize that.

Um, uh as many people as we can to help get those kids enrolled in these programs would be really helpful.

So if you could just keep that in mind, that every year they come to me and they're like, hey, if we would have known, we would have gladly helped the kids get enrolled.

So that's a skill set I think that that we should really focus on.

I appreciate that.

Um, and I think that's one of the things that we're trying to do is again get it to the platforms.

If we can get schools to share it out, um text message via that.

I think educators getting that right to their email for them to share it out.

I think that would be helpful.

So that's our goal for this year, but also I will follow up to make sure if we don't, I will share that out.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Absolutely.

Um Councilwoman McPherson, your recommendations.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Whitman and crew.

Um, you know, I'm a little sad, cost an amount of the money, but you're making it work on a tight budget, and we had to reduce our budget, but we did not eliminate programs for our youth.

Um, I'm glad we are not doing the book because we save a lot of money in that.

I hope that council members can also get the postcards because we have council members that are doing having community meetings, neighborhood meetings, porch talks, and so we want to make sure that we can pass them out also and share.

One question: with this this year, will we still be providing the bus pass?

Yes, we will still be doing the summer youth and blast paths um in partnership with TARDA.

Thank you.

I just wanted it for the record.

Um, I'm excited because we're looking at uh not just summer programs but after-school programs, and with our school district um dealing with uh budget issues.

This is going to be key in the summer and again in the fall that our kids will have programs that can help them with their education, socialization, and all the above, and it is imperative that we make sure that our charter schools and our parochial private schools are also invited to these programs.

I really appreciate the work that you are doing and have done, Davion, um, with this budget, and hopefully um we can work something out for next year so that we can make sure that we continue these programs because our young people, not just our future, they're our lifeline.

So thank you for your work.

SCP.

Thank you.

Thanks so much.

Item number 11, please.

Good afternoon, Council members.

Brandon Sellhorst, Chief Growth Officer, joined by April Welch, Deputy Director.

Item 11 authorizes the mayor to enter into a grant agreement with the Toledo Warehouse District Association for the reimbursement of up to 25,000 for public improvements along Huron Street.

In 2024, the Department of Economic Development commissioned a streetscape enhancement plan for Huron and Madison corridors.

This work was guided by multiple downtown master plans and intentionally aligned the redevelopment of the four corners buildings.

The plan identified some near-term implementable strategies to activate these corridors while we continue to advance long-term design and secure construction funding for full reconstruction.

The Toledo Warehouse District Association is proposing to implement one of those near-term recommendations by purchasing and installing seven site furnishings along Huron Street.

This project is designed to improve pedestrian circulation, enhance the user experience, and introduce creative placemaking elements that encourage social interaction and support continued activity within the warehouse district.

To support this effort, the city is proposing to reimburse the association up to $50,000 for the eligible cost association with the purchase and installation of these furnishings.

This investment is structured as a partnership.

$25,000 will come for the city center tax increment financing district, which was established in 2019 to reinvest the incremental property tax revenue in downtown into infrastructure improvements like this.

An additional 25,000 will come from another item on your agenda, which is through the District 4 District Improvement Program allocation.

And finally, $25,000 will be invested by the association directly.

As required for capital funding, the city will retain ownership of these site furnishings.

However, a condition of the grant agreement is that the association will enter into an operations and maintenance agreement for the site furnishings that ensure the long-term upkeep at no cost to the city.

This is an exciting partnership that implements a really cost effective investment that advances our strategy downtown of supporting placemaking, enhancing our pedestrian environment and building momentum along this corridor in the near term while we work on the longer-term improvements.

We respectfully request SCP happy to answer any questions that you may have.

How long is the cooperative grant agreements with the warehouse district for their responsibility?

It'll be for 10 years.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Driscoll.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, this is great, exciting, don't have any issues with it as long as Chair Meldon doesn't.

But uh I would uh I'm curious.

Uh on a referral, I'm gonna ask what the balance of all of our TIFFs are, and so long as economic development is managing them.

I think uh and I asked that I asked DPU to start doing this, I think, next year's budget.

Um, but I think that's something that we should probably talk about when you guys do your budget hearing, uh, is the balance of each of our TIFFs and also um what it is we intend to do with them because it because they're starting to build up and and like the Franklin Park one has a ton of money in it.

Um, but we need to be it shouldn't just like this is a great project.

This is exactly I think what the Center City TIF is for, but it shouldn't just be because one organization knew to ask for it.

So I think uh we need to be thinking strategically about how we're gonna use that money.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna I'll do a referral on that.

But I think in next year's budget process, I think we should talk about that.

Not not the finance committee uh or when finance is presenting, but rather when economic development is happy to.

Thank you.

Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh echo a lot of my colleagues' sentiments in terms of um being fiduciary responsible for these funds, and it looks like this is a good uh use of them.

One of my questions is really about the what is the requirement for the operation maintenance for TWW excuse me, TWDA.

So though these are um they are really site furnishing, so they're seating and there's some planting elements with them.

So they will be responsible for maintaining these furnishings, responsible for the plantings.

If there's damage to them, they will be responsible for fixing them.

I mean, we will be the owner of this, but they will be responsible for maintaining that over that 10-year um agreement.

Gotcha.

So then would that maybe I'm crossing my organization?

Would they work in tandem with uh the downtown improvement group that does it?

This would be separate.

This would be just the warehouse district association.

Do they not work in the warehouse district?

They do, they do, but this is the warehouse district association leveraging their own funds as an entity to invest in this.

Not to say that they wouldn't have a partnership with DTID.

Certainly, I'm sure there's coordination there, but this specifically would be a relationship between the city and the warehouse district association wants to see this move forward.

So that includes like annual painting, cleaning, power washing, plantings, and this covers.

For the initial setup, or is there like an ongoing operational cost?

Because I'm assuming that's to maintain them isn't going to be free.

Our cost as the city is to reimburse them for the purchase and installation of these furnishings.

The ongoing costs associated with this will be borne by the warehouse district association.

Got it.

So there won't be an annual maintenance costs for the city.

Okay, okay.

Uh and then they have sufficient revenue to maintain them for the next seven for how long?

For 10 years, yes, I think so.

Okay.

All right.

I'm good with that.

Alright, thanks.

Thank you.

Councilmember Melvin, your recommendation.

SEP.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item number 12, please.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council.

Uh Melanie Campbell again, Department of Finance.

Um, this next ordinance requests authorization to enter into a three-year subscription agreement for our OpenGov budgeting software.

Um we've been using OpenGov to prepare our budget each year since the 2022 budget cycle.

Um we would uh couple items to note about this next contract period.

Um, the term is going from five years to three years.

Um, and the price as well is also going down to about 230,000 um in year three from previously 283,000.

Uh be happy to answer any questions if you have them, and we are requesting SEP.

Councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you.

Do we keep any records of traffic visited to open gov from our community?

Um I would have to check on that and how it tracks it.

I believe it does.

I haven't specifically looked at it.

Okay.

Could you check into that and get back with me?

Yes, we could.

Okay, that's awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Councilman, oh, Councilman Serranti's not here.

Who's the vice chair of that committee?

Councilman Driscoll?

SCP.

Thank you.

Thank you, SCP.

Item number 13, please.

Hi, good afternoon.

Megan Robeson, Chief of Operations for the City of Toledo.

Uh, this legislation authorizes the administration to enact an annual license fee upon the operation of motor vehicles under the Ohio Revised Code section on permissive motor vehicle tax.

Municipalities can add a five-dollar license fee to all license plates by the taxing district.

Given the continued increase in costs and necessary roadway improvements, the fee would be specifically used to pay for the cost of maintenance within the city of Toledo.

According to the uh BMV data that we have, there are approximately 222,000 total registered license plates in Toledo.

So based on that information, we estimate this fee would result in about 1.1 million dollars annually to the street construction maintenance and repair fund.

Um, just to give you an idea of some municipalities that have already completed this process or or are in the process of doing this, um, Monclova, Springfield, Providence, Sylvania, Ottawa Hills, Sylvania.

Ooh, excuse me.

Sorry, I said that already, mommy, Waterville, and White House.

Um, I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Dang.

Councilman Meldon.

I'll be quick.

Um, thank you.

Uh, did you just only list in Lucas County?

Yes, I'm sorry, I was just referring to those in Lucas County that have already started this process or completed the process.

I just am curious because I think about, you know, I just think about like where Toledo residents might current Toledo residents or or incoming folks who are deciding where to live.

I mean, it would just it'd be nice to know the Wood County as well, you know, Rossford.

Yeah, some of those other smaller municipalities.

The reason is I think the takeaway is pretty undeniable that there's not a place nearby to like move away from a fee like this.

Sure.

Which is the point you're making, but I would just want to go a little bit south and include some Wood County.

Thank you.

Councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you.

Um I see what they could be used for, but what is our goals as a city to use that that funding for?

Sure.

So these would go into our street construction maintenance and repair fund, and those are used for employees within um the traffic management division who conduct the maintenance on our roadways.

Okay, so would that just be roads?

Does it talk?

Is that sidewalks?

This is just for roadway.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Absolutely.

Councilwoman McPherson.

Thank you.

She just kind of answered it, but why are we not looking at repairing?

And I got issues with Vidox.

Why aren't we looking at other areas and just with our streets and our roads?

And it's just because I can hear some of our residents saying, you know, we did the tax thing for the roads and streets.

And we did the tax and we did this one, and it was roads, reconstruction of roads and streets, and then now here we go talking about five dollars for roads and streets.

Can we expand that or is that just what you have just said?

I mean, did you even look at the others?

Sure, we explored it.

Um this vehicle registration permissive tax according to the Ohio revised code can only be spent on certain things, and so it can be spent on, you know, planning, construction, improving and maintaining our repairing our public roads, highways and streets.

So that's that's so this fee can only be used on those things.

So I'm reading this wrong then where it says funds may be used for planning, constructing, improving, maintaining, and repairing public roads, highway, streets, and for the maintaining and repair of bridges and vi docks.

That is correct.

That's what they can be used for.

For us, we're using that for the maintenance.

It could be potentially so administration has made the decision that they're gonna use if this is passed that five dollar license uh registration tax just for streets and reconstruction.

I don't think that's necessarily the decision that's been made.

It's it's going to I I may have misunderstood your question.

It's going to our street construction, maintenance and repair fund.

That fund is used for the maintenance of streets, of our highways, our bridges, our viaducts, it's also used for our support for the people that are doing the repairs to those viaducts to those bridges to those roadway improvements.

So when you say it goes for the support of those people, now you're getting into wage increases and that kind of thing.

When you say support, because I'm okay.

I want to be clear because some people are hearing this when you say for the work, the people.

What the dollars in those funds can be used for.

This is just a piece of that.

It would not it the 1.1 that's estimated to come in is not going to cover all of the expenses that we have associated with all of these different things, viaducts being a piece of that.

So it's going to that fund to help us support all of the operations that we can do there.

Okay, I don't see it this time that we can as citizens are being taxed and taxed and taxed, gas is up, food is up, and we're here we go again, and we're taxing again.

I have a problem with putting more on the citizens of Toledo when we are deficit here, education budget deficit, everything, and now here we are asking them for an additional money.

That's it.

That's that's that's just me.

No more questions.

Councilwoman Jones.

Thank you, Chair.

On that line, um, so you said the 222,000 registered licenses would generate how much 1.1 million dollars roughly annually.

Okay, so have you looked into like projections?

Because as councilwoman McPherson said, gas is up, so I'm anticipating people will be driving less.

Um well it's said that the younger generation isn't really interested in cars.

The city is becoming more walkable, so there could be no use for a car.

We have aging population, so they are probably giving up their driving privileges of some sort.

Was there any discussion of what that will look like in the future?

Sure, of course, as we want to make a more pedestrian friendly city and use public transport, yes.

This is a conservative estimate, okay.

Um, and so we did base it off of data that we had from the BMB that they provided, but we we took into a conservative estimate and again, it's a one-time fee on that license renewal.

So you know, we based it on those registered vehicles in the city of Tato.

Yeah, because I would be interested, even based upon like past numbers.

Have we seen an increase or decrease with licenses being admin?

We have actually seen a little bit of an increase.

But we still tried to keep it conservative conservative to all of the points that you made.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, I was just curious because of just it's things are changing now.

Sure.

And the reliance of a fee based upon license registration, when all of this is happening, we don't want to get too happy, even though it is revenue, but you know, we have to make those societal considerations.

But thank you for that information.

Thank you, Chair.

Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I have a silly question.

So when it says license plate fee in vehicle, what exactly are we referring to?

And I I have a bigger question, so sure.

So when you go to renew your registration on your license plate, there are fees associated with that.

Typically, people do that on an annual basis.

You do have the option to do that, I believe, every three years as well.

Um, when you see those fees, the City of Toledo through the Ohio Revised Code is able to add a five dollar fee on that.

We will see that come in monthly to us as those payments come in, and then those funds are able to be deposited in our street construction maintenance and repair fund.

Gotcha.

So totally get all that, right?

So it was kind of a leading question.

So my really what I was going with is so it's not just automotive vehicles, it could be motorcycles, trailers, uh anything that has a plate.

That's correct.

Passenger cars, non-commercial trucks, motorcycles, yep.

Right, so that's kind of what I was alluding to.

Is it possible to do a tiered version of that?

Because you also have commercial plates, which is a business versus a residential portion.

I do not know that answer.

If it can be tiered, it's my understanding.

It's um, a flat fee.

It's a flat fee.

And the reason I'm asking is because if it's a commercial vehicle, then it's a business expense, right?

So it's a write-off and it can be absorbed through the business versus levying it on someone who relies on a standard, either what we would think of a car, SUV, whatever, motorcycle for their main uh modal transportation to uh my my colleagues' you know uh concerns about everything's increasing, you know, having a tiered portion between a commercial plate versus a residential plate, two very different things because not only are the commercial plates more expensive, you know, than a residential plate, but again, it it's less of an individual burden that we're placing on you know the Toledo driver.

So I I get it.

I just didn't know if we had thought about the difference between the personal versus the commercial, and then they also have the what is the like the sports, right?

The little forerunners, the little stuff like that that should have plates, although I see them running up and down the trail and you know, cutting through neighborhoods and in parks, those should also have some sort of license plate, and because it's recreational, again, that adds a different level since it's not again the individual mode of transportation to make ends meet, it's extracurricular.

So my question really extends is the possibility to tier or increase fees based on the type of plates, it is my understanding that's not how it currently is structured.

It's that one-time fee.

I can look into what that would look like, or if it's a possibility.

Sure, no, I was just kind of curious, but I mean, again, we're trying to reduce the burden on our taxpayer, right?

And if they're struggling to get food, gas, you know, this five dollars.

While it doesn't seem like a lot to some, it could be a lot to others.

If you have a recreational vehicle or a trailer or a business, you know, that's extra in a value add, and that five dollars or ten dollars or whatever that number is may not be as big of a deal to someone who solely relies on renewing their plates to get to work and feed their kids.

So that that's all I was going with that.

So thank you.

Councilmember Melvin.

Thanks, Chair.

Um, ORC 4504.

Can you tell me more?

Tell me more about that.

That's what allows us to do this, right?

That is correct.

That's what allows us to do this.

So it is uh the Ohio Revised Code, chapter 4504, local motor vehicle license tax.

Um there are eleven five dollar levies that are available to be enacted, but only six can be in effect at one time in any single taxing district.

So they do limit that.

Um permissive tax revenue is used by the counties and taxing districts per the ORC chapter 4504, which includes planning, construction, improving, maintaining, repairing public roads, highways, streets, and for the maintaining and repair of bridges and viaducts.

So that's how it is listed in uh ORC.

I don't want to try to interpret like the intent of the authors of the ORC, but it does sound fun.

Um it seems like it is a small revenue source attached to a vehicle to help repair what the vehicle is damaging.

That's like the simplest way to think about it.

Director Campbell, if I can, how many how many um opportunities does Columbus give us to in to create revenue?

Just ballpark it.

How many you think?

That's a good question.

I think this is one that comes to mind, but there's not a lot of no.

In your tenure here, how many times has Columbus taken revenue away from us?

I've said we've seen decreases in revenue over the years, yes.

Annually to what the tune of like eighteen, twenty million-ish.

From local government funds and uh, yes.

Yeah.

My point is, I don't love it.

But it feels like that's the environment we're in.

And so I just want to say I give I give uh I give credit to the administration for finding even a small amount because if if the state is saying, hey, municipalities, you're allowed to do this, they don't give us a lot of opportunities.

Um that's barely even like an opinion, it's just the environment that we're in.

And so we have we we don't get to act in the world as it should be.

We have to operate as it is.

So thanks.

Councilwoman McPherson.

I might have missed it, but I just want clarity.

I have a car, my tag's five dollars.

I have a motorcycle, my tag another five dollars.

I have a trailer, carries my motorcycle.

That's another five dollars.

Yes.

So I'm charged $15 additional.

It's on the license plate associated with the rest of the where some may not see that's not a lot.

Um, it can be costly.

Especially when our tags are costly, it can be a financial burden on a lot of people.

I'm just putting it out there.

Thank you very much.

I want it to be clear.

Councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you.

Just for clarity, is five dollars the max that we can ask for?

Yes, that's correct.

Okay, and then is there anything in the ORC that says we can um ramp it up, or is it just a five dollar?

Like we can't, like first year one dollars and three dollars, then we can't ease the population into this.

Um, I mean, money is tight.

I've got people, Brittany and I are doing those town halls and they're crying because I waited a woman at the last one, balling because her rent is a thousand dollars and her social security is nine hundred and sixty, and she like we have real people crying to us, so this weighs heavy on me.

I understand we need to make a balanced budget, but sometimes if there's easier ways to do this, I'm just saying, is that an option?

It is set at that five, okay.

I appreciate that.

I really appreciate that.

Thank you, Chair.

Councilman Driscoll, your recommendation.

Uh first reading, but there is time to do the hearing, if we want to pass this at the 26th, so uh I don't mind doing a meet with the rest of you to talk about a hearing if that's necessary.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item number 14, please.

Good afternoon, Christy Soncrant, Commissioner Engineering Construction, and I have Stephanie Bartlett, Commissioner of Traffic Management, with me to present the next three items.

Um item number 14.

This ordinance authorizes the city to accept a $50,000 donation from the Toledo Lucas County Public Library to upgrade the pedestrian crossing by installing a pedestrian hybrid beacon on Central Avenue in front of the Sanger branch library.

The project will be matched by district improvement funds along with the city's matching and planning funds.

Construction is planned for this fall, requesting SCP, and we'll take any questions at this time.

I was really excited to see this.

I can't tell you how many times I've driven down Central Avenue and watched people waiting in that pedestrian island for the Frogger experience to end.

So I'm really glad that we're doing this.

Council Member Meldon.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Yeah.

Ditto.

We brought the the dip funds for this last year, mainly because I wanted to hit my goal of zero dip left.

And I knew it would take a little while, but also just huge shout out and thanks to library, you know, to have this partnership to invest in infrastructure in front of uh one of their busiest uh locations is really pretty cool.

I'm curious if we could get just a little bit of conversation.

I know this meeting is not short, uh, just a little bit of conversation around how this ties into our vision zero initiative.

I mean, you know, we have a hawk signal, the one that is obvious and always comes to mind is in front of the in front of the museum, which is nice, not quite the traffic counts or speeds of this location.

And so, just curious how you think um this aligns with our vision zero strategy and also what we might what else we might want to look at to make sure that while the light is big and bright and wonderful, it's not like a you know, it's not like a walls coming up.

How do you think we can really make sure this is a safe endeavor?

Thank you, Councilman Meldon.

Um, so this does fit very nicely into our Vision Zero initiative to make our infrastructure safer for pedestrians and cyclists and our traveling public.

Um we've we actually had five pedestrian hybrid beacons that are were installed over the last year or so, um, to add to the two that we already had.

So we've done some public education campaigns on how to use these new crossings both as a driver and as a pedestrian.

Um the videos were shared on social media, and then we also have um some written information, and there's all appropriate signage up to tell you what to do as a pedestrian and as a driver at these crossings.

So compliance on a pedestrian hybrid beacon is fairly high, over 90% people do stop at them because it is it's it's a red light, it's very visually easy to understand.

Whereas, you know, the rapid flashing beacons, we use them more on smaller roads, lower lower traffic volumes, um compliance rate isn't quite as great with those.

That's another story.

Um so yeah, we're we're hopeful that that this is a good addition to Central Avenue.

Yeah, well, thank thank you.

That's great to hear.

I'm certainly looking for more of them.

I'll tell you one quick anecdote because it's really powerful, I think.

So one one of my recent town halls, this project came up, and I I was mentioning it, and um I don't think I was proactively talking about it just because I wasn't sure of timeline, and so I just wanted to wait.

And someone responded very, very positively, and he was there with his young daughter at the town hall, and I remember pointing out, like, hey, this is gonna be so great, like you can, you know, walk into the library.

And he said, Yeah, of course, but I think the goal is that she would walk by herself.

And I was like, Oh, yeah, like that's that is so like it it showed two things in that moment.

One, just how like dangerous that street is, and uh because I was thinking now the parent can cross safely with their child, and he was saying, yeah, but that's not enough.

Like the vision is that we want our children to be able to go, you know, to the library.

So very exciting.

I could talk about it forever.

Thank you to the library.

I'll stop.

Councilwoman McPherson.

Thank you, Chair.

I I just wanted to add, because he asked that um we have that light on Hill Avenue.

Um, when uh I was out there with Hobbes, and that was uh a couple of years ago.

I think it was the first one, maybe.

Um, and with Hill Avenue being five lanes of traffic, and the school there and departments and everything, it it has been very effective.

Um, the apartment complexes, and what I like is that it starts flashing, the kid hits the button, it starts flashing that you can see it.

If you're on Hill Avenue at Richards Road, you can start seeing it flashing.

So now you got time to slow roll because then the light turns red, kids get to cross the street, so it is uh it has been very effective.

And for sure, Hill Avenue is a is a good example of it working.

So I see it working very effectively on Central for two things.

There are a lot of times there are accidents because people are turning into the uh the library and the people behind them are not slowing up and ramming them, so it's gonna be uh I'm looking forward to it.

So thank you.

I just wanted to add that because of Sam's comments.

Thank you.

Councilman Driscoll, your recommendation.

Great work, Councilmember Meldon, great work transportation.

This is this is a cool project.

Uh SEP.

Thank you so much.

Item number 15, please.

The city has been awarded 9.89 million in federal grant funding for a safe streets for all project as a sub-recipient of Lucas County.

The funding will be used to design and construct safety improvements for motorists and pedestrians on Monroe Street from Summit Street to the city limits.

Specific locations for improvements will be determined after a safety study is performed.

This funding is for both the design and construction of the project and will be provided at 80% with the city providing a 20% match.

This ordinance allows us to accept the grant and authorize the mayor to sign the subrecipient agreement with the county.

The project will be matched with funds from the city's matches and planning fund and from the West Toledo Tax Increment Fund.

Construction is planned to begin in 2028.

Requesting SEP, and we'll take questions at this time.

Well, this is a good sign when no lights pop up.

Um, my yeah, it's it's super exciting.

I'm thrilled to see it.

I think with the addition of bus rapid transit and all the work that's happening up and down the corridor, it's gonna be excellent.

Councilman Driscoll, your recommendation, SEB.

Wonderful.

Item number 16, please.

This ordinance authorizes us to spend one million from the West Toledo Tax Increment Fund to support a safety study and design within the TIFF boundary as part of the safe streets for all grant.

The funding will be used to design safety improvements for motorists and pedestrians on Monroe Street from Sheltonham to Laskey Road.

This funding is for both the safety study and design of the project in the TIFFT area.

Requesting SCP, and we'll take any questions at this time.

Councilman Driscoll, your recommendation.

Uh, just similar to the conversation we had with Brandon.

I don't know if at some point we want to talk about like a joint committee meeting, but I do think we should uh be a little be thinking strategically about our TIFF funds.

This is obviously an applicable and good use of it.

Um but yeah, SCP.

Cool.

Councilman Martinez.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Nothing to do with the ordinance before us, but before you leave and get up to go on to the thing that we as we move on and the uh agenda, I did want to say thank publicly thank you, ladies and uh councilman Driscoll for the uh the public hearing we had around uh safe routes to school, and we did get some residents from the Harrow Road neighborhood.

Uh hopefully it was a little bit more clarifying information.

I'm not sure how well it was received, regardless if we were in the library or here, but I sincerely appreciate your willingness to come in and uh speak about this and the importance of these uh projects, especially three of them are in district two.

Uh so I sincerely appreciate all of your efforts and willing to work with me and the residents, even though they don't always like to hear no.

So I sincerely appreciate it.

I wanted to take this time to publicly thank you.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much.

Items 17 through 19 come to us from police operations.

Welcome.

Good afternoon.

Lieutenant Brianne Holmes, Sergeant Pat Bergman, Assistant Chief, Kevin Brown, and Finance Director Melanie Campbell.

Um item number 17 authorize the mayor to enter into a Toledo Police Impound Tollot Management Services Agreement for initial five-year agreement with the option to renew for an additional five years with vehicle management solutions.

It authorizes the annual expenditure of an amount not to exceed $2,471,617.35 cents from the municipal toll fund, waiving competitive bidding for the reason that vehicle management solutions is uniquely qualified to provide both software and management services for the toll lot at a cost competitive price.

Other companies offer either the software or the management services, not both.

The services include receiving towed vehicles, storage at secure facilities, processing release to vehicle owners, and disposal of unclaimed vehicles.

VMS will assume all responsibility for the full operation of the impound lot, including all associated costs, risks, and the Arturo Aries platforms we currently use for our TOEs.

There is the potential for increase in the operation transfer from the toll lot to the general fund due to vehicles can be entered onto a national online auction platform instead of only receiving local offers through our current auctions or our scrap.

We are requesting SEP for the continued uninterrupted services for the impound lot.

Thank you.

So who's currently doing it?

Is the department doing it?

Yes.

All of it.

Yes.

And how many how many people are employed?

How many of our officers are employed to do that work, Aiden?

Yes, ma'am.

We currently have seven officers assigned to the toll lot operations and a sergeant as well.

Okay.

And they're this company is gonna do the whole process then.

So we'll just take the cars and then they'll have staff it put everything.

That's really nice.

Okay.

Okay, I think that that's good.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Yeah, absolutely.

Councilwoman Morris.

Thank you.

Um, I'm just kind of curious.

How does that then relate to what we pay now?

I mean, are is this a better is this better for us?

Would that free up officers to you know, patrol?

I'm just kind of curious what this means for us.

Yes, so with VMS running the toll lot, there wouldn't be any officers required to be there during that time because their people would run it, so um that opens up the opportunity to utilize the officers in other places within their contracts, of course.

Yeah, councilwoman.

Uh so those are there are contractual issues that we have to take into consideration, those are contractual positions, but our hope is um if and when this happens that we can uh work with the patrol officers union to kind of find a better use for those officers, which we hope hopefully will translate into seven more officers out on the street taking calls for service.

What that's gonna look like exactly at this point, we don't know, but we do have you know, we have a new station uh that we're gonna have to you know have somebody at from time to time, and so our we are hopeful that um if and when we're able to do this with vehicle management solutions, we'll find a much better use for those officers and kind of get the Toledo police department out of the toll lot business for lack of a better way of putting it.

Do the majority of other police departments of our size, I mean, do they manage their own, or is this uh is this company is it in other cities um managing lots?

Yeah, so VMS is um is in other cities uh as far as what other departments our size do that I that I don't know.

I don't know how they handle their tow lot, but I can tell you just you know, vehicle management solutions currently operates in uh here's a list of a few Chicago, San Antonio, Dallas, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Nashville, Memphis, El Paso, Louisville.

So they are they're kind of they know this work, they're doing it in a lot of other places, and um, from what we can tell from the research we've done, the cities that they have come in and taken the toll operations are uh very happy with with how it's worked out.

And they also handle like the auctions and and such, yeah, and that's actually a big part of of what they do in um so we currently when we have an auction, it's kind of a local auction, right?

We we gather up the cars, we do a local auction and and kind of get what we can get for them.

What VMS is going to do is they'll have it on an online national platform.

So the goal and the hope is the kind of the average sale price of the vehicles that we get now through auction and through scrap will increase because there's just gonna be a larger kind of buyer pool for those vehicles.

Okay, fun fact my first vehicle was a 1982 Ford Escort that uh came from the auction and needed to be started with starter fluid.

So you know what?

There's always a car out there for everyone.

I'm glad times have changed.

Uh Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So do we have a projected um what's what I want to look for?

Um not return on investment per se, but an overall expectation of additional revenue.

So I know every year, and a lot of that money goes, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it goes into the trust fund, right?

Or no, um it's actually the toll lot fund, there's an operational transfer to the general fund.

Gotcha.

So for instance, with this auction option now, like instead of scrapping our vehicles currently at 595 dollars is what we get for our when we junk a vehicle, the potential to put them online and get a thousand dollars for them, that increase alone will bring in more revenue per se to give more of a transfer to the general fund.

Gotcha.

So have you guys done like uh operational cost comparison, like all the staff, all the I guess assets that we have to sell.

Expectations.

So let me let me back up.

How much do we normally transfer to the general fund through auctions?

Um councilman Martinez, it's not just the auction revenue, it's the combination of any of the revenues that come into the tollat fund from the fees or the auction compared to the cost for operation, and then the difference will be transferred to the general fund.

It's roughly about two million dollars, so ideally with increased proceed um auction fees, that transfer would go up, and then the officers, you know, the savings on efficiency within the police budget from the officers, you know, doing potentially different duties would also overall help the budget.

Right.

So I guess my thank you.

That's where I was headed to.

So what is the expectation by, because it's it sounds like we're privatizing, you know, the toll lot.

But let's be honest about it.

And then so there's cost savings on the labor, there's cost savings on the it's not they're not gonna do it for free.

What is their operational cost, and does it make financial sense to do that?

So they have a monthly set fee of 183,000 per month for the first year, um, and for year two, and then it increases every two years at a three percent increase.

So the amount that I read earlier is for what it would be like if we did the full 10 years of this contract or ordinance.

So, got it.

So, by way of referral, and I'll put this in writing.

Um Director Campbell, if we excuse me, Chief Campbell, uh, if we can get a comparison to our current operational cost versus the expectation of operational cost and the expectation of return on investment in terms of revenue, what can go back into the general fund?

Sure, we can work through that.

Great, thank you.

Council Woman McPherson.

Thank you.

Um did we put a bid out for this looking for?

We did not put this out for bid, no.

And why?

Currently we have um the uh software that we use for our tows currently is called Artura, and then um we were approached by the people who helped create that software, which is vehicle management solutions, okay, and you're asking us to approve this, but you have not um been granted through labor um contracts to to do this.

Am I correct?

You're still sorry, or you're in conversations with them about this.

I don't know if I understand the question.

We haven't been granted by labor to do what because you said um, because of this, the officers that worked over there can be put back to the streets or deployed to other areas, but then you said it has to be agreed upon.

Right, yeah.

Our plan is to obviously work with the union to kind of come to an agreement.

Um those are those those are technically called records positions, and the toll lot falls under our records section.

It says that we sh you know we have to maintain, I think it's eight officers in our records section.

Now, there are we're hopeful if there's conversations we can have, take for instance uh when somebody works the front desk at the safety building or at the Scott Park District Station or at our new station that we're gonna have uh out at Sylvania and Jackman.

If somebody if we can come to an agreement and we're hopeful that we can come to some sort of agreement that typically those desks are manned by police officers, uh if these officers are able to do those jobs, then that would be a net gain to the street because the officer that typically works that desk would then go out to the street.

I'm not saying that that's the plan for the officers.

We're just working through all of our options.

You know, one of the officers always does security at the front door at the safety building during the day shift.

So that's a position that we know is kind of baked in that we're gonna have to have somebody there for.

Probably two when you take into account days off and things like that.

So we're we're I can't give you exactly what the solution is gonna be or what we're gonna do with the officers, but we're hopeful that we can find a better use for them, a more public serving use than that.

And so, in order to do that, there would there would seem to me that there would be a uh MOU of some sort, mem memorandum of understanding between uh TPD or city and the union to allow that shift because it's almost like we're putting the cart before the horse because that's not already established.

We go and approve this, and then they don't agree to make that to make that adjustment, then I think you got it.

You see what I'm saying?

Right, and and you know, the good news is is that that officer position, that records position, that job description is is not just work the toe lot.

But you got seven.

The job description covers a lot of different areas that we're confident that we can find a role that satisfies the job description, may not require an MOU, may satisfy the job description, but it's just different than operating the tow lot.

Okay, I would like that to be already negotiated and dealt with so that we can shift and know that that is going to happen prior to us uh approving this and then going back and having to make that adjustment or maybe not make that adjustment.

That's again that's just my thinking and uh how these things can go and maybe not go.

Um, and I got some questions about this company, but um I need to read a little bit more upon this company um because there are some concerns with the company that you're looking at that's why I asked had we um had we put this out to be it are there other companies that we looked into that could potentially do the same thing that this company does at this particular time.

So I am I'll hold I don't have um referrals, but I'm I'm I'm cautioning us in moving fast on this one.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Kramer.

Um I think my question kind of relates to Councilman Martinez's question.

So we're not gonna be saving money on the officers because they will be redeployed, uh, but you're asking for 2.4 million dollars annually.

So I'm trying to figure out like we're not gonna have a cost saving, so this is gonna be an additional expense.

Is that correct?

Ideally, we're generating additional revenue that would go to the general fund.

And so this these funds are gonna come out of the money that's generated?

Okay, okay, thank you.

Um, councilwoman Jones.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, basically, piggybacking off of councilwoman McPherson's concern of company, I wanted to bring our attention to an email that council members had received regarding this specific company.

Um apparently they have been overseasing cars and also selling the property before the actual owner is notified, and they have been a part of federal lawsuits as well regarding that.

So when we're talking about not putting this out to bed in the nature of how they approached you, I'm just curious as far as what was the vetting process with this, considering, and I need to do more research as well, but considering that this information has been shared, and it is really concerning, um, especially since we were just talking about increasing license fee license plate fees and cars are becoming very valuable now for people to get around.

We don't want that to be predatory on our citizens either, thus adding more to the problem.

So I just want to caution us to look further into this um company because it could basically get larger problem for us.

And I mean that includes us because we're residents as well, but um, yeah, that that was just something to bring to your attention.

Thank you, Chair.

Absolutely.

Councilmember Gaddis.

Thanks.

Could you send us more information on their uh what they're gonna do operationally as far as the securing of the storage, um it's just that whole, they had to have given you a package of stuff, right?

Okay, and then were there any goals that you guys set as far as um income from the auction?

Were there anything anything that you guys agreed to that they would we would see numbers?

Is there anything like that?

Ma'am, I I can um just kind of tell you based on the presentation and the conversations we've had with VMS and I will point out that uh a couple of representatives from VMS are here if for you guys if you had any, you know, wanted to go into a deeper dive with them as well.

Um, it all kinds of and I may be over oversimplifying it, but the way I understand it, it kind of all comes down to the average vehicle kind of sale price between junk and auction, and kind of where we're sitting at right now is here because like I said, we do it locally and we scrap a lot of vehicles, and so we get the minimum for those vehicles that we scrap.

Uh VMS's model is to scrap fewer vehicles, put more vehicles out into that national auction database, uh, and kind of drive up that average price.

So, you know, if if our if our average price now is 595, uh they'll say that their Midwest average for the departments they work with maybe I don't know the exact numbers, but two or three hundred dollars more per vehicle than that.

So it's kind of all based on uh increasing that average price, and that's where kind of the benefit to the city will come in monetarily.

Now we also believe that there will be just more of a service benefit to the citizens, to be honest with you.

It's probably not a you know smart thing for me to say, but you know, we're police officers.

We were never really intended, I think, to run a tow lot.

So I think there will be, you know, service will improve, which is important as well because we have a lot of people come out there, and a lot of people have to deal with the tow lot staff.

So, yeah, there is a hope that the there will be a monetary benefit to the city, but um there's also a hope and a belief that the service will improve as well.

Okay, good.

Could we invite them up to the microphone to talk?

Good afternoon, Chair and Council.

I'm Alan Brasher, I'm vice president for VMS.

With me today is Frank Mecklenburg, he's our chief operating officer for VMS.

So pleasure to be with you.

Thank you.

Um, could you tell us more about uh your process and how you do everything?

Uh there's quite a bit.

You're uh it says that you uh are going to increase operational efficiency by a myriad of ways.

Could you talk about your process?

Yeah, so we do this nationally, we're the only national company that provides the solution.

Uh cheap RON, uh listed 10 tier one cities basically where we do this on a national basis.

Uh we are experts in the Autora Ares platform that the City of Toledo implemented at the impound lot in 2023.

Uh so that is our go-to flagship software technology platform, and then if you break down the processes, I won't spend a ton of time on this, but there's a vehicle intake at the lot, and these are all the enforcement tows.

Uh, these are crashes, uh, those are the type of vehicles being towed to the Toledo police impound lot.

There's a vehicle intake, you have to inventory that vehicle.

Most of the vehicles are returned to the citizen to the vehicle owner in the first couple of days.

Uh those vehicles that go uncleaned, there's a lien process, uh, that's a critical function to do that rapidly so cars don't build up at the lot, and then there's that auction process, and we are the market leader and getting that average sale price again to Chief Braun's comments as high as possible.

Um, and the city's gonna recognize all that upside in revenue.

That number for the contract is just covering our cost, which is your same cost.

So again, we want to make a little call it a marginal profit on each of the 10 places where we're doing this today, not get rich on one contract.

So the beauty of that program is the city recognizes all that increase in revenue.

You'll be the beneficiary of that.

Thank you for that.

Do you anticipate use uh having eight people to staff it as we are currently using eight people to staff?

Yeah, right about that.

We we may we may fluctuate between eight and ten depending on what the service level needs, and and certainly as we get in, if we're able to reduce that, we will.

But yeah, that would be about the same that we would be looking at.

Something else I'd like to add very quickly to, you know, Alan mentioned in terms of being able to get vehicles through the process quickly.

We do so very, very legally, and our system helps us do that.

We don't sell things until they are ready to be sold, and they are verified through state law lean letter notifications that our system does help us with and generates those so that everything is tracked uh accordingly, so they can't physically even be scheduled for an auction until those things have criteria have been met, first and foremost.

Secondly, I would just like to add to it as far as benefits to the citizen and our intake process.

We document things from a photo perspective very, very diligently inside outside of the car as the vehicle comes in before it is put away.

Why do we do that?

Simple.

Because if we cause damage to a car, we want to take care of a citizen.

It is not our job to say, you know, that didn't happen with us, that's not there.

So we are very, very diligent in making sure that we are documenting that car and taking care of citizens in that regard.

Are you planning on hiring Toledo workers or workers from the areas?

Are you bringing people from somewhere else?

We 100% Toledo workers will be here long-term now.

We may bring people from the outside to help train Toledo workers to help get this thing off the ground, whatever, whatever we need to do.

Uh those people will draw back very, very quickly, and what will be left will be Toledo residents and citizens uh rent managing that impound lot.

And I just want to add on as far as our contracts are concerned.

We've never had a contract not re awarded or renewed in on the impound operation specifically side uh to address any issues about us as a company.

Wanted to state that.

How long have you been in business?

Since the 70s, we started with City of Chicago, and then we got San Francisco in 2004, and then that launched us nationally.

And not every city has an impound lot, it's really a segment of the market nationally.

Most of the cities uh tow companies tow the vehicles back to their lots uh in Ohio.

There's a thing with city managed impound lots and a few other places nationally, but I want to make that clear as well.

Are you active in any other Ohio City?

No, Cleveland, Columbus, not yet.

Akron.

Working with several, but nothing I can announce yet.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Absolutely.

President Williams.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Um, and thank you to CPD for bringing this forward.

Um, and I I know they've edited it, and I'll defer to the chair where he lands with it, but I wanted to bring this to your attention.

Um, the email that we did receive with the case in San Antonio, San Antonio.

Are you familiar with that case?

Yeah.

In 2020, um, you guys were sued um the company illegally auctioned off at least 227 vehicles belonging to acad active duty service officers.

Was that prior to having that subscription service or software service?

Yeah, that's that is accurate, and and I can expand on that as well, as far as you know, as far as the DOJ is is concerned and what we've done with them.

We actually are partnered with the DOJ as their partner across the country to actually improve this process.

So through this, I think the DOJ has recognized, and what we've recognized is that there are gaps in that process that led to that the DOJ is is uh admitted that, and and so if we the software service that we have now absolutely prevents that.

We work with a company called Lexus Nexus and TransUnion.

So we work with them directly as partners.

Everything that we have nationally gets ran through that service and is it tracked within the system that we are now using.

And again, we are on a committee with the Department of Justice to help improve this.

Not only, I mean, not only for us, which we've which we've already done, but to improve it for every tow company across the United States because every tow company that has an auction that seizes a car is supposed to run these vehicles through the SCRA database.

Nobody does because it's virtually impossible.

You have to have a birth date or you have to have a social security number.

Those are things that we typically do not have.

So we're working with the Department of Justice to try to figure out how do we bridge that gap nationally?

And they're actually using a lot of our processes that we've implemented to then distribute those out to other folks that they are working with.

So it's a it's an important partnership for us and one we're proud of.

Okay, thank you.

And a question that I have we pay for the software currently, right?

Will this be included with the service so we won't have to pay for the software and your service, or will that be encompassed in the two million 2.4 million?

Correct.

We will actually it will still be your contract as it's active, but we will pay for this the software in that regard.

You guys will no longer have to pay for that.

How much is the contract?

Do you have that number?

I can do it by way of referral of the software contract.

Um I don't know the yearly amount, but it's a little over $15,000 a month.

Oh, yeah.

Okay, um, thank you.

I appreciate that.

Um, like I said, I'll defer to the chair.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um, are you a union shop in any of these other cities by chance?

Are your employees unionized?

Uh, in one other particular city, the Teamsters are in San Francisco.

We've been working with them since 2004, and we have a very very good relationship with them.

Alright, thank you so much.

Councilman Hobbes, your recommendation.

I'm asked for force read.

Um, I want to um, if you could, um, officer, um, if we could get over the last three years, how much have we brought in with fees and auction on average?

And then, what would we know as far as um about the 2.4?

What is our net gain or loss once we have those numbers, please?

Yes, and then I've already talked to um I'm waiting to hear back from another union person just to make sure we have that because I've talked to the command officers, and I'm just waiting to hear back from TPPA on that, and so I can make sure that's clarified.

Yeah.

So we'll go first read, and um, then we'll come back and go from there, and whatever other questions our council members have that need to be answered.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

Thanks for being here.

Hope you enjoyed your time.

Thank you.

Item number 18, please.

Item number 18 authorizes the acceptance deposit appropriation and expenditure of 152,792.78 cents from the Department of Justice Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program.

The expenditure of an amount not to exceed $5,000 from the general fund.

The grant expenditure will include a year of forensic forensic digital extraction device software, and the remaining funds will be used to purchase radios.

Um, this ordinance authorizes the acceptance of bids and awards a one-year contract for the forensic digital extraction device software.

Uh authorizes to enter a contract with Motorola Solutions for the purchase of the radios, waiving competitive bidding requirements for the Motorola Solutions is the manufacturer and the state contract vendor for the radios.

The forensic digital extraction device software is vital for our digital forensic unit for processing evidence and assisting in solving cases faster.

The new radios will replace some of our obsolete radios.

We are requesting SEP to expedite the receipt and expenditure of this grant.

Thank you so much.

Can you tell us a little more about forensic digital extraction?

Yeah, please.

Okay, so that software.

Um I don't know how much I want to say on this, but you want me to take this by referral?

Because I can dig into it.

Uh Chair, the the software that we're referring to, it to kind of oversimplify it is is it allows us when we you know when we recover a cell phone from a crime scene from a homicide, whatever.

Um, it's this it's the software, it's the technology we use to uh be able to access the information on that phone that ultimately helps us solve the crime.

Gotcha.

Yeah okay appreciate that.

No, right?

Councilman Hobbes, your recommendation?

CP, please.

SEP.

Item number 19.

Item number 19 authorizes the acceptance and deposit of 331,951.92 cents in grant funds from the Ohio Peace Officers Training Commission for the first quarter of 2026.

Authorizes the appropriation and expenditure of these funds and the acceptance of bids and award and contracts for developing, delivering or attending training for officers.

These funds are reimbursement for the mandatory training officers are required to attend on a yearly basis by the Ohio Peace Officers Training Commission.

The reimbursement assists the city in covering costs for additional training for officers and must be kept separate from other funds.

Some of the trainings include firearms qualification, legal update, wellness, de-escalation, etc.

Um, we are requesting SEP to provide continuing professional training to officers.

Councilman Hobbes, your recommendation, please.

Thank you.

Thanks very much.

Have a nice day.

Items number 21 through 23 come to us from 20 through 2020 or 20 through 23.

Come to us from the Department of Housing and Community Development.

Previous or current current.

Do you want to go first?

Thank you, Chair.

I want to also remind my fellow council members we do have a committee meeting on the 14th to go over the CDBG results.

So all of the questions can also be answered at that time as well.

It's CDBG and ESG, all of it, all four.

All of it.

Cool.

Just check.

Thank you so much.

Director, welcome.

Good afternoon, members of council.

I'm Roz Clemens.

I'm the Chief of Housing and Neighborhood Sustainability.

I'm joined today by Monica Brown, who is my manager for uh community planning and development grants.

As councilwoman Jones have indicated, uh three of the ordinance today is to accept and approve our annual entitlement allocations for CDBG home and ESG.

On the 14th of this month, a special working meeting with council to go over those schedules.

However, item number uh 21.

We would like to do that with as an SEP item uh where we're disappropriating some ESG funds and reappropriating it to a winter crisis center.

And I'll start by having uh Ms.

Brown go over that ordinance.

Okay, we um can we uh do we want to keep that one separate or and do you want to make your recommendations for the other ones first or do we since she it was already noted that 21 would be SEP?

We can just go in order if that's fine just to keep it the others we'll just say are committee, I guess.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Just checking.

Thank you.

Then we'll focus in on 21, please.

Start with 20.

How do you want us to start number 20?

Uh I think the recommendation is gonna go committee for 20, 22, and 23.

So we'll there questions on 2022 from council members.

No, it'll be in committee.

Wonderful.

So yeah, we'll just focus on 21 for today.

Good afternoon, members of council.

The legislation that you have before you is authorizing the disappropriation of $7,550.18 cents from the previous emergency solutions grant year, authorizing the reappropriation and expenditure of that same amount $7, seven thousand five hundred and fifty dollars and eighteen cents from the unappropriated balance of the ESG operating fund and declaring an emergency.

The financial impact of this ordinance is the ability to use the prior year ESG funds to help support the winter crisis shelter for Toledo's communities.

Paul's Community Center has been operating the winter crisis program for over the last 16 years with the support of the Lucas County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board, United Way, the Lucas County Homelessness Board, and also with our department.

What they do is they keep people safe during the coldest months of the year.

St.

Paul's provides dinners, a hygiene kit, cot, blankets, breakfast for each guest.

They also allow them to have access to hot showers, donated clothing, socks, undergarments, laundry facilities, and charging stations.

Additionally, the um staff from St.

Paul's provide security and act as a source for community referrals.

And I can answer any questions at this time.

I'll just say I'm grateful to see that we're appropriating some more.

I know that it's quite an expensive uh endeavor for St.

Paul's or anybody that's providing this service.

Um, and this is just leading me into saying that I'm hearing that St.

Paul's may not offer the uh winter shelter next year, so I'm hopeful that we're thinking about what who might fill that gap if there is a gap uh for next year as well.

Um Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Chair.

Uh, thank you for doing this.

I I know last year was was a challenge with with funding, and um I'm impressed that we can we have the ability to continue to do this to care for most vulnerable during these really cold months.

Um and I I really just kind of wanted to compliment you on you know looking at charging stations that are mobile, right?

Because especially if you're trying to communicate with people and you don't have you know there's never a good spot to charge your phone or whatever you need to charge via children with you.

Um so thank you for thinking a little bit more modern and outside the box in terms of modern needs.

Um it's one thing just you know just for the bare basics, but it's others, you know, just those creature coverage that well, a lot of times we rely on uh for communication with family friends and stuff like that.

So I thought that was caught my eye on that.

So good job.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman McPherson.

Thank you.

I just want to say thank you.

Yes, I wish we had more to reappropriate to give to them.

Um kudos to Pastor Cunningham and his staff, Reggie Williams and what they're doing with the clothing closet, weekly, monthly.

Yes, St.

Paul and all of them are working together.

Yes, the church and the community center and all downtown near on Madison, it's just been great, and I just hope we can do something that St.

Paul Community Center will not close because it has been a lifeline to our unhoused community.

So, Dr.

Clemens, there's anything that you can waive a wand and work with them to make that happen, please.

Appreciate it.

Thank you for what you do.

Councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you.

Um I too am grateful.

Do you know how many days we had warming shelters last winter?

I know through the whole winter season.

I know that the winter crisis shelter is different, but do you have a gauge on how many days we did warming shelters?

I can get you dad through referral.

Okay.

Okay.

And are we?

I'm sure you are, but just for the record, are you you planning to make sure that we have enough for this upcoming winter?

I know we've got the summer, but the seasons go fairly quickly.

Well, we intend to start early this year.

I know last year we got some philanthropic donations, and we tend to start early this year, preparing for next winter.

Okay, thank you.

And then one thing that I just want to put on record that I'm hearing, and it this is probably for a sidebar discussion, but um a lot of our residents are talking about um people sleeping in their cars and I know in some cities they provide safe parking lots for the night.

I didn't know if that was something as a city we can explore the more that um Dr.

Jones and I are out and about the more we're hearing about um what our residents are facing and that seems to be there's no safe place to sleep the shelters are pretty much at capacity we're in our car anyways we've got dogs we've got kids is there a safe place and I know looking into it some cities have parking lots some use parking garages but if that's something that we could explore as a city I think that would be incredibly helpful thank you for all your work I know it's tireless.

Thank you thank you.

Wonderful councilwoman John's your recommendation for item 21 SCP.

Okay thanks very much thank you both we're done uh continuing on the agenda clerk okay and we have one item under the clerk reports a resolution declaring the intent to vacate Bismarck Street lying north of Swan Creek.

We received an application and the filing fee we have two resolutions in attendance the first is recognizing the 50th anniversary of WGTE FM 91.

Then we have a resolution celebrating 25 years of the crisis intervention team.

Under new items from city council uh there are three items um from the DIP program uh purchase and installation of speed feedback signage in district one purchase it and then the next is purchase and installation of lighted stop signs in district six then we have uh a third repealing ordinance for eighty three nineteen um assessing in grant with Toledo Warehouse district association for street furnishings and that completes the agenda wonderful that completes this meeting thanks all for your time and attention this meeting is adjourned.