Committee of the Whole

City of Groveport 655 Blacklick St. Groveport, OH 43125 614.830.2052 www.groveport.org . Meeting Minutes Monday, September 18, 2023 5:30 PM Council Chambers Committee of the Whole Mayor Lance Westcamp Council Members - Jean Ann Hilbert, Ed Dildine, Shawn Cleary, Becky Hutson, Scott Lockett & Jack Rupp Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 I. Call to Order Committee Chair Hilbert called the Committee of the Whole meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Staff Present: BJ King - Administrator, Jason Carr - Finance Director, Casey Adams - Chief of Police, Brian Strayer - Public Service Director, Trevor Swackhamer - Director of Information Technology, Steve Farst - City Engineer, Anna Krigbaum - Senior Accountant, Jason Cooper - Accounting Clerk, Mindy Kay - Clerk of Council Guests Present: The Guest Book is on file with the Clerk of Council. II. Moment of Silence Committee Chair Hilbert asked everyone to join her in a moment of silence. III. Pledge of Allegiance Chief Adams led the Pledge of Allegiance. IV. Roll Call Present: 6 - Cleary,Dildine,Hilbert,Hutson,Lockett, and Rupp V. Approval of Minutes The August 21, 2023 Committee of the Whole Minutes stand approved as submitted. #192-2023 August 21, 2023 COTW Minutes Attachments: COTW Minutes 8.21.2023.pdf VI. Business of Guests A. Madison Township Fire Chief Robinson #193-2023 MTFD Monthly Report Attachments: MTFD Monthly Report.pdf B. State Auditor Awards - Scott Brown Scott Brown introduced himself as the Central Ohio Liaison to the State City of Groveport Page 1 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 Auditor and said it is his honor to be here to present Groveport with the Auditor of State Award with Distinction. He said that this award puts Groveport in a very select group. The Auditor’s office audits nearly six thousand entities every year and less than four percent are actually eligible for this award. The Auditor of State Award with Distinction is presented to local governments and school districts upon the completion of fiscal audit that meet these criteria to be considered a clean audit report. The entity must file financial reports with the Auditor’s Office by the statutory due date without extension on a gap accounting basis and prepare a comprehensive annual financial report. The audit report must not contain any findings for recovery, material citations, material weaknesses, significant deficiency, uniform guidance findings, or other questioned costs. The entity must have no other financial or other concerns from our office. This award represents the hard work of all of the City of Groveport’s employees and financial staff who make every effort each day to attain accounting excellence. He recognized Council, Administration and the Finance Department who have done an outstanding job watching over every dollar. He then specifically recognized Finance Director Jason Carr for his leadership, professionalism, and exceptional commitment to fiscal integrity. Mr. Brown presented the City of Groveport with the Auditor of State Award with Distinction. Finance Director Jason Carr thanked Mr. Brown on behalf of the City of Groveport and stated that without Anna Krigbaum and Jason Cooper this award would not be possible. Council Member Cleary commented on what a great distinction this is. Mr. Brown said it is and when you say four percent of six thousand, it is a very difficult award to get. Once you get it, it’s easy to maintain. Administrator King stated that Avery Ward came to speak about the traffic on Raver and Hickory Alleys. City Engineer Steve Farst and Public Service Director Brian Strayer are here to talk about the request that we’ve received about one-way traffic. When we talked about it in August, we committed to coming back to Council in September at the Committee Meeting. Mr. King said he did let both of the parties know that this would be discussed this evening. VII. New Business VIII. Unfinished Business IX. Ordinances and Resolutions A. 3rd Readings City of Groveport Page 2 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 Ord. 2023-035 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NUMBER 2020-023 ESTABLISHING CREDIT/DEBIT CARD CONVENIENCE FEES FOR PAYMENTS RECEIVED BY THE UTILITY DEPARTMENT AND THE DECLARATION OF AN EMERGENCY Sponsors: Hilbert Administrator King informed Council that this would establish a 3.00% flat rate for credit card convenience fees for the Utility Department. It’s only specific to the Utility Department at this time. Right now, the rate can range from 3.75 to 6.00%. This would cap it, so it will be no more and no less than 3.00%. Finance Director Carr said that attached to his report is a slide presentation that was provided by a company called Paya. They gave a presentation at one of our meetings for financial software. One of the things about this software is there will be a portal that allows citizens to have more control over their accounts. They will be able to see their payment history and have control over certain features without having to call the City. It will show their current bill, previous bills, different types of payment links, and a way to contact the City if need be. Not only is it a flat fee, it also provides enhanced features for residents to have access and control over their accounts. Council member Dildine asked when this will go live. Mr. Carr said that in the next meeting, he will probably request Council to waive the thirty-day referendum period. If that’s the case, Mr. King can sign the contract the following day. Hopefully by December 1st it will be operational. Mr. Dildine inquired if it will be 3.00% no matter which payment option they choose, to which Mr. Carr replied yes. He said there’s about a $1.50 charge if you use ACH, but we have an option we can use for residents where we can upload their payments and bill them directly. He added that Rittman, OH also uses this program and that he spoke to the Finance Director to see how the transition worked for his residents. A lot of their problem was on the finance side, just the conversion from one software to the other. They haven’t had many challenges from the user standpoint. Mr. Carr said he believes this is the better option, not only for the fee being charged but also the software itself. Mr. Cleary wanted to clarify that this is just the Utility Department. Mr. Carr said that is correct, and we will roll it out to Mayor’s Court. It is up to Mayor Westcamp to make that decision if he wants to make that change. It would also apply to Building and Zoning, but that department just switched software. It will be compatible but it’s not ready at this time. He added that hopefully by the end of this year he can get a better timeline on Building and Zoning getting converted to this software as well. Mr. Cleary mentioned the Golf Course and said that it would make the most sense to have everyone in the software. Mr. Carr City of Groveport Page 3 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 agreed and said the problem is the Golf Course software is unique to itself with its tee times and other things. Also, the Rec Center and how they do their process and doing more online things with passes. That’s more focused on their software. So, we can’t get all the software on the same page, but we can at least make the convenience fee the same across all departments. Mr. Cleary speculated if we were able to get all departments on the same software, we could maybe get the convenience fee dropped down to 2.5%. Mr. Carr stated that it’s also based on the dollar amount of the transaction and has not been able to get the company to go lower than 2.9%. If we’re going to approach that, it won’t be this year. it would have to be when the other software contracts have to be renewed. A motion was made by Council Member Hutson, seconded by Council Member Dildine, to recommend approval to the City Council. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 6- Cleary,Dildine,Hilbert,Hutson,Lockett, and Rupp B. 2nd Readings Ord. 2023-036 AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE ADMINISTRATOR TO PURCHASE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE UNDER THE OMNIA PARTNERS GROUP COOPERATIVE PURCHASE PLAN THROUGH INSIGHT PUBLIC SECTOR THEREBY WAIVING COMPETITIVE BIDDING PURSUANT TO GROVEPORT CITY CHARTER SECTION 9.02(B) Sponsors: Lockett Administrator King reported that in the 2023 budget, there’s $175,000 to begin phase one of updating our technology network for the City. Right now, we have servers in different locations. Some aren’t on backup, some are protected by generators. This would allow us to take a step towards combining everything into three servers and housing it at the Police Department, which has a generator backup, so it would be easier for us to get up and running if something was to ever happen. Director of Information Technology Trevor Swackhamer informed Council that right now we have servers at the Municipal Building, Rec Center, and Police Department. Everything is spread out and each server does its own thing, so if any one of those servers were to fail, it’s basically out of commission. If we consolidate everything at the Police Department with the platform we’ve chosen to go with we can stay operational. There’s going to be a great deal of time in getting the operating systems put in place. This $175,000 will go toward that, the firewall, and into implementation services. Everything else will be done City of Groveport Page 4 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 next year. Mr. Cleary inquired that with this will come ultimate security, especially with the firewall. Mr. Swackhamer said we are putting in extra measures. We’re also looking at what we can do to combat spam emails and are doing everything we can to protect our infrastructure. Mr. Rupp asked if we had looked into contracting another company for housing our data, as well as the cost of equipment versus housing with a company that will provide security and space. Mr. Swackhamer said he had looked at the models in going the cloud-based route and it is actually significantly more expensive. It is more efficient to keep everything on the premises. We are using low cost cold storage. Mr. Rupp asked how often our date reconciles with what’s in the cloud, to which Mr. Swackhamer replied that we do nightly backups. A motion was made by Council Member Lockett, seconded by Council Member Cleary, to recommend approval to the City Council. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 6- Cleary,Dildine,Hilbert,Hutson,Lockett, and Rupp X. Financial Report Finance Director Carr referenced the year-to-date August 2023 Financial Report and stated that income tax collections were $479,281 less than the same period last year, however, we’re still 8% higher year-to-date at about $1.2 million. We collected 83% of the income tax budget, which is ahead of the straight-line percentage of 67%. We currently have 24.7 million under investment, which interest income is about $390,000. We are still capturing the short-term interest rate, as our years to maturity is still less than one year. The reason for the decrease between the two periods is on the withholding side. This would lead one to believe that there are fewer employees having their income withheld at some of the warehouses and so forth. That would probably be a large factor on the change. #194-2023 Financial Report Attachments: Financial Report.pdf XI. Other Business XII. Reports A. Mayor - Lance Westcamp Mayor Westcamp expressed how we blew KidsFest out of the park again this year. He and Council commented on how popular the animals City of Groveport Page 5 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 are. He said he can’t believe how the company can put all those animals in a pin and they all get along. He added that the kids as well as the adults enjoyed the event and gave kudos to Madison-Township for bringing their big trucks and equipment in. What a great day to showcase everything. He went on to report that we have Police interviews this week. Chief Adams and Personnel Director Joyce Myers have lined up four candidates and we will need to hire two. B. Administrator - BJ King Administrator King updated Council on some projects. The paving at the Golf Course has been wrapped up and looks fantastic. Also, the tennis court repairs should be completed this week with painting. KidsFest was a tremendous time. It was fun to play a game and help kids win a pair of sunglasses. We gave out about 300 pairs that day. He went on to the Raver Alley & Hickory Alley discussion. When we were first approached about this, there was a discussion about trucks being the issue. Delivery trucks were going up and down Raver Alley. We did a model, as previously shown, showing if different sized trucks went different ways, what the impact would be to private and public property. There are impacts to any of those turning radiuses. Then, the problem was cars going down through there, stopping and speeding. Chief Adams is aware of that and has taken a look at it. Mr. King said what he’d like to accomplish tonight, if possible, is just some closure. There can’t be a vote on this tonight but maybe some direction on what we should do and what Council’s desires are for this. He added that Mr. Strayer and Mr. Farst are here to answer any technical questions there may be as it involves traffic flow and turning radius. At this time, it would be appropriate to hear from Mr. Ward. 1. Raver Alley & Hickory Alley Discussion Avery Ward Mr. Ward thanked Council for the opportunity to speak. He said he had listened to the minutes from the July Committee of the Whole meeting and there were a couple things that were shared that were enlightening to him. He had sent an email to the members of Council and appreciated Mrs. Hutson’s reply back. He went on to say that the one-way street change that was proposed was abruptly eye opening and scary to think that this kind of discussion can occur without him hearing it through the grapevine. First and foremost, the individual who brought it up, Mr. White, lives behind us and has had numerous interactions with myself, my staff, and our company online via social media. There have been numerous City of Groveport Page 6 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 negative comments and even a threat against one of our employees that we kind of brushed off as something not needing any kind of Police presence or response. Nonetheless, he is an individual who has been on our radar for quite some time. A few years ago, there was an order that they had placed and we made a mistake and sent them an item we should not have sent them. We made it right, apologized, gave them a refund and everything was fine. He continued to order. One time he ordered a pizza and it was too spicy for him. We made it right and re-sent a pizza, and during that phone call there was an abrupt hang-up. Since then there have been no other interactions other than comments on social media that have been ignored. He said he heard when this issue was coming to Council and we’re discussing directional changes, entrance changes, and so on because of his delivery trucks, he had asked all of his vendors to stop going up the alley, if possible. He said to his knowledge, they have either stopped or have taken a different route. He told Council he wanted to share that information to shed a light behind the motivations where this may be coming from. He then addressed a few of the concerns that Mr. White had raised during the July meeting, of alleged cars going down the alley and being perceived as to intentionally looking into his yard and his property. He said it’s important to note that on Raver Alley between Main Street all the way to Elm, there are two stop signs along the length of his property. One at Hickory and one at Elm. In the distance between those two stop signs, it is virtually impossible for a car to not go the speed limit, or to go fast enough to not be perceived as looking over. He said whether or not there are cars racing down the alley way, he cannot comment. Also, there was a speed device set up there and that he does not know the results of. He reiterated that it is important to note that there are two stop signs and you can’t physically go that fast there. Mr. Ward then highlighted the layout of the streets and entrances. He informed Council that he partnered with a professional Engineer, his design company and the City’s design company to design the entrances and exits for the property. If we are to discuss any kind of one-way, we have to think about the greater impact it will have, to not only our property but the entire traffic flow of Main Street at College, Main Street at Raver Alley, and Hickory at College. If Raver Alley becomes a one-way Southbound, cars will no longer be able to enter our parking lot from Main Street. That would cause a significant backup along College Street of people trying to turn left onto Hickory. Mr. Dildine assured Mr. Ward that it was discussed and that had been taken off the table. He added that it was decided that Raver Alley would maintain a two-way from Main to Hickory. Mr. Ward went on to address another topic of discussion from the July meeting, being delivery loading zones possibly changing. Due to the design and layout of the building, deliveries come in from the back City of Groveport Page 7 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 entrance. They could park on Main Street, use a ramp and hand truck it to the side door, however they would have to go into Main Street traffic. Our front door cannot accept any deliveries, as there is not enough clearance anywhere in order to get into the kitchen. He then said as it is, there have not been any complaints on traffic flow or any wrecks to his knowledge, and that traffic entering and exiting seems to go smooth. Removing any entrance is concerning and he wants to understand the full traffic implementations. He said regardless of how we change it, there will still be vehicles passing by Mr. White’s house. Mrs. Hutson mentioned her email reply to Mr. Ward and said that when Mr. White and his wife were here they were very upset. She said she wants to make sure that all residents are taken care of and told Mr. ward that she sat in his parking lot for about an hour to an hour and a half on a Wednesday night. On Thursday she went down Raver Alley and drove in and out different ways. She stated that whatever she said in the July meeting she definitely takes back. Raver Alley is very tight; however, it is not theirs. It is a public throughway, and she doesn’t see any problem with it at all. As far as the deliveries, you have to get that merchandise in there the best way you can. She said she thinks whichever works best for Mr. Ward is the way it has to be. Mr. Ward then informed Council that they were receiving deliveries six days a week and have since cut it down to two days a week from their primary food service vendor to try and consolidate the amount of times these vehicles are coming in and out. He said we also made some logistical changes to store more merchandise up higher in the kitchen. The amount of trucks should be substantially less. Mrs. Hutson stated we just needed to give it all time to wind down and for everybody to get comfortable. She added that she appreciates all the business and the gave kudos on the food and the service. Mr. Ward said that it’s awesome to see that Council and other people in the City have proven by how busy business has been, how much people support them. Council Member Lockett addressed Administrator King and said we need to look at the numbers that were generated by the speed detection device. Chief Adams reported that we had the device on Hickory Alley, catching the cars off College going toward Center Street, for fourteen days and it captured 1,702 vehicles. So, on the average day 121 vehicles used Hickory Alley. The average speed was 8.97mph on Hickory Alley. The fastest car recorded was 20mph. peak ties were 10am to 9pm. On Raver Alley north of Hickory Alley, for fourteen days, it captured 693 cars. About 49.5 cars were using Raver Alley coming off Main and going north daily. The average speed on Raver was 12.62mph, the fastest was 33mph. The peak times on Raver Alley were 11am to 8pm and 82% were going north off of Main into Raver and 18 going south on Raver. Mr. Lockett said that paints a better picture of what’s going on City of Groveport Page 8 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 there. Mrs. Hilbert stated the only problem she’s seen is when she was trying to turn in and a car was going the wrong way on Hickory. Chief Adams confirmed the data showed that fourteen percent of the cars do go the wrong way on Hickory Alley. Mrs. Hilbert suggested posting a one-way sign on the corner of the parking lot, as there is not currently a sign there. Mr. Ward suggested a do not enter sign there, to which Council agreed that would be a good idea. Mr. Dildine asked City Engineer Steve Farst what he sees from an Engineer’s standpoint. Mr. Farst informed Council that he had arranged for an evaluation on turning radius called Auto Turn. It looks at the wheel path and vehicle path of different sized trucks. He said it gives you an idea and can’t say it’s precise because in reality, it depends on the skill of the driver. In almost every size the path of these vehicles would extend beyond right- of-way in trying to navigate the turn going north on Raver and turning to go west on Hickory. They are forced to go left because Hickory is one-way westbound, and based on the proposed south-bound only on Raver at Hickory. Trees could be impacted on private property, wheels could go off the pavement, and there’s a utility pole at the south-west corner that could be impacted and potentially become a safety issue because of the electrical wires. He stated that this is the typical tool you use for site design. In fact, we require this tool on all of our development sites in the plan review process. The other factor is if we switched things around and direct all traffic merging to go west on Hickory, now you’re shifting impact to another area. There’s a consequence to that, with possibly more complaints to the west and then vehicles trying to turn to another location. He then commented that the speed data collected is great data to have. Mr. Rupp inquired if we looked at changing the direction of one alley, should we not look at the other adjacent alleys to see how that effects the direction. And, should directions be changed possibly in a larger grid than just one alley? He expressed his concern about a pattern or a precedent being set that we might not want to set. Administrator King said what we don’t want to have happen is individuals trying to address individual concerns. We’ve talked about doing a traffic study on all the alleys but wanted to wait until the businesses were up and running to see what impact they have. He added that what Mr. Farst presented has to do with the delivery trucks. With cars right now, there isn’t an issue with turning radius. Are there a lot of cars? Yes. But we also have almost double the number of cars traveling on Hickory, which tells me they’re leaving Little Italy and not going north. Mr. Farst stated it’s physically designed to aim them that direction on Hickory. Mayor Westcamp addressed Mr. Ward and said one of the concerns was the time the dumpster was emptied, but he probably has no control over that. Mr. Ward said he has zero control over that, and that he and City staff reached out to the company to no avail. They come three times a week but he’s never physically seen them come. He looked City of Groveport Page 9 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 at footage one week and it came between 3am to 5:30am three different times. Mr. Dildine said that timing makes sense because they want to avoid traffic going in and out of these businesses where space is tight. Mr. King stated that whenever you have a commercial property in a residential area, it’s just going to happen. Those commercial pickups are early. He has had complaints before, but it’s the trash company’s business model to get there early. Mr. Lockett said he knows we’re not going to vote on this, but his personal inclination is that we’ve got two sets of Engineers look at this in a very detailed way, and they made their recommendations. We have the data from the Police device, also providing us information. He said in his opinion we should just leave everything as is, because it seems to be working for everybody except one. Mr. King agreed that a decision should not be made by Council based on one’s personality, but by what’s best for the community. He said stats show that people are traveling the way they’re supposed to and Mr. Ward has taken steps to limit the number of delivery trucks that are coming on a weekly basis. A lot of time and work has been put into this. Mr. Dildine said he put a business in that borders two alleys and two main thoroughfares. It’s in a unique spot for traffic flow. He added that he thinks there does need to be a comprehensive traffic study for the entire city done sooner rather than later. We’ve been talking about it for years and it needs to be done. Mr. King agreed and said that he had talks with Mr. Farst about how to keep people on the main routes. Mr. Dildine said he knows it’s not an overnight process but it needs to get started. We’re trying to lure business into town and we need to make sure we have the traffic flow to be able to do that. Mr. Rupp inquired how quickly we could have a traffic study done. Mr. Farst replied that we would engage a consultant, who would bring in their traffic team. We would have to be very strategic about when to collect the data. A lot of times you want to take it during a school year, in fact, we’re set up to do that right now for some intersections on Wirt Road. The actual data collection is not time consuming, but it depends on how many you’re going to do. Then you have to process the information and develop materials to present it. He estimated the process from start to finish would take a couple of months. We need to establish a study area first. Mr. Dildine said he’s thinking the downtown area, from Hendren Road to Front Street. Council agreed. He stated that is 99% of our one-ways and alleys. The other areas take care of themselves to a degree because of intersections that have already been done, lights have already been put up, etc. Mrs. Hutson agreed and said our goal is to have more businesses coming in. Mr. Farst said that businesses also look at that data to determine how many cars are going by a site. He added that our traffic volume now is bouncing back and approaching the volume we saw before Covid. There’s generally a linear growth, especially on the west side of 317 where there’s been a 4% increase of traffic. Council further discussed areas of increased traffic City of Groveport Page 10 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 around the City. Mr. Farst concluded the discussion by saying that MORPC contains a database of traffic counts and we can go with that resource, but for our own local streets he thinks a traffic study is best, especially when the roundabout is finished and schools are in session. Joellen Stebelton Joellen Stebelton spoke in regards to the traffic study. She said she would like to respectfully disagree with Mr. Dildine on the scope of the traffic study because she thinks it needs to be broader than that. From a residents’ point of view, we need to incorporate everything from at least 317 and Groveport Road to Wirt Road. She said traffic should be directed to 317 as a main entrance into the City, as opposed to coming in on Hendren or College. She suggested changing light sequences or extending the left turn lane so that people could get into Groveport more easily. She says if you start too small with a traffic study, you limit yourself to the possibilities of what you might end up having to do in another few years. We should have a larger master study and we can address the issues as we are able to afford them. We should at least have the broader study done so we can have a focused plan for the whole City. Mr. Cleary said this is going to be huge because we have a thousand apartments going in north of 33 on Ebright. All that traffic is going to feed off of Ebright, which leads right into Groveport. Mr. Rupp added that they will either go to Kroger or Giant Eagle. Mrs. Stebelton then said she personally thinks we need to get traffic to enter and exit Groveport from 317, as it would help with some of the issues on College. That’s a congested area and all those people are turning onto Hickory Alley. That’s a lot of traffic for that area and that might need to be addressed, maybe by making it a more substantial road. Mr. King said he plans to get with Mr. Farst tomorrow and talk to our consultant as well. It’s a big study but he is sure they’ve undertaken such things before. He said he’d like to learn more about it, have that conversation, and report back to Council the results of that conversation. C. Director of Law - Kevin Shannon D. Director of Finance - Jason Carr Finance Director Carr shared that we renewed our liability insurance premium. We are still a member of the Central Ohio Risk Management Association. Our costs did go down, which is primarily attributed to the fact that we had lower claims, and the City of Hilliard and City of Gahanna were added to the pool. That decreased our percentage and we saw a savings of about $32,000. We also just renewed with our City of Groveport Page 11 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 Cyber Insurance, where we saw a 17% increase. So, part of the process of what we’re doing with the server project that Mr. Swackhamer spoke about tonight is also to make us have the ability to address some of the deficiencies or reasons why we may not score the high level related to how the Cyber Insurance premium is scored. That is another benefit of that project, and getting it implemented and in place in a timely manner will also help us save money in the long run. Mr. Cleary asked about all the banks that we have investments in and wanted to know the reason why we have so many, and not grouped into one with a larger amount to draw more interest. Mr. Carr said for example, the FDIC insurance limit is $250,000. So, we are able to invest in negotiable certificates of deposit, which is below that individual $250,000 level. That FDIC level applies per bank, not by total. If we would have all of our investments with one bank that would also change the security or collateralization behind remaining deposits outside of FDIC. That’s related to the CDs. Anything related to the federal government is full faith and credit of the US Government so it’s automatically secured. Commercial Paper is zero coupon so you buy that at a discount and it eventually matures over time. #195-2023 Finance Director Report Attachments: Finance Director Report 9.18.2023.pdf E. Chief of Police - Casey Adams Chief Adams reported that he spoke to Lieutenant Short on Saturday at KidsFest and asked how the football game went Friday night. He said it was the quietest game he’s worked in the past ten years. Chief Adams said he’s thankful to Upper Arlington for sending three officers down per mutual aid agreement, and their Chief expressed appreciation for inviting his department down. He then referred to the student counts at the Elementary and Middle Schools. It was a hand count of the Wirt Road crossing at Main as well as the Municipal lot crossing toward where the baseball diamonds are. We have a lot of parents parking there. This may be contributed by the roundabout construction. The parents are coming from Fairchild Estates, Three Rivers, and other communities to bring their kids because of the bussing situation. In the morning at main and front there were seventeen kids crossing, at Wirt Road crossing there were twenty-five kids. In the afternoon there were eleven at Main and Front and twenty-nine at Wirt Road. We still have a lot of people parking at Ace Hardware and crossing directly across because it’s the shortest walk, instead of going to the crosswalk. Mrs. Hilbert inquired if the no parking sign in the fire lane is being ignored. City of Groveport Page 12 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 Chief Adams said he goes out and talks to the parents about using the pickup and drop-off area and is trying to work with the school to make sure parents are not getting out of their vehicles. He said they’re not out for thirty seconds, they’re in the school for ten to fifteen minutes because they’re coming in late and have to check their student in, and want to use the fire lane to do it. Mrs. Hilbert said she knows that tickets have been given out there before. Chief Adams confirmed they have and added that he got new signs that say pickup and drop-off only. #196-2023 PD Council Report Attachments: PD Council Report.pdf F. Economic Development Director G. Public Services Director - Brian Strayer Public service Director Strayer informed Council that the parks department staff has been replacing playground equipment at Blacklick Park. It’s been down for a while. They have all of the play gym set put together and up. They’re working on the final restoration, then they will be replacing the swings as well. He said they’ve done a heck of a nice job and wanted to commend them for that. Administrator King gave kudos to Mr. Strayer and his staff for all of the new waste receptacles that were at KidsFest. There are now garbage and recycling throughout such events thanks to Mr. Strayer’s collaboration with SWACO. #197-2023 PS Council Report Attachments: PS Council Report.pdf H. Chief Building Official - Stephen Moore #198-2023 B&Z Council Report Attachments: B&Z Council Report.pdf I. Director of Golf - Tom Walker #199-2023 GOLF Council Report Attachments: GOLF Council Report.pdf J. Recreation Director - Seth Bowers City of Groveport Page 13 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 #200-2023 REC Council Report Attachments: REC Council Report.pdf K. Community Affairs Director - Jessica Wyke #201-2023 CA Council Report Attachments: CA Council Report.pdf L. City Engineer - Steve Farst #202-2023 ENG Council Report Attachments: ENG Council Report.pdf M. Director of Transportation / Senior Services - Bob Dowler #203-2023 DOT Council Report Attachments: DOT Council Report.pdf N. Personnel Director / Human Resources - Joyce Myers #204-2023 HR Council Report Attachments: HR Council Report.pdf O. Director of Information Technology - Trevor Swackhamer #205-2023 IT Council Report Attachments: IT Council Report.pdf P. Clerk of Council - Mindy Kay Q. Council Members - Jean Ann Hilbert, Ed Dildine, Shawn Cleary, Becky Hutson, Scott Lockett and Jack Rupp Council Member Rupp said he attended the School Board Meeting last week and they recognized a citizen from Canal Winchester and a number of staff who were able to intervene and identify individuals who had weapons. The one citizen was able to chase one individual down, City of Groveport Page 14 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes September 18, 2023 tackle them and hold them there until an officer arrived. He then said he was impressed with their new Finance personnel and some of the areas of cost savings that he found, and as he is starting to prepare information for the tax levy. Mr. Rupp said one of the things he was able to determine was as far as levies passed, in the last thirty years we’ve actually only passed two operating levies. One of the levies in 1991 was renewed in 2012 but it was still the first operating levy. The second was in 2014 and was renewed in 2019. Issue 14 will be on the ballot and it should collect about $6.3 million annually. If it fails, in the first year the school would see a loss of about half of that. In two years, they would see a loss in the whole $6.3 million. On a safety standpoint, they did receive a state grant for security so they’re completing vestibules at all the schools. Mr. Dildine stated he was absent at the last meeting due to his attendance at the 9/11 ceremony. He said he appreciates the City of Groveport’s support with their attendance, and the 21-gun salute from PD. Without the support of the Township, the City, and the Fire Department that event could not happen. There was an estimated 350-400 people there. XIII. Adjournment Council Member Cleary made a motion, seconded by Council Member Dildine, to adjourn at 6:49 p.m. All in favor stated AYE, None Opposed. Motion passed. __________________________________________ Jean Ann Hilbert, President Pro Tem __________________________________________ Mindy Kay Clerk of Council PLEASE NOTE: THESE MINUTES ARE NOT VERBATIM. A RECORDING OF THE MEETING IS AVAILABLE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE DURING REGULAR BUSINESS HOURS. City of Groveport Page 15