Then a water service disconnect door tag is left.

Then um we encourage the customer to either make a payment or to sign up for um payment a pipe payment plan, then the service um if it's if they do not pay or sign up for a payment plan, the service is disconnected.

If they when they pay, the service is restored within 48 hours of payments.

So what is your estimate from the time they're notified that they are delinquent and the time if they do not respond to anything?

Four weeks, six weeks before the water is cut off.

Um from the point of final notice, um, it would be approximately commissioner, go ahead.

Okay, yeah.

From the time they get that notice on the door, it's approximately two weeks before it's cut off.

But prior to that, they're receiving plenty of notice through on their bill regularly that they're.

So how long is it before from the time they're mailed a bill that says they're delayed with and the time you put the first door hanger on or how much time is elapsed?

Do you think?

For like what makes this difficult is because these are accounts that are significantly delinquent, so they've been receiving notice on the bill.

Okay.

Um, but they've gotten several notices.

Several notices.

Okay.

Now, do we reach out to them?

Do we call them or anything like that, or or is it just strictly the notices through the mail and the door hangers?

So for the um hundred or so that we discussed during our hearing earlier this month, um, they will be receiving text messages as well as emails.

For sure.

Okay, thank you.

Uh council person jobs.

Thank you.

And thank you for your report.

Um, and maybe this is to jog my memory, but um when we uh since you're taking a phased approach at this, what priority are are we looking at first?

Is it like the amount due?

So the highest are gonna be turned off first.

Is it are we going via neighborhood?

Are we going the longest not paid?

Like what is our what is our first priority?

So the first group will be prior to the moratorium.

There was about 300 customers that were already shut off.

They were already turned off, they didn't have water.

So our first group will be the there's about a hundred remaining of those, um, so that will be the first group, and that is the group that we've already um began to try to reach out to in addition to the shutoff notices that they've received, texting and emailing them, letting them know that we are doing shutoffs, and they can make a a payment arrangement, or you know, they should be contacting us.

I appreciate that.

Um I have another question.

Since this uh as we get deeper and deeper into uh the numbers expand, right?

So we're gonna have a little bit a hundred at first, but eventually uh there's gonna be a lot.

Are are there any plans for uh anticipated anticipated events in neighborhoods where there'll be a lot of shutoffs, like um library meetings, because I think what what I I'm anticipating is we're gonna get to the band of of the widest amount of people.

Maybe that's a for example a thousand, and they're all gonna go and flood, engage, they're gonna flood two and one, they're gonna maybe call the senior center if they've got a home like there's gonna be this flood.

Have you thought about how to preemptively have events or have places that they can then go that has the information if they waited for the last second or whatever helped them back, like has there been any thought of that?

Yeah, so we have a number of activities and locations that we will be doing outreach.

Um one, for example, is last Thursday, there was the um large senior event.

Um we did have someone attend and answer questions and provide information.

Um yesterday, um, council passed um additional assistance.

So with that, we will be doing um additional outreach and making sure that we get that information.

Um as I mentioned, we're gonna have enhanced communication, which includes texting and email, and we are gonna continue to do additional outreach um to try to to make sure that we're reaching everyone.

So that includes libraries, um, and any type of event um that we've traditionally attended.

Okay, we'll try to get that information out.

I think that's wonderful.

Is there any way um you could get a list of the planned attended events or plan to be attended events to council?

So if I get calls or I can let people know, hey, they're they're gonna be here if you need anything.

Yes, okay.

I really appreciate that.

Thank you for all your hard work.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilperson.

Um Director, I just want to clarify.

So when I look at the chart at the bottom half of the page, uh right now we uh fifty-two million three hundred and forty-nine thousand dollars is owed by residential customers.

That am I reading that right?

Yes.

Okay.

Alright, and then in the um uh commercial uh accounts, industrial it would be six.

Commercial is, yep.

So, and then the industrial customers is that that number down at the bottom, that's the two million.

Okay.

So it's like a little seven million.

Is that our questions from members?

Um, director, commissioner, anything else.

No, okay.

Thank you very much for this update, and uh we'll notify you when the next when our next finance meeting is.

Okay, thank you.

I appreciate the monthly update.

Thank you.

Okay, next on the agenda uh will be the finance department.

So director uh Campbell.

But uh before DPU leaves, is there are is there any members of the public that have questions or comments for the Department of Public Utilities?

Okay, thank you.

Okay, good afternoon, Director.

Thank you.

Uh good afternoon, Chairman Surantu, uh members of the committee.

Uh Melanie Campbell here today with uh the team from finance, uh Commissioner Zavisha from taxation, Commissioner Buckley from accounts, and our wage and hour compliance commissioner Dan Morris is in the audience.

Um we are here to present um April uh financial reports to the committee, starting with the overall uh monthly packet of revenues and expenditures.

And to get us started, I will turn it over to Commissioner Zavisha for an update on income tax collections.

Good afternoon.

I'll start on page two of the report.

Uh withholding for the month of April was up just over sixty thousand dollars.

However, for the year with the withholding category is still in the negative range, it's down approximately a half a million dollars or one percent.

Um we broke down the withholding category more into we look at the top seventy-five companies.

Um they represent about fifty-four, fifty-five percent of total withholding collections.

To be in this category, you have to be a company that's being enough to the utility of at least a quarter of a million dollars a year.

Um the top 75 group is actually up for the year about 117,000.

Instead, it's the companies that are outside the top 75 that have the bigger hit.

Um that group is down six hundred and seventeen thousand.

As we dove into the top 75 a bit more, we do have three of our top ten employers in town that are showing negative so far this year, so we are going to continue to watch the three of them more closely.

Um the rest of the other, in this case, seventy-two companies are doing positive numbers overall.

Um, so again, we're gonna watch those three companies.

Um if you remember last year we sort of had the same.

Holding definitely started slow.

We were negative for quite a while and it picked up during the summer.

So we're just gonna have to watch this category closely to see if this is a repeat of last year, or again with the economy getting tighter, um, is that gonna reflect more in this category?

As we move down to the two net profit categories, business and individual, um, they're both up for the month of April.

Uh business was up a half a million dollars or nine point eight percent.

Um that brings it for the year up to four hundred and fifty-four thousand.

Individual was up four hundred and forty thousand, which brings that to a positive number of four oh four thousand um up so far this year.

However, I'd be cautious in both of these categories.

Um as we've expanded our electronic payments program, as we've been uh continue to grow our lockbox program with Fit Third, it's getting the payments into the system faster.

So a little of this we're gonna have to watch is how much is the April numbers just simply the payments are in quicker um than they had been in previous years.

Um in addition, for business not profits, um, we get a lot of those bigger payments through the opt-in program with the state, and again, like we talked about in the past, that is a delayed process.

For example, it's the February collections that are reported in the April numbers.

So when you're getting into more March and more importantly, April, um, where the first quarter estimate would be made for these bigger um employers, um, those numbers will actually come in the May and June numbers.

So again, we'll watch in May not only for the opt-in stuff, but we're also watching May to just see how much is simply came in sooner.

Um overall we are up three hundred sixty thousand dollars so far this year, four point six percent.

Um again on that one where when we're comparing it to the budget number, we're behind on the budget number at this point, but again, this is a positive number on a year to year basis, so we're gonna have to continue to monitor this.

Um, like councilwoman Gaddis had mentioned a couple months ago.

What are things that I'm watching?

Okay, now we've got the April numbers in, we're starting to change a little bit to the opt-in.

We're having to watch this a little closer on how this compares to our budget number, and then we would take appropriate steps if necessary over the next couple of question uh as far as the April 15th deadline.

Uh what percent of those payments that were brought in by April fifteenth have been processed?

Um, if it's for stuff that's in the office, we're we're currently up to date on everything.

So, the April stuff would be in probably on the withholding category a thing to watch is the quarterly payment is actually due April thirtieth, and it just has to be postmarked April thirtieth, or whether they made an electronic payment exactly on April thirtieth, those numbers would actually record into the May numbers and then um in that case, but uh first quarter estimates would have been minus the opt-in payments from the state would already be included.

Okay, so that's good.

I mean we've got that the the April fifteenth deadline, and those are good process.

So that's good.

And then could you uh briefly uh explain to us again the uh new program with the Attorney General of Ohio and how that is going?

Sure.

So um we're we kicked off right at the end of 2025.

Um we're working with the Ohio Attorney General.

Um so what we're doing with our we're still taking cases to court, but on certain cases that we were either considered too low to go to court, um, or if they were not garnishable, um, we're starting to move those to the Ohio Attorney General.

So what happens if we'll say for example you owe a thousand dollars to the city of Toledo, um, that case would go to the Ohio Attorney General, they would go after you for eleven hundred dollars because they had a ten percent fee on top of right amount due.

So that in the end, Toledo would be the whole the full one thousand dollars, they would collect their hundred dollar fee, um, and then that um so far on some of that stuff, like it would avoid the whole court system to begin with um, with those cases, those can just go directly to them.

Um, so far this year we've collected I would say approximately four hundred and fifty thousand dollars already um using the Ohio attorney general.

Um and we will continue to send more things to them as the year goes on.

We've updated all of our letters and stuff like that to give us the proper notification to individuals who do not pay that um that that money would be going to them to help us with collecting.

So, in terms of the procedure with the attorney General's office, we get a hundred percent of the tax owed.

What if we check on penalties and interest?

Do we have that again whatever whatever an individual would see on their bill if they owe like I said they owe the city of the $1,000 and that's seven hundred dollars tax three hundred dollars penalty and interest that full amount goes there and then like I said they look at the on that and then use their things um especially when it comes to something like a state refund or a federal refunds I mean it's just things we don't have access to that we would assist us with on that and then again um that eight cent without having to work with the very basics.

And then one last question is this program with the attorney general's office is it unique to Toledo or many cities are no many cities in Ohio do it um beyond something like that we just we're able to finally get all the clearance to be able to get it done.

Okay and um very successful okay great.

Then you want to update us on on uh stacks.

Yes so um for on on the stacks unit they're uh down approximately a hundred and sixty thousand dollars so far.

Um as I mentioned before one of the things that comes into play is there had to be the proper wording on letters that a person's receiving proper notification.

So unfortunately late last year and early this year what we're doing with that is we have to resend a lot of stuff um just to make sure the wording's on there make sure they're receiving their sixty day notice so um their assessments um and new letters sent are down because you can't you know obviously if you're just repeating something that doesn't count as a contact each other assessment so they're working their way through that all of their letters coming forward now have that proper uh information on it and are flowing just like the individuals have actually filed their returns in our office because of those um those we've had the wording on since last year the compliance one we had to work out a few things with the IRS first to make sure that we were covered on that delayed that a little bit but they're getting that um just probably the only other thing would be on page three just refunds so far this year we're just over a quarter of a million that's pretty comparable to where we were last year.

Um overall last year we ended up at just under six million um budgeted for six million again this year and so far seems to be heading you know like in that direction there was at the individuals and stuff more this first half of the year and then um refunds on the net process for uh third quarter.

And from what I've observed I think more companies are uh having the employees come back to the office location.

Yes I would definitely say the remoting seems to be down compared to prior years um but again we're still seeing that like you still have it where there are certain individuals who might be there on working fifteen days from home or thirty days from home where like that those were type events that were happening even pre-COVID type idea.

So there's always promoting that way.

I think some of the employers are a little better on their withholding now definitely the first few years of the lot of fee whether it was on that stuff.

Okay.

Great.

Okay.

Uh Commissioner Mori, uh just a quick update on wage and hour theft and how things are going.

I know you and your department are working very hard on this issue.

Uh yes thank you.

Uh councilmen council members um we onboarded our third person uh about two weeks ago uh April Weber has joined the team uh she was uh previously in tax are um and uh it's come up to speed very quickly um helps that she's familiar with the system um so we're we're rolling along pretty well we're seeing the uptick normal uptick in construction um s seeing we're definitely seeing some results of our efforts where uh your normal players are now requiring contractors to have that certificate of compliance before they start um we're still finding one-offs here and there uh so we're just continuing our efforts, and uh, I can have a total for you next month.

If you okay if you like.

Sure.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Okay.

Uh next director.

Thank you.

Uh moving in to page four.

Um you'll see an overview of the general fund revenues here through April.

Um 33% of the year complete, and collections are at 27% of the budget estimate.

By comparison, overall at the same point last year, collections were at 28.5, so still in that same ballpark.

Um as you look through the report, you'll see um our property tax collections at 50%.

Um so half of the budget, those come in semi-annually, where we would expect to be license and permits, we're at about 35%.

Um, at 37 this point last year.

Um, again, uh expect where we would expect to be at this point.

Um in the intergovernmental category, um, we do have areas here that come in quarterly.

Uh, for example, the JEDs and the casino revenue, local government funds, we're right at about that 33%, so where we would expect to be at this point in the year.

Um, in the charges for services category, um, you will see with the EMS and BLS transport fees.

Um, we do get one payment that comes in from the county.

Um during the year, that was 4.6 million.

That was received in April, so that's a one-time payment.

That's why we're at 55% in that category.

Um, investment earnings is only at 10%.

Um, this is similar to what we saw last year.

Um, we see more of those uh revenues posted in the latter half of the year in the other revenue category at 77%.

Um we do have uh payments that come in for school resource officers, but we also have some settlement proceeds related to a PFAS settlement that the city was a party to um last year.

Um, and then lastly the other financing sources and uses the transfers from other categories come in from the TOLA and from ARPA at 30% of the budget for the year.

Be happy to take any questions if you have them.

Could director could you re-explain to us the cable franchise fees because those look awfully low in terms of what we've collected.

Yes, so the cable franchise fees are also a quarterly uh payment that comes in.

Um so we haven't received except one small payment the bulk of those payments uh for the first quarter.

Um, I would expect that we would see those with next month's May report.

Um I think it is worth noting though that you know, year over year we've seen an overall decline in those franchise fees.

I think as you know, less people maybe are subscribing to cable.

So are there several companies that are paying those fees or just one?

Um, there's a couple different ones that come in, maybe three or four different ones.

Okay.

Right.

Okay.

All right.

Anything else on that page?

Um I'll move into the next couple pages of expenditures for the general fund.

Um, on page five, you'll see the overall uh summary by expenditure category, um, just slightly ahead of the year-to-date budget at 33.7% here through April.

Um, you will see in the labor category, we're at 34%, 34.5% of the budget.

Um we do have some contractual payments that happen um in the first part of the year that affect those labor categories.

Um, so we'll expect to see that um variance decrease as we go through the year.

Um we're continuing to watch the overall overtime expenditures.

Um fire overtime, you know, we we have seen that month over-month decrease, even though they're ahead of budget on a year-to-date basis.

Um, I think the class that graduated in February would help their recall overtime.

So as we move through these next couple months, that's when we'll want to uh watch the all other departments in that overtime category being ahead of budget on a year-to-date basis is driven by some of the demo program overtime that they're completing uh demos this year.

Um and those we would expect to be reimbursed through the ARPA uh process.

Other labor expenses is another one that uh early in the year you will see us uh be ahead of budget.

We're at 69%, and those are contractual items, bulk of which happen early in the year.

On the supply and service category, um, you know, with council approving the full budget at the end of March, um, I think as we hit April, departments were entering purchase orders and contracts for the year.

So on the supply side, we do have um contracts set up for purchases of medical supplies for um the EMS program for clothing for equipment on the service side.

You could see things like mowing um being set up for the year.

So on a year-to-date basis, um, looks like it's ahead of budget, but we'll see that uh variance decrease as we go throughout the year.

So you have uh a uh update in terms of just our medical expenses.

I know that last year we saw a real increase in our prescription costs.

Um we did we did see an increase uh significant increase from 24 to 25 as we're looking here through um April, we're just under budget a little bit on employment tax and medical.

Um I'd have to dig into some of the details just to see what that year over year increase is looking like um so far here through April.

I would uh appreciate I would appreciate if you can keep an eye on our medical costs and advise us every month in terms of where that's going, if it's going up or if it's staying steady or if it's going down, but I know the pr the prescription costs has really been a huge indicator uh contributor uh to those costs.

Okay, questions from council?

Okay, next, um just on page six, just a couple items to know as you look at the breakdown by cost center, um, a few areas where um it's trending ahead of budget again is I think just related to um department setting up contracts uh for spending through the year.

So in HR, um they have an annual EAP contract as well as um pre-employment dollars that are encumbered for um physicals um on the ERP uh team, kind of towards the middle of the page, um that would include all the contracts that are used for hosting payments during the year for the system as well as um support services, um, and then lastly um urban beautification.

I mentioned mowing, so we would see the encumbrances for mowing there.

Be happy to take any questions out if you have them.

Okay, any uh any questions for members?

If not, let's proceed.

Uh the last two pages are the all funds revenues and expenditures.

I'd be happy to take any questions there before moving to CIP and ARPA.

So there's nothing that's sticking out as unusual in terms of expenditures, pretty pretty normal at this point.

Okay, all right, uh, council vice chair Driscoll.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I submitted a referral a couple of weeks ago.

I the status of all of our TIFF funds, um just kind of the balance on each of those, um, any idea when we'll have that answered, and then I also would like to include uh any money from the downtown parking.

Um the TIP one was just completed this week, so I expect it would be in your packet at the end of the week.

Um and then the downtown parking we can check on as well.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Okay, anything else?

Um, and in terms of the uh audit for year twenty twenty-five, I assume that's proceeding commissioner.

Um, so chairman.

Um we're just right now finalizing our basic financial statements that's due to go to the auditor state's office.

Um we file that on Monday.

That's income by one, I think we're filings on Monday because then the auditors will be showing up second weekend in uh June to do the okay, do their work.

So great, right on schedule.

Okay, great.

Uh Vice Chair Driskal.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

With regards to the HUD 108 loans, um, how many of those loans are not being paid back by us?

Is it is it just the loan on the hotel in South Toledo?

Is that the only one?

The Delta Hotel one, and then they're they're finalizing right now one for Swain Fields for the work that's been done at that plaza over there, but that one hasn't been finalized yet.

Those will be the two that will be paid back by outside parties.

And it is the account with the hotel current, are they making payments?

I can confirm, but I believe so, yes.

Okay, thank you.

Excellent.

Okay, anything else?

Um we also prepared the CIP and ARPA report and be happy to take any questions on that.

If you have, yeah.

Could you just uh uh a very brief summary of ARPA in terms of the funding uh where we're at?

I see a figure of twelve million uh, yeah, so uh about ninety-three percent of the overall um approved ARPA dollars have been expended um we continue to work with all of our departments on making sure that anything remaining is expended fully by the end of this year.

Are you seeing a trend or uh where some of the um recipients are saying that they do not expect to spend all the money.

Um no I know we've been working through probably the healthy food incentive program um those dollars especially on the um food systems hub piece of it um but that's really the only one um that you know has some continued conversation about how that that program will ultimately work.

That's at about 29%.

Yes.

Okay.

So uh keep us posted on that because uh my understanding is that if an organization hasn't spent all that money, the feds require us to put that money toward a s very similar type program.

We can't use it you know you can't take food money and put it in parks.

Yes if there was if there was an obligation and uh and a vendor couldn't complete that you would need to use it for something similar to the ID vice chair for a school.

Thank you Mr.

Chairman um couple things on the ARPA report this medical debt forgiveness program is stubbornly remaining at this uh six hundred and seventy seven thousand dollar amount um who would who in the states responsible for that relationship with that organization.

Um between finance and law uh we communicate with RIP medical and um any indication from them when they'll use up the remaining balance they had been working towards having a final portfolio of debt sold here I think in the first quarter so I have to get an update on how that's playing out that now that we're in April okay it seems we're making some progress on Metro Parks more than we had before um which is good the healthy food is the other one to really suppose keep our keep an eye on um I do think I I hate to be the dead horse here but Mr.

Chairman I think it's maybe in either June or July and important to bring back some of these kind of red flag issues here to make sure they're spending their money and I don't need a dog and pony show about the merits of the program.

I just want to know from each of these organizations when are they going to spend this money because I don't want to send it back.

So um I don't know Director Campbell if you have any comments on that or if we could put together you know if we can I don't know if June is too soon but it seems necessary to me to bring those and probably another time too before the end of the year.

No I I would agree either June or even July would work as well.

Um like I said we've been meeting and kind of outlining with some departments about when do you expect things to have an invoice or when would it contract be signed so we've been working through that um so either time would I think work for us.

Okay thank you.

Yeah I I agree with the vice chair uh you know what we don't want to do is on December 10th find out that we need to make some changes uh close to the end of the year when we're really um we have a serious deadline so I think having June July reports would be very helpful okay um all right right any other questions anything else from the Department of Finance no thank you okay are there any uh anyone in the audience care to address the Department of Finance uh please come forward state your name uh for the record.

Our testimony is limited to to three minutes.

My name's John Bibbish uh 2152 Grantwood and I'm here to address finance because on April 16th I attended a public safety committee hearing where I made a request that they submit a referral to the administration for the project plan for the opening of the police station at Slovenia and Jackman was a five hundred thousand dollar project.

I looked at the website today and I saw that there were absolute there were no referral responses addressing that.

So I want to take this opportunity again to implore f finance, because after all, ultimately it's money.

Uh if they could collaboratively with safety or in some other fashion, get that referral to the administration.

Two months have already passed since the budget was passed.

I think it'd be fortuitous to something would occur this summer in order to implement that project, considering its benefit to four districts in the for council districts in the city of Toledo and I appeal to the finance committee for its help on this subject.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Bibbish.

And for the record, yesterday at the council meeting I did make a a formal referral regarding the plans uh for that uh police substation at uh Sylvania Jackman and uh Trematesville so uh hopefully we'll have some specific data in terms of what they're gonna do and the cost factors.

Vice Chair just Vice Chair Driscoll.

Mr.

Chairman, I I believe the next uh public safety committee hearing is going to address this topic on June 4th.

So the next public safety meeting will be June 4th at 5 p.m.

here in council chambers, and the committee has announced they will address that issue.

Okay, thank you.

Alright.

Um anything else?

No, thank you.

Well thank you.

Uh next we'll have the city auditor John uh Ravalsky's report.

After the report, good afternoon, Mr.

Auditor.

Good afternoon, John Ravalsky, City Auditor.

Uh this month I have a quick update for you.

Um, continuing with the grass cutting audit and expect to do observations next month.

And that's all I have for today.

Thank you.

Any questions for the auditor?

Uh council person Gaddis.

Thank you.

And thank you for working on that.

Do you have a proposed timeline for the um completion of the audit?

I'm still targeting uh end of next month.

It's possible that it could trickle into um July as well, though.

But that's that's uh expectation.

Alright, I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Great.

Thank you, uh Council.

All right.

And as far as um the audits that are completed, we find w where do we find those?

Um for council members.

Sure.

So I've um sent out all audits that have been completed so far, and I do retain them locally.

Uh we do have a share drive that they'll also be made available.

Great.

Okay.

Thank you very much for confirming that.

Uh and with that our oh, I'm sorry, council person's.

Thank you, Terry.

Great idea.

Uh gr a great thought.

Do you we do you have a um social media page attached to council's page?

Auditor.

I do not know.

We don't have one for the us of the auditor.

But but you have your own page, like a landing page from you.

Um I'd have to look into it.

I don't think that there's anything on the city website for me or social media, but I have my own um internal files uh and our entrance and company uh city internet.

I think with a team of six Marcom and police, we should be able to get you a page up and running.

I I nerd out, I am a big fan of reading other cities' audits.

Uh, they're they're wildly inform informative, and I would love our citizens to be able to read all of the hard work you're putting in, and so maybe we can strategize a way to get you a uh landing page that would host all the hard work you're doing.

That would be great, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

So could you as a result of the council person's suggestion, would you check with Rachel Hart, Director of Communication, and see what what we can do to implement something like that.

I'll do that.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh last item on the agenda is uh a uh United Way two one one report.

If you can come forward, please.

Good afternoon.

We appreciate you being here today uh because to council, the 211 system is very important.

And we kind of wanted an update.

And so I'll turn it over to all of you.

If you could introduce yourselves for the benefit of the committee.

Absolutely.

Hello.

Good afternoon.

We love this opportunity.

We're so excited about the progress that we have made all together over the years.

When we brought 2-1 back, you all counsel was extremely helpful in that and actually, I think really moved the needle on how we could hold the highest regard for this instrument, how we work together, and to make it the best possible product for our clients, we can.

So I want to thank everyone here today, and they're excited to share this.

I want to introduce my colleagues.

First of all, I'm Wendy Pistree, the CEO of United Way of Greater Toledo.

And then this is Jill Bungie.

She is a wonderful, wonderful leader of this work.

She has been doing it since day one with our organization, saw us through the pandemic.

And then I think a few of you might know Erin Tupper.

She joined the organization.

So sorry, but we're really glad that she came to us and has brought the expertise and so many things she learned here to us.

And she gets those monthly reports to you all.

And today, I think as we explore what we've been doing, we're looking forward to what we can do next in the way of sharing information with you all and supporting the great work you do for the citizens of Toledo.

Wonderful.

Great.

We're welcome to everybody.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

So appreciate it.

Get a little closer to the bike.

Sorry, my multiple pieces of technology here.

So thank you so much as to echo Wendy.

We're so appreciative of your continuous support, your investment in 211.

This of course dates back to 2023 when one of our staffers was working closely with Councilman Comives to secure a $100,000 annual allocation to support our work.

As part of the legislation, we did commit, of course, to communicating with you all regularly to provide this really critical information about your constituents and show a lot of those metrics in these monthly reports about your um based on district.

So we've continued that data collection and wanted to share with you today some an overview of how our program has advanced over the past three years and how we have really stewarded those dollars and leveraged those funds that you invest in.

So to talk first about the budget, with 211, our our total program budget for United Way 211 for the upcoming 26-27 fiscal year is $913,000.

That's up from $764,000 in fiscal year 25-26 and $751,000 in fiscal year 24-25.

This not only supports the work of that core infrastructure of 211, but also coordinated access, which we'll talk about in a moment here.

So we're halfway through the third and final year of this three-year commitment from the ARP funding that has been allocated to us that has supported our operations since 2024.

We also receive funding and apply for annually the emergency services grant to specifically support our work through community uh coordinated access.

This is a HUD mandated program that's administered by 211 and monitored by the Toledo Lucas County Homelessness Board.

Our award for the upcoming fiscal year is 47,290, specifically dedicated to that program.

We are responsible for obtaining additional revenue to support the 211 program, which we leverage through fundraising, corporate sponsorships, grants, and other contractual agreements.

I wanted to give you a little introduction to Alice.

Across our area, 39% of households struggle to make ends meet.

These folks are referred to as Alice, asset limited income constraint employed.

That means that they're above the federal poverty level, but they still don't make enough to make uh to cover their basic needs.

They're uh they've fall short of being able to cover their basic needs.

Many workers who keep our lives running, like cashiers, cleaners, health aids, uh child care providers make Alice or make Toledo a better place to work.

Um at United Way, we're leading the way to support Alice families so they can cover monthly bills and have a cushion to uh when setbacks arrive.

Sure.

Wonderful.

So now we'll talk about how we've leveraged this investment.

Uh we've done a number of things coming out of the pandemic and into our recovery.

Over the past three years.

This investment has allowed us to of course maintain the essential services that we provide through the two one-one infrastructure.

It's also allowed us to continue uh responding to emergency needs and disaster, uh, to expand that reporting and call data analysis to monitor trends in lifetime, to increase our programming in response to that need and and where we're seeing those gaps, and then also to take on special projects in support of different community partnerships.

So go ahead, please.

Um, so I think that we are all familiar, and you are all have some familiarity with the backbone uh core services of 211.

We connect people to Health and Human Services 247 365.

Uh we're also part of a national network of 211 programs across the country that uh allow people uh access to basic needs.

Okay.

Could I ask a question regarding L's?

Um, are those uh people that are on that are considered ALS, are they on any kind of public assistance like SNAP or anything like that?

Most times, so the federal poverty level goes up is 100%.

Um the those assistants usually cut off at 150 or 175.

These this goes up to way.

Uh I could show you what I can we can send another slide to give you a a better estimation of how that goes, but there usually is a major disparity between um pe what people get when they get assistance and how how much they actually need to make to be able to cover their their um daily expenses.

Okay, so they are getting some sometimes a lot of people aren't there.

It's called the benefits, but if you make a certain amount and you can't you don't get assistance anymore, and a lot of those ALS families fall into that place where they make too much, but they still can't cover their their okay.

So I I assume they're referred to like uh food shelters and and other places where they can get some assistance.

Yeah, usually pantries have lower stipulations on who they're able to see.

Could you repeat that and make sure that we have a sorry Alice reporting that has been done annually and it is broken down by county, it's for the state of Ohio, broken down by county, and it gives you a lot of detail on certain populations, including seniors and veterans.

It shows budgeting for an area and demonstrates exactly where these folks live, and it does give you some idea of which percentage of these folks are receiving benefits, who are not, and obviously that is sliding around quite a bit in lieu of the changes and benefits, and that's something we've been very sensitive to at our organization, especially when it comes to SNAP.

That report will be out June 10th, so we'll send it as soon as we get it.

Okay, that would be great.

And you know, I think it would be if there's a way to show us what where um the recipients are that are you know that have called in, what areas of Toledo area, Lucas County.

Is it by county that you keep track of?

Okay, that would be helpful for council members as well.

So Alice's county um 211 data is by zip code and it's council district.

Okay, that would be great.

Yeah, thank you.

Proceed.

Of course.

Uh so another essential component of our programming that's deeply embedded in 211 is coordinated access, which is available in Lucas County.

It's our connection point for folks who are experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity to get access to services.

So through that program, we do diversion, we coordinate with all the shelters to provide intake and resource wayfinding for housing vulnerable residents, all in a centralized location.

We average over 6,000 calls annually that are referred to coordinated access, and then we also work in coordination with the Continuum of Care, Toledo Lucas County Homelessness Board, really to contribute to an improved client experience, but also to make sure that we're um improving system performance to make sure that HUD dollars are coming into our community to support the system as a whole.

Um we also work to leverage other resources in this space.

So earlier this year we identified that there were there was a bottleneck in the system for individuals who were unable to exit shelter due to rental arreages.

So they weren't able to go into their new home because of these past due bills.

We were able to re leverage a private source of funding to identify 53 households and pay out over sixty-three thousand dollars of rental or rearages to move them out of shelter and into to permanent housing.

Um so you know, I d identifying spaces where we are, but through that 211, we have a deeper depth of knowledge to really understand where those um challenges arise.

The number of 211 calls that you get on an annual basis is approximately how much?

Around 80, 85,000 calls on an annual basis.

80 to 80 uh to 85,000 calls a year.

That's a lot of calls.

With a peak of 104 in 2021.

Yeah, obviously.

And let me this just occurred to me.

When you have calls to 211 regarding people that are homeless and you direct them, you know, to shelters as best you can.

Is transportation an issue for them typically?

And how do they get there?

For sure is that's an excellent segue to my next section.

Um, yeah, so we actually have a partnership um with Lyft called Ride United Transportation Access.

So we this year, particularly for the Code Blue Warming Centers, we were utilizing that service.

We also offer rides to anyone who is going to a shelter intake, so we're able to utilize that program if it's prohibitive for them to get there.

Okay, great.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Um so uh for instance, the the past two years we have partnered um with homelessness board with City of Toledo to operate Code Blue.

Um this is uh just occurs in the winter during extreme cold.

Um we all know about the tragic loss that we experienced this past December when uh a gentleman froze to death outside who was unhoused.

So that was a very immediate activation.

Um 211 was really pivotal in providing that operational support at the warming centers.

We were connecting callers to the centers, and then we also provided that transportation to get there.

Uh 358 rides, we were open for 52 nights and nine days this year in comparison to six days overall year prior.

So it was a very cold long winter, and we were making sure folks had access to food.

It was really a community effort to come together, food, restroom access, safe place to stay overnight, making sure that they were able to get there safely.

Okay.

Um another victory out of that that that we're really excited about is that we were able to really deepen our connectivity in relationship to first responders and to legal police department.

So over the past year and a half, um, we have really been working hand in hand with them to make sure that they have the tools to uh, you know, they're often encountering folks on a first hand basis, they need tools to be able to tangibly give someone a pathway to help when they're in a situation that maybe they're unable to intervene or police, you know, transportation is unable to be provided.

Um so in January and February of this year, two on one made presentations at all the TPD roll calls before the presentations.

Um we had four we had four outreach attempts from um officers who we had connected with in the six weeks after those presentations, we had 28 contacts with TPD officers, so um has really improved um the communication between them.

As of this first quarter, we're also now a regular part of the um crisis intervention training.

So 211's being incorporated into those officer uh specialized officer training.

Um, and then we've also been working with their response teams on encampments, deploying two one-one community resource advisors out to emergent situations like executive towers, hotel Lorraine, um, the mobile home court, so we're really trying to be responsive and really have enjoyed the working relationship that's developing here.

Okay, another way we bring two one-one to the community is through two one-one to you every Tuesday um at the main branch library.

There's the community resource advisor that is actually in person, reaching out and meeting with people from 10 a.m.

to two p.m.

During 2025, we had over 48 outreach events.

Um one of the things that we noticed was after the same cafe closed that there was a need for food because a lot of the unhoused hang out at the library during the day and they they need they need shelter, but they also need a meal.

So one of the um, so through the United for the Holidays program last year, we were able to designate money to put towards bi-weekly lunches.

Some of our CRAs have also filled in the gap.

This was not a formal expansion but a reaction in real time to the needs in the community.

Sure.

You know, I uh I've attended a few of the National League of Cities conferences, and one of the things that I vividly remember is there's a number of police departments that actually have a social worker riding with them.

And they're able to you know get the person help.

Um and I know that money is tight but I I'm just wondering if that's something we can kind of think about in the future.

Because I think I think there is a real benefit to that because of the homeless population and also of the mental health needs of our community I'm sure we have a number of individuals that that obviously need to get help.

We have we have hoped over time that we could expand the program for things just like that.

And in the long run we've always wanted to as we brought this back we talked a lot about how do we get to a better place and understand how we even see a reduction in 911 call volume because folks know to call 211 you know what is that awareness and that synergies of working together to think really get us to that place so that it reduces the cost to the city and some of that more expensive role volume so right that's an excellent point I really appreciate that because it's true.

I mean it there it's a burden when everyone is calling 911 and there's an Albert 211 and they can they can get uh a faster response and and really get some concrete suggestions as to what to do.

Um so another thing that we want to bring up is the ext expanded reporting the legislation passed in 2023 required a yearly reporting by October 31st to fulfill that reporting we've actually been sending monthly reports usually it's monthly sometimes that's bi monthly I don't know who who's called that is um uh but we also include information about um uh expanded with expanded information including uh call volume broken down by uh by district and then we also include the um the wait list for uh yes coordinated access in addition two one one has presented to the neighborhoods department on two occasions once in twenty-four and once in twenty-five and for ESG United Way is monitored by the Toledo Lucas County homelessness board and participates in the required quarterly meetings for CDB slash ESG grant recipients.

This slide uh shows the average call volume uh for the city of Toledo which is regularly between three thousand and five thousand monthly calls that represents just over fifty percent of the two one one system call volume also this trend is the highest number of call shows the highest number of calls come from district for district three and district one.

If you want to look more into that we can resend some of those uh reports for you.

Great and I think we touched on this um so ride united is a partnership that we have uh that we've expanded an area of programming knowing that transportation is quite a barrier in the city um so in partnership with Lyft this moves people to places for health and human service needs like housing and shelter food um we get people down to get essential documents um to the courthouse whatever they need um we've started this program in 2023 over 3100 um rides uh unique people who have um utilized the service and then we also have a partnership with DoorDash um so this gets things to people so we partner with food pantries um with uh different social service agencies that help mothers and children um we've delivered holiday baskets so um we just expanded our partnership with the ability center to be able to deliver medical devices directly to homes uh uh over 3,500 deliveries um in the past two years that we've uh increased our our programming in this area.

Um and finally just wanted to talk about um one special project that we've had the capacity to take on as United Way um to fill in these gaps that that links to two one one.

Um we've been serving as the fiscal agent for the mayor's office of neighborhood safety and engagements healing and compassion fund and the youth leadership collective and we've been able to cross train a lot of those Monsi navigators with our 211 staff to provide victim support services.

So we're helping to kind of advise on the grant and make sure that we're maximizing those dollars that are invested by the city um after someone experiences a violent act.

We know that sometimes maybe they have a, you know, the the fund is intended to be flexible.

If they have a need for um medical services, we know that managed care plans are already providing those rides.

So we don't want to use, you know, we want to use the um resources that are available in community to really maximize those dollars.

So that's been a really excellent working relationship as well.

Okay.

Very good.

I can I ask also, what is the relationship with the Lucas County Mental Health Board uh and United Way in terms of 211 and so forth?

Yeah, we we are um in good working relationship with them.

We often cross paths um in in the housing realm.

Um so we s also sit on the continuum of care board, the home for everyone board through the Toledo Lucas County homelessness board.

Um and I would say some of our funding kind of overlaps in certain spaces too with agencies that we mutually fund through United Way.

Okay, great.

That's that's very good.

Anything else?

Sure.

No, please.

We're quick, we're almost out.

All right.

Um we are headed into the home stretch.

I we just wanted to let you know about the DC by expansion.

In April, the governor's office announced that the Department of Children and Youth will be using 211 across the state, and they'll be contracted uh contracting two on one to be the call centers for DCY.

Um that means that United Way of Greater Toledo is actually the two on one that's covering 16 counties in Northwest Ohio.

Uh 211 was chosen as a statewide partner because of the existing infrastructure as and as a trusted information and referral partner.

Limited funding has been provided through that contract, but we still have a ways to go to fill that um 913,000 budget.

Um and the last thing, one of the last things is uh we just wanted to highlight the partnership between two-one, nine one one, and nine eighty eight.

Nine one-one has been of the long-standing federally designated phone number for emergency services.

988 is for is the federally designated number for mental health and substance use crisis.

211 is the third leg of that stool that really supports people in time of need.

The three call centers work together and can support the others.

Every call that comes into 911 could really be followed up with more support by a two-one one CRA, um, hopefully reducing the reliance on the 911 system and stabilizing families in our community.

And so just so we wanted to make you aware of some resources we have that we would hope be helpful and supportive of your work.

We have monthly 211 updates that are sent to you all.

We also have bi-weekly advocacy newsletters we've started our, you know, uh generating.

What's been great about those, we've been impressed by how much they're forwarded throughout the community and shared, and so we find that very exciting is people really understand the situation, you know, that we're being faced within our state and with our federal government and and how you know resources shift, and so making folks aware and appreciating uh the issues of the day in a very nonpartisan, but you know, I think uh deeper understanding of that really helps citizens uh appreciate where the resources are, and then also we have these advocacy hours, they're hosted by Erica Krause and Jen Williams on behalf of United Way.

We've been working with them.

Now 211 is integral to how we weave this information together, how we look through the lines of advocacy and really want to support citizens.

We are looking at expansion.

Our board last week approved a budget that gives us the opportunity to explore even more relationships with 211 and how we can be supportive in community.

So we look forward to working with you all, the continued relationship, especially supporting our first responders so that their jobs are a little more simplified, or you know, they feel like they've got resources in hand too, and sometimes it seems so overwhelming.

So thank you so much for the time and for the relationship, and we look forward to what the future holds.

Well, we we appreciate this presentation because it you really it was a very comprehensive uh presentation in terms of all that's being done.

One of the um concerns I've had, and I know councilwoman Morris has had, is the uh increase in domestic violence.

And recently we had a public safety meeting, and uh the uh prosecutor for the municipal court uh uh as well as so the police we're here, and we are seeing an uh increase in prosecutions for that.

I'm just wondering, you know, uh from the perspective of 211 calls, are you getting to find more calls or about the same calls on domestic violence from people seeking help?

Yeah, I uh we have seen that as a trend throughout COVID that that has kind of ebbed and flowed and gone up and down.

Um we really see that most through coordinated access when someone would you know willingly kind of share that maybe their housing situation is unstable and we have specific resources for them and specific shelters that are you know help help to people to make a plan to get to a safe location.

Good 'cause I that's it's a critical issue.

Absolutely we have got to provide the assistance to people to have victims.

Yes.

So they understand that.

Is there anything else that you'd like to present?

Greatly appreciate your time and attention.

Appreciate that.

Is there anybody in the audience that would care to address this issue please come forward, state your name and you'll have three minutes.

Uh Richard Arnold, uh thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Uh across the hall our friends at the county commissioners last year they allocated a hundred and forty eight thousand seven hundred and fifty to run between um October the first and September the thirtieth of this year and it contains that phrase that I'm really becoming annoyed with no renewal option.

More than once actually um do you have a plan for when that money runs out have you found replacement funding or do you have a plan to absorb that hundred forty thousand sure.

Yeah so that's Title Twenty funding that we receive um from the county commissioners um that we you know we steward that relationship with the county commissioners.

It's uh very essential operational dollars to support that nine hundred and thirteen thousand dollars that we're allocating year over year.

Um we continue to fundraise and find other sources of funding um to make sure that that's piecemeal together.

Part of this expansion is really allowing us to um provide services to a wider county footprint which is also allows us to offset some of that contract revenue.

Um so you know m like many other nonprofit organizations we are we are patchwork quilting all of our funding sources together to make sure that we can deliver a strong service for the community.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And as you know as far as the it's encouraging that we have some assistance from the state but uh clearly it would be great if we can get more assistance for two on one statewide 'cause that it's such a valuable system.

I gotta believe that other cities and other communities, other counties uh could certainly uh use that help because it it just overwhelms the nine one one system uh if people are calling for things that they really don't have the answers but two on one would are there uh what has been how are you communicating that to the Ohio uh senators and state reps um are they aware of this do you think i i Aaron is part of a group but we do have a a statewide advocacy group and we do hold meetings uh annually with state senators and representatives and I think really over the years it's it's garnering more traction.

It you know it takes a minute for that to be kind of client because they don't think at the municipal level quite like you do, you know, and that sometimes that is a you know but we are getting there and we're gonna be hosting something I believe this fall uh we're locally even looking at the regional construct but definitely something where we it's like w you know the water dripping and finally it's starting to before I um United Way worldwide has also um submitted the help act to the uh to Congress.

Um that happened in April of this year.

So that's to help fund two on one on a federal level.

Um if this is the second time that this has been submitted it it it's a long game but we're working at all levels of government to try and make sure that there's funding because it's such an important infrastructure.

Well I'm sure I speak for all uh twelve council members if there's anything we can do to help in the advocating with expanded two on one system with our state legislators.

Please let us know.

We're happy to uh be there.

Well we'll ask you to tag along the next time we go.

Yeah.

I saw you the last time I was there that's why it brought it up.

Yeah.

You were hard at work and uh and I remember we talked about it.

And I just think it is important.

I'm I'm a great believer in contacting our state reps and state senators because uh, you know, they get busy and a lot of times they don't realize all of the things that we're going through locally.

And uh we just need to work together uh and present to them the facts of what's happening in our communities and what we can do to strengthen it.

Um because if we don't address the needs of people, it's just gonna get worse.

You know, it's it's I'm a reading mentor at Sherman School, and if we don't teach kids to read, many of those children will end up in prison and and no hope.

And from a financial point of view, as the chairman of the finance committee, I could tell you that that's a huge drain on any budget.

Um, look at our situation with the jail and and uh our criminal justice system.

So I I just think that it's very important for all of us to advocate and to really let them know that we we really do need assistance.

The state of Ohio has almost four billion dollars in reserves, and certainly a little bit of money for two one one would make a huge difference in our community.

So I'm gonna be sending the two one one report um in the next couple days.

Um I will make sure that I send a link to sign up for the newsletter and for the advocacy hours.

It's really good information, so I'll make sure that that's included in that email when I send it the next time, which is in the next day or two.

Well, thank you very much.

Any other questions, comments?

Thank you so much.

Appreciate your chance.

Thank you.

Seeing no other business, our committee hearing stands adjourned.