Is your mic on?

Oh, okay.

Oh, sorry about that.

That's okay.

Could you just repeat that?

I am happy to repeat that.

I'm sorry about that.

Um, do you want me to go over the whole thing or just the June information?

June information.

Sorry about that.

I'm not sure what happened.

So for June, looking at June 1st through June 15th, knowing that our disconnection process started on um June 1st, we have already seen a huge increase in installment and payment plans for our uh residential customers specifically.

So in June, um we have already had 340 enrollments.

We have had 12 accounts that were delinquent were paid in full, uh, bringing in a total of 232,000 dollars.

If we keep this trend through the end of the month, this will be the highest collection month that we have had with Promise Pay.

So obviously we're paying very close attention to that, um, knowing that our approach to disconnection was to help our customers be successful in paying our water bills.

This the data that we're receiving this far, um, June 1st through June 15th is sh is showing that.

So I just wanted to highlight that, um, knowing that the May numbers that you have in front of you, but but as you can tell, you know, in May, we had 436 customers already in June or um account set up already in June were at 352.

So, were there any turnoffs?

There were.

Um not in May, no.

We did not start disconnections until June.

Um, currently we have done 17 disconnections.

Um, of those, we have had um one that has reconnected due to signing up for a payment plan and being put in put on a payment plan.

Okay.

But in June, we won't uh, we will show all of that on the yeah, in in July for the June report will um what we could add to this, what we were thinking about for June is maybe modifying this report a little bit to sort of sort of give a capture of those delinquencies since the moratorium.

And then show you the outstanding balance, then we would show essentially our active delinquent balance.

We thought that might be helpful, and then what's what's collected, knowing that those disconnections started in June.

Okay, all right.

Council uh council vice chair, Driscoll.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairs.

How many how many accounts do we interface with that were given a disconnect notice?

I'm just not sure if we're all the way through that 102 number.

So I could get that to you by the rolling.

Right.

We were doing a little bit of a slow roll.

If you recall, um, our approach and how we were starting was with the 102 residential customers that actually had their water disconnected before the moratorium went in place and and hadn't had any active payments or made an attempt to pay their their water, their past due water bill.

So we started with those accounts, they received the notices.

Some some paid, some went into payment plans, which is wonderful.

We never had to, you know, give that disconnection notice.

Um, unfortunately, some did not, and we have had to disconnect the water.

Of those that were disconnected, we have had one customer reconnected because they they've paid.

Do all of these accounts though represent somebody who's still until the disconnect was still util was still using water?

Yes, because when the moratorium was in place until January, well, yeah, until January 1st.

These aren't like vacant, but that's my question.

These aren't like vacant houses that have gone together.

We are tracking that.

We are tracking and we could show that in the July report or June, we could show which which are um which appear to be occupied or not.

Okay.

I think that would be a healthy.

It might be worthwhile for members to put together a list of the things that we want if we're gonna if we're gonna adjust this report.

Sure.

It might be worthwhile to get a list of what each member's kind of looking for.

As long as it's reasonable to put together my documentary.

And you could we could do our best to put it together and whatever we can capture that we think is important to show.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay, thank you, Vice Chair.

Uh Councilman Hobbes.

Thank you, Chair.

Um you said before.

Chief, you said before your mic went out or when it came back on, you said 232,000 something.

What where was that?

What were you saying?

Where's that number?

Because I can't find it.

Sure, that um that actually isn't on the May report.

Um I just wanted to provide a comparison and give a quick update, knowing that we didn't start the disconnection process until June 1st.

We have seen a a large increase in uh customers signing up for payment plans and and making their payments on those delinquent balances.

So that captured June 1st through June 15th.

Just to give a comparison, we've already seen just through Promise Pay payments of 232,000.

So just to show that that if we keep trending that way, June could potentially be uh the highest month for those installment payment plans that we've seen.

Chief, my second question was uh no one who's dealing with um as we provide ARPA money for Swain Field, they had a huge water bill.

Where's that water bill stand?

Have they paid that, taken care of that?

Um, because anyway, so do you know if that bill is been taken care of?

I do not know, but I am happy to get you an answer.

I can look through the accounts and see where it stands.

I would appreciate it.

Sure, of course.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, uh Councilman.

Um, I want to follow up.

I want to make sure that we're understanding this because uh the figures are a little different from what we were what we had uh in previous months.

Are you saying under the column outstanding affordability as of May 26th that a total owed to this department of public utilities was sixty-one million six hundred and thirty-three thousand.

Okay.

Yes.

That was that was the total number, and and my reading is correct that as of May, we've collected out of that sixty one million, fifteen million almost sixteen million.

Yes, and and what we want to show is um trying to represent a true um active balance of those delinquent accounts.

Um so yes, that that shows the information of where the figures are.

I for next month what we want to show is kind of where those active accounts are so we can show of that outstanding balance, you know, how much it how it's essentially decreasing.

Where the challenge is is every day you have customers that are becoming current and because new customers that are becoming delinquent.

So it's very hard to capture that real time number.

We've been modifying the report a little bit to try to to give you something that um is almost charting and showing that we are headed in the right direction.

But yes, for to your comment, yes.

We're so if we were owed 61.6 million, we've collected almost sixteen million.

That means that we've got somewhere around forty six million that's still owed.

Okay.

Yes, and and that number is is going to change every day.

Yes.

As you've indicated, yes.

Every day somebody pays a bill, somebody doesn't pay a bill.

So, okay, all right.

I um any other questions from members?

Uh I wanna I want to read into the record an email that I received today uh just to indicate what a citizen is saying.

Okay.

Um councilman Soranto I have an irrigation system for my lawn and I was shocked again when I got my last two bills.

I do not mind being charged for the water but last and now again this year I am paying a sewer charge of water that never reaches the sewer.

Whatever happened to the legislation that you introduced to return to the winter sewer average.

I guess there are more important things for city council to mull over like the shootings that occur every night.

However, if my memory serves me right, the mayor and police chief announced that the crime statistics are down for this year.

Data can always be skewed but the fact of the matter is is the city of Toledo uh is not a very desirable place to live anymore.

No wonder the city is showing a decline in population.

Being a senior citizen if I could move I definitely would I suppose the sewer charge is to offset the deadbeats who do not pay their bills.

The current mandatory shutoff program is a joke and there are more and more delays in shut offs to deadbeats that still refuse to pay their past due bills.

So the elimination of the winter average is a cash cow for DPU.

The past due bills should have been started to be collected five years ago instead of now the Department of Public Utilities is facing over sixty one million dollars in unpaid bills.

But suburbs, suburbs who receive city of Toledo water have a sewer have a winter sewer average.

So why not in the city of Toledo?

So my question to you is are you going to pursue the matter of the winter sewer average or not?

If not why not your responsibly most welcome Charles Horvath of West Toledo as I've indicated so many times to constituents I would love to go back to winter sewer averaging because again it was a very fair system.

But we don't have the votes on city council I you know we just don't it so it's probably not going to happen.

But the point I want to make is this retired resident makes a valid point as I have almost every month since we've eliminated winter sewer averaging and that is that the water that people use to water their lawns and their gardens goes into the ground.

Doesn't go into the sewers and here's just a perfect example of of anger about the fact that we're you know charging uh a lot more for sewer rates when they're watering their lawns and their gardens and so forth.

So just wanted to put that into the record.

I know we're working on it people are uh tired of hearing me get the same excuse I've talked to the director of public utilities, Ms.

Bannister, and she assures me that she and legal counsel in the department Ms.

Kavachik are working on a plan here but uh again I'm getting more of these communications as people get their bills and they see the increase you know on the sewer charges when the water is going into the ground.

I just wanted to raise that issue.

Council Vice Chair Driscoll.

Thank you Mr Chair sort of add my voice to that course here a little bit.

Um I I'm not sure winter sewer averaging is the best system necessarily but I I will say that there is a legitimate question of fairness when we are essentially charging people for sewer costs when we're not certain whether or not that water miss some of it does probably because of runoff but we're not certain all of it does I suppose we people could have their could have taps put in place or could have meters put in place sewer meters put in place like our major industrial customers do.

I I think and this is not the DPU committee but I I suppose we have not got an update in a l in a while not formally at least about where that issue stands whether or not we're working on some sort of solution for folks like that.

And I agree for six years we've been given a lot of people a break on their water bill and and then we came in pretty heavy handed with this question about um watering their lawns or pool fills and I I I it would be worthwhile I think to have an uh an update about you know where where that question stands and I think um we've been leading it before we've been leaning for five years that's why there's 65 million dollars outstanding or sixty one million dollars outstanding at one point in time and I think it'd be good to have an update.

Sure I'm happy to provide an update so Director Bannister and I as long as well as our legal counsel um have been working on exploring what other municipalities have done also what the city of Toledo can do.

The approach that we feel is probably most appropriate um is is having two meters so there so you know someone would be able to have two meters if they have a sprinkler system for example as was mentioned in the email.

We also do the pool credit which is available.

So we think this is probably the best approach.

We do want to approach it with a plan and and have something you know that we feel our law department um can stand behind and also know what is something that the city is able to do um and then what residents would be responsible for with an outside plumber an independent plumber.

So so that's that's what we're looking at right now and um putting it together so that so that we can show counsel.

And I will tell you there's a uh constituent in my neighborhood that uh decided uh to put in a separate meter because they have a um irrigation system and it was about eleven hundred dollars um and then the other day I had a communication with the doctor that has his office on Sylvania Avenue by the mall and it is a converted ranch home to a doctor's office.

Which you know happens occasionally and they were gonna put in a separate meter and separate irrigation system for the lawn that they have in the in the front and they were quoted a price because it's a commercial listed as a commercial property even though originally it was a residence $5500.

So um that the doctor's gonna email me and I'll pass it on to council and the mayor's office but that just seems outrageous fifty five hundred dollars to to install because it's it's listed as a commercial property so um I I believe this is the tip of the iceberg I think a lot of people are are very concerned and would like to see some kind of relief so hopefully in the next few weeks we'll get some reway from thank you.

Vice Chair Driscoll Thank you Mr Chair so um I I just want to go back to that a little bit you or is it too early to say if it is that's fine but is this at the at the homeowner or property owner's expense putting a meter in for sewer charges.

That's what we're exploring what would be what would we be able to do as far as the city standpoint um but you know if a meter were installed on an irrigation for example for a private residence, you know it would more than likely be on the private side of the line.

So is that something we could assess and put on somebody's tax bill or the these are these yeah these are questions that we're exploring with our legal team to see what what is something we could do.

It seems to me we have a lot of bad debt that we are about about to collect on that is money that you know for the last five years we didn't think we were ever going to see that might to me could exist as a pool of funds to draw from in terms of um in terms of making it an assessment uh to put on some for a long term you know 15 year tax assessment or something like that might be helpful for somebody but you know if that if that's the question if the question is where the money would come from to for to front the costs.

Seems like a possibility but to front the cost for a private meter.

Right um because I don't think we've been counting on this money for five years or so.

Well, it's all based on our debt policy.

So some of it we have we we hope to collect, you know, we have been accounting for it so um we've run some analysis based on our debt policy, and then of course the customer assistance programs we have as well as the debt forgiveness programs that we have.

So that is what we're working on as well to see what we can do as far as separate meters, how much can the city afford to do?

I know there's been discussions and some interest in saying that can the city offer some type of loan to residents if they want to install a meter.

Those that is those are all calculations that we have to weigh, you know, weigh against and look at and analyze against our current rate model, current against our outstanding debt, etc.

And um, you know, that currently it's it's looking pretty good as far as hey, we're you know, halfway through the month and what we're collecting because we're started doing disconnections, but you know, we need a lot more we need a lot more months to go before we can do a full analysis to say how much of this debt are we really gonna get paid back, and what do we think is uh is a fair estimate.

You know, and the fact of the matter is that Tullio Edison and Columbia Gas, you don't pay the bill, you're cut off probably within eight weeks at the longest uh amount of time.

I will also say uh uh to uh Vice Chair Driscoll that Councilman Melvin and I have talked with DPU leadership uh over the last several months exactly with what the uh the chief indicated.

Where you know, is there a way that we can finance the installation of these items and help people out and have them pay back each month?

So I know they're looking into it, the law departments involved, but you know, so hopefully we'll we'll get some answers that would be uh palatable to the residents.

So I appreciate you bringing that up.

Anything else, Chief?

No, that's it.

Thank you very much.

Uh next uh we'll get to the Department of Finance.

Uh Director Campbell, good afternoon.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Uh we are happy to be here today.

Uh Chairman Serranti, Vice Chairman Driscoll to present the May uh Finance Committee reports.

Um Commissioner Dan Mori is to my right.

Um, he'll give a brief update on wage and hour compliance.

Um Commissioner Zavisha will provide an update on tax, and we also have um Commissioner Tom Buckley at the table.

Um Natalie Brona, our purchasing commissioner is with us in the audience as well.

Um, but to go ahead and get started, I will turn it over to John who will cover the income tax pages in the monthly picket.

Good afternoon, John.

Good afternoon.

I'll start on page two of the packet.

Uh withholding numbers for the month of May.

Uh it's nice to see an increase there.

So for the month of May, the withholding number was up 1.1 million or just shy of eight percent.

This has moved the withholding for the year into positive territory, and it's sort of following the way last year started.

If you remember last year, for the the majority of the first half of the year, we were actually behind the previous year's numbers, so we're hoping we'll see what'll happen over the next few months, but we're sort of hoping that this trend will then continue then.

So overall withholding through May is up six hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars or just shy of one percent.

Um, when we get to the two net profits, the one thing I want to remind last month we had noted um the April numbers were both positive for business and individual, and one of our concerns was the good news is we got the money into the system faster.

Would that be affected in the May numbers?

Um, and they're a little different between the two categories, but I'll go through them.

So for business net profits for the month of May, we're actually down three point nine million.

Um, and the majority of this number is a single company not making a 2026 estimate payment.

Um, this is the business net profit's biggest concern.

It's the volatility in this, where not only are companies trying, you know, so for the month of April and into May and stuff like that.

Companies are making their final payment on their 2025 taxes, but they're also making their estimate payment for what they think their 26 taxes are that obviously will not become due till April of 27.

Um, so in a case like this, what it happened is the company who had made an estimate payment last year did not make an estimate payment this year.

Now it's possible they didn't make a first quarter payment, and they're just gonna simply make a second quarter payment or a third quarter payment.

Um, but at this point, this is just one of those.

We're really gonna have to watch this number then um from that point of view.

Uh during the month of June here, so what happens during June is the second quarter payment is due.

So June 15th was second quarter estimates.

And then also just a reminder that when we get money from the Ohio Business Gateway, we get their April money during the month of June.

So again, in June, not only will we have the second quarter estimate payments of companies who truly paid us directly, we will also get the first quarter estimates for companies that paid the Ohio Business Gateway.

So again, for the year, we're down about 3.5 million in this category.

So we're definitely going to have to watch this coming forward.

The June numbers will be very important for what direction we want to go coming forward.

Individual-wise, it did happen more like we thought.

If you sort of notice on that, April was up four hundred and forty thousand dollars, May's down 408, which came out to be a net of 32,000 and is sort of keeping individual where it's at, where it's almost exactly flat from last year.

We are $3,812 below where we were last year.

So put all that together through twenty through May here, we've collected just over eighty-two million.

We're down 2.8 million dollars from last year.

Again, business net profits is the category that's down.

Withholding helps get a little of that money back.

To move forward to page three, uh, the one thing I do want to point out on that one is sort of towards the very bottom there, it's refunds issued.

So the refunds issued through May is just over a million.

Again, sort of earlier in our process, we would still project through the entire year that there'll be about six million dollars in refunds.

But to compare that to last year, at this point, we had only issued six hundred thousand dollars in refunds.

So the refunds are running a little higher than last year on that one.

So again, something we're just sort of watching coming forward.

But again, at this point, we've probably only issued about one sixth of the refunds we'll issue through the year.

Um, that'll get very heavy in the fourth quarter because that's when the corporate and partnership returns are filed, and those obviously companies are making the bigger payments.

And um, open to questions on either of those two pages.

Uh Commissioner, I know that uh in the past few years we've had more people working from home.

It seemed to be the trend now that they're coming back to offices a little bit.

Is that a fair assessment?

Um, I would say because it's a little bit of both, because I mean we've also got the same type of thing.

There are definitely Toledo residents who don't normally work in the city of Toledo City.

Um you can also make that argument the other way then too of how many people who maybe their office was in Perrysburg, got to remote, and you know, we're just paying Toledo instead of Perrysburg, and now they're going back to the Perrysburg office.

Um, but that definitely is some of it.

I do think from an employer point of view, um, most employers have figured that out for a couple of years there.

There were some really odd rules in play.

How do you truly withhold this preponderance of a day?

Um, and I think on that one, that's now become more normal than it was a couple of years ago.

So I think some of that has settled down that way.

Okay, great.

Uh next.

What do we want to do?

Uh IRS.

Okay.

Um so one of the attachments was the IRS.

Uh the IRS was pretty flat for the month of May.

They were down $1,656 from last year.

That puts them down about $170,000 for the year.

Uh probably the biggest play in this turns out to be, is they do get yearly information from the Internal Revenue Service, the internal revenue service obviously over the last couple years have had some shutdowns, less employees and stuff like that, which has created some delays in programs, and at this point this year, we still haven't received the yearly information we get from them.

We're expecting it in the second half of the year.

Um, and um so down on that one, um, still at this point, I would like them to get to six million by the end of the year.

I think right now they're on pace for about five eight, five, nine.

So hopefully that um information when it would arrive would help for a stronger second half.

And last year was a good year in terms of IRS and promotion.

Last year was six point two million, which is our second best year, the previous year was six five, which was our best year.

Um, you know, again, they had made changes, and they're going after assessment-wise, changing what they were going after, because again, you know, like you can assess something, but it's not collectible.

You know, you're going after a withholding account of a closed business is harder to collect on than someone who's every year filing their W-2, for instance.

So a little more directing what direction we want to go on some of this stuff.

So great.

Anything else?

Um that would be okay.

Well, we're on the income tax topic.

I think um Dan Morey, um, our commissioner of wage and hour, we have a one-page update.

Um, he will walk through.

All right, yes.

Uh good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Commissioner.

Um, so the uh front page is just uh uh just a little quick cliff notes on the ordinances we cover.

Uh getting to the slide uh third slide on the last page there, uh other side.

Um just to highlight uh a couple uh events we've had here.

April Weber joined our team on uh April 28th joining um Mark Wilson as our two wage enforcement coordinators, and uh that has allowed us to start expanding a little more into the 796 portion of our enforcement efforts, which is the employees' right to report wage theft.

Um we currently have three open wage theft investigations.

Uh two happen to be on the same employer.

Um, and we'll be opening another one tomorrow.

Um in her new role, April is uh started to set up some meetings where we can do some more community outreach.

Um, we had been interfacing with Toledo jobs with justice, and we met with them two weeks ago about helping them out on some wage theft clinics they're gonna put on a program to start educating workers on their rights and how they can advocate for themselves in the workplace.

So we'll be looking to provide quarterly support at their meetings.

Um we're also looking at what we can do internally with the Department of Neighborhoods.

They do a lot of outreach to people who are homeless or trying to re and re-enter the workforce.

So we're gonna try and make sure that we educate our most vulnerable population on their rights so that they're not taken advantage of where um sometimes they're seen as as an easy mark, because they don't have the financial resources to then recover the money they're owed.

So we want to make sure uh every employee in Toledo is aware of the help they can get through our division.

Um so far we have from uh from inception we've recovered over 1.3 million in owed taxes from employers uh averaging over 12,000 per week.

And then I included just a little graph just to kind of put it in visual form on our recovery efforts.

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

So there's you and two employees.

That's correct.

Myself, Mark Wilson and Abraham.

Okay.

Very good.

All right, we appreciate your efforts.

Any questions from members?

Okay, thank you, Commissioner.

Next.

Thank you.

Um we'll continue into the rest of the May reports in the packet on page four.

Um, you'll see the general fund uh revenues through May.

Um, 41.7% through the year collections are at about 33% of the total budget estimate.

Um looking through the report, uh, you will see um again property taxes were right where we would expect to be through the first half.

Um in the license and permit, we're at 42%.

Um that license fees um group A, we'll see um some more of those fees are due in the second half of the year, so that's why we're down a little in that category at this point.

Um, on the intergovernmental um category, um, we did receive our casino revenue for the first quarter right on track with the budget estimate.

Local government funds um continue to be in line with the budget estimate.

Um, other taxes at 27%, um those tend to come in uh more in the second half.

Um so not a concern that we're only at twenty-seven percent there.

Um charges for services overall are at 40%.

Um I do want to mention on the EMS and BLS transport fee category at 60%.

We did receive uh a payment from the county that comes in one time a year.

So that's why um we're ahead of budget in that category at this point.

Um investment earning collections uh have are stronger typically in the second half.

Um it's what we saw last year, and then on the other revenue being ahead of budget, that's related to uh settlement proceeds from PFAS that the city was a party to.

Other financing sources include uh transfers in from the TOLA and from ARPA, and a little bit ahead of budget at this point in 2026.

Be happy to take any questions.

On the uh JEDD and JEDZ, are all the entities current with us?

Uh to my knowledge, yes.

Okay, now Rossford paid us a lump sum of previous obligations.

And do they pay how often do these entities uh forward their the percent of tax revenue that we're entitled to is it a quarterly or monthly?

Quarterly.

Quarterly, okay.

All right.

So um so uh at this point, all of the entities that we have those degrees with are current with us.

Yes, as I understand it, yes.

Okay, all right, okay.

Uh vice true brisk schools.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh Director, I know we have a handful of things that have significant quarterly impact.

We're not quite halfway through the year, but if um if you had the based on like our projections, what like do you have a number in mind in terms of what we're missing so far that you think you know we're pretty likely to collect?

My the reason I asked the question is um you know we're we're 40 percent of the way through the year, but we're only really our revenue projections for about a third of where we would want to be.

So there's a there's a gap there, and I'm gonna want to skip ahead, but we're also overspending.

Yes, I'm where it should be right now.

So, my question is uh, if there's if there's money out there that is gonna come in that would make us all feel better that you know that we're fairly confident's gonna come in that would make us all feel better on where we are, you know.

What's any sense of that?

Do you understand the question and then um I th I think so, Councilman Driscoll.

There's there's a couple areas, um, you know, cable franchise fees might be one we'll need to look at.

Those have continually kept dropping, um, but it generally in the license and permit fee category, you know, I think we'll be pretty you know on target with budget.

Um the 50% on property taxes is a good indicator for that one overall.

Um I think um, just kind of looking at the rest of it.

Um, you know, the refuse collection fees, the rate or the fee increase did go into effect.

We'll want to see those collections over the next one.

But we budgeted a higher number for that.

We budgeted, yes.

So uh the uh process we've set in place is as we close out the second quarter.

Then during July, we'll take a look at you know all of our estimates, revenue and expense, and that will inform what we would bring forward to council on a mid-year budget adjustment.

That's what I was getting at.

Do you do you think that that's that may be necessary just in terms of what we've collected and what we spent so far that a budget adjustment might be necessary?

I think we'll have to look at it.

Um what we'll do is once we close out June is gonna sit down and take a look at where we're at and kind of based on those first six months do some projections out and see you know how it tracks with you know the original budget estimate.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, uh anything else?

Uh not on the revenue.

Um the next couple pages move into general fund expenditures, which overall are at about 42.2% of the budget.

Um you'll see labor costs um in that top row have a about 1.4 million dollar variance.

We do have some uh contractual stipends that happen early in the year that impact that category, and we expect to see that variance decrease as the year goes on.

So we'll watch that.

Last month when we reported we were about 1.9 ahead of budget, it's now down to 1.4, so indicating that we're moving in the right direction.

Um police fire overtime we do need to continue um to monitor in May.

In May, they um uh did have a quarterly comp time payout, which I think has caused a bump in that area that we've seen from the prior month, um, but it is something we'll want to look at.

Um, Councilman Driscoll to your earlier question, that would be something we'd evaluate on the mid year potentially.

Um, pension employment tax and medical um are under budget, that other labor expenses category um at 69%, not a concern because we do have those as you know, one-time stipend that happen early in the year.

Uh supplies and services.

Um the variances you see there are really driven by departments um setting up uh purchase orders and contracts for spending that will happen throughout the year.

Um so things like medical supplies that fire uses on the service side, um, you know, seasonals that work at the pools, um mowing costs are all encumbered within each department's budget, so that variance will decrease as the year goes on.

Um yeah, because police overtime is up 130,000, but fire overtime is up uh seven over seven hundred thousand.

Um, you know, what comes to mind is the old West End uh tragedy that happened and all the fire personnel that had to be there because we had twelve people that were seriously uh hurt.

Um we've got upcoming, we've got the July 4th holiday event downtown.

We see we'll have more police there uh significant police presence there.

So um if you could really keep an eye on overtime and advise us as to where we're at on that, hopefully uh this is not a trend that's gonna go the rest of the year.

Um, but we really gotta keep an eye on it, uh, because it's one of our biggest expen expenditures.

Okay.

Uh it's nice to see the medical costs are a little bit down, because I know last year it was was significantly higher uh due to prescription costs correctly.

Yes.

Okay, all right.

Have we had any feedback since Anthem took over the prescription program?

Um employees that you know of not that I've um heard um HR might be able to weigh in on that a little bit.

All right, great.

Okay, anything else on the expense side.

Um no, the um breakdown by cost center is also provided as well as our um summary of all funds for revenues and expenditures.

Um, be happy to take any questions, or I can move into CIP and ARPA if you'd like.

Okay, uh I don't see any questions.

So you want to get into ARPA and CIP.

Yep, so our CIP may report um you will see reflected um all the open projects, um 185 million in total, including all the grant and loan projects, um, that fund road and bridge improvements as well.

And no major items to note there on the CIP report.

Okay.

Any questions on CIP?

Seeing none, you want to get into ARPA?

Where we stand on that.

So our ARPA report through May uh reflects ninety-four percent of the overall um ARPA budget has been expended.

Um we talked uh I think at last month's meeting about having some updates from our different departments here, um, and I think July meeting, if um that works for the chair and the vice chair, we could do that.

We've been meeting pretty regularly with the departments and just making sure their spending plans are in line with getting all these dollars spent um by the end of the year.

So we'd be um able to give an update next month if you'd like.

So in terms of what still has to be spent under ARPA, that figure is 11 million.

It's 11 million within our TEDO Recovery Plan.

Um just one item to note for the committee.

Um we did use some interest earnings that happened um and earlier in the ARPA process to to supplement the cleanup demolish and redevelop brown field sites.

That was about four million dollars.

So of that eleven, about four million is just interest money that's being spent as well.

All right, and of course, we all know that we have to spend this money by the end of the year.

Correct.

Um so and again, I think it would be very helpful at the July meeting uh to have a presentation from each of the departments so that we can make sure that we that this money is properly allocated and properly spent because any money that's not spent will have to go back to Washington, and that would be treasure.

So we want to make sure that we're doing that.

And then if money is left over, correct me if I'm wrong, Director, but any money, for example, for parks or a recreation or something, has to be spent for a similar type program.

You can't use that to pay police or uh another department, can you?

Yeah, it has to stay within, you know, the obligations that we had um approved at the end of 24 when the obligation deadline hit.

Right, okay.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Dressman.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh does anything in the ARP report represent a significant change from last month's report?

Pardon my ignorance there.

No, a couple, um, a couple did finalize.

So the affordable housing development, um, the last payment went out, so that one's now at a hundred percent.

Um there was one um culture, arts and tourism investments.

That one's now complete.

Um there was a final payment there.

Um I think those were the two I noted as I was working through it.

Okay.

I just want to be very, very clear for if we're gonna do this next month for about what the assignment is.

Um, I don't need the dog and pony show, and I don't need everyone to talk about how great these programs are.

Honestly, at this point, I don't care how great the programs are, I just want to make sure we're spending the money.

And I just want everybody, uh I just want everyone who is in charge of spending that money to be very clear.

I think they can come up here.

I don't even need a PowerPoint presentation.

I just need them to tell us how they're gonna spend money in between now and December 31st of this year.

Um because that's the the that's really the only question at this point.

So thank you.

That's an excellent point, uh, Vice Chair.

And I concur with that.

We just need to know where the money will be spent and when we'll relay that to the programs.

We've all dealt with them for several years now.

Okay.

Uh anything else under R5?

Um, nothing further for us.

Anything else from the Department of Finance?

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

One last question.

Um, I'd be curious.

I don't know if we need a monthly, but maybe quarterly.

The we have a you could go back five years ago, we didn't have any Section 108 loans, but now we have a handful of them, and I know that some of them we're out where they were obligated to pay on, but some of them are private actors, and I'd just be curious, um, almost like we do DPU, but I think quarterly is probably sufficient, but um, just to get an update on where we are on all the Section 108 payments.

Okay, we can right now it's just the Delta that has been approved, and as I understand it, they are currently all up to date.

Okay, um, but we will you know check in on that every month and we can update you.

Thank you very much.

Classman, I'm glad you brought that up.

I did have a conversation with um uh director uh Clemens specifically about the Delta Hotel.

She indicated to me the same thing.

They were current and they were doing well uh with payments and and business wise, so that that's good for us to know because obviously um that was an important allocation that we that we gave.

Okay, anything else uh at this point?

Uh we're at the point where uh the public uh is there any comments from the public regarding City of Toledo finances, Mr.

Raring?

Could you state your name for the record?

Glenn Ryan, uh 3072 Carsagen Avenue to Lee, Ohio, 43606.

Um, I was glad to hear about what was going on with the sewer stuff because on this on top of what's going on, that's going that's what's going on with first energy raising their rates.

So let's recap.

You already raised the rates on the sewers, you've raised the rates on garbage.

You've got that garbage dump is re is going to be uh expired in five years.

So you got that expense coming down.

And now you've got first energy and their rank.

So one of the things that we're trying to do as uh passenger rail, we think that the very first step to get anything accomplished is a public banking option.

I've been already talking to the city of Maumee, I talked to the city of Oregon and their mayor to drum up support for a banking option, public banking option uh statewide.

This will get your sewers stuff built, infrastructure built.

This will get money for your garbage dump, and it also will create a micro grid.

Uh working in conjunction with Wood County and Lucas County, you can create a regional microgrid that will allow you to uh do an energy glut that will drive down electrical cost.

And so, my my uh my ask to you guys is to really look.

I sent out a packet to y'all the last time I talked about public banking.

I'll send it out again.

But I really urge you to look at public banking.

I think it's our only card to play.

Do seeing our our current situation here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, if you could resend that, that would be very helpful.

Uh councilman uh Colmives and I are going to be working on a resolution uh to uh oppose the first energy rate increase request that just came up uh just in the last week or two.

So we'll be working on that as we have in the past.

We've sent down resolutions and we've been able to lower the amount of increase.

Not totally, but it's been helpful.

Um but we will continue our work in that area.

Okay, thank you.

Uh before I uh go to the next speaker, I forgot to uh bring up we have obviously our annual audit that we're preparing now.

Uh Hinkle was filed, okay, and um then we'll submit the final documents, and we've got our outside firm helping us also with that.

So yes, we're continuing to work through the final um audit process and act for completion of the final comprehensive report.

Very good.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Uh please come forward, Richard, state your name.

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

I just wanted to comment briefly on your earlier uh discussion on water delinquencies.

Uh the um moratorium during the pandemic lasted from I believe March 10th of 2020 until September the 1st of 22.

As soon as the word got out that it was being lifted, here comes the scam artists.

Uh, this is in Blade Article, July 14th, 2022.

Very sophisticated scam.

People were contacted and using modern technology, the scammers made it appear that it was coming from the city, they were threatened with immediate shutoff if they didn't send money immediately.

We're probably going to see that again.

These scam artists are getting more sophisticated all the time.

So, what I'm asking, can we communicate with people to be on the lookout for this?

Can we have a coordinated effort with perhaps the Better Business Bureau?

They know a thing or two about scam artists uh with the area office on aging, uh, the ability center.

I'm particularly worried about the elderly in hand cap.

They can use their resources to get the word out.

Please be on the lookout for these scam artists and give them instructions on what to do.

If you receive a threatening phone call claiming to be from the city, claiming that they will shut your water off if you don't send money to them immediately.

And at the risk of stating the obvious, if people are giving them money to scam artists, they won't have any money to pay their bills.

So I'm asking for a coordinated effort to get the word out, look out for these scammers.

Okay.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you very much, Richard.

And we will get that word to our DPU people because on the bills, they could have something on their, you know, warning people to be very careful.

I know um Edison has uh cautioned uh consumers that if someone's asking to see your bill uh typically it's a scammer because they take the information and then they try to sign you up with another uh energy company, and people are not aware of that.

So is there uh anything else before the committee?

Uh our next meeting will be uh July 29th, July 29th, Wednesday, July 29th at 4 p.m.

With that, we stand adjourned.

Thank you.