I call the order to the agenda review meeting of June 2nd, 2026.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Kramer, here.

Martinez.

McPherson.

Present.

Meldon.

Here.

Morris, here.

Some round two.

Here.

Williams.

Here.

Driscoll.

Here.

Gaddis.

Here.

Hobbs.

Jones.

Here.

Comeives.

Here.

11 present.

We will begin with the item from Toledo Municipal Court.

Yep.

Sorry.

Good afternoon, Chair.

Members of council.

My name is Alex Tuvalet.

I'm here with my colleague Elizabeth Lyons.

We're from the clerk's office in Toledo Municipal Court.

Here with an ordinance authorizing the clerk to enter into agreement with ScanWorks LLC for scanning and destruction of Toledo Municipal Court case files, authorizing the expenditure of 72,934,000 dollars from the general fund and declaring an emergency.

Last year in 2025, the court, the clerk's office processed 54,876 case files.

Each case is assigned an individual file folder, and all documents are filed in that case file associated with that case.

While we do we try to do a lot of in-house scanning, we do not we're not able to keep up.

Thank you.

I only have one and I might have missed it.

This contract is for how long?

It'll be done this year.

Okay.

So it's replacing and updating.

Is that what you're doing?

They scan in the image of the contents of the file and then they destroy it for us.

Oh, so that we just get rid of them and we don't have to keep them in the building.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Councilman Saranto.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

So just a clarification.

Are all the files scanned at this point except these or the remaining paper copies?

Toledo Municipal Court is still a paper file system.

We do scan individual documents as we get them, but because the judges still use a paper file, we have to keep that paper file for five years.

Then we have to scan in the entire case file because they write their notes that way, and then we can destroy it under the rules.

Okay.

So we're saving space.

We're saving space.

And we do try to do as much as we can in-house, but with limited staff, we can only do so much.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair.

Chair Hobbs, what is your recommendation?

SCP, please.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Items one through five are from the Department of Public Utilities.

So item number one, it's a little bit complicated, so uh pardon kind of a long explanation here.

There are three air blower systems at the water reclamation facility.

Um the engineering staff at water reclamation facility to already made arrangements contract out for refurbishment of two of the roots belowers.

So that that's part of it's it's an overall project being handled by the engineering staff and maintenance staff at Water Reclamation, um, but they'd already contracted for that part.

The third blower um unexpectedly failed recently, so we have now turned it into an overall project to completely refurbish all three air blower systems.

So the um roots air blower, we've already waived competitive bidding, and we will request to waive competitive bidding for roots to do the refurbishment work on the blower, and that will be through their local, um, their only authorized local vendor Tomlin equipment.

The second part, the motors, they're not planned yet for any of the motors, so all three motors will need to be refurbished.

The motors can go out and be competitively bid separate from the roots blowers' work.

And then the final part are the controls and the power drives.

This is heavy duty switch gear, uh high voltage, and it's has to fit inside the cabinet, the existing cabinet, it's already in to change the cabinets or to get somebody else to fit in that cabinet, it's gonna ask a lot of add a lot of cost and compliment complication to the project.

So the engineering staff has already been negotiating with Eaton on a price and uh do the work to go through and simply replace the soft starts and the controls through Eaton.

Um so we will need to waive competitive bidding with Eaton, and the there's a caveat to that Eaton will contract locally for any labor that they need.

So that portion will require a PLA.

So we would be requesting uh 1.6 million dollars to refurbish one roots, two routes, one roots blower, uh refurbish three motors and refurbish or replace the controls portion, probably just be replaced and replaced the soft starts for each unit.

Um, this was not planned like this.

Uh we do have the money have the funds available though after working with uh uh Mr.

Kazicki, our finance and uh DPU finance department.

Um I'll take any questions and uh request SEP.

Councilwoman McSpearson.

Yeah, only have one.

You said this was not planned, so is this something that ruptured blue?

The yeah, the um the entirety of the work wasn't planned, but the root the the as a project like this it wasn't planned for, but the fun the the roots blowers they had already started on.

Um, but yeah, they we had anticipated the third blower to last longer than it did.

Okay, and once we get this, the next is there a next phase of additional.

This set there was um the there are other blowers um that are part of the uh blower building, and those are part of the overall program.

So you'll be coming back for addition.

Um it's part of the uh these are these are part of the overall program, so they'll be rolled into one of the projects that's part of the facility plan.

Okay, thank you.

Councilwoman Morris, how what do you recommend?

SEP please.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, um water reclamation um is since the implementation of TWIM has an obligation to maintain uh the CSO facilities and to do so uh requires um two vector trucks.

They currently only have one vector truck, and then these factor trucks aren't quite the same specifications as other divisions in the city uh would require.

Um they have to be able to to um pull from deeper structures than the normal factor truck city would that other divisions would have.

Uh so the um division is like appropriation of funds to purchase a new vector truck.

Uh the funds will be split uh as it is uh TWI and Storm Sewer related.

The funds will be split between storm replacement fund and the sewer replacement fund.

Uh this uh the division has already stepped up a little bit.

Uh they're trying they're in the process of hiring a new HEO uh heavy equipment operator to operate the vector and assign a crew so that they can keep up with maintenance on the TWI facilities.

So with every storm, um a lot of grit builds up in the TWI facilities, and if this grid isn't removed, it can cause blockages that could cause an overflow then in the future.

So it's critical that they um do do this uh maintenance routine maintenance uh from storm to storm to prevent uh CSOs and protect our waterway, uh, SA SCP and I'll take any questions you have.

What's the timeline on the truck purchase like from the time we put that uh request in to when we receive it?

It's I I would have to take that by referral, but I it's it's at least six months by the time it's a regular the chassis and the and the factor portion have to be mated.

And we will try to um work with preferred you know fleets preferred vendors so that there's a little continuity on maintenance of the truck itself.

Okay, thank you.

Councilwoman Morris, what's your recommendation?

Just real quick.

Uh do we get these trucks locally?

Like the chassis at least, or no, it we do.

Yeah, the chassis we do.

Thank you, Mary.

Go ahead.

I want to make sure it's on the record.

Chassis normally come from Valley Freightliner.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Uh SCP, please.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

All right, uh the next one is roll off box purchase.

Uh the division of water reclamation.

Um as necessity, there's materials to build up uh screens and that have to be cleaned out uh at various points uh throughout the operation of the facility, and these roll-off boxes the the roll-up boxes have to be hauled to the Hoffman Road Landfill disposed material.

Uh the roll-off boxes have to be in relatively good condition compared to a typical roll-off box uh because the materials going into them can be wet, and it would be a violation of their MPDS permit to have water spilling out of those roll-off boxes while they're being hauled to the landfill.

Um the division um did a review of all their roll-off boxes and gave a condition assessment for each of the roll-off boxes.

Um, this will be this particular piece of legislation can only be used toward roll-off boxes that are part of TWI combined or um combined sewer overflow system operation uh as it's being funded by stormwater funds.

But this is um simply an ongoing replacement.

I anticipate uh being here at least once a year for the next several years while they catch up and um check off all the vacuum as they replace the poorest condition, work their way through to the best condition roll-off boxes.

Uh each roll-up box unfortunately has to be they're not really a custom design, but not all trucks are built the same, so we have to make sure that they can accommodate the um connections to work well with the trucks that we have.

Again, ask SCP.

I'll take any questions.

Councilmember Comyes.

Thank you so much.

Uh the majority of the material that we're hauling is natural material.

Is it uh please tell me they're not those freaking flushable wipes?

It is, no, um it uh it's more so grit, like each one of the um each one of CSO basins that's you know, when you get a heavy rain for the first time in a couple months, there is just a bunch of grit comes in.

So it's primarily for hauling grit.

Um, there are screen systems at at a few of them, and then the grit collection at the wet weather facility.

Okay.

So it's primarily grit.

Are you gonna come to us for money for the machine that catches all those flushable wipes?

So the the CSO systems, um they're in I believe those are tier one or tier two, they're within the facility plan.

So the we're gonna try and program as much of this as we can within the facility plan.

Cool.

You should ask Proctor and Gamble to pay for that for us or one of them.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Morris, what is your recommendation?

SAP.

Thank you.

Sorry.

Uh the next piece of legislation.

Uh is for equipment for machine shop at the water reclamation facility.

Um, water the facility went through um a really high steep curve on retirements, and they're getting caught up again.

Uh they've had have filled a lot of vacancies, and we actually have people that we are able enough.

People in the maintenance shop are now able to do in-house um maintenance, preventative maintenance, and some breakdown of maintenance, but the machines needed to do that work are not safe to use anymore.

So we are simply requesting basically replacement of equipment and in the machine maintenance shop at water reclamation that is no longer safe to use.

This includes a milling machine, chop saw, welder combo, pipe drive machine, lathe, and a machine lift.

We'll take any questions and we request SEP.

Councilwoman Morris, what do you what is your recommendation?

SEP.

Thank you.

All right, and the last one I have on the agenda today is actually for the division of water treatment.

Um the division of water treatment had a potassium permanganate feed facility constructed.

It went online just prior in like 2008 or 2009.

If you're not familiar with potassium permanganate, it's basically a salt, gets delivered as a salt, and it has to be handled as a salt, then it gets dissolved on site and uh fed out to the intake crib.

Um as material can be very uh abrasive on the equipment, uh, much of the equipment has worn significantly, is becoming uh a maintenance headache, uh frequent overtime calls, keep it operating, and the operation is vital to um continued reliable operation of the treatment plant itself.

Uh potassium permanganate is the first line offense against harmful algal blooms, um, and it also helps reduce um trihilomethanes and taste and odor issues of water.

Uh, this is a contract.

I believe we have to we do need to I can't find it.

Uh but it's about 300,000 dollars.

Work closely with Keras, the original equipment manufacturer to replace the equipment.

I apologize.

If PLA is required, they will certainly I think we uh shoot.

Oh, we can put this out for bid.

So all right.

Would ask SCP and I'll take any questions.

Councilman Maldon.

Thank you so much, Chair.

This will this is just swimming right along here, so I thought I might uh ask a quick curiosity.

Um under the leadership of Council President Williams, we've become enamored with the word of the day, and we were both commenting that permanganate would make a great word of the day.

I'm curious what you know about the word permanganate.

Um potassium permanganate, the manganate would come from Manganese.

So potassium permanganate.

I don't remember, there's like persulpates.

I had to pass organic chemistry to get my engineering degree, and that's been close to 30 years ago now.

Well, you really got to the crux of it there for me.

I really appreciate it.

All right, thank you.

Well, I appreciate that you're being uh proactive so that we don't have any emergencies.

So thank you for doing that.

Uh, Councilwoman Morris, what is your recommendation?

I think the phrase of the day is SEP.

All right, thank you.

Uh item number six is from the Department of Development.

Good afternoon, Council.

Brandon Sellhorse, Chief Growth Officer.

Did that update on your screens?

Okay, perfect.

Um, I'm here with Sarah Martin, our manager of real estate to present item number six on your agenda.

Good afternoon, council members.

Uh this ordinance authorizes the sale of a portion of city-owned property within Highland Park to the Toledo Lucas County Public Library for a dollar to formalize ownership of land currently occupied by the library building and parking lot.

Um, and it supports the library's ability to obtain marketable fee, simple title to the property, improving long-term management and operational flexibility for the facility.

It also waives and releases the city's reverter interest on the adjacent property, located at 423 Shasta Drive as part of the overall property and title resolution.

This ordinance waives competitive bidding requirements to allow for the direct negotiated transfer and immediate resolution of existing property boundary and title matters.

We're asking for first reading and we'll take questions at this time.

Councilman Driscoll.

Thank you, Chair.

Do we have any sense what the library intends to do with the property?

Um we do not, but we do have the library here to speak on what they plan on doing as far as engaging the community.

I'm like, all right, that's my cue.

Hi, uh, council members.

Uh we have actually not been actively soliciting any community partners quite yet as we go through some of these steps around the two parcels with our property.

Of course, we've had community organizations express interest in the building, but again, we've not formalized any kind of process.

Um, just to even give you some additional background.

Of course, we looked to our strategic priorities to be just some guiding principles on the future of the space and this building, uh, one of which would be serving as a community hub.

So one of the things again that we're looking for once we go through these different processes of getting uh these two parcels under one singular parcel, is to ensure that whomever occupies this building in the future is offering a good service to the community, a helpful service to the community or additional resources that those community mayors may be in need of in the future.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you.

What is your recommendation?

First reading, please.

Thank you.

Item number seven is from the Office of the Mayor.

Good afternoon, members of council.

Uh Simon Knee, Commissioner of Government Affairs, here with uh Chief Clemens and Chief Sellhorst to introduce item seven.

Item seven authorizes the mayor to enter into a grant agreement with uh Harvard College through the Bloomberg City Leadership Initiative for up to $300,000 to fund salary and benefits for a full-time fellow from the Bloomberg Harvard City Hall Fellowship program to join the City of Toledo team full-time for two years.

This is a competitive program that we had to uh apply for and be selected for to host one of these fellows.

Uh the program places uh recent graduates of Harvard master's degree or professional degree programs full-time in city halls across the country for two years to uh to support their leadership teams and working through complex uh pressing municipal challenges uh as part of the application process.

We had to identify what our anchor challenge was and and in line with the mayor's strategic plan, we chose uh population growth.

So, uh Chief Clemens, Chief Sellhorse, Deputy Mayor Arnold and I uh interviewed three candidates.

I think we're all very excited about the fellow that we've been matched with.

His name is Utsav Carroll.

He has a master's of education from Harvard, and also a really remarkable uh uh track record of professional experience and success uh in um building uh leveraging private capital and public sector collaboration to build innovative solutions to complex social and economic challenges in multiple countries uh across the world.

He's he's led uh innovation labs, uh they're termed in um Kenya, Somalia, and Nepal, in which he was able to leverage uh millions of dollars of private capital to um to invest in high impact uh venture operations in collaboration with local agencies and governments.

So we think he's he's gonna add a lot to um to the team as we move forward uh with our uh strategic plan.

Let's have will be based in the mayor's office and report directly to Deputy Mayor Arnold, but um I think we envision him as being really deeply embedded in the entire uh leadership team and and his work will be necessarily cross-sectoral and uh collaborative with partners uh outside of the city as well as we seek to figure out how to most effectively uh move the ball forward towards this um this goal of population growth and the limited time that we have.

Uh so uh we will respectfully request SEP on this.

I wanted to give uh Chief Clinton's cell force the opportunity to add anything that they might like to add.

Thank you, Simon.

Uh members of council, I just I want to reiterate uh how excited the leadership team is about this uh Harvard Bloomberg fellowship opportunity.

Um I had the pleasure of sitting in on some of the interviews, and uh, you know, when you are when you are on a leadership team and you all are developing your strategic uh priorities, you tend to start thinking the same way, if you will.

I think the opportunity to get someone to come in uh with a first perspective, and help you indeed evaluate and kick the tires on the policies that are evolving and what we're trying to do.

I think it's a good it's an excellent thing for us as a city.

Um we've put together our strategic priorities.

There are a lot of things on that list that we want to do.

Um, helping us evaluate those things, helping us figure out what to do first appropriately, or or second, helping us look at new ways of financing.

I think is just um whenever there's a fresh objective perspective, it helps make us better leaders and better uh stewards of the funding and the work that we're doing as a city.

This candidate um is from Nepal.

Nepal is a is a country that has lost population and is kind of grappling with some of the same challenges that we have.

How do you how do you govern?

How do you um you know institute programs that add value to your community and help you grow?

So I think he he brings a lot of um insights that align with our challenges, and um I'm looking forward to a critical critical dialogue with him of how he can enhance our work.

I think it's uh this is no match required.

This is uh a grant that we are getting to pay for his two-year fellowship, including housing.

And um, as Mr.

Nye says, this was a competitive application, and uh I'm just happy that we got this uh this opportunity and looking forward to working with him.

Yeah, thank you, members of council.

I would just add um how excited we are about this opportunity.

I mean, we put a lot of thought into the um the problem statement um that we wanted these candidates to review.

Um it's kind of a two-way interview process, they interview us based on our anchor challenge, and then they kind of throw their hat in the ring to be interviewed for it, and then we interview them, and they are interviewing us as well, and we um were very excited about the candidates.

I think um the the candidate that stood out is the one that we ultimately um were matched up with, and I think his passion, um Chief Clemens kind of mentioned it, he's from Nepal, very similar city, um, that has been kind of grappling with population loss.

His passion is to learn from Toledo and implement things in Toledo that ultimately could go back to Nepal and implement those things in his hometown.

I think the passion is really what drives this work.

I think that's what you find in the city leadership team that is focused on this growth strategy.

I think from a team perspective, this adds to our capacity to help wake up every day and think about growth.

Um if you saw the Wall Street Journal just had an article in their paper last week that said the Midwestern exodus is finally ending.

And the poster child, the back the city backdrop that they used for that was Akron, Ohio, a city not too dissimilar from Toledo, Ohio.

Akron, Ohio is actually gaining population.

Dayton, Ohio is actually gaining population.

Um Toledo, as we know, is not, unfortunately.

Um we have a lot of work to do.

We need all hands on deck, we need everyone rowing in the same direction.

I think that this person adds to the capacity to our bench strength to be able to do that, um, not only coordinating cross-departmental collaborative collaborative efforts that are identified in our strategic plan, but also external partners, right?

Making sure that it's not just the city saying that we want population growth, it's all of our partners that are also looking at their projects and initiatives through that same lens.

So we're very excited about this.

We think it's a great way to add to the capacity of our team without necessarily contributing financial resources on the city's end.

And this is a two-year window.

This isn't just a one-year and done.

This isn't just a summer internship program.

We have this person for two years back to back, which is a lot of time for us to not only get clear on what the opportunities are, but even start to implement them.

So we appreciate your favorable consideration of this and are happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Councilman Meldon.

Thank you so much, Chair.

Obviously, really exciting.

Um any questions I have, I think a couple of the questions I have have been kind of answered.

So just to make sure I'm clear, we came up with the um anchor challenge, uh, and then kind of determined or or at least interviewed and hoped that we would get a candidate based on that challenge.

Is that true?

It's not like we met the person and said, you know what, they'd be great at working on this thing.

I just want to make sure I understand this correctly.

So you had the challenge first.

Yeah, that's correct.

And there was there was a fair bit of dialogue with Bloomberg to think about the best way to articulate the challenge in a way that would be clear and manageable and and appealing to candidates.

So it was a two-way, it was a two-way process.

We picked them and they picked us.

Okay.

Help me with um, and it might be as simple as like just like sending out what the anchor challenge was, because I doubt it was like population growth on a piece of paper.

So that might even be my answer.

I am curious about if you considered and when you did why you didn't go this direction of being a little more precise.

Population growth is a lot of things.

It could be employers, it could be housing in particular, it could be it could be population among a particular demographic, it could be young people.

We we could think about population growth much more precisely.

I am curious if you've thought about that and when you did, why you landed on keeping it more macro.

Yeah, it's it's a good question.

It's something we talked a lot about.

We went we we initially started this conversation, I think, um, talking about uh housing as a particular focus, and I do think housing will continue to be a critical part of the work that our fellow is is doing, but uh I think the more that we talked about it the more that we kind of agreed that um our challenge in Toledo is bigger than just housing.

It's it's um it's cross-departmental, cross-sectoral, and it involves a lot of other folks besides this, just the city.

I do think the fellow itself will, um a lot of his focus, especially initially, will probably be at this intersection of housing and economic development, which is uh part of the reason that uh the chiefs are up here with me today.

So I think that will bring it uh bring it to focus and as other areas like infrastructure and public safety naturally start to feed into that.

I think it will um uh his engagement with other departments will will kind of become clearer after that.

So is that answer your question?

Can I just add on to that?

Sure.

I think um population growth is the larger goal.

How we get there, a lot of people have different opinions, and a lot of cities have done different things.

So we didn't necessarily want to come into it with a prescription for how to solve it because I think that we have a lot of great ideas.

Um we have limited funding and limited capacity to implement those ideas, and I think what we're looking for this fellow to help us do is start to identify the initiatives and projects and things that we should be focused on as a community to help have the biggest impact to driving population growth, and it could be economic development, it could be adding more housing.

I mean, I think we all know as a community it's not one thing, it's not one thing.

Because if it was one thing, we would do it.

It would be easy.

It's everything all at once, but we know we can't do all of that.

So I think what we're hoping for is to kind of get a strategy together based on research from other cities, initiatives, incentives, things like that, um, that that we can then hopefully move forward and and implement where we can have the biggest impact.

So I know Chief Clemens, you might have something to add.

I think, as I said, we have a lot of things that we've said we want to accomplish in the next three years.

Um, even though we're calling them strategic priorities, how do you onboard those things in a way that drives us to population growth?

It's it's it sounds easy, but it's difficult to do, especially in the environment that we have with with limited resources to address these needs.

So having having a fresh set of eyes and having someone that can help us uh navigate these issues, help us set up partnerships, help us uh look at prioritization with a deeper lens is is something that that we we hope this person will do.

I think the other thing that was intriguing about this um candidate's background was his work in creating value with existing industry, innovating and and facilitating facilitating capital investment in your in your existing business base.

I think this whole idea of of how we innovate with the firms that have stay at stand the course of time and remain in Toledo, this issue of how we innovate and how we invest in them is a very important thing to do, and I think he's he brings some of that a lot of that experience with with us, and he's done that on an on an international on an international basis.

So the hope is is again bringing him in, having him engage with us, having having him work with us to prioritize and then and then set up some some new models that we haven't thought about.

He brings those skills and we're looking forward to this.

Do you think?

You're getting to my next question, and I'll make it quick.

Um the deliverable at the end.

I mean I could see value being having someone up on 22 with the you know the Bloomberg and then the job description of you know population growth that could be valuable in and of itself, having someone of that caliber up there talking about it every day.

Are there other deliverables that we look for at the end of that two years more specifically?

Yeah, I think there's a couple different things that uh we know right now we'd like to see as deliverables.

One is um we've talked a lot about that the other cities that have been successful at uh turning that population curve back upward, right?

And I think we all sort of uh we all see some of the exciting things that are happening in Detroit.

We we see Akron turning its population around, but uh we don't have a thorough sort of research-based analysis of what is that sort of uh what's that magic mix of ingredients that each of those cities has figured out that's the most effective in its own context, right?

And how to translate those lessons into our context.

So I think our hope is some some upfront research that will be completed hopefully relatively quickly to to kind of guide the work going forward.

Um and then I think uh for me one of the one of the deliverables that that I'm most interested in is uh a way of helping answer the question, how do we know that this if this is working, right?

Because we're not gonna get census data until 2030, and you know those those yearly estimates are kind of, you know, so with uh such a short time scale and such a long-term goal, um, can we come up with some really evidence-based focused metrics or what are the things that we can be doing right now that are real indicators of progress?

Yeah, you know, on top of that, and last thing I'll say, and I'll stop, I promise, Chair and colleagues, is like what's the legitimate we think about these other communities that are gaining population, different communities that have we've seen a lot of growth.

What was like the lag time of X initiative or X strategy to actually seeing results?

I mean, we're having a lot of conversations about we should do X, Y, and Z, but 30 might be too soon.

You know what I mean?

Uh you you're saying we're not gonna get the census data until 30.

The truth is, whatever we're doing, the ROI on that from a population growth standpoint might be past that point.

So no, super interesting, fascinating.

Thank you.

I'll stop.

Councilwoman Morris.

Thank you, Chair.

Um thank you for bringing this to us, and I would agree with Chair Clemens that it's wonderful to have a new set of eyes and to kind of make sure that we're we love this place as much as we do, but we want other people to love this place as much as we do.

Um the only thing that I'm going to go on record with is that when you're talking about the leadership team, remember you have 12 leaders up here, and so we definitely want to be a part of uh you know this collaboration and um really, you know, we love this place as much as anybody, and so we want to make sure that we are at the table when it comes to um any of these collaborations that you're gonna be doing out in the community or um just even here at government center.

So thank you.

Councilwoman McPherson.

Thank you.

And Councilwoman Morris is kind of tagged in where I was going.

This is great to see that we've gotten this grant that we can have somebody come in here with fresh eyes and look at this and and assist us in this for two years.

But I would also employ and ask that council is a part of this, and that if we could again get updates as to what's going on, whether it's every two months or just to keep us in, because what a lot of times happen is, yeah, these things happen, we get these people, they come in, and council hears about it through the news.

We need to be at the table also as to hearing and and ideas and what we think or what they're sharing, and I just want to make sure that council is a part of this uh this team building for the city of Toledo.

Thank you.

Thank you for your work on doing this and seeing it through.

I know it took a lot of time with interviews and and coming up with it.

Um, population growth is broad, but I believe we can do it in integral parts, and we have to look at the whole pie.

There's pieces of this pie that we can put together, and then simultaneously, it will bring about growth to the city of Toledo.

I'm positive, and I know Toledo is a place of endless possibilities, so we can do it.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Dr.

Jones.

Thank you, Chair.

Um yeah, I'm I'm in agreement with this.

I think that it's a great step in terms of just really reevaluating not only what we're doing, but then the possibilities of expending a lot of or expanding a lot of our resources.

I would also um go on record requesting at the end of this two years, possibly presenting some sort of report or presentation.

I know that they have to do their report backs anyway with Bloomberg, but as far as just what they're finding, because I'm assuming that it would be fully research-based now, depending on the research, are they just doing numbers or are they actually doing interviews?

Like it's so it's kind of like a mixed methods.

Okay, so that's good to know.

Um, and then also with that, um, of course, the occasional updates that will definitely help out as well, and then also um, I'm just curious as far as your priorities because the person is expanded over multiple departments, so how are you all deciding basically top five priorities?

Because I know there's a lot because population growth is broad.

So, how how are you gonna arrange that for this two years?

I think first for those of us that are on the chiefs team.

I think uh in response to uh I think it was council member Meldon that said um growing population is not just one thing.

There's several things that that uh contribute to your population growth.

What what are what's this sweet spot?

What is the success?

Why is Akron growing?

Why is Detroit growing?

Why is why is South Bend Indiana now sort of a mecca for young people?

What is the what is the what's this what's the secret?

How how do they make decisions?

How do they stand up programs?

How do they involve their council?

I think one deliverable for me is helping us do a better job at making decisions and governing, you know.

We're not gonna see the population growth uh in three years, but but but if we can improve how we govern, how we legislate, how we work together, how we stand things up because of this fresh set of eyes, and because of this body of work that this person is gonna do, that's a huge deliverable and that that then drives or makes for how successful we are going to be with this overarching goal of increasing the population helping us to build that sweet spot helping us to do the decision making that will drive our goals and that will drive the the work that we want to get done over the next uh uh three or four years how do we engage together you know it's it's critical that we that we improve that we work on that uh when we say we're gonna do something how do we follow through what's our engagement strategy like what's our it's again how are we governing and how those how have those people who have been successful how do they govern what about their sweet spot that we need to deploy here in Toledo that's kind of the deliverable that I that I that I'm looking I'm working for with this fresh set of eyes.

So are those research objectives questions then?

Do you have a list of those a lot of it is not research is sort of an approach and and I think once once um the the fellow comes on board there will be an engagement for scope of work and task and different things that we expect them to do.

But just you know speaking in a generic way in terms of how I expect to work with this person to make our work better so that we can in fact get to the get to the level that we want to get to.

Okay it's good that there will be a scope of work because I'll be curious as far as what are the research questions or just the project objective into this challenge I would say first and foremost what is highly needed is kind of like a landscape analysis an asset mapping.

So if they can do that and just see what we have as far as well resources are concerned but breaking that down even more specific and what role they play in whatever we're trying to do with population population growth within that scope of work I think that'll be a good foundation for this at least the two years and then we can do some jump offs after that because I I see the two year it can be a lot but I can see it laying that foundation to further inform whatever programs and initiatives after they are gone because I mean two years can be long but that challenge is very broad that's that's a lot in there so I would recommend even thinking about maybe an asset mapping kind of model just to see what we have right now.

Councilwoman Jones I'd be happy to share if it would be helpful the scope statement that we uh that that Sav uh saw when he selected us I think it lays a lot of lays out a lot of what you're talking about in a little bit more detail yes um so I'd be happy to share that um I'd also say that um you know stakeholder engagement I think both internally and with the community is going to be a huge part of this right I don't I don't think any of us want him sitting behind a desk on 22 all day right we want to work closely with all of you we want him out in the community talking with um with our residents with community leaders because this is um this is a challenge that's bigger than just city government right it's something that's gonna take the entire community mobilizing in the same direction to accomplish I would say even if they can get down to the six district levels because each district is unique like if they are really gunning and you we really want this information get as specific as possible all full transparency.

Investigate everything that's in our way or that can make us prosperous when it comes to this so but other than that I'm very excited for this and just looking forward to see what happens with this but thank you all for your your work for it.

Thank you Chair Councilmember Gaddis Thanks Chair and I would love to see that scope too actually wrote that down as a referral by way of referral can we see the scope our application and anything that would be helpful around the program information or guidelines for this program.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

I actually have one question as well.

Um, as I talk to residents about population, one thing, one topic that comes up a lot is our schools.

Um, is there an idea that we will work with our schools, both TPS and Washington local when this individual's here?

Yes, I think the schools have to be a part of the conversation.

It is, if not the top, it is one of the top two reasons, right?

When it comes to population growth and loss, so we they need to be at the table and they will be critical partners in this work.

Thank you so much.

President Williams, what's your recommendation?

Um, I'll give my recommendation, but a good good thing is there actually is a harbor program with the art items on right now, so that will be an easy correlation in our to SEP.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And items eight and nine are from the Department of Transportation.

Good afternoon, Christy Soncrant, Commissioner Engineering and Construction.

This ordinance allows ODAT to replace a culvert over Heldman Ditch on Door Street, located between Richards Road and Independence Road within the City of Toledo limits.

The work is anticipated to start in 2028 and be completed in 2029.

The impacts to the traffic are not yet known as the project is not far enough along for us to determine what they will be.

There are no costs to the city for this project.

Requesting SEP, and we'll take any questions you may have.

Chair Driscoll, what's your recommendation?

SEP.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, members of council.

Jeremy Michael Isaac, deputy director for the Department of Public Works.

I'm here to present uh legislation that uh authorizing the City of Toledo to accept a grant for 60,000 from the GM on Main Street grant program to enhance downtowns through transformative and innovative road safety initiatives in communities near General Motors facilities.

The project will be located along North Summit Street between Cherry and Olive and will consist of implementing a lane reduction and traffic calming with the use of reflective flexi posts to encourage slower vehicle speeds and create a safer pedestrian environment through this corridor.

Uh temporary traffic calming measures were a direct outcome of public engagement along the corridor.

The proceeds from this grant will be used to cover materials and labor costs.

Labor will be provided by the Division of Traffic Management and Road and Bridge maintenance crews.

There's no match required for this grant, and this grant program is provided by the National Main Street Center and is sponsored by General Motors.

We're asking SCP and I'll take any questions.

If I could just add to the presentation, if you don't mind, Chair.

Council had authorized some funding to do a proactive streetscape enhancement study along Summit Street to kind of um partnership with Metro Parks Toledo to help bridge the divide, which is summit street between the riverfront and the Vistoula neighborhood.

Um so the Department of Economic Development in coordination with TDOT uh facilitated the public meetings associated with that.

The plan is officially on our website.

I think many of you actually attended those meetings because of that work that was done proactively and at the time council when we were authorizing funding encouraged us to have our consultant uh look at some temporary measures to slow traffic down, recognizing that a full streetscape redevelopment plan on Summit Street is a multi-million dollar project.

We're not in a position to move forward, but if there was ways to slow traffic down, increase the pedestrian connectivity between the riverfront and the Vestula neighborhood, that we wanted to study that.

And it was because of that recommendation, because we had the plan, the public engagement done, and the temporary measures we were able to quickly apply to this uh GM on Main Street program and get the funding to implement that temporary uh measure, which is going to significantly slow traffic down and provide some additional pedestrian connections between the riverfront and the Vestula neighborhood.

There is one legal pedestrian crossing in Vistula from the riverfront to the Vestula neighborhood, and that is at the La Green Street intersection.

So we can't say that we want this riverfront to be for that neighborhood if we don't provide the connections, and so this project is one step in that right direction to do that.

So I just wanted to remind council and thank you again for allocating the funding to do that proactive streetscape plan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think one of my favorite words is proactive today, because yeah, we're seeing a lot of that, which is very good.

Um, Chair Driscoll, what's your recommendation?

Chief Silhorst, you once told me that a particular member of council uh made the recommendation for an easily implementable solution uh rather than necessarily long-term, added that to the scope of the work consultant.

Can you remind the members of council?

Which member of council that was that made that recommendation?

I don't recall, but I think it was Councilman Driscoll.

Oh, good.

Thank you very much.

Uh I'm kidding, obviously, but Stephen A.

Smith once said, if you don't toot your own horn, sometimes there's not any music plans.

So I would like to obviously SEP, thank you.

Uh obviously SEP.

I do want to say though, this is this grant's great great job uh for receiving it.

Sixty thousand dollars, not that much money.

It doesn't take it would not take that much money from our own capital funds to make a difference in terms of streetscape.

And it's just like little flexi posts paint, stuff like that.

We're not breaking the bank, but we can make a big difference on transportation infrastructure, and and we should remember that as we do this kind of future planning.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Items 10 through 15 are from the Department of Police Operations.

Good afternoon.

Lieutenant Brianne Holmes.

Uh have assistant chief Braun, Sergeant Ergman, and Lieutenant Jeff Dieman with me today.

Item number 10 authorizes the mayor to enter into an agreement with the Bureau of Justice Assistance through Office of Criminal Justice Services to accept deposit appropriate and expend the project safe neighborhood program grant funds in the amount of 21,900.16 cents.

The grant funds will be utilized by the Toledo Police Department for overtime.

There is no matching requirement, and we are requesting SEP, please.

Chair Hobbs, what's your recommendation?

Councilman Serranti.

Thank you.

Just a quick question.

Uh, is this overtime assigned for certain tasks?

Yes, sir.

So the grant um this grant in particular will be used for overtime for our drone first responder pilots who's gonna work in conjunction with our gang unit and our crime gun intelligence uh unit, our CGIC unit to um kind of tackle problem areas, gonna be used for overtime in that regard.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you, madam chair.

Chair Hobbes, your recommendation, SCP, please.

Thank you.

Item number 11 authorizes the mayor to amend the initial agreement with Flock Group for the two-year period for the continuation of services for a portable automated license plate readers.

Uh we are requesting to waive competitive bidding requirements for Flock is our current vendor for the portable ALPRs and continuing with Flock maintains the system compatibility, the annual expenditure of $14,000 is from the general fund, and we are requesting SEP, please.

Councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you.

I've seen some really interesting um information on the FLAC cameras.

Do they get checked by transportation?

There's been a lot of studies coming out about the polls breaking off, having the not having the base that's needed, so when they break off the balance is often it can impale vehicles.

And while that doesn't seem like that's happening at a it is something that I thought was really interesting, lots of our polls get inspected by transportation.

Are these being uh inspected?

We've had um several, I would say several.

We've had multiple flock polls get hit over the years.

Um, and uh I think only one I've actually seen actually down on the ground.

Um we've seen a couple like bent and stuff, but the majority of the time we've actually started the move.

Well, we we did move to remove them from their own flock poles and put them on transportation poles, um, and transportation's assisting with the installation on those.

And how what percentage of ours have already been changed over to transportation friendly polls?

That I'm not not quite sure of.

I'm not working in that department at this time.

Um that's something we can check and let you know.

Okay, and when did that start?

Um 2022, I believe.

Okay, and then do you guys require the businesses that are also using FLOC cameras?

Like I know Lowe's does, uh ProMedica does, UT does.

Do they also have to use the same transportation friendly polls or or safe?

They're not really friendly, they're safe, right?

They're in their, they have their own agreement with Flock, so I'm not sure how they're so it's something we don't mandate across the city.

Correct.

Okay.

Okay, okay, by way of referral, I'll send that because I'd love to get a count on how many we have safe.

And um that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Councilman Driscoll.

Thank you, Chair.

I'm very supportive of this.

I think ALPRs are essential part of uh the tasks you guys carry out every day.

I'm just kind of curious.

Um obviously we're with competitive bidding and we should in this situation, but um is the technology improving such that there won't be errors with these uh and you know, do we get reassurances from our vendor?

Because occasionally they're wrong, and then even in Toledo they have been, and it and it would and it cost you know, pretty a pretty big mishap on our behalf.

Um, any sense from like our representatives at Flock whether or not this technology is improving?

Councilman, all I would say is that um as far as the Flock technology, as with all technology, it's ever evolving and always getting better.

I think that's Flock's goal is to always get get better and get us accurate information.

We have um some safeguards in place internally where we still we don't go rely solely on Flock information, we have to verify that information because we have had incidents in the past where not verifying that information uh did not work out well.

So uh I would say with all technology there's there's always room for improvement, um, but our overall experience with flock is it's been one of if not the most effective pieces of technology that we've had in a long time.

It's it's uh I can't say enough good things about it, it's helped us solve so many things, find missing people, solve homicides.

It's just a phenomenal tool that we use.

Um, but to sum up, yeah, probably always trying to get better and make sure that that information is as precise as possible.

Okay, and and I'm like I said, I'm supportive either way, but does this ordinance reflect any new software or hardware as far as you know?

This is just to continue the service that we already have for our four portable flock members.

All right, thank you very much.

Councilmember Gaddis mentioned um some private businesses that also use Flock.

Do we cooperate with them or do they cooperate with us on providing us with information?

Um, how does that work?

So they they provide us access to their data.

I mean, it's up to them if they want to do that.

So ProMedica does not because it's associated with the hospital and HIPAA rules.

So they do not share their flock data with us.

Um if we have an incident that takes place and uh a suspect vehicle could possibly drive through the hospital, we can reach out to them and they can try to do a search for us, but they don't share.

So it's it's up to the private business to decide whether or not they'd want to share.

So there are a few that do share with us.

Can you tell us who those are?

I'd have to look in the list, but I know Lowe's is uh is one of them.

Um I'd have to look at the list.

Okay, by referral.

There are some, yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh Chair Hobbs, what is your recommendation?

SCP, please.

Thank you.

Item number twelve authorizes the mayor to amend the existing agreement for the one-year continuation of drone technology services with Flock Group, authorizing the expenditure amount not to exceed 100,000 dollars from our law enforcement trust fund.

Toledo police completed a year-long study on the efficacy of drone technology utilizing drone as a first responder.

We are requesting to waive competitive bidding requirements for the reason that flock was the vendor utilized for this previous study.

We recently received a grant to utilize a different drone company for our first responder program, and within with this year continuation, we'll he we will have the opportunity for a side-by-side comparison between the two drone companies for a year.

We are requesting SEP, please.

Thank you.

I just have a question um with the drones.

Do they actually can you actually hear on the drones?

I know some of the flap cameras you I mean the f flat cameras you can't, but can you hear?

Does it have technology in the drones that you can hear what's going on or no?

No, okay.

We don't have any audio capabilities with our current with our drones right now.

Okay, okay, but it is some out there with audio, right?

I would assume so I know it's flat cameras.

Um I mean, plate readers that have it further on, I mean that technology right now, but I would assume so, but the the drone itself is pretty loud.

Um so I don't know that it would be if it would be very um effective.

That's a good question.

That's a good point.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Are we looking to increase the amount of drones that flock that we have right now?

As of right now, no.

How many drones do we have?

With flock, one and then we have drones with another company, right?

We just got a grant to increase drones through another company, yes, for two more.

For two additional yes, and but we also have had drones with another company, so how many right?

Uh councilwoman, as far as our DFR program, the the only DFR that we've used to this point is the Flock drone first responder.

That's the one we currently have.

Okay.

Uh we received a grant to um to utilize a different company that's going to provide us with two additional DFRs.

And what it's gonna look like probably over the next year, as long as we're able to continue with the FLOC program, is uh we'll we'll almost have DFR coverage over almost the entire city at that point.

They'll be in different locations, three different locations throughout the city uh responding to different calls in those areas.

Okay, I thought we had more.

That's what I was asking.

We we have we have other drones that are like personal launch drones, but as far as the DFR, the that's a totally different because the drones that we not we use, but y'all use to teach the kids in the shoot this, not that that's a different type of drone.

Correct.

Okay, that's why I was asking the numbers.

I thought we had a you know a whole slew of drones that we have.

Thank you.

Councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you.

So the ones that we have under grant will be ran by a different company than this one, which would be ran under a flock, correct?

Will those if will the information be compatible?

With systems, um so when you say the information, so the the real the only information we really receive is like the video downloads and stuff like that.

So it it'll operate on a different operating system for the brake drones, which is the other company that's involved.

So we were kind of limited on our choices on who we could choose for a vendor.

So it will have its own operating system, but the videos obviously, if we record an incident, um that can be downloaded and you know on a standard type of uh that can be viewed on a standard video player or computer.

Thank you.

The uh the this one, which um is is already under flat correct FLAT group incorporated.

Um is that information compatible with the license plate readers with the FLAT license plate camera readers?

So it's it's tied to the same system.

Um eventually, so when Flock first started their DFR program, they were using a company called Aerodome, which um is not fully integrated into Flock system just yet, at least on our side, but that is something that they're looking to do.

Okay, okay.

Thank you.

And ma'am, if I could just say briefly, our our plan is not to um utilize two separate DFR companies forever.

What this what this will allow us to do is we've we've had the Flock DFR now.

Um what this will allow us to do is over the next year do a true apples to apples comparison between the new company that we got the grant for Brink and the current company Flock, and ultimately, because as we know, with our manpower numbers probably going down in the future, and with the last presentation with population growth hopefully going up, we're gonna have to leverage this technology.

So we know that drones are gonna be a big part of that, and what we would love to do is do the true apples to apples and then ultimately go with one DFR company, one program, and that be the company that we utilize.

We're not gonna do two separate or three separate that's that's just not in the cards, but for this year it'll allow us to do a kind of a comparative analysis.

Thank you for that.

Thank you, Chair.

Chair Hobbs, what's your recommendation?

SCP.

Thank you.

Item number 13 authorize the mayor to enter into an agreement with Midwest Public Safety for the purchase of in-car camera systems to outfit our new vehicles for Toledo police.

We are authorizing the it authorizes the expenditure not to exceed $91,000 from CIP funds, and we are requesting to waive competitive bidding requirements for the reason that Midwest Public Safety is the only authorized seller for the Toledo area for our GTAP camera system, and we are requesting SEP, please.

Councilman Meldon.

Thank you so much.

Quick question, I think you got a lot of drones and cameras conversation.

I have a real kind of high-level question.

Does the department have like a I almost think about like a value statement or um?

Yeah, I'll just say value statement, interpret it as you will.

If we're off we can correct, about the use of technology and policing.

I just think it's an interesting, you know, it's everywhere, obviously.

I mean, you know, body cams aren't exactly like new, but now we got we got cameras everywhere.

We you know, fleet of you could have this kind of very kind of futuristic reality where everything's being recorded all the time and there's drones kind of everywhere, everywhere you go.

I'm just curious how we think about that from a policing and safety strategy standpoint, and if there is a statement or a guiding set of principles, we say, hey, you know what, that's a little too far for us.

We don't like that.

Um that implementation of technology.

My theory of the case on technology is just because you can doesn't mean you should.

And I'm curious how the department thinks about that.

Yeah, I I think that it all kind of folds into our overall mission statement.

Um I think you're absolutely right though.

When we when we look at the future, um there we totally understand that there is some cause for concern because it does seem like cameras everywhere, everything's being recorded, and and people want to they want to be uh confident that their police department is not going to misuse that information or or abuse that technology.

And as far as a uh a technology mission statement, maybe that's something that we ultimately will need to develop, but as a as a police department, and I know that our internal conversations, um, we want to use this stuff to solve crimes.

We want to use this technology to find missings.

We want to use it for all the things that the public would expect us to use it for.

Um, but with that said, those are just words, right?

So I I understand what you're saying, and I think at some point in the future, maybe really narrowing in on what our what our position on this stuff is.

That's probably uh probably on to something.

I mean, I'll tell you what, I would love for it to be true to where when we have these things come up, we would our question could simply be is this contract consistent with the technology in safety promise or something?

You know, I think look, my theory of the case is it's a tool.

Technology is a tool, we should leverage it as much as we can for public safety.

There's not, I don't know of anyone that is not going into a target because there's more cameras.

I don't know of anyone who's not getting a cell phone because they're tracking your location all the time.

I don't know anyone who's who balked.

I mean, there's some people obviously on this next one, but who balked at scanning your face to open your phone.

So technology is so innocuous, especially in the private sector, we're fine with it in the private sector.

We don't think twice, but then we think about the public sector, and we're thinking what are you gonna what are you gonna do with that?

So it's tough, it's a tough, tough environment.

I was just asking, what do we have?

I'd love to help.

I know all of us probably, my hunch would love to help kind of be involved and and work on that.

What are those guiding principles?

It reminds me of the AI work that we'll be reviewing here pretty soon.

But um, it might even dovetail into that, right?

Um, because every one of these platforms, version three or four or five point zero is about to say now, powered by AI, and it's gonna promise some new feature that we're all gonna go.

It's I guess it's supercharged now.

And what are we actually talking about?

So cool.

I appreciate the response.

It makes sense.

Sorry.

Well, I was just gonna um reiterate what with what the chief said, we do have policies and procedures in place with how the technology is used as well.

Um, I'm sure you're aware of that, but um, I'd also welcome like all of counsel if they want to come over to the crime center and see how a lot of our technology is used and how it looks and um get a feel with um how that technology um is being utilized by our department.

Um you're more than welcome to come and check it out.

Um, I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Dr.

Jones.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, quick question.

With all of this request for technology, I'm assuming that once if this is passed, the immediate purchase will happen immediately, it will happen immediately.

Considering what's happening with the youth in summertime, is this planning to be deployed at that time as well when we're talking about summer safety, or is this something as far as like uh pilot project for fall going?

I know you said the one with the apples to apples comparison, but I know the real issue is summer that's coming up, and a lot of the requests are dealing with drone technologies and understanding the the lesson of the not lessons, but the reduct the reduced capacity of the force.

How is this going to be utilized when it comes to summer safety?

So, as far as the drones, um the flock DFR is out there today.

Yes, we're just we want to keep using that and uh keep it for another year.

Our new drones are set to be installed.

Our new drones um we're we're running in some shipping issues with the contract well with the vendor right now.

So we're trying to determine that.

We would like to be live by July 1st.

Um ODOT is wants us to start collecting data by July 1st.

That's what we're shooting for.

Um so hopefully by July 1st we'll go live with the two new drones.

Okay.

Yeah, so to sum up, the technology, we want to get it out and useful to us as quickly as possible.

Uh summer of course is a concern.

We're we're we're already using a lot of technology right now, and we're gonna continue to do that.

Most of most of what drives our response is, you know, we're a data-driven police department now.

So we have in the real-time crime center, we have crime analysts that are they try to keep their finger on the pulse of social media and what's happening and where are things gonna pop up, as well as where are our hot spots, where where is uh where are the maps saying that the crimes gonna start taking place or where are we seeing an uptick in different things?

So we use all of that data to kind of decide where we put our resources, and you know, back to the first piece of legislation that grant we're gonna use all that data for that drone pilots over time and for our gang units over time to sort of attack those problems because the hope is throughout the summer to kind of get out in front of a lot of these problems and not be so reactive, be proactive.

Um so that's the hope, and um that's what we're always trying to do.

Using the technology, using the data, just being smarter about the way we go about things, and with the the current requests for the new vehicles are these entirely new vehicles or just the camera systems, and then with the 14 new vehicles, how are you prioritizing which ones will get that?

So the 14 new vehicles, this is the the CIP funds will be utilized for the 14 cameras to go inside those cameras.

Okay, yeah, okay.

So with these new cameras inside these vehicles, will those I know you will want to test it because it's new cameras, so how are you prioritizing which ones get used in certain areas or certain times or is just on regular patrol?

Yeah, these are these these are our these are our police vehicles, all of them have dash cams and radios, and so what we're asking for with these two pieces of legislation is we're getting new vehicles, we're getting fourteen new vehicles.

We want to put dash cams and regular.

Okay, yeah.

So these are like replacing older ones or just adding to your inventory.

Well, our our fleet is always turning on the cars are getting decommissioned.

So, um, yeah, these are new vehicles going in to kind of take the place of some, you know.

We unfortunately we crash a lot of vehicles, it's kind of the nature of the business.

So um, yeah, these are new vehicles to kind of make up for those losses.

Okay, okay.

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you, Chair.

Councilman Hobb, your Hobbs, your recommendation.

SCP, please.

Thank you.

And item number 14 authorizes the mayor to enter into an agreement with Motorola Solutions utilizing state term pricing for the purchase of radios to outfit these new vehicles for Toledo Police, authorizing the expenditure not to exceed $62,000 from CIP funds and requesting SEP, please.

Councilman Hobbes, what's your recommendation?

SCP, please.

Thank you.

Finally, item number 15 is authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with criminal justice coordinating council to accept deposit appropriate and expend OCJS violence against women act grant in the amount of $30,000 and 52 cents.

The vowel grant funds will be utilized by the Toledo Police Special Victims Unit Domestic Violence Office for training and overtime for domestic violence investigations.

There's an in-kind match of ten thousand dollars and fifty cents, and we are requesting SEP to satisfy the requirements of this grant, please.

Thank you.

Um thank you.

This is this is great.

But my question is, and we I think I asked this before with this um violence against women's act with within your police department, you only have one detective that deals with that.

Correct.

And so these funds.

We currently have one detective specialized in domestic violence.

We have uh let's see what's he do for five.

We have five other detectives and a sergeant in our special victims unit that the domestic violence falls under, in addition to that one domestic violence officer.

They also handle domestic violence uh investigations and are part of this will be utilizing this grant funds for their training as well because a lot of the domestic violence will fall on them as well to help out.

Okay, that's great.

So now over time.

Yes.

Okay.

Yep.

Thank you.

Chair Hobbs, your recommendation?

SCP.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And item number sixteen comes from the Department of Fire and Rescue Operations.

All right.

Good afternoon, members of council.

I am Deputy Chief Verdell Franklin, and with me is Assistant Chief John Kaminski.

And we are here to ask for the or request the amendment of ordinance two two four-two-one.

This is a contract that we have with Streamline Automation fire inspection software that we currently use.

We're asking for a six-month extension on this.

And this is going to cost an additional seven thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight dollars from the general fund.

We were requesting SCP.

I don't answer any questions at this time.

Hi.

Hi, how are you doing, Chiefs?

Uh is this uh going to um so the new software would be released?

Is it the same company?

Because I just got used to oh well, I just got used to this one.

So here's the thing, it may not be because this is going back out for bid.

Okay, but we've had some demos from new companies.

And is it better for the not for just y'all to have y'all tested it on the community?

Because you know I had a hard time with that first one because it went to my junk email, and then I had to click on this to get that, and I'm just saying as a consumer, uh as a resident or business owner, it it was hard to figure this one out, and then now we switch in and I wanted to make sure it's field tested for the us.

So one of the vendors, IROL is what we use for our food trucks.

Um, they are actually um came in and showed us some very, very promising technology.

So yes, things will get easier.

Um, and again, I can't guarantee because this has to go out for bid, um, but uh with all of them that that's out there now this fall, the technology that's coming out is going to be much better, and we just want to put ourselves in a in the position to get the best tool for the job.

Okay, thank you.

Council member Gaddis.

Thanks, Chair.

Um on the back end of it, so the the not the forward facing but on the back end.

Will this be compatible with uh Ptolemai?

With with who again?

With the program, the Ptolemy program.

Um I'm not sure, and I can get that to you by way over for I'm not sure.

Okay, yeah, I would appreciate that because again, we don't know who we're gonna go with.

Uh and at that time we'll know, but again, again, this is gonna go off a bid.

I'm not sure who we're gonna be with at that time.

But the right now we're using the exact same uh company we're with now.

We're just gonna use them until the end of the year or and until this is this goes back out for bids.

Okay.

Well, when this does, could that be maybe a question you ask?

Oh, absolutely.

If it would be excessive with Ptolemy, yep.

The more we can streamline that into that system, the better it'll be for everyone.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Chair.

Chair Hobbs, your recommendation?

SCP, please.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item 17 is from the Department of Public Service.

Good afternoon, members of Council.

Ryan Murphy, Commissioner of Solid Waste.

This ordinance proposes the expenditure of up to $360,000 from the Solid Waste Trust Fund for repair and rehabilitation of select leachate and landfill gas control components.

Routine monitoring data has shown multiple wells with some excess liquids that are reducing gas collection effectiveness and resulting in some greater surface emissions that are starting to trigger some additional compliance timelines to complete these work activities.

These activities are being prioritized to leverage resources available to improve collection effectiveness while also reducing the potential risk for compliance.

All plan construction activities will be formally bid with the appropriate PLAs in place.

And we are requesting SCP, and I can take any questions.

Councilman Driscoll.

I don't necessarily expect to know this off the top of your head, but do you know the balance of the solid waste trust fund?

I do.

It's approximately $655,000.

And we only, yeah, pretty good.

We only use that for like one-time expenses, right?

We don't pay staff out of that or that's correct.

Okay, all right.

Terrific, thank you.

Um, we have uh seven items under zoning and planning, um, an amendment to a special use permit for a gas station expansion at 4486 Monroe Street, a zone change at 4927 North Summit Street, special use permit for a school at 3300 Glendale, special use permit for a scrap and salvage facility at 5400 North Detroit Avenue, special use permit for community recreation at 617 City Park, special use permit for standalone solar field at 627 Lotus, and a zone change at 2108 Collingwood.

Councilman Seranto.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, I know that we do not have to expend any money for the solar project in South Toledo, which is wonderful, uh courtesy of Congresswoman Capner.

But I do have some concerns.

I found out recently that uh people doing the work on the solar field is Perrysburg Energy Solutions, and if my colleagues will recall, back in 2023, we passed uh the ability to fund a solar lighting of the mural along I-75.

Okay, and we uh passed a $500,000 appropriation.

And I'm just wondering, I found out that the Mercy Health partners who were putting in about $300,000 in this project for the mural lighting.

Uh also the Port Authority and Lucas County.

I found out that they are not going to be funding this anymore due to the fact that they felt that the there wasn't any progress made or significant progress made on the solar lighting.

So I know we don't have uh to fund this project, but I just want to make sure uh that the uh contractor, Perrysburg uh Energy Solutions is going to be able to do this project in the South End.

But I also would like to do a referral and find out what is the progress on the solar lighting uh proposal for the mural along I-75 because we need a progress report, and if there have been difficulties uh with Perry's Burg Energy Solutions, I think we need to know that because obviously a lot of money was devoted to this.

We put in 500,000, but the Port Authority, Lucas County, uh, and Mercy Health Partners put in 300,000 dollars.

So I will make a formal referral on that, and uh hopefully we'll we'll get some answers.

Thank you.

We have uh two resolutions in attendance recognizing Dr.

Timothy Trax on his retirement, uh, and a resolution recognizing June 2026 as National Gun Violence Awareness Month.

We have one second read item, a contract for two years with a one-year renewal option for the removal hauling and reuse of spent line.

Councilman Seronto.

Thank you.

Um, I have some real concerns uh about this proposal.

Um as uh I'm sure all of you know the FBI, the Ohio EPA, the Ohio Attorney General's office uh is investigating um Rocky Ridge, and again, nothing has been proven, and I understand that, but uh I'm I just have a real concern that we don't have enough information, and uh the fact that um Polcat, who was a second bidder, there's very little difference uh in their bid with Rocky Ridge.

Rocky Ridge was the lowest, but if you'll recall, we've had issues with Rocky Ridge, um, violations of zoning law over at Angola Road.

We've had complaints via uh Councilwoman Gaddis about the uh storage uh and the dust and so forth over in East Toledo, and I just uh think that uh that we ought to either hold off or ask the administration to award the bid to Polcat.

I did some research on Polcat.

They uh seem to be a reputable company.

They have been involved in many cities in Ohio, uh, Middletown, Ohio, doing uh spent lime work, Sydney Ohio, Bowling Green, Ohio, North Baltimore, Picqua, Ohio, Wapakoneta, Honda of America, they did four million gallons of liquid lime uh removed annually, Honda of East Liberty, private company, 888,000 gallons of liquid lime removed annually.

Uh the Honda Engine engine plant, similar uh work, City of Westerville, City of Lochland, Ohio, City of Wilmington, the London Correctional Institution, City of Salina, and so forth.

So I think that uh I don't think we're prepared to vote on this next week unless unless council uh deems it uh important enough to either award that bid to the second bidder, Polcat, which so far I cannot find anything that is negative about them, uh, or we hold off the decision.

I know it's important to remove that spent line.

Clearly, we all know that.

But if you look at the bids, according to my calculations, I could be wrong.

Uh I think that uh Rocky Ridge would remove somewhere around 3,900 loads of spent line, and pollcat would remove 3,800 loads of spent lime.

That's less than three percent difference.

So I just I just want us to be very careful, very cautious about this.

Obviously, it's important to remove the spent line, but you know, let's let's do it right.

We don't want this to come back and find out there's just more problems uh and and the future just looks grim regarding this whole operation.

So I just raise that as uh as a member of council, and uh that's all I have to say about it.

Thank you, President Williams.

Thank you so much.

So this is nobody has been awarded this contract.

This legislation is just saying that we authorize them to accept the bids.

Um the administration did voice who they wanted to, and uh that is not actually it actually needs to be recommended by the Board of Awards.

So the Board of this is just sending it to the Board of Awards.

Um the thing about it is the Regional Water Commission has we have reported how much spent line we were gonna they have paid us to remove spent line, and we have told them how much we were going to remove.

Um, yes, it's unfortunate what happened.

That's not our business.

What happened.

What what we have to be understand is we were paid to do something for not just the city of Toledo, but for the region.

The spent line has not been removed at this point.

Uh, at this point, we need to give the administration what they need to go get the bids.

Now we can say, hey, that look crazy, let's figure this out.

And that's something a discussion that we can have with the administration, but I want to make sure that we're clear.

Not removing the spent line this year.

So far, we're supposed to start in April.

Um, it has not started, and we are going into June, and we have been telling the Regional Water Commission that we are going to do a certain amount of removal of spent line during the period of April to October.

That has not currently been done.

Uh like I said, we can say, hey, this look crazy.

We need to do what we supposed to do, uh, as far as the administration goes, y'all need to make sure y'all get the bid where it need to go.

That don't make us look crazy, but we also need to also understand that because we are so behind with this, we risked uh the regional water commission coming to us and saying, Hey, y'all said y'all's gonna do this.

We paid y'all for this, give us our money back.

Just like we should get that 500,000 back from them people that didn't put them solar panels in.

So I want us to make sure that we're being understanding of what's going on right now.

The boards are the board of awards is actually the one that uh that rec makes the recommendation.

Um I think they uh uh what happened.

The news actually will significantly um impact who it goes to uh as far as what the administration said they wanted to go, but we need to make sure that we're understanding what's being done right now.

We are in June and we two months behind with removing this.

Is this our fault?

Absolutely not.

This is not council's fault.

This should have been well thought out.

We should have had something in front of us in January, so this is not our fault.

But now that we're here, we are in oversight over the funding of the city, and I'm not trying to pay anybody back money we don't have.

So I want us to be clear on this.

Now, this does mean that we have to have conversations with the administration on what needs to be done because if we don't start doing this soon, we already in the hole, we're gonna dig ourselves in a year-long hole.

So at the end of the day, this is not our fault, but we do have to take ownership on the dollars that we have to be oversight for.

All right, um, we have one item under new items from city council, councilman Serranto.

Thank you.

Uh yeah, I'll be brief.

You're entirely right.

Uh President Williams, it is not our fault, and it's not our fault that the uh company Rocky Ridge is now under federal investigation and state investigation.

So I all I'm saying is we have to make a prudent decision, and we have to uh base it on facts, and hopefully uh we can do that as a council.

Thank you.

Councilwoman McPherson.

Thank you.

Then I just want for clarity that there have bids have already been put out for this job.

Now, clear bids have already been put out on C Megan coming forward.

Hi, Megan Robeson, chief of operations for the city of Toledo.

So that's correct, councilwoman.

Um, we we put a bid out for our spent line removal.

We did receive um three responses to that bid.

The legislation that is in front of council is authorizing the expenditure of an amount not to exceed 5.5 million dollars in order of us for us to remove that spent line.

We have not entered into a contract with any of the three bidders that responded um to that proposal.

Okay, and when we um when you have received the bids, the three bids, I'm gonna ask you the bidder that came in, the lowest was the lowest bidder was Rocky Rich.

Okay, so I'm along I'm going with and I'm asking these questions because I'm I'm agreeing with uh Councilman Serontu because even though we have not approved this, the bids are out.

The company that has uh put in the lowest bid is Rocky Ridge.

There is also the second one under that, which was the company that uh Councilman Seronto mentioned, and because of how things are stated, we have to, or council, your administration has to accept the lowest bidder.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

We select the lowest and best.

That is the language according to our procurement process.

Given the news and in light of the situation that occurred on Friday that we were made aware of, we are having conversations internally to determine what options we have working internally with our law department, obviously, and the administration for what options we have to move forward with this.

As uh council president mentioned, we do have an obligation to remove spent line, and um, so we want to make sure we can do that, and we want to make sure we do that appropriately.

Thank you.

So, and I'm all we know what we have to do.

We know that we have to deal with that that that has to be done, but in clear and in support of what councilman Serontu is saying, yes, we also have to be clear, and we have to look at what is going on right now with Rocky Ridge.

So, the reason why I wanted it on the record.

That's why I asked you to come and say that administration is looking into that.

The administration is aware of that, also, so that in reality, so it doesn't fall back and look like council is approving something that we already know that shouldn't happen, and that happens to council more than one time.

So that's why I'm asking you, and that's why I'm having it put on the record.

We understand that, and we hope that the administration will not push us to that limit.

Look at and investigate that and be clear on that.

Thank you.

I have nothing further.

Councilmember Gannis.

Thank you while I have you.

Sure.

Um, Chief.

Um, when you say lowest and best, best is a really loose word.

Does the FBI investigation fall under best?

Is that knock you a couple points?

I'm not I'm not yeah, um, I think like in light of the situation, so when we presented this legislation to council several weeks ago, we were in a little bit different situation than we are now.

Um so we are having conversations internally with our law department to make the best decision moving forward for um for the department of public works.

Yeah, because for me, best was okay when they were dumping in East Toledo.

That was okay, but an FBI investigation is not best.

So I would love in the future to see what that definition of best means so that I can better serve my residents, because best is a very loose term here.

Thank you.

Okay, we have uh one item on a new item under uh new item from city council, a resolution declaring the intent to waive admission fees to all city-owned public swimming pools if declared heat emergency.

Seeing no further business, oh, sorry, Councilman Driscoll.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh we uh we're looking into this.

We we pulled some stats, our my legislative aide McKenzie pulled some stats.

Just uh, you know, I think about the pools a lot and all the things that we charge admission to.

At the end of the day, um we lose money on all of them, but there's a the logic behind it is that these are a community asset, and I think the pools are among those.

Um, and we're going to do work just like we did during the winter season.

We're going to do work to do to try to help people cool off, just like we try to help people warm up in the winter season.

We have this community asset.

It makes sense to me to use it.

I the pool admission is relatively low, at least as far as my family is concerned, but maybe not for everybody.

If it is a burden to those families, if it is a barrier to entry, um then I think on those uh it would only be on heat emergency days.

Um just some statistics here.

In 2022, there were five days that would have qualified.

2023, there were six, twenty twenty-four, there were nine.

In 2025, and twenty twenty five there were seven days.

We're not talking about most of the summer, a very small part of the summer.

Um, I do understand that the uh director of public service has some concerns about folks waiting in line, what our pools capacity are, um, and there might be a way to take a different look at this.

Like maybe we extend hours to the pools.

I'm willing to sort of take that look over the course of the next couple weeks, but uh just for reference, uh all of those heat emergency days in the last couple of years have occurred in late June.

So there's some immediacy to doing this.

We're gonna lose money on pools anyways, but I do think making sure folks know that they do have a place to cool off, um, I think is important, and I appreciate the support of President Williams and Councilwoman McPherson and um in their co-sponsoring of this legislation and uh look forward to uh to passing this.

By the way, this is a resolution that's non-binding.

The uh administration could ignore it if they so choose to, but I hope that we can offer this amenity to our residents as they struggle with heat during the summertime.

Council President Williams.

Thank you so much, and I also uh have will be releasing my pool party tour date.

So any council member that want to get down with that uh for two hours on a Wednesdays, um I'll be uh going around pool party tour.

So kick off is at Roosevelt on the 24th, and I'll release the rest of the dates uh forthcoming.

Just waiting on Marcoms to get it going.

Thanks.

All right, seeing no further business.

This meeting is adjourned.