City Commission

On Tuesday, January 2, 2024, at 10:05 a.m., the Dayton City Commission met in a special session in the Commission Chambers of City Hall for the installation ceremonies for Commissioner Joseph and Commissioner Shaw. Mayor Mims made welcoming remarks. INVOCATION Mayor Mims called on Pastor Ed Pratt, Ascension Catholic Church, to give the Invocation. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Mims led the public in the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL Roll call was taken and Mayor Mims, Commissioners Joseph, Shaw, Fairchild, and Turner- Sloss were present. The Clerk of Commission, Ms. Regina Blackshear, and the City Manager, Ms. Shelley Dickstein, were also present. SWEARING-IN CEREMONY Mayor Mims asked the Clerk of Commission, Ms. Blackshear, what is the nature and order of business for this meeting. Ms. Blackshear said, “Your Honor, under Section 39 of the Charter of the City of Dayton, it is provided that a Special Meeting be held to review the results of a Regular Municipal Election and that the Commission shall meet, at which time the newly elected Commissioner. shall assume the duties of the office.” “Section 40 of the Charter further provides that the City Commission shall be the judge of the election and qualification of its members.” Mayor Mims asked Ms. Blackshear if she had a copy of the Certificates of Election for the persons who will assume office today. Ms. Blackshear said, “Yes, Your Honor, I do. The Certificates from the Montgomery County Board of Elections affirms that Mathew Joseph and Christopher Shaw have been elected to the Office of Commissioner; for terms ending January 3, 2028.” At this time, I will present the certificates for review. Following a review of the Certificates of Election by the members of the City Commission, The mayor said, “The Commission is satisfied that the persons, as announced by Ms. Blackshear, have been duly elected and do qualify for the offices indicated.” Ms. Blackshear said, “Being that the Commission is satisfied with the presentation of the certificates, a record of the certificates will be submitted accordingly.” Mayor Mims said, “Ms. Blackshear, are we ready to proceed with the administering of the Oaths?” Ms. Blackshear said, “Yes. The first Oath will be administered to Commissioner Mathew Joseph. I am advised that Commissioner Joseph wishes his Oath to be administered by his son Niko Joseph and accompanied by Mrs. Irena Joseph (wife), Ms. Sara Joseph, (daughter), Mrs. Carolyn Joseph, (mother), Mr. Russell Joseph (brother), and Eli Joseph (Nephew).” The Oath was given and they returned to their seats. Ms. Blackshear said, “The second Oath will be administered to Commissioner Christopher L. Shaw. I am advised that Commissioner Shaw wishes his Oath to be administered by Dayton Municipal Judge, The Honorable Carl S. Henderson, and accompanied by Mrs. Debbie Shaw (wife) and Mr. Joseph Shaw (Father).” The Oath was given and they returned to their seats. Ms. Blackshear said, “Mayor Mims, the Dayton City Commission is now officially installed. Congratulations to Commissioner Joseph and Commissioner Shaw.” COMMENTS BY CITY COMMISSION Commissioner Joseph “Good morning and thank you all for being here! Thank you, Mayor, for recognizing the elected officials here today. I want to add my thank you to you all for your presence here, and thank you for your support throughout the campaign! I want to start by thanking the voters who put both Commissioner Shaw and me back in these seats for another term. For elected officials like us, elections are our versions of very long, very tough Job Performance Reviews done by our 150,000 bosses. We get plenty of feedback, both positive and negative, but in the end, if we do our jobs well, we get re-elected. And here we are, so thank you to you, to all of our residents for having faith in us to keep building on our city’s recovery! Many people helped our re-election effort in many different ways and it would be difficult to mention all of them, but I want to be sure to mention a few people who put forth extraordinary efforts this year. First and foremost, thank you to my campaign partner and friend, Commissioner Chris Shaw. I am very fortunate to have landed in the same election cycle as Commissioner Shaw. I think everyone can relate to the fact that sometimes the people we work with may not be the people that we would choose as friends otherwise. In this case, my teammate really is a good guy and a trusted friend. Thank you, Chris! We ran a truly coordinated campaign this year, which worked very well. And one major reason it worked well was our joint campaign manager Gen Murphy. She did an excellent job on both the mechanics of the campaign and on advising us on issues and policies. Thank you, Gen! Gen was supported by an excellent team which included Shane McGriff, who worked long and hard with me to make sure I had the resources needed to run this race, and Tocarra Hogue, who was a huge help. Thank you both! I want to give a huge thank you to my campaign treasurer, my sister-in-law Katie Joseph, who did a really excellent job of keeping the books and submitting all the correct reports. She got called into work today, but I wanted to make sure to give her the thanks she deserves in public anyway! We also had a number of faithful volunteers who gathered signatures with us, knocked on doors with us, put up signs, organized and worked GOTV, and even stood at the polls on Election Day. The most extraordinary of those are Michele Roberts, Melissa Rodriguez, Peggy Nagle, Richard Gilbertson, who probably knocked on more doors than anyone except Chris and myself! Matt Bold, Mike McGovern, Torrey Hollingsworth, Mike Brill, Loren Ross, Kurt Ostdiek, Chris’ brother Joey Shaw, my cousin Chris Ritchey, Shack Shackelford, Tommy Owens and I’m proud to thank our friends in Labor who were absolutely steadfast in their support from the very start. This list is way too long to name everyone, but there are few who went above and beyond to help us: Tom Ritchie and Diane Walsh from the AFL-CIO, David Cox and many others from the Building Trades, Pete McLinden, Kelley Yeaney and Scotty Thomasson from AFSCME, Greg Gust from the IBEW, Bill Benner and the UFCW, Rob Richardson and the Laborers, John Parry and the IAFF, Greg West from OPCMIA, Mark Terrill from the Plumbers and Pipefitters, Brawny Welch and Rick Perdue from the Sheetmetal Workers, Kevin Frazier from the ATU And there are many others in labor who have been strong supporters of our campaign. I really appreciate all that you all have done for me. Chris and I also had strong support from neighborhood leadership, from local business leaders, and from many others in the community. Many are here today, including Matt Tepper, Gloria White, Mike Schommer, David Greer, Dr. Derrick Forward, and others. Thank you for your support, and for all you do for our community. ----- Speaking of support, I am extraordinarily lucky to have a very supportive family. You saw my mom up here a moment ago, with my little brother Russ and my nephew Eli. Mom, thank you and I love you. I am really just trying my best up here to live and lead like you and Dad taught us. I think people maybe don’t know how much of the service I’m able to provide comes directly from the example you two set for us. Thank you! And Russ, I realize how fortunate I am to have a brother like you, dedicated to public service and determined to make a difference. Thank you for being a sounding board, a reliable advice-giver, and someone who I can always count on. My brother Brad and his family weren’t able to be here, but I want to thank them, too, for their strong support. Again, I know how lucky I am to have family like this. In fact, there is simply no way to do this job with any effectiveness unless you have a family willing to make the required sacrifices. I wince a little when I think about this because I know my family bears the burden of the attention I pay to this job, and the effort I make to build a better city for all of us. I have continually relied on my wife Irena to take on the duties and burdens that most spouses wouldn’t have to, and she’s done it without complaint. I would not be here sitting in this chair without her love and support. Thank you, Irena, I love you! You all saw my kids Niko and Sara up here a little earlier, and I want to thank them, too, for the sacrifices they had to make, especially during the campaign. They are awesome kids, thoughtful, good-natured, and determined and I’m very proud of them. Thank you to you both- I love you! I won’t say too much more, but I want to look back on these last four years for a moment. I believe it would be an understatement to say that these last four years have been eventful. I don’t have to remind you of that. But in the face of all the adversity, there have been some amazing things happening here in Dayton.  We have provided the environment for a huge influx of thousands of new, good- quality jobs for Daytonians! Jobs that range from meatpacking to aerospace engineering, so everyone can work, no matter your experience or education level.  We brought together people from across the community and the political spectrum to come together and plan a real police reform effort that is showing real benefits for citizens and police alike. Thank you to all the city staff, especially the police, who worked so hard on this. Also thank you to my Police Oversight Working group that Brandon McClain and I chaired. They were the nicest group of citizens I could have hoped to spend a pandemic with! :)  We paved miles and miles of roads, including, finally, a nice chunk of Wayne Ave. Thank you, Public Works!   We knocked down hundreds of houses that were beyond repair. Thank you Housing and everyone else involved!  We worked with many awesome partners to reopen the Arcade.  We set a goal for carbon emission reduction for the city and right now we’re ahead of schedule.  We have provided our citizens the option to use green energy in their homes and businesses, at a rate cheaper than the legacy coal, gas, and other sourced energy. We are also starting our journey to an all-electric fleet of vehicles and are working on a dozen other great projects that will enable us to make the transition to clean and sustainable energy while still being considerate of the fact that we are not a rich city. Thank you to our award-winning Sustainability Team, the best in the country!  We have welcomed hundreds of new arrivals from many countries, and we continue to find new ways to bring new residents into the conversation and give them and their children the same chance for success as everyone else. Thank you to Welcome Dayton and the whole Community Engagement team!  We invested millions of dollars in our youngest residents (and future Leaders) funding the Preschool Promise program to make sure our 3 and 4-year-olds have a quality pre-K educational start. The data show that kids who start in our program are doing 25 to 30 percent better than their peers when they start kindergarten. And you know this already, but these and the many, many other great things that have happened and are happening in our city are the direct results of great leadership, not only from Mayor Mims and our commission but from our City Manager, Shelley Dickstein, Deputy City Manager, Joe Parlette and Deputy City Manager, LaShea Lofton. Thank you to you, and to all the staff I haven’t mentioned who have worked so hard under really tough conditions to make the city a better place for all our residents. This includes the Commission staffers who staffed me and did the hard work of keeping my schedule, writing, and researching. Thank you all! I am looking forward to continuing to work in these and in other areas crucial to our development and growth as a city during my next term, and I am thankful for so many partners who are there to help us take advantage of so many opportunities! I can’t claim to know what challenges we will face over the next four years. But I can promise you that I will meet them head-on, with my eyes still firmly fixed on the goals of making our city cleaner and safer, a great place to live and work, and an even greater place for our kids and grandkids after us. We have come a long, long way, but the greatest advancements are still ahead of us. I’m ready to get started on this next term and see where our path takes us. Thank you again for being here today and for your support. Let’s get started!” Commissioner Shaw “Thank you, commissioner, he wasn't kidding he held four years' worth of comments for today it's true and I want to thank him for that because I didn't prepare any remarks, I will echo everything that Commissioner Joseph just said. I do want to thank my wife I could not do this work without her support, and I appreciate her. I want to thank my entire family especially my dad Joe who as many of you know we are in business together. and with the responsibilities that I have at work, I certainly would not be able to do this kind of work without his support and my brother Joe’s continued support. I want to thank many of my other relatives some of which were unable to come today but I just want to thank them so much for all of their love and support over these years. This is a remarkable opportunity to serve the people of the City of Dayton and move our city forward it just takes an entire kind of Clan to come together to help do that work. I want to tell you how much I love you and really appreciate your support. Also, Matt talked about the administration and the folks that we rely on to do a good job we cannot do anything around here without the support of the administration. Thank you, Shelley Dickstein and others, but also the workers who come to work for the City of Dayton every single day to do a good job under very trying circumstances. We're not fully staffed in pretty much any department and they just do the extra effort every single day to keep our city safe and moving forward to keep it clean to provide opportunities for economic development like the commissioner just said um these are remarkable times uh coming through a pandemic and so many other obstacles to growing in the way that we've been able to do not just in terms of people which is very important but to set the stage for development and to create opportunities for all of us both in the city of Dayton but also across this region. This City of Dayton is the economic development driver for our region and I'm just thankful that I've been able to serve during a time of such terrific growth. I want to thank my colleagues up here. We don't often get along all the time, but I do know, that every one of them is committed to the city and believes in the opportunities that we have in the city to grow, I just want to thank you all so very much for the hard work that you provide every day. Thank you to our colleagues who are elected officials in this community which oftentimes includes thankless work. It's difficult being in the public eye but they do this work and serve every single day and I just want to thank them so very much. Thank you, Judge Henderson, for being here and always being available to me to do things like this but also your great counsel and so many others. I talked about the House of Labor, and we just really appreciate you appreciate you being there with us all the time. It is just really comforting to be kind of wrapped in the warm blanket of the House of Labor. It's important and thank you so very much for everything that you do for your workers but also this community we could not do this work without it. I'm going to keep this very short thank you Matt I'm able to do that. The team effort of economic development also workforce investment and development in this community is so important to connect our young people and not-so-young people with these great job opportunities. We will not be able to grow this community without having a well-trained and skilled workforce. Companies just will not come here and invest. Companies will not stay here if we don't have that so I'm just proud of the work that we've been able to do so far in that space and look forward to the things that we will do in the future. Connecting our young people to these great opportunities so I'm going to leave it right there and thank you all very much thanks the voters for trusting me and trusting us to continue to do this work we will not let you down. Thank you to the folks who come down here every week to talk about their issues. That is civic involvement, and our community is not shy about doing that and I want to thank them so much for that as well. Thank you again and we look forward to serving you for the next four years I look forward to working with all of you in the future.” Commissioner Fairchild Commissioner Fairchild congratulated his re-elected colleagues. Commissioner Fairchild said they all know the work and sacrifice that goes into this work. He said he appreciated them for their service and thanked their families as well. He thanked city commission staff, former and present, and city manager staff. He congratulated Commissioner Joseph and Shaw and thanked them for their words. He said they all have a deep desire to serve the City of Dayton. Commissioner Turner-Sloss Commissioner Turner-Sloss congratulated her re-elected colleagues. Commissioner Turner-Sloss thanked their families for their commitment and their selfless acts in lending their loved ones to the City of Dayton. She thanked city staff, labor, residents and elected officials. Mayor Mims Mayor Mims congratulated Commissioners Joseph and Shaw and thanked them for their service. Mayor Mims said, “Ms. Blackshear is there any further order of business to come before this body?” Ms. Blackshear responded that there was none. Mayor Mims thanked those in attendance and invited everyone to a reception in the lobby of City Hall. He called on the Reverend Joshua D. Ward, Senior Pastor, Omega Baptist Church, for the benediction. ADJOURNMENT The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 10:50 a.m. ___________________________________ Jeffrey J. Mims, Jr. Mayor Attest: _____________________________ Clerk of Commission