City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 1. Call to Order: 2. Opening Prayer: Rev. Jim Case, Tallmadge Lutheran Church. Pledge of Allegiance: 3. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Pletcher, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino – present. Mr. Pavlik was excused. 4. Correcting and Adopting Previous Meeting Minutes 6-26-25 Meeting Minutes Mrs. Epstein moved to approve the 6-28-25 Council meeting minutes. Seconded Mr. Roy. Roll Call: Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Pletcher, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. The 6-26-25 Council meeting minutes were approved by a vote of 6-0. 5. Financial Reports: • Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $219,000, Street Maintenance & Repair Fund Transfer in the amount of $218,000 and Bond Retirement Fund in the amount of $100,000 to Council on 6-30-25. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report and Revenue Report for the period ending 6-30-25 to Council on 7-7-25. • June Financial Reports to Council on 7-7-25. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 6-30-25 to Council on 7-7-25. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 6-30-25 to Council on 7-7-25. • Income Tax by Source Report for the month of June to Council on 7-7-25. • Revenue Comparisons for Major Funds for the period ending 6-30-25 to Council on 7-7-25. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 6-30-25 to Council on 7-7-25. Mrs. Cipa moved to accept the Financial Reports submitted by the Dir. of Finance. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Roll Call: Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Pletcher, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Cipa – unanimous. The Financial Reports were accepted by a vote of 6-0. 6. Public Hearings: None. 7. Community Input: Pres. of Council: This is the point in the meeting where anyone from the audience can discuss anything that is not on the agenda with Council. Mr. Jim Case, 204 Tallwood, Tallmadge. A couple of months ago I came in here asking Council to consider handicapped crossings in Tallmadge Woods and I thought OK, I’ll hear from you again in July or November. The project is complete, and I want to represent my community for people who are on strollers, walkers, and whatever. Just thank you for caring about the people and number 2 sir is Tallmadge Circle with the barricades that are up there. They are not metal. They look great. You go to so many cities and see these beautiful circles and these horrible metal barriers blocking it. Jonathon, thank you. We have a great City, and I am honored to be a member here in the community. God bless. Pres. of Council: Thank you very much Jim. Mayor: Mr. Case, those were picked out by our Dir. of Public Service, Mr. Rorar. He found those nice, rustic guard rails and so you can give him all the credit for that. 8. Agenda Additions: • Liquor Request – Macs Convenience Stores LLC Pres. of Council: We have one item this evening and this is our liquor request for Macs Convenience Stores LLC. We have all received information on this from Ms. Poole. Would you like to make any comments? Dir. of Econ. Development: Yes, thank you. The current status of Circle K doing business that is their DBA designation. They are doing so with an existing C-1 permit listed under Macs Convenience Stores LLC and that was issued on 12-18-2006. Their current C-1 permit allows retail store beer only in original sealed containers for carry-out only. The change being requested is 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 Dir. of Econ. Development (Cont’d.) two-fold. One is the business name of the permit is now changing to MM CS Services LLC and they are requesting an added C-2 permit in addition to the current C-1 permit. That request includes retail store wine and prepackaged low proof mixed beverages in sealed containers for carry out only. Just for the fact that these two permits are what Sheetz requested and is pending for their store, as well as similar to what is also being sold at Duke & Duchess and the sales are authorized in the ward and we do not recommend a hearing and I would be happy to answer any other questions. Pres. of Council: I just have a procedural question. As a refresher, if we are not calling for a hearing, it is not necessary that we need to vote on that? Dir. of Law: You still need to vote on that. You just need a motion and a second that you not hold a hearing, you can say it that way. Pres. of Council: Is there any other comments from the Administration on that before we do that? Would anyone on Council like to make a motion? Mrs. Epstein: I will make a motion to not hold the hearing for this. Seconded Mr. Roy. Mrs. Cipa: Is this for Sunday or is it just for Monday through Saturday? Are they allowed alcohol sales on Sunday I guess is my question. Dir. of Administration: I believe that it is C-1 is for Sunday. We can look it up if you want to wait a moment. Yes, they do. Roll Call: Mrs. Pletcher, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein – unanimous. Council voted not to hold a hearing on the MACS liquor permit by a vote of 6-0. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Dir. of Pub. Safety: • First of all, under our Police and Fire Departments updates. Chief Bohon and Chief Underwood both asked me to publicly acknowledge and commend the outstanding efforts of the Summit County Emergency Communication Center personnel as well as the Police Department and Fire Department personnel who responded to the tragic call this past Sunday morning. Their professional dedication and seamless teamwork were evident throughout the incident and thanks to their coordinated response they were able to bring resolution to a difficult situation without further incident. This was an isolated incident and there is no ongoing danger to the public and on behalf of the entire community I want to express my sincere gratitude for their commitment to keeping Tallmadge safe and exemplifying the highest standards of service. • I would also like to highlight two upcoming events that the Police Department sponsors. The first one is Summer Fun at Saxon Village which is under the leadership of Officer Dave Quillen. Officer Quillen includes other City departments, school personnel and community partners to make this a great summer event each year. It is on Thursday’s from 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. through the end of July. • Also Safety School will be August 4th through the 8th. • It is that time of year again for the Summit County Fair on the 22nd to the 27th and they are indicating that you can expect heavier than usual traffic and altered traffic patterns on East Howe Road and North Avenue especially during peak hours of the fair such as before scheduled events and the closing time. Additional information for the Summit County Fair can be found at their website which is Summitfair.com and then they do have a special button that you can just click on and it just says “Fair” and it has all of the information. Fair hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 12:00 noon until 11:00 p.m. and Sunday from 12:00 noon until 9:00 p.m. and there are also temporary no parking bans on Alandale Drive, Fox Ridge and Green Valley Drive. The parking ban will be enforced by the Tallmadge Police Department so please call the non-emergency number if you see vehicles parking on these streets while it is posted, that the no parking ban is in effect. • The Tallmadge Circular is going to be coming to your mailbox soon. The pdf version is on-line at Tallmadgeohio.gov/circular. 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 • Yesterday I had the opportunity to celebrate with Mary Engle at Danbury. Ms. Engle celebrated her 100 birthday. She was amazing. It was so great to see her and just everybody that was there. We are very fortunate to have Danbury. They have such a nice community there and they do a lot to celebrate so it was a nice little event. • Also of note, the Summit County Bd. of Elections has a new location at 1050 E. Tallmadge Avenue. It is right next to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Building Department and the Clerk of Courts. There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony and grand opening on Tuesday, July 15th from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and if you plan to attend you must pre-register by contacting the Summit County Land Bank. • My next After Hours with the Mayor will be on July 24th from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. That’s the end of my report. If there are any questions, I would be happy to take them at this time. b. Dir. of Administration: Good evening, everyone. Just one update this evening and that is it is that time of the year for the budget. So, next week, late next week the timeline for the budget and the budget memo will be going out to members of the Administration and Council and all Department Leaders and Managers to start working on their budgets. So, we will also have the Council work session dates. I will send you a message. I have some dates for the Work Session and then for potential meeting dates with the Finance Chair and Personnel Chairs like we did last year. So, that is all I have this evening for my report pending your questions. Pres. of Council: Just a reminder for myself, we did set the date for the Work Session; didn’t we, or do we need to do that at a later meeting? Dir. of Administration: If I were . . . Dir. of Law: I believe that it is on your calendar and the potential date is already on the Council calendar that you adopted earlier in the year. Pres. of Council: I thought so too, I just didn’t have it in front of me. Dir. of Administration: Alright. That is all I have this evening. c. Economic Developer: • Good evening again. Just one update that I have to share. We do have the Crafty Steere ribbon cutting coming up at the end of July as the business works through the final details of being ready to open so we look forward to that. They do have an existing store out in Copley and so we are glad that they chose Tallmadge for their second store and we think it will be a great addition not only to the location but just for the City and all of those who love the products that they have kind of kept alive from those of us who like to shop at the WestPoint Market in the past and it is just another exciting venture by the Steere family; a 3-generation business owner in the community. So, I look forward to as many people who can come out and attend that with us as well. Pres. of Council: Thanks very much and also thank you for your reminder and invitations in Outlook. We all really appreciate that. d. Director of Public Service: • Good evening. Just wanted to bring a couple of people up to speed. We did get, a couple of months back, I said we were out of salt, and we needed to order a summer fill. We did get the prices from ODOT and they went up $7.43 from last year so we are paying $52.39/ton. That is the salt dome as it is. It holds 3,400 tons as you can see it is empty. We need to order some this summer so at the next meeting I will be coming back to ask for a re-appropriation. We are probably looking at $135,000. We need it, and we can’t start winter with what that is, so I mean, we won’t be able to salt the parking lot with that. Just a heads up on that. • Next the Zoning Department you can see there the permits and then the Code Violations followed by the high grass. • At the cemetery you can see the numbers there. Just keep in mind July 12th is the 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 cemetery tour which is being put on by the Tallmadge Historical Society. It is at 6:00 p.m. and you can park at Donovan’s if you are interested in that. • Parks and Rec – You can see the numbers there. Music tonight. The rain disappeared and the concert was going on over there. It is the Originals and the Brass and the next concert is the 17th; the FM Project. • Summer Camp Night that is not an overnight. Keep in mind that it starts at 6:30 p.m. at Maca and ends at the Rec Center. • The Rec Center is being closed for the annual cleaning August 1st through the 3rd. That is what they do annually so a heads up on that. • The parks; Maca Park restroom is still ongoing and this is a year-long project. It should be wrapping up July 25th fingers crossed. • New benches were installed at Howe Road Dog Park and I would like to ask the public that when you are using that dog park, please keep in mind that we have to mow it so when we show up with the mowers please leash your dog and exit so we can mow it. Because the alternative is high grass. So then ticks start. So, you have to work with those mowers. They show up whenever, so you have to leash your dog. We could kick everybody out but that is not what we want to do. Just be courteous to the mowers. That’s all I am asking. • Maca Pool is open, and we are averaging about 506 visits daily. Lifeguard levels are at a total of 45 and everybody would like to say thank you to Council and Administration. Keep in mind that we have had issues with lifeguards in the past and you guys have allocated us to go up to that number. We have not had to close the pool or any section of the pool this year and it has been a long time since we can boast that. • The picture to the right is the storm drain painting and keep in mind that this is part of the EPA mandate. We have to do education and also activities. There are summer camp kids doing that, so it serves a dual purpose. Nice job there. • Moving on to the Street Department. Concrete Maintenance and Repair is completed finally. The rain and the heat really slowed that down. The paving program is completed almost. Remember we had that water main break on the Circle, so we had to go back out to fix that. The Street Department did some recognizance today. We had a sink hole as well as a hump in that section they replaced so we dug down and fixed the sink hole. The hump just looks like the water separated into the two layers of pavement and that was what the hump was caused from. • The 400 lineal feet of storm water cleaning. Keep that number in mind when you look at what the utility did on the sanitary side. Something interesting is that the North Avenue Heat Expansion that is actually caused by the heat. That sidewalk and then the devil strip section there. Keep in mind that the soil got saturated for over a month and then all of a sudden, we got blasted . . . it wasn’t gradual; I got automatic heat so that soil temperature, the water evaporated and all of a sudden that concrete had problems expanding. Asphalt is a little flexible. Concrete is not and that is what those expansion joints are supposed to prevent and obviously those weren’t cut deep enough or put in deep enough but that’s interesting. • Utility Department – Hydrant flushing is completed. We had one main break and that is the one on the Circle. You can see that it is pretty deep. That is about 12’ down. That waterline was under immense pressure whenever they were cutting it, the saw got stuck so anyone who is used to cutting wood, the pipes did the same thing. So that was really getting pushed down and the only thing I can say is it was the heat the same as the sidewalk. • 6,000 feet of sanitary sewer was cleaned. Pretty impressive. Nice job. The interesting thing, the water tower has an internal mixer. What is that? So, our water now has a way 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 • Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) to agitate the water and keep the water churning. There is a conceptor theory that it could get stale in there because the inlet pipe and the outlet pipe are at the same level. So sometimes you don’t get all the drainage down there as it should, and this keeps the water churning and it should be better water at the end of the day. That concludes my report unless there are any questions. e. Director of Finance: Thank you. Everybody received the Financial Reports for June. We are already halfway through the year and starting the budget for next year. Everything is still looking good. Our income tax is still kind of coming in right where we had budgeted for it to so that is good. Some areas are not coming in as we expected and others are kind of compensating for that. We also saw some of the net profit tax start coming in as estimated payments for the next year and so hopefully that will start to also bounce back as we continue through the year but the withholding seems to be staying pretty steady and even; we are not seeing a big huge decrease in that area which is important since that is our largest source of income tax. I did post interest for the second quarter of the year. Interest rates continue to be high, so we are definitely reaping the benefits of that for the last couple of years. That is coming in similar to the amounts we received last year. Everyone should have received an e-mail earlier this week notifying them that our audit report has been released by the Auditor of State’s office and so that it is now publicly available. It has been posted on the City’s website as well as my Annual Community report, which is a much smaller condensed version for our citizens and businesses and to have a quick snapshot of kind of where we hit financially this year. That has also been posted on the City’s website. We will be also doing a Facebook post about that next week to update the public and get something out through usually the Rec Center’s Newsletter also puts that out but that is on the Financial Reports section on the Dept. of Finance’s website. If anybody has residents that need printed copies, they can contact my office, and I can print that and send that to them if that is something that they might need. That’s the end of my report unless anybody has any questions. f. Director of Law: Thank you. I am very happy to report that we have completed going through the proof for the re-codification. We sent that off to the codifier this week and I want to thank very much all the Department Heads and people that had helped work very hard on that project. It should be here in 2 to 4 months. So, maybe we will get lucky and get it sooner, but we are waiting for the codifier at this point. End of report. 10. Reports of Standing Committees of Council of the Whole: a. PLANNING AND ZONING Tracy Pletcher, Chair Jessica Epstein, Vice Chair The Planning & Zoning Committee deals with land use, zoning, conditional uses, planning, economic and community development, and public property. i. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2025-59~Exhibit A – P.H. on 7-24-25 @ 7:01 p.m. – Amending the zoning map, adding Appendix B.5 Neighborhood Center Overlay District – Portion of Northeast Avenue of the Tallmadge Codified Ordinances. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mrs. Pletcher: Thank you. I call the Planning & Zoning Committee to order. This evening, we have 2 items on the agenda. The first one is Ord. 2025-59~Exhibit A – this is set for a public hearing oni 7-24-25 @ 7:01 p.m. The ordinance was read into the record. The sponsor is Mayor Kilway. Does anybody have any comments or questions? Mayor Kilway: I think Helene Hussing is going to come up and give a presentation just to give you a better overview of what this neighborhood center overlay is and she will be able to answer any questions that you have. Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: Thank you. It is always my pleasure to present. So, thank you 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) for allowing me to present on this ordinance. This is about the zoning tool. The is about the neighborhood center overlay. You may recall that we have utilized this and explained this zoning tool for West Avenue and portions of Northwest Avenue as well. What is different this time is you are not reviewing the text; the zoning text that goes along with it. You are just mapping it onto portions of Northeast Avenue. So that is the proposal. There is no change to the established standards or guidebook, but it does serve as the general development plan that is listed in the ordinance. For those that don’t fully comprehend the zoning tool, I did want to just do a quick refresher and give you a quick look at the purposes and intent again of the neighborhood center overlay and I took portions of what I presented at the community meeting as well as the Planning & Zoning Commission. So, this is intentionally, this neighborhood center overlay, is intentionally bringing together a mix of uses perhaps small shops, local services, maybe some housing opportunities in close proximity to established residential neighborhoods as well as the Circle. Some of which are already existing on Northeast Avenue. This isn’t about large-scale commercial development, this is not about large-scale residential development; it’s about creating convenient and accessible amenities within our community’s fabric. A core goal here is to foster a pedestrian friendly environment. This means thinking about things like sidewalks, crosswalks and inviting public spaces. Ensuring that any new development or renovation within this district contributes to a cohesive look and it is also that buildings complement each other, and it turns into a unified look. Importantly this overlay is intended as a transition area. It’s a way to thoughtfully connect our quieter residential areas with our more general commercial zones and of course our City’s Circle creating a smoother and more integrated flow throughout our City. Ultimately the aim is to encourage a vibrant community, a vibrant street level activity, lively storefronts and perhaps some outdoor seating engaging public spaces that draw people in and making the area feel more dynamic. Think of it like baking a cake, so the cake is the foundation, the cake is the current zoning that is in place. It already defines broad types of businesses and general uses allowed on the property. This remains. What the neighborhood overlay does is it adds a layer on top like the frosting and this frosting introduces some guidelines, additional uses and design elements that are there all year towards creating that vibrant walking neighborhood. It is already defined in the guidebook as well as it is in the Zoning Code. The key takeaway though is that the zoning remains in place; it stays the same. The overlay adds specific requirements and also opens up potential new opportunities and if you are like me and I have said it before, cake always tastes better with better frosting. Building on this cake and frosting analogy, the slide highlights the new types of businesses and uses that come with this overlay and is specific for this area. In addition to what the existing zoning already allows, all these uses are consumer based and include integrated residential options. It is truly for a pedestrian friendly environment. The overlay permits various types of units which is central to the vision of a true work, live, play neighborhood. Why is the residential component important? It creates a built-in customer. It activates a streetscape and completes the neighborhood, and it addresses existing conditions that are there on Northeast Avenue. This expansion of permitted uses, especially the potential use of residential options, is a critical element in transforming Northeast Avenue and even keeping it the way it is into a more dynamic walkable and movable area. So, this is the map which you have already received in the Staff Report. It is also posted online in the staff report. The dotted area is the proposed area. It starts at the Circle and runs to Kent Drive. It does not include our municipal buildings, nor the Village of Town Center. The Village of Town Center has been approved as a conditionally permitted use and so a lot of regulations are attached to that location and therefore was not included in this. It was an arbitrary decision as you can see. Most of the line that is dotted and outlined is already very similar to a neighborhood center overlay. So Northeast Avenue is ideal for mixed use, pedestrian 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) friendly development and existing commercial and residential activity. Historically, the mixed use has been working for a long time, and we are proposing to embrace and build upon it for the future. By ending at Kent Drive, we are proposing to exclude the existing thriving industrial businesses in place but as you may notice, the sidewalks continue providing access to the parks system, Community Drive and the Freedom Trail. This provides activity for our residents yet recognizes the great value the existing industrial zone provides to the city. The selection of these parcels is really about building on existing strengths, addressing current complexities and strategically positioning these areas to become the vibrant interconnected neighborhood center. Notice the existing sidewalks and the development patterns that exist reflect the development standards of the neighborhood center overlay neighborhood center overlay. Here is a map that shows the zoning, and you can kind of see it is Commercial C-3, General Commercial, some Industrial and then a portion is a Residential R-4. Beyond its direct benefits the neighborhood center overlay strongly aligns with the City’s 2025 strategic priorities as introduced by Mayor Kilway. It directly supports growing economic opportunity, constructs connected neighborhoods and promotes a vibrant community. The key development standards that are for this overlay, again this application is not introducing any development but rather providing a tool to ensure that new development and expanded renovation contribute to the kind of vibrant district we have been discussing. The overarching principle here is neighborhood scale mixed development, street-oriented buildings, rear and side parking is preferred and front parking when pedestrian walkways are not impeded. So, what happens if there are two overlays? On this map you can see the pink graded area and then the dotted lines. Again, the dotted area is the proposed overlay district and the pink area is a design control overlay so just like the cake again, we are back to that cake, the cake is the zoning, the base building and the frosting is the first overlay secondary frosting or sprinkles as this illustration shows is that third overlay. So how do the regulations work? The overlay district would be the defining guideline and if there is a conflict, then the strongest, the more detailed or restrictive regulation applies. This timeline shows the journey of this application. A public hearing, as was mentioned is before you in 2 weeks and I hope that this explanation kind of gives you a good background of it and that I have explained it well enough and that you agree that it would be a great fit for Northeast Avenue and that ends my presentation. I am here if you have any questions. Pres. of Council: Thank you. Does anybody have any questions? I had a couple actually. Thank you for your presentation. I really appreciate it. The first one I had was with the proposal, would there be any risk of displacing any existing commercial business with the overlay given like what is in the plan. Like would there ever be a scenario where there would be a mixed use of residential/commercial structure next to an existing commercial business and it would either displace their business or risk like their growth or anything in that area? I am just thinking about in that overlay mapping what could be the adverse effects of that to our existing businesses. Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: So, if I understand correctly, you are asking if an existing use leaves and . . . Pres. of Council: No, if they don’t leave. So, if they are planning to just maintain where they are, what would be the adverse effects of that? Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: I actually don’t see an adverse effect because it almost . . . the uses there are almost exactly what the neighborhood center overlay is. So, a lot of the uses on Northeast Avenue are currently legal and non-conforming uses, in other words, grandfathered in and most of them are mixed. They run their business out of their home like the first floor is the business and the upstairs is residential and that is what we are looking for. That type of development is so I do not see an adverse effect. Pres. of Council: The other question I had similar theme was just around like in terms of the 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 Pres. of Council (Cont’d) land zoned commercially if there is a residential overlay on top of that in that area specifically would you see any adverse impacts to like income taxes or you know . . . businesses that can bring in employees to the City and grow? Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: So, if commercial entities were replaced by residential; is that your question? So, of course there is going to be some effect to the impact on income tax, however, As I mentioned, bringing residential into, as already is happening, brings more people into the commercial area and as an administration I believe that we are looking for more commercial use and we would push for more commercial use in this area. But we would like to see the mix. Pres. of Council: OK. Dir. of Law: If I could just add onto that, keep in mind that as was already stated, that this area is primarily already commercial so it has been zoned commercial and the reality is that there is still a lot of residential uses that are grandfathered in it already has the mixed use feel so again it is already virtually what we are talking about. This just gives people the ability to when they are expanding or if they are renovating or if there is a vacancy for a period of time, they can actually be in compliance with the zoning code by having it be a business on the bottom and residential on top; that sort of thing. Pres. of Council: OK. Then one more question on that. With the housing opportunities, is there a target in terms of the . . . I know when we were talking about West Avenue, we were talking about . . . I think the comment was made at some point like the you know what we were targeting for like this place could charge “x” amount for rent and we are looking at like this demographic or this type of mixed use, like is there any conceptual targets for like what that would actually look like? Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: Again, this is a zoning tool and if a developer wanted to come in it would probably be addressed at that time what would be put in there. Obviously, we are asking for quite extensive development standards, design standards. I would think that if you are building any type of development, which there is not a lot room to build anything but if you would, you would ask the developer to really pick up their game and make a great investment they would not be charging a low rent or anything to be . . . that would be in my opinion on that and I’m sure others could probably step in as well to make comments. Pres. of Council: OK. Thank you. Mr. Rubino: Ms. Hussing, is there like the West Avenue Overlay with the red-lined, the setback from the center of West Avenue. Is there something similar for this? Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: There is not because that really defies the whole purpose of having a pedestrian friendly neighborhood center. These lots are not similar to what is on West Avenue. West Avenue has deep lots, and these appear to be deep, but I think the little video kind of showed you where the principal building is located close to the road and that is what we want. So, if we have a setback, it defies that whole purpose of doing a pedestrian vibrant walking community. Mr. Rubino: Would that possibly open the door to let’s say in taking some of that commercial property or industrial property and a developer choosing to just make it all residential and then we lose that commercial and industrial use to complete residential use. Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: Well, I can’t foresee the future. I don’t really have a good answer for that one. Mr. Rubino: Because wouldn’t this take it out of . . . wouldn’t this take the control away from Council to be able to make those judgement calls based on zoning requests for a specific project versus a broad overlay seeing as this land like you said is more compact than West Avenue? Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: I think the point of selecting these parcels was as Law Director Raber mentioned the existing use is here were originally residential then the City way back 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) when rezoned it to commercial and the residential use remained, and it turned into more of a mixed bag; a mixed residential and commercial and I think what we are trying to do is trying to focus more on keeping that instead of making it all commercial by adding the residential then more people have access to that commercial instead of driving in no parking. We are going to take a risk but these houses are in good condition and if somebody buys them all and tears them all down, they would have to come to the City first to have a development plan and it would go before Planning & Zoning and there usually . . . there are public meetings and people can come and speak. I don’t think it is an end all. Mr. Rubino: The current zoning of those residential lots; are those like a mix R-3, R-4? Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: They are not. They are commercial. Mr. Rubino: The grandfathered portion? Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: Exactly. So, all the ones on the southern part of Northeast Avenue probably I would say 80% if not 90% are mixed residential and commercial. The orange color is C-3 General Commercial. Mr. Rubino: But if it . . . before it was rezoned as C-3, what would that lot have been considered? Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: I think it was probably residential. I don’t know. Mr. Rubino: OK, but it would probably have been around the R-3 or R-4 range for that size of lot? Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: I don’t think they had that type of zoning at that time. They had a different designation but it was residential the way it was developed. Those homes mostly are on the historic side. 100 years ago, I don’t think that we had the zoning in place. Mr. Rubino: Thank you. Mrs. Epstein: That was going to be my next question. How many or do you know approximately how many of those homes in that area would be on the historic list and they would have additional . . . it wouldn’t be that easy to come in and tear some of those down and completely demolish it if they are historical. Do you know how many there are? Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: I do not have an exact number. An audit was just done, and we are going to be going through the audit process but most of them are over 100 years old. Mrs. Epstein: And so, for those specific ones and they are probably scattered throughout then you couldn’t just come and demolish them or could you? Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: No, if they are on the recognized heritage structures you can’t just demolish them. You have to get them removed off the historic list. They are the mixed residential, commercial and I do believe that most of them are . . . they are historic. They have not been added to the list. I think there are probably 2 or 3 that are currently on the list. But after this audit, we will see if any more will be added. Mrs. Epstein: So, in that specific section they are not conforming right now but with this overlay they would be conforming? Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: Correct. Mrs. Epstein: OK, thank you. Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: Being that it has been a successful neighborhood it makes sense to add this neighborhood center overlay. Mrs. Epstein: Were any other areas explored when mapping this section out? Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: Explored for? Mrs. Epstein: When you were determining the map here and actually drawing the map with the yellow lines; did anything extend beyond this section here onto other spindles of the Circle. I know obviously we have already done a few others on West Avenue and things, but are there any other areas that were left off. I know it was very methodical . . . Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service: Our administration’s focus was to do West Avenue, the small section on Southwest Avenue, and then Northwest and Northeast and end it there. Because we have other overlays that we will be introducing and employment opportunity overlay . . . you 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 Ass’t. Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) know we want to introduce some other overlays, other tools so this was really it and we decided to focus on these because the uses were already so similar to the neighborhood center overlay. Mrs. Pletcher: Are there any other questions or comments? Thank you. B. Ord. 2025-62 – P.H. on 7-24-25 @ 7:05 p.m. – Extending the moratorium on acceptance of any zoning application for vape and/or smoke establishments or shops within the City of Tallmadge and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mrs. Pletcher: The second item this evening is Ord. 2025-62. The ordinance was read into the record. It is scheduled for a public hearing on 7-24-25 @ 7:05 p.m. The sponsor is Mayor Kilway. Any comments from the Council or Administration? Mayor: Not too much. Just that we do have that public hearing in 2 weeks and I know we are waiting for some determinations to come out down at the State level and that is why we were asking for this extension on the moratorium. So, give it another reading and we will discuss it some more in 2 weeks. Mrs. Pletcher: Hearing none, I close committee. ii. Additional Items: b. FINANCE Donald Pavlik, Chair Christine Cipa, Vice Chair The Finance Committee deals with budget, appropriations, reappropriations, bonds, franchises, investments, and expenditures. i. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2025-60 – Authorizing the Mayor to contract with inSITE Advisory Group, LLC for economic development consulting services without competitive bidding; appropriating the necessary funds and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway I call the Finance Committee to order. We have Ord. 2025-60 before us at 2nd Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. The sponsor is Mayor Kilway. Do you have anything on this? Mayor: Thank you very much. I just kind of want to give a little bit more of an overview on this real quick. As you know, economic development was a consistent and significant topic during my campaign. I have always stressed its critical role in financing the central services that we provide for our community. For the past year and a half, inSITE Advisory Consultants have proven to be a fantastic asset to our City’s economic development efforts. As promised and with Council’s help we have now fulfilled our commitment to enhance our internal capacity with the addition of Samantha Poole as our full-time Economic Developer. The strategic move aligns perfectly with our recently adopted strategic plan which was shaped by extensive public participation and specifically our strategic priority number two which is growing economic opportunity. It explicitly calls for enhancing the City’s economic development team by both hiring an economic developer now complete with Samantha’s arrival and continuing our partnership with inSITE. In addition, just about every other department within our City government utilizes specialized consulting services for their unique challenges. The office of Economic Development requires access to the same caliber of expert support. InSITE’s vast institutional knowledge on broad resources can serve as an indispensable asset for our new Economic Developer. Therefore, to maintain this valuable collaboration and to further advance our economic development goals. I am requesting Council’s approval to renew our contract with inSITE Advisory Consultants. This will put Ms. Poole with the necessary resources and specialized support needed to truly excel in her role and drive our economic future forward 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 Mayor (Cont’d.) successfully. By allowing her to leverage the proven expertise and extensive resources of the consultant, we are not undermining the in-house position rather we are strengthening it and maximizing its potential. I am respectfully requesting 3 rd Reading adoption at the next Council meeting. With us today, we do have Shawn Joyce, President of inSITE Advisory Consultants and he is prepared to discuss the challenges that we are expected to experience with the changes at the State and Federal levels and its current effects on funding to our municipality. Mr. Sean Joyce: Obviously we have really enjoyed working with the City of Tallmadge. It is such a great City and great community and has so much to offer and I would say that we spent, in our last 2 years here, fully stabilizing economic development and re-engaging with the business community and valuing what assets are in need of strategy and working with the team to plan and identify opportunities like Helene so greatly with her presentation of the overlay district that she talked about and it is really you know we have to start stabilizing that bottom; that base and that is what the efforts have really been. Even on the business retention strategy, there are a lot of communities that overlook that and they say it is one of those things when we get to it and even right now as we speak, there are currently 10 active expansion/retention projects with business here in Tallmadge. When I say retention that means that they are businesses that are in need of expansion. They are looking at other places, including trying to find a spot and stay here in Tallmadge so we are working directly with those companies. That is 600 jobs that we are talking about. It is important work. As I have said before, you look at national statistics everywhere and more than 80% of new jobs come from existing businesses in a community. So, you hear a lot about chasing the next big Intel which those help, don’t get me wrong, but those existing businesses really need help and they have opportunities especially right now. We all know the job work force issues and those are holding a lot of companies back from growing and also things like equipment updates, technology, AI, and all of those opportunities that are needed to really help our business make it to the next stage. So, we are so thankful to be working with Samantha. She is great. Good job hiring her. We think we could really support her to take us to the next level. Now we have to execute and the benefit that comes with our group is we have a vast network of folks that you can reach out to, and we are constantly advertising and marketing Tallmadge. I was just in Las Vegas for one of the largest developer conferences in the country; 20,000 people and we are talking about Tallmadge. We had literature and talking national chains as we are looking at trying to bring in these mixed-use opportunities with these developers. Of course, you probably watch the news and see what is happening here with the State and some of the plans on the operating budget that has been approved trying to get through veto approval now. Property tax reform is a big topic. Obviously, the State flat tax rate. There are talks of getting that down to zero. Property taxes are the same. So, it is going to become; there are a lot of challenges coming and it is really going to take a lot of planning and contingencies that need to be thought about. But the opportunities are coming within the State funds and others to fill that gap are competitive and the benefit with our group is we have reach to get into those rooms that maybe others can’t. We are very engaged with the Regional Economic Development Groups. I am on the board for Team Neo and my boss is actually the Chair of Team Neo right now. We work to help hire the new CEO there but other economic firms across the State and with our resources behind us with our own development company we have a vast network of investors and prospectors that are looking for properties and opportunities including the very one that we are working on West Avenue in a mixed use development who has been very patient to wait and try to be as strategic as we can with what he wants to do that with the plans of Tallmadge which is great. So, the next level really is helping Samantha, helping the City, helping you all and the community to be on the forefront of opportunity and to be the voice and advocate for you and bring in what we need to make this overlay district and 11  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 Mr. Joyce (Cont’d.) so the opportunities come to fruition. We talked about residential housing. Work force housing is huge. It is a huge issue and a huge challenge and there is a lot coming for support to encourage more and more of that construction. Every business that wants to move into town they are going to be looking for what housing is available to our workforce. So, there are lot of layers that we want to help tie together and we think we can be helpful there. We have been part of the success of those opportunities whether it is in development plans, working with Planning & Zoning, work on incentive programs, tapping some of those State resources to help with Brownfield Development, demolition, infrastructure; whatever it is, that is what we would like to do in this next phase. Mayor: Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Joyce? Pres. of Council: First off, I just want to say thank you to inSITE and thank you for being here and your presentation this evening. I just wanted to go through . . . in reviewing kind of your accomplishments in different communities around us, right? So, I heard about your accomplishments in Boston Heights with the Brownfield renovation and then in my hometown of New Franklin, you had the water/sewer line that you are helping them with there. I just wanted to ask like over the past few years have their specific initiatives in Tallmadge that stand out to you. You would say are your top 3 to 5. That would be like your most like the top initiatives that you would say are like would be on par with those directions in terms of like what are we most asking you to support over the last 3 years. Like what stands out to you as your top 3? Mr. Joyce: Honestly, trying to bring resources into these businesses as far as jobs and great revenue. The worst thing is to lose those jobs too. So, working to follow through on helping those businesses to stay here and grow here. We are working with Samantha to bring in new sources that you have. It is grants for equipment, workforce training dollars, which is another big part of the budget that is being approved in Columbus. We are tapping into those resources and getting those in front of these businesses. A lot of them don’t even know they exist. The overlay development district of course. West Avenue has huge potential and we feel like we are working with the developer now and our job as I see it is while working with the developers and businesses is trying to be sure that we are being strategic and get them on board with the strategy of the City. As you mentioned, talking about the overlay that was just presented, you know the concerns of the developer coming in and doing something you don’t really want and our job is to help guide and make sure that the strategy that we put in place on West Avenue for instance is going to be executed in that form and the reason why we did is going to come to fruition so whether it is bringing in infrastructure dollars, whether it is Department of Transportation to put a road that might to be in there, signalization changes, we work with the bussing system and pubic transportation. Actually, years ago we were looking at another project there. I had the bussing system ready to put more stops and more trips through West Avenue because of what might be coming. So, there is a lot there. So again, be a resource for Samantha and the Mayor and the rest of the team to bring those resources to execute those plans; those overlay areas. Dir. of Administration: Mr. President, if I could refresh everyone’s memory, I don’t have the minutes pulled up in front of me nor do I have Samantha’s report, but if you recall during the last meeting’s economic development report, Samantha called out 3 to 5 businesses; 3 specifically that come to mind were StoreTek, Akrochem and Parsons Concrete. Those were all grants of job programs that inSITE worked on and received grants or money for job programs that the inSITE team brought in and those were all discussed just 2 weeks ago. There are other programs that we can send to you but those are concrete examples that we just discussed 2 weeks ago of the type of things that inSITE initiated several months ago. Several people have heard me say this in the past that government, as we all know, works slowly, it works incrementally in business development, economic development I should say is a slow incremental process until it reaches a tipping point and then it is not. So, it takes a while for 12  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 Dir. of Administration (Cont’d.) these things to happen. So those projects that Ms. Poole mentioned at the last meeting started 12 to 18 months ago and just came recently to fruition and were recognized by the Portage County Development Board for the work that was done and for those businesses to locate, stay and grow in the Tallmadge annex but are within our City limits. So, thank you. Pres. of Council: Thank you. Mr. Joyce: I would say that the last point of development is also making sure that the ancillary benefits that come from development actually occurs. So, using West Avenue as an example, making sure that the leadership, Giant Eagle, the General Manager running Giant Eagle knows what is coming and how does that impact their clients. You have more residential units across the street from Giant Eagle, and they should know about it, and it might tip them to invest in a market district or put more improvements into their space. You have Petitti’s over there as well and they should be engaging them into the plans or whatever green space improvements we are going to do. There are opportunities around the other businesses into what is going to happen and that is the other part of the strategy you have to make sure that we execute because we want that multiplied. Then the last one would be the State Capital Budget is coming up next spring and the expectation, our expectation is it is going to be a robust one so you know we want to make sure lining up projects next month you know in August we should be lining up projects that we want to go ahead and get some funding from the State Bill next spring. Pres. of Council: Thank you. Mr. Rubino: I know you brought up the overlay and your work on that. What percentage roughly ballpark would you say was inSITE’s work on that overlay versus our own Planning & Zoning or Administration? Mr. Joyce: I would say, I mean we had a lot of meetings, right? Going through that plan and considering the neighborhood around it and again the businesses and what you would all be expecting you know, it is hard to put a percentage. It is almost 50/50. We rely on the team to handle kind of the legal guidance and obviously the history of what has been there before and what the rules have been or the changes have been. Obviously, you want to know what the Mayor wants there, the strategy. So, it really was meeting after meeting and of course bringing in ideas and concepts with a potential developer and making sure that that property isn’t going anywhere and it wouldn’t be available to do a development like this, so it was really a constant piece of work. I don’t know if that helps you. Mayor: Mr. Rubino, it was a true collaboration between the City Administration, all the departments within the City and inSITE. We could not have done it without them. So, it was a true collaboration. Mr. Rubino: I would like to request for our July 24th session that an Executive Session prior to the vote to . . . I would really like to hear more in depth details, maybe things that you can’t share as publicly due to conflicting projects that are upcoming or that you are talking to just to get a better idea of over the past, has it been about 3 years that you have been with the City? Mr. Joyce: 2 years. Mr. Rubino: 2. You know what inSITE has done and what is in the works both with the developers . . . I know you mentioned that you guys have been talking to somebody on West Avenue, etc., what is in the works. I think that informing Council as a Whole together; we are all hearing the same information and getting that would probably be beneficial. Dir. of Law: So, Mr. Rubino, there is only certain reasons that the Ohio Revised Code allows us to go into Executive Session and what you are saying probably doesn’t fall within that so you are welcome to have discussion with the Administration before that meeting and I’m sure they would be happy to meet with you in regard to that. But . . . Mr. Rubino: Can we talk about future development plans and who we are talking to on the floor then? 13  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 Dir. of Law: I believe the person that was interested actually came and presented as part of the process that we had as an open meeting before. They have not presented a formal plan to date but they had a general plan that they had already . . . Mayor: We had a special Work Session between Council and Planning & Zoning if you remember last year about that project. So, we are not hiding anything. OK. Mr. Rubino: No, no I’m not saying . . . Mayor: Just another . . . Mr. Rubino: I am just trying to be as well informed and make sure everybody is on the same page. Mayor: And we do have . . . Mrs. Epstein: I think what would be helpful is Joe had mentioned some of those very tangible items that you have achieved and Samantha has given some really good examples it is very tangible and easy to understand one business got a $50,000 grant and it transformed into 10 additional jobs in that business you know that was growing. That was I believe, Glazing Systems so that wasn’t one that you had mentioned but it was one that I had spoken to individually as well. Ten jobs in a business that continues for our schools and for our City tax revenue. If you could provide those specific examples and details and what those grants were and how you were involved that would be really helpful. Mr. Joyce: Maybe we can work on a way to do that. Mayor: Right. Mr. Joyce: The challenge with the businesses we are working with and trying to do expansions and get them grants in a public forum . . . Mrs. Epstein: Even if you submit to us you know, the Chief did that with the alarm thing, Business A, it doesn’t matter to me . . . Dir. of Econ. Development: If you could redact that specific information . . . Mr. Joyce: Oh yeah, we did do that. Mayor: That is actually another key point about working with a consultant along with a full- time economic developer is the consultants can then have that confidentiality with some of their customers, some with their potential business partners that would come into the City. They can maintain that confidentiality that would have to be public record for us and the Administration. So that is just another reason why using consultants is a great asset, especially in economic development. So, they can have those in-depth conversations and hold that confidentiality with those partners that they have. Mr. Rubino: Would that not be a reason to possibly . . . Mayor: Because they can’t share it with us. Mr. Rubino: Have an Executive Session . . . Mayor: They can’t share it with us. Mr. Rubino: Oh, they don’t tell you guys either. Dir. of Econ. Development: The Sunshine Laws is what we are speaking of here. Mayor: Right. There are certain things. Pres. of Council: I think on this point we have all had . . . there have been various discussions. I know Ms. Epstein and I had a good meeting earlier and we appreciate the open-door policy that the Administration has on all of these topics. I think it is the fact that, now that I am thinking through this, it is a good idea to hold a session so that all of Council can discuss it. I think there are just communication gaps at the end of the day. I truly feel that way because all of us hear different things and we all have different conversations, obviously no more than 3 of us can be in a room at once, so . . . and then things get lost in translation and then everyone is just looking at like the statement of work is through December you know going back 2 years ago and again we are trying to be good stewards of our constituents and we are just asking these questions and I don’t think anybody is questioning here like these tangible items; we know they exist and I think they are just a barrier in what exactly those are over like we just talked about over the 14  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 Pres. of Council (Cont’d.) last 2 years but then looking forward right. What is the plan? So, we get to December 31st; right and we are coming into budget season and so are we talking about involvement over the next 2 or 3 years. What does that look like? I think that is absolutely grounds for an Executive Session. I think all of you have questions and so I would support, and I think it is pretty much unanimous, that we set an Executive Session for the 24 th. Dir. of Law: Mr. Bollas, the Executive Session has to be one of the permitted reasons in a contract and the ordinance in front of you is not one of the permitted reasons to go into an Executive Session. Pres. of Council: OK, because of the Ohio Revised Code you are saying that we are not allowed to discuss, as a Council of the Whole, in an Executive Session to enter into a contract? Dir. of Law: Not this type. There are other . . . like if we are doing real estate, there are certain other things, but a contract for a contractor for economic development that doesn’t fall there. Now if we want to go into an Executive Session to discuss a very . . . there are very limited things that you can do for economic development, but that is typically reserved for if you were to offer an incentive and you are talking about numbers, that is the normal framework for that, not, not something that is a potential plan that is going to go through the appropriate steps at Planning & Zoning and then in front of City Council. So, I am going to have to . . . Pres. of Council: Can you send Council like where it says like in the Ohio Revised Code like what that is? Dir. of Law: Sure. Pres. of Council: And again I am just . . . Dir. of Law: It is in the Sunshine Law and it is also in our Rules of Council what you are allowed to go into Executive Session for. So, we follow the Ohio Revised Code. So, I will be happy to forward that. Pres. of Council: I think it would be helpful but again I am just trying to think through your proposal and get us the answers we need before next reading. I honestly don’t know how to do that unless we go in 3 at a time. You know it would take time out of your day as a working employee. Between our working hours at City Hall, you know like I still . . . just trying to arrange time for all of us to get together and again speaking in little silos and not seeing the big picture of all of us being here on the same page. I think that is the theme we are talking about here. Mr. Rubino: I just think it would be extremely helpful to get specifics and address the same information. Dir. of Law: The mechanism for that is here at the meeting. And so there may be some things that are held confidential but some things that are already in the past are probably not and so if you are not prepared to discuss that now, we can have you come back potentially on the 26th or 24th; sorry. Mr. Joyce: So, I think we can genericize like some of the company information if the Mayor and staff are fine with that. That is not an issue. I think I could probably get you involved without crossing over into the confidential end. Pres. of Council: Yeah. And I think . . . Mr. Joyce: So, we would be happy to do that. Pres. of Council: I really appreciate that and again this is really healthy conversation and it is just that on topics of economic development and for the future look and feel for our City like we should all have the same information to make an informed decision. Mr. Joyce: I would also offer in the meantime if there is anything else you want to see that we haven’t talked about, then we can make sure we include all the answers to the questions. Pres. of Council: I think another one that would be helpful is just looking at the 2026 forecast you know and potential future statements of work specifically in the next 12 to 24 months. I think that would be helpful as we come to budget season because again we are looking at like chunks of hours at this point for various specific initiatives; is that what you see whether the next statement of work if one is forthcoming, that we have a good idea of like the description 15  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 Pres. of Council (Cont’d.) of the services because I think that would also play into like our budget workshop. Mr. Rubino: Yeah, I think something like to Mr. Bollas’ point, something you know very . . . things very specific within your legal capability of past work, accomplishments, what our investment as a City and inSITE has provided us and then as Mr. Bollas said, a forecast of what your very specific plans are in the future whether that be through this appropriation or when the budget comes around here and the budget workshop, the next one, so we can see what we are spending our money on. Mr. Joyce: Yeah. No problem. Pres. of Council: I appreciate you fielding our questions. That goes for the Administration as well. Thank you. Mrs. Epstein: Another question diving into some of the specifics that you have already talked about here. So, you had mentioned you networking and a lot of benefits there going to Los Vegas and being in front of a lot of people. I believe that has been at last a couple of months or longer since that? Mr. Joyce: That was in May. Mrs. Epstein: In May. OK. So, what are the next steps after a conference like that for you and how are you working with Ms. Poole on something like that? Mr. Joyce: Yeah, so the next steps are some follow-ups there and looking at what interest they have in the coming year as far as seeing Tallmadge. Also talked about these development opportunities and what is happening that is going to allow for more investment in Tallmadge. So, this is new, and a lot of developers might not even know yet that Tallmadge is making these changes, and we are talking about those things. For us we have been following up to see what the next steps with them are and interest levels we have engaged in a deeper way. Part of that was also in line with the developer on West Avenue who was also out there so we work with them as well to start getting interest into what they would like to do especially because we all want a strong retail business use over there as well. So, that is it, it is following up on those connections which we have started already. As those plans advance in this particular situation on the development, engage in a descent way once we know that the developer is kind of in the right place. Mrs. Epstein: It sounds like a couple of things have to be aligned and I know that those things take time. Have there been any conversations that have emerged that you feel like there is strong potential there or is this not enough time? Mr. Joyce: No, there is definitely, even before going out there, we had some very encouraging interest with some detailed discussions of what they would want to do on West Avenue. So, there is some very promising, already strong interest. I can put it that way. It is just a matter of once we know kind of how that whole plan in this situation fits and where that design is going to end up then we will figure out it fits into that. It is a long process, but you go from first introduction, especially some of those groups change or whatever and they didn’t know where Tallmadge was and so we got past that part and now it is like hey, let’s engage a little deeper. The very thing about being in Ohio is Ohio is very attractive to business development because of all the incentive opportunities and all the resources we have. You know the Workforce Housing is always a question. I say Workforce Housing, it is houses for people that they want to hire. So those are . . . one of the questions I got was I was part of a discussion for the county and the whole county with a company coming from Italy that wants to bring about 1,200 jobs and put their headquarters in Summit County. Their question was when was the last time you built a high school in Summit County; right? That is the level of thinking of the Workforce issue that companies are looking at. So it is addressing all those types of things and working with the County for a cohesive message that it is also promoting Tallmadge and so we want to make sure it is not just us promoting Tallmadge but it is the County; it’s Columbus, it’s Team Neo. Team Neo’s goal is to bring companies and businesses into Northeast Ohio which includes 16  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 Tallmadge. So, it is aligning all those things. Mayor: As you can see partnering with a reputable firm such as inSITE really enhances the City’s credibility in the eyes of potential investors and businesses. So, I think that is really the key as to why we need to partner with a reputable economic development firm and inSITE definitely has that enhances reputation and it is a great asset to our team as a whole. Mr. Joyce: Katie is responsible for bringing a very large conference to Akron. So that is a notional conference there. We want to use those resources here. Pres. of Council: I just had a question Ms. Raber. In the current Council Rules, Rule 9 on Executive Sessions; would this fall . . . I would like to think that this would either fall into 2 categories. Item 2 under Rule 9, development of real property or Item 7, any other purpose authorized pursuant to Ohio Sunshine Laws. Dir. of Law: So, the real property I think is when we are actually discussing the acquisition or sale of real property meaning a physical piece of property and so that is backed up by the Ohio Revised Code for that interpretation and then the Ohio Revised Code also says that again, there are some times where you can go into an Executive Session for economic development purposes when you are talking about whether or not to give certain economic development incentives so I would have to speak to them to know if that is something that they need to discuss and we would need to go into that, but that is typically more when the City is determining whether or not to make that determination. So, I am happy to continue to look into this issue. You don’t have to set an Executive Session tonight. We can look at it, but I am telling you right now that I do not believe that you will be able to hold an Executive Session on this issue. Pres. of Council: OK and . . . Dir. of Law: I will be happy to further explore it. Pres. of Council: I appreciate it and the last thing I was going to say when we were talking about like specific property if we just look at the statement of work, then we could make the Executive Session specifically about the addresses listed in the Statement of Work. Dir. of Law: So, again that is not quite how that is actually interpreted in the Ohio Revised Code so I will look into it further but I don’t think that is going to work. Pres. of Council: OK. Thank you. Mrs. Pletcher: Are there any other additional questions. We have nothing else on the agenda tonight in Finance. Does anybody have any additional items? Hearing none, I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. c. PERSONNEL Christine Cipa, Chair Donald Pavlik, Vice Chair The Personnel Committee deals with personnel, labor relations, insurance claims, Rules of Council and State Statutes. i. Third Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2024-75 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into an agreement with the International Association of Firefighters, Local 2764 and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mrs. Cipa: Thank you. I call the Personnel Committee to order. First, we have Ord. 2024- 75 at 3rd Reading. Dir. of Administration: Good evening. We would like to keep this at 3rd Reading. Thank you. Mrs. Cipa: Ord. 2024-75 will be kept at 3rd Reading. Do we need a motion on this? Pres. of Council: Is that a tabling or is that a . . . 17  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 Mrs. Cipa: Are we tabling it? Dir. of Administration: We would like to table that until 10-9-25. Mrs. Cipa: Do I have a motion for tabling Ord. 2024-75 to 10-9-25. Mrs. Epstein: So moved. Seconded Mr. Roy. Roll Call: Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Pletcher – unanimous. Ord. 2024-75 is tabled until 10-9- 25 by a vote of 6-0. B. Ord. 2024-76 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into an agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police (F.O.P.) consisting of Tallmadge Police Patrol Officers and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mrs. Cipa: Next we have Ord. 2024-76. The ordinance was read into the record. Dir. of Administration: Ord. 2024-76 and Ord. 2024-77 between the FOP Patrol Officers and then Sergeants and Lieutenants we would like to keep at 3 rd Reading. We are in the final stages of the administrative process of getting the collective bargaining agreements penned in so that both sides will agree to the fact finding version of the contract and then we will be bringing it to a vote once we both agree to the red-lined versions. I would anticipate that to be in the very near future. So, we would like to keep this at 3rd Reading. Mrs. Cipa: Both of them? Dir. of Administration: 2024-76 and 2024-77. Mrs. Cipa: Do we have any discussion on that? We will leave Ord. 2024-76 at 3rd Reading. C. Ord. 2024-77 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into an agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police (F.O.P.) consisting of Tallmadge Police Sergeants and Tallmadge Police Lieutenants and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway. Mrs. Cipa: Next we have Ord. 2024-77. The ordinance was read into the record. We are also leaving this at 3rd Reading. Is there anything else to come before Personnel this evening? Hearing none, I close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. d. SAFETY Nicholas Rubino, Chair Ted Roy, Vice Chair The Safety Committee deals with disaster services, communications, fire, and paramedics, police and health. Mr. Rubino: I call the Safety Committee to order. We have no legislation before us. Does anybody have anything for the Safety Committee? Hearing none, I close committee. i. Additional Items: None. e. COMMUNITY ISSUES Ted Roy, Chair Tracy Pletcher, Vice Chair The Community Issues Committee deals with Parks and Recreation, civic affairs, and liaison between Council and the Recreation Board and intergovernmental affairs. Mr. Roy: I call the Community Issues Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Is there anything for Community Issues? Hearing none, I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. 18  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. July 10, 2025 f. PUBLIC SERVICE Jessica Epstein, Chair Nicholas Rubino, Vice Chair The Public Service Committee deals with streets, highways, sidewalks, buildings, and improvements: water, sewer, electricity, gas, energy resources, recycling, waste, and trash. Mrs. Epstein: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Does anyone have anything for Public Service? Hearing none, I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: a. Council Operations Committee i. Additional Items: 12. Announcements: None. 13. Adjournment: Mr. Roy moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Roll Call: Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Pletcher, Mr. Roy – unanimous. The Council meeting of 7-10-25 adjourned at 8:34 p.m. by a vote of 6-0. sb ______________________________________ _____________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Jonathon D. Bollas, Pres. of Council 19