Committee of the Whole

200 South Hamilton Road City of Gahanna Gahanna, Ohio 43230 Meeting Minutes Committee of the Whole Merisa K. Bowers, Chair Karen J. Angelou Nancy R. McGregor Kaylee Padova Stephen A. Renner Michael Schnetzer Trenton I. Weaver Pam Ripley, Interim Clerk of Council Monday, February 14, 2022 7:00 PM Council Chambers A. CALL TO ORDER Vice President of Council Merisa Bowers called the meeting to order at 6:58 p.m. Bowers added to Section D. Items from Department of Human Resources ORD-0011-2022. B. DISCUSSIONS Facilities Discussion - Tony Collins, President and CEO, YMCA of Central Ohio 2022-0053 YMCA Presentation 2.14.22 Mayor Jadwin introduced from the YMCA of Central Ohio Tony Collins, President & CEO, and Brandi Al-lssa (Braun), Chief Advancement & Strategy Officer. Jadwin shared that the Administration started work on a Facilities Assessment in 2017 which was completed in 2021. The completion of the assessment culminated in a report that was presented to Council in October 2021. The report focused on three facilities, the Police Department, Operations Complex and City Hall. As the assessment was being completed, the contractor was asked to include a discussion and analysis of a Community Recreation Center due to the feedback from residents during the Issue 12 Campaign. The Community Center analysis was not as thoroughly vetted as the other three facilities. The analysis included initial feedback on a Community Recreation Center and identified some potential sites. It did not go into a great deal of depth. Staff had put it to the side, recognizing that it needs further exploration. After that presentation, Collins City of Gahanna Page 1 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes February 14, 2022 reached out to share what the YMCA’s plans are for the facility in Gahanna. The discussion led to potential overlapping interest. The YMCA is looking to potentially expand their Gahanna facility, the City is talking about a Community Recreation Center and the school has been talking about incorporating a Field House into their new plan. We need to explore if there is an opportunity to pool resources, whether it be between the YMCA, the City, and the Schools or even two of those three. There might be an opportunity to ease the burden on the community and enhance offerings for residents. Parks & Recreation Director Stephania Ferrell shared that when the schools released their plans to the community, it was clear that there is a need for additional extracurricular activities. There is a common interest and a potential to pair those together and create something that is very collaborative and brand new in the City. Collins shared the attached presentation. The Gahanna YMCA opened in 2004. The City of Gahanna contributed the land and money for infrastructure. It was a community collaboration to provide community center type services, programing, and connections. The YMCA is a 501c3 Non-Profit and is the second largest run volunteer organization in the world. During the pandemic the YMCA provided housing and shelter at six emergency shelters, they opened four childcare centers in Central Ohio for first responders and health care workers, provided food drops and distributed food in communities. The YMCAs are back open and ready to get people connected again and serve the community. Collins introduced Gahanna YMCA Board Chair David Cepek. Cepek explained the Board is a team of volunteers who provide guidance and direction by aligning the three pillars of YMCA’s Mission: youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility. They align the pillars with the community guiding principles to which the Board aspires, authenticity, collaboration, creativity, and diversity. The Board discusses the programming offered, community partnerships and where the YMCA is aligning with community resources to provide complimentary and not competing programs and services. They talk about physical facilities; community outreach and other organizations they can partner with to expand and enhance the services they can provide. The Gahanna YMCA partners with the Byron Saunders Foundation, Wagons Ho Ho Ho, and GRIN. Collins shared that Gahanna is one of the highest participating YMCAs in central Ohio. The YMCA believes it is time to grow. The region is growing, the pre pandemic space was a challenge. The YMCA is talking to their City of Gahanna Page 2 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes February 14, 2022 community partners to see how they can collaborate. They have also been having discussions with healthcare partners and other entities about collaborations. There are currently four local government partnerships in Central Ohio with year-round agreements that operate in collaboration with the cities. Ferrell shared this is the beginning stages of the conversation. There must be research, fact finding, and site visits. The YMCA has agreed to provide agreements of existing partnerships with those other cities. The Parks & Recreation Master Plan creates a mechanism for a need’s assessment as well as community input and a forum for feedback. Renner thanked Collins for the presentation and for sharing how the YMCA meets the needs of the community. Renner would like Collins or a representative from the YMCA to come again for a deeper discussion on the programs and how residents can get access and information. Renner shared that the community is begging for more recreational opportunities. Renner is very encouraged at the possibilities. Mayor Jadwin thanked Council for allowing time for the presentation. Jadwin shared it is a very preliminary discussion. The city is exploring the options for the community. Bowers shared that she grew up in the YMCA throughout her youth and it had a great impact on her life. She is excited to hear about the growth opportunities, whether it is in partnership with the city or not. Council Rules of Procedure 2022-0024 Council Rules of Procedure. Bowers asked Renner for guidance or updates in regards of communications. Renner shared that it was previously discussed how to handle visitors that cannot attend the meeting to speak during the Hearing of Visitors, but still want to send council their comments. What is the protocol for handling those requests? One suggestion was that they be attached to the minutes. Renner believes that it was collectively decided that the minutes should reflect what happens at the meetings. Council is continuing to search for a way to handle these situations. Bowers said she is aware that there may be some technological options through Granicus that could be explored. At this point she feels that if they City of Gahanna Page 3 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes February 14, 2022 receive correspondence from a constituent, the council member could address it during council comments, or they could request that it be added and discussed at a Committee of the Whole meeting. Bowers has concerns and doesn’t think that correspondence should be added to minutes unless it is an actual topic of discussion or a council member brings it forward for discussion. Weaver wanted to clarify some of his comments from the last committee meeting. He does not believe that every email council receives should be appended to the minutes. He does believe that Rules of Procedure 6.3 does not necessarily reflect the realities of our world. Monday night meetings at 7pm can be prohibitive for individuals who would like to speak before the body and emailing members individually or collectively is not necessarily an adequate substitute. When people come before council, there is a speaker slip. He is aware that there are other communities where the speakers slip can be completed online and maybe that is something that can be pursued. He believes that an option such as that allows an individual to address an agenda item before the public so that it is included in some manner. He is aware of the concerns of his colleagues. He would like to see this issue explored. Bowers said every member of council wants to encourage community participation and engagement. Bowers would like the clerk to survey what other communities are doing and what technology is available to pursue options and what are the best practices. Explore what remedies are available and how members can best field information in an inclusive manner and create records appropriately. McGregor said at the last meeting she was in favor of adding comments to the minutes but not necessarily read. McGregor retracted that statement. The minutes are just that, they are the record of what happened at the meeting. Comments sent via email, text, or mail are not part of what happened at the meeting. How do we verify the comments that are sent in to be attached are from the person who proposed to have sent them in. What if someone sends in comments that are racially offensive or threatens violence or are slanderous and wants it attached to the minutes. Who decides what is appropriate? People may not want to attend a meeting, but council is accessible with emails, phone calls or when out in public. The minutes of the meeting are what happens at the meeting and believes if they are expanded it City of Gahanna Page 4 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes February 14, 2022 will run into a lot of problems. Renner said there are a lot of parallels that he shares with Councilwoman McGregor. He agrees with searching for a technological solution. Emails and comments to council are a matter of public record and he is open to the idea if there is a solution that moves those to a public domain that everybody can access. Regarding Councilman Weaver’s issue if a comment is about an item that council is deliberating; the other side is the random comments received. Council can come up with different rules that differentiates one versus the other. Bowers requested the clerk to fact find the issue. Padova asked if this hadn’t already been done by the previous clerk. Weaver said there was a shortened time span survey and based on the comments maybe the better thought is to do a follow-up with a little more detail into how the use of technology might work. Renner said it is his understanding that the Granicus software does have other features that the city is not using and could be a possibility. Bowers would like a summary and recommendation from the clerk. Schnetzer said he has no opposition in having Council Office look into other technological resources. The agenda has this as a discussion item and asked his colleagues to think about the objective; what is it that they are trying to accomplish. In his eight years of service he has talked to people over the phone and gone to their home to witness the problems they are having. Schnetzer is not sure there is a technological replacement to meeting somebody in person. If the goal is to replicate somebody standing in front of the podium, he doesn’t know that there is technological solution. Renner said there is no way to replace in person, it is part of participatory government. How do we make all the other comments that are coming in via email in a public domain so that anybody can search? They can search the agenda items and minutes, there should be this other thing that they can see what emails are being sent. City of Gahanna Page 5 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes February 14, 2022 Bowers thanked Schnetzer for bringing up the importance of advocacy and that human connection. Maybe we are talking about organization. To Mr. Weavers point, people want their voices to be heard and they want to be acknowledged that their contact was received. What is the better way to organize that rather than just a public record search through an email database? Weaver said rather than submitting a public records request, if someone is trying to get a sense of where other community members stand and other individuals want to submit comments on a particular item then that would be easily searchable. Padova asked if there is a better way to keep track of emails constituents send. She would like that information included in the fact finding. C. ITEMS FROM DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE & ENGINEERING: MT-0004-2022 MOTION AUTHORIZING THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE & ENGINEERING PERMISSION TO BID THE 2022 STREET PROGRAM. Director of Public Service & Engineering Grant Crawford shared the attached pavement program timeline. The first step is rating and evaluating the streets and obtaining an engineer’s estimate. This has been completed and the next step is to compile bid documents, bidding, and resident notification. Construction of the program will be May - August, with substantial completion and punch list of items to be repaired will be August - November. At the one-year warranty point, every street maintained will be re-inspected and produce a one-year punch list. Renner asked if the intention is to bid it out as one package or will it be multiple bids or multiple contracts? Crawford said it is be bid as one contract. Angelou asked how many roads are expected to be complete. Crawford shared the anticipated milage for resurfacing is 5.93, for total rebuild is 1.22 miles. Renner stated he is not sure if this is the right time to ask what characteristics do staff look for when a bid is awarded? The contractor used last year should not be used again. Do staff look at contractors that have a clear DEI statement? The contractor last year did not. Jadwin said that it City of Gahanna Page 6 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes February 14, 2022 could be a discussion item on an upcoming Council Meeting. McGregor asked if the perception was that there were issues and complaints with the last contractor. Crawford said that with any street program and contract you run into challenges and there were issues, but it didn’t seem like a complete failure across the board with the contractor. They worked through some challenges and hope that if that contractor would bid again that they will have learned from the challenges and mistakes of the past. Angelou asked for an example of those challenges. Renner said that the contractor was burying trash and crushing drainage pipes that run to the curb. Bowers thanked the administration for handing the concerns as they came in from residents. We don’t want to repeat some of those same issues from last year. Recommendation: Consent Agenda on 2/21/2022. ORD-0005-2022 SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION - Damage to City Property Director of Public Service & Engineering Grant Crawford stated that the next two items are standard quarterly supplemental requests. Recommended for Introduction on 2/21/2022; Consent Agenda on 3/7/2022. ORD-0006-2022 AN ORDINANCE AUTH O R I Z I N G A SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION - Water Meter Fees. Recommended for Introduction on 2/21/2022; Consent Agenda on 3/7/2022. D. ITEMS FROM DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES: ORD-0007-2022 AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND ORD-0089-2021 AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING THE SALARIES FOR PERSONNEL OF THE CITY OF GAHANNA FOR THE PERIOD JANUARY 1, 2022 THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2022; WAIVE SECOND READING; ADOPT AS EMERGENCY. Director of Administrative Services Miranda Vollmer described the changes in the attached redline version; requesting the waiver and emergency due to needing the position filled right away. The Department of Public Service & Engineering identified the need of a Utility Supervisor be requested in the 2023 budget. There has been an unplanned vacancy in the position of Water Resources Engineer. After an evaluation of the pending workload and the needed skill set it necessitated the need to advance the staff request to this year. The requested addition of the supervisor will serve as the operator of record for the city’s Class ll Water Distribution and will complete all EPA required reports and will assist the superintendent to assign coordinate and supervise the work being completed by the Division of Water and Utilities. City of Gahanna Page 7 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes February 14, 2022 McGregor asked if this position replaces the Water Resources Engineer. Vollmer said it is in addition to the Water Resources Engineer. Mayor Jadwin said it is a division of duties. Bowers asked if the Water Resources Engineer position is being filled? Vollmer said the application period closed on February 13, 2022 and interviews will begin soon. Crawford explained that when they were seeking to fill the position last time, what we were requesting and wanting to see was not something that you would find in the industry. Primarily because you have a lot of engineers, you have a lot of utility operators, professional, Ohio EPA Class ll operators, but you don’t have a combination of both. We were lucky with the last Water Resources Engineer even though he did not have the licensure, he was so skilled and had been in engineering for so many years that he taught himself how to do some of those tasks and Crawford fulfilled the role of the EPA Operator. We are not going to be able to find someone that has both licensures. We need the Ohio EPA required operator. Also, the field staff have always lacked a supervisor that can direct their operations. We have a foreman who is fulfilling some of the EPA duties and is also an operator of record in the union that is overseeing the water distribution system. We ask that person, who is not a supervisor, to supervise but they do not have the power to supervise. This position will help support both operations. Bowers asked how this impacts the budget that was approved. Crawford said he doesn’t expect the supplemental appropriation to impact the budget. Vollmer said it is not out of the General Fund. Recommendation: Introduction/First Reading/Waive Second Reading/Adopt as Emergency on Regular Agenda on 2/21/2022. ORD-0011-2022 AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND ORD-0088-2021 AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN A SECOND EXTENSION AGREEMENT FOR THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE (FOP) - OHIO LABOR COUNCIL(OLC) COLLECTIVE BARGAINING UNIT CONTRACT; WAIVE SECOND READING; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. Director of Administrative Services Miranda Vollmer described the changes in the attached redline version; requesting the waiver and emergency for it to be executed prior to February 26, 2022. Negotiations are still ongoing with the FOP OLC and the extension on the contract is set to expire on February 26,2022. Due to scheduling and COVID issues it is not likely that an agreement will be reached prior to February 26, 2022. The request for the second extension runs through September 26, 2022 at the latest. If in September, the two parties do not have a mutual agreement it will force the city and union into fact finding. Recommendation: Introduction/First Reading/Waive Second Reading/Adopt as Emergency on Regular Agenda on 2/21/2022. E. ITEMS FROM DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE: ORD-0008-2022 AN ORDINANCE TO REPEAL AND REPLACE PART 1 ADMINISTRATIVE CODE, CHAPTER 135 DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ENGINEERING, SECTIONS 135.03 TO 135.08 AND City of Gahanna Page 8 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes February 14, 2022 REPLACE WITH PART 1 ADMINISTRATIVE CODE, CHAPTER 133 DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE, SECTION 133.02, OF THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF GAHANNA. Director of Finance Joann Bury said all three action items are related to a recommended new procurement policy. Bury summarized the Procurement Policy recap. The reason for the amended procurement ordinance is the federal funding requirements. The current policy does not contain the requirements outlined in the Federal Uniform Guidance. The City did receive a management letter comment from the auditors in 2020 regarding this. These changes will address the audit comment also. The updated policy provides clarification and consistency. Everyone interprets the current policy a little differently and it has caused some confusion and inconsistencies. This change will align with current operations. The amendments include adopting the Federal Uniform Requirements also adopted the Federal Acquisition regulation thresholds. Bury is proposing the maximum federal threshold. The current policy includes petty cash; it is an easy way to reimburse employees for small out-of-pocket expenses. The current policy allows for reimbursements up to $20 from petty cash. Bury is proposing an allowable reimbursement from petty cash up to $100. The micro purchase is currently allowable for $1,000 - $3,000 and requires obtaining a purchase order. Under the new policy the micro purchase falls under the federal acquisition regulations up to $10,000 and requires a purchase order. The small purchase threshold has a couple components; it is above the small purchase amount; it is more than $10,000. If it is required to be bid, it would be up to $50,000. If it isn’t required to go through the sealed bid procedures, it would go up to $250,000, following the federal regulations and would require getting an adequate number of quotes from respective suppliers and vendors. Anything that is more than $250,000 and meets one of the exemptions would have to go through a competitive proposal process where various scoring methods would be used then recommended to council. Proper public purpose is not in the current policy. Any purchase that the city makes should be for a proper public purpose and that needs stated to meet state code. Schnetzer asked for examples of when, or what sort of items would be procured that would require using petty cash. Bury said normally at an off site training, there are allowable expenses for a meal or parking fees. Schnetzer asked if the dollar amount is from the federal uniform guidance. Bury said it is not address in the guidance it is based on the cost of doing business today and is too low in her professional judgment. Jadwin said the presentation for the Procurement Policy is meant to be a starting point for dialogue. It is a very involved policy that needs reviewed and discussed. The city receives federal funds and needs to have a policy that follows federal guidelines. City of Gahanna Page 9 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes February 14, 2022 Bowers asked if the $250,000 threshold is the federal guidance number and do, they distinguish between budget sizes or municipal budget sizes? Bury said they do not, they updated all the thresholds a couple of years ago. They found their thresholds were low based on the current cost of doing business. They require local governments or those that receive federal funding have these thresholds; we don’t necessarily have to reach the maximums they are laying out. Renner thanked Bury and the Mayor for the presentation and for allowing time for further discussion. Recommendation: Introduction/First Reading/ on 2/21/2022/Back to Committee on 2/28/2022. ORD-0009-2022 AN ORDINANCE TO REPEAL AND REMOVE PART 1 ADMINISTRATIVE CODE, CHAPTER 133 DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE, SECTION 133.02 VENDING MACHINE INCOME OF THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF GAHANNA. Recommendation: Introduction/First Reading/ on 2/21/2022/Back to Committee on 2/28/2022. ORD-0010-2022 AN ORDINANCE TO ADOPT PART 1 ADMINISTRATIVE CODE, CHAPTER 133 DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE, SECTION 133.02 PURCHASING PROCEDURES OF THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF GAHANNA. Recommendation: Introduction/First Reading/ on 2/21/2022/Back to Committee on 2/28/2022. F. ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned at 8:46 p.m. City of Gahanna Page 10