[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Do you [Music] know? [Music] tickle tickle [Music] down. [Music] [Music] [Music] Yeah. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Good afternoon. Welcome to today's citizens forum. You'll have two minutes to address council as I call your name. Our first speaker is Ben uh Penta Penta Pentoha. >> Welcome, Ben. Good morning, Mayor Purval and um members of council. Uh I'm President Ben Pantoa, the uh president of Clifton Town Meeting, the community council for Clifton. I'm here to express my support for the resolution regarding hookahar reg uh regulation of their hours. Um, okay. So, restricted hours, I believe, are by far the best option to address crime related issues related to hookah bars. Um they've become a focal point for street takeovers, especially from 2 to 4 a.m. In Clifton, we've had the problem primarily for the last two years where most Saturday and Sunday summer nights, social media advertises a late night party at the Hookah Cafe on Lello. And there are fights blocking traffic, blocking emergency vehicles, loud noise, litter. There's been assault on a police officer, selling alcohol out of the backs of cars, and someone was brandishing an automatic weapon. And at one point a year ago, there was a kidnapping and a beating. >> Excuse me, sir. I'm sorry. Was that the two minutes? >> Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Go. Okay. >> Uh Mike Anag Anagnost. Sorry, Mike. Welcome. Oh. Uh, could we? >> Yep. Uh, so Mike, have you spoken here before? >> I have not. You're >> great. So, you have two minutes. Um, when you start speaking, the green light will turn on uh uh at a minute. The yellow light will turn on and there's a sound. Don't uh don't worry. Keep speaking. Just letting you know you're halfway done. And then the red light comes on and and that's the end of the two minutes. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, city council members. My name is Mike Anagnostto. I'm a business owner and president of the Clifton Business Association. And um I came here today to urge you to please vote for this measure regarding uh regulation of uh hookah cafe hours. Uh we have had over the last two years experienced um the kind of quality of life issues that have not only uh created uh disruption and noise and and uh the kind of activity that is uh between midnight and 5:00 a.m. that we have not been used to before. but also um incidents that that have caused us to be concerned about uh safety and and uh the possibility of of someone being injured or killed. Um I think that this is one of those quality of life issues that that uh is essential for a neighborhood where we have a mixed uh business and residential uh area. And um I ask all of you please to vote for this measure. Um if you have any questions I can certainly address them and I can answer them and I can also tell you of our experience with that. Thank you very much. >> Thank you Stanford Pool. Welcome. You know, I come here about houses and your building department doing illegals things and you letting them do it. So, I got to guess every week I had to go right down the line to to get the point over. Now, if we take Mr. Jeff, the city of Cincinnati said they had nothing to do with the building department. They had nothing to do with the housing court or the vacant building permit. Well, Mr. Jeffrey came up with another vacant building permit to add to the one they already have to take property and u so that wasn't true. You hadn't said you had nothing to do with it. You created one. He did and people voted for it. I think three didn't, but the rest of them don't care nothing about the poor neighborhood because it's not their neighborhood and not their family. So the three that or four that voted against it, kudos to you. But the rest of you know you going to do something on somebody else. And it's no different than what Trump doing. He doing the same thing that you doing. And you supposed to be Republican or Democrat. Democrats supposed to be here doing the right thing. But you act like Republicans, but you're sneaky with it. You're underhanded with it, behind the back with it. And then we voted for you guys to do the right thing. But all you're concerned with is your paycheck and your title. Now we go back to Mr. Johnson. He had the building department in here and they said we go to the poor neighborhood. We know who the pay poor neighborhood and targeting. We write them up. We make up something and then we tell them to give that property title to them. You wouldn't go to High Park or Mount Adam tell them to give their title up free. But you do it to the poor black uh property owners. Mayor, you said the housing court. Deeders Cranley and yourself came up with the housing court. >> Gerald Czechco, welcome. [Applause] [Music] >> Uh good afternoon, Mayor and members of council. I'm not going to repeat what people are going to say about the hookahar except that I urge you to vote for this change in the municipal code and send a clear signal that the neighborhoods cannot be abused by um businesses that basically leaves all the work that the city does and volunteer do uh in neighborhood and just ransack our neighborhoods and make them unsafe. Thank you for supporting this legislation. Thank you, Bishop Sunny James. Welcome. Welcome. This time, I believe I'll take my seat. Um, in lie of everything that we are seeing not just locally but across the country, I urge all of you to join me as we are officially rolling out the called into action. Many of you have participated in some of our events, but it is a a a a factbased resultdriven program that will bring answers, actual answers to the issues at hand, specifically regarding crime and gun violence. Over the next couple of weeks, you all will be getting an invitation, and the heading will be simple. come together. Folks, it's no longer about black versus white. It's no longer about Republican versus Democrat. It's about all of us coming together. And in a few weeks, we will do just that and find common ground where we can show the American people that when we come together and just listen to one another, it doesn't take a 911 situation for you to have a heart to pull somebody out of the rubble. So, I'm urging all of you, come together, and don't do so if you want to come and argue, point the finger, just stay at home. If you want to fuss and fight, just stay at home, have some barbecue or whatever you like to eat. But we're going to come together and show folks. So, I'm waiting on our prosecutor to come back in town. Corey Bowman prayerfully, our mayor, prayer for each and every one of you, Dr. Aaron Harvey, and the such. You're all welcome. >> Thank you, John. Uh, Jan Brown Czecho, welcome. >> Thank you, Mayor. Hello council members. Um, thank you for this opportunity to participate in democracy. It's very important. We've been working for the last two years to try to solve some problems in Clifton. Clifton is pretty much a softball kind of player when it comes to solving problems. our organizations have gotten together, had many discussions with community leaders, with the police, and with also city leaders about how to solve the problem with um the mayhem that happens on Friday nights and Saturday nights on Lello Avenue. So, um, we're very grateful to finally have this opportunity to have an ordinance change that will put some reasonable hours of operation closing at 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11:00 p.m. on weekends. We have college students. We have the students from Cincinnati State. We have our families that we have attracted in to Clifton with the new uh elementary school can elementary school that receives families from Springrove Village and from Cuff as well as people residing in Clifton. We do everything we can to keep the streets clean to keep them graffiti-free trying to keep a quality of life while things around us in this world seem to be flying out of control. So, please thank you for passing this ordinance. It will make a big difference. It will remove stress from the lives of our business owners and also keep our community safe and clean. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jonathan Norton. Welcome. This past week, there has been much discussion on anyone and everyone killed deserving respect and their time to be mourned. A lot of discussion denouncing this kind of violence. However, this is all denied to the people of Palestine. Their funerals are raided by Israel's occupying force like that of labibdi killed October 6th, 2023 or Palestinian American Shireen Abu Aklay killed May 11th, 2022. Palestinians have always been denied the freedom to mourn those taken from them. And that's what has been happening in Gaza. Bomb after bomb dropping, rifle after rifle firing, killing innocent people, and then killing the next before they have time to grieve for them. Killing them before they have time to even collect their bodies, like American Daniel Rab admitted to doing while carrying out Israel's terrorism in Gaza. He sniped an unarmed man in the streets and then killed his unarmed brother trying to reach him. On September 10th, at the same time, all of our media turned his attention to the killing of one man. 53 people whose lives matter at least as much had already been killed in Gaza. Hours later, politicians like this mayor took to Twitter to denounce this one killing, calling it despicable, dangerous, and it has to be unacceptable. But politicians don't denounce this because they care about violence. They just care about who could be on the receiving end. Political violence is unacceptable. But when it's all of our politicians voting to send more weapons to kill innocent people, we'll call that something else. And not only will you accept it, you'll defend it. Just yesterday, the UN concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Mark Jeff has cited the UN in this room before. Will you heed these findings just as strongly? There is nothing more violent than genocide. Will our mayor rush to denounce this, too, or do you only do that for issues you can pander across the aisle on? This violence doesn't become genocide overnight. Credible estimates place the death count above 680,000. For 2 years now, genocide has been conducted. and silence like yours that has paved the way. The UN has called to use all means available to stop this. The actions we have pled for have always been available to you. They aren't out of reach of your jurisdiction or your role. They are outside the reach of your moral capacity. While you sit in silence, understand what you are, modern Holocaust deniers. >> Thank you, Marvin S. Dickman. Welcome. Good afternoon, mayor and members of council. It's very honored to be here. Um I wanted to first of all thank all of you or thank those of you that had uh provided additional uh 4 nearly 4.3 or $4.4 million to Cincinnat Police because I think it's very much needed. Uh safety needs to be increased in our city. I live in East Price Hill and I know that safety definitely needs to be increased. The only thing is I wish also provide more to the fire department to provide EMS services because they do a good job coming to the building where I live. I live in Senior Chateau, 750 Grand Avenue. It's a housing development for very low income um seniors 62 and above supposedly. We have approximately we have 184 units in our building and um nearly 190 residents. And um during um um on about um August 23rd, there was sexual assault against senior in our building who look very much like Holly as part of the weekend brawl in Cincinnati. And um also there was a situation of a resident being assaulted by another resident and being the victim was afraid to come testify when the eviction was taking place. Um the Hamilton County Municipal Court dismissed it on Friday uh the 12th of September which is unfortunate in person. uh there's a need to I control, you know, the crime in our city. It can't continue on. Um but I also like to thank the mayor working with Governor Mike Dwine and um providing u highway patrol to our city and the FBI following up on getting hard criminals out of our city. Thank you. >> Thank you, Todd Zinder. Welcome. Good afternoon. My name is Todd Zinder. I'm from West Price Hill. I wanted to revisit the issue of District 5. Um, from my perspective, when Mr. Mayor and a majority of the people on this council decided not to build a new District 5 headquarters, you were essentially disinvesting in the police to the tune of almost $20 million. And then Mr. uh Johnson and Mr. Walsh asked for an evaluation of the efficacy of that and it never came. Um I wrote to you all in January about a spate of shootings up in Price Hill and one of the things I asked for in that letter was a righteous invest a righteous evaluation of the restructuring. That never came. In August, I asked for a uh copy of a revaluation through a public records request. I got that. The data was a year and a half old and the it was a PowerPoint presentation. Most of the pages were spent trying to explain the nuances and how to calculate or how to read response times. and it was dated. The the PowerPoint was dated four days after I submitted my request which told me that an evaluation never was published and I still don't know whether it's been made public. But you all need to go back and do a righteous evaluation of this restructuring because that has not been done and you really don't know what the impact has been on restructuring the police districts. We had five police districts in Cincinnati for 150 years and in a matter of months in 2023, you all decided to do away with that. So, I would like to see a righteous evaluation of that restructuring to see whether or not we should revisit uh district 5. Thank you. >> Thank you, Stefan Prior. Welcome. >> Good afternoon. Good afternoon, the people behind me. Good afternoon, y'all. All right, let's get to business. This tax abatement, y'all keep giving up this tax abatement. Mayor Fav, you did that tax abatement proposal. Nothing but worsen racial segregation in the community and is hurting the schools. This tax abatement 30 years. Damn, that's a lot of lot of tax to be saved, man. It's a lot. This receiverhip program, Miss Anna Albby, I talked to you about that maybe a couple months back. receiverhip program, otr adopt the block. They took Martin Rosselle property at 1648 Vine Street. They took his property up on a receiverhip. The daughter couldn't afford the bill, a $60,000 bill. They took it to court and put a lean on it and took the property, then put it in receiverhip. They sold the property for $275. My fault. $247,000. 247,500. They sold that for almost over a quarter million dollars, made a profit. Y'all keep dealing with these developers like Kiker, otr, Dr. Block. It's the pattern of these developers fixing on a properties, black homeowners property land, and they get them an invoice. If they can't afford that dag on invoice, they take their property. Y'all know about this stuff. Y'all look puzzled up there. Mark Jeffrey, y'all know about this stuff. What's going on? Y'all not helping the community. Y'all supposed to work for the community, but y'all working for y'all own interest and other people interest. Y'all not doing y'all damn job. Y'all need to get fired. Y'all need to get elected for no city council no more. Y'all don't. I hate to say that. Maybe two, but the rest of y'all y'all need to go. Y'all y'all been bad to the city. Ain't been doing nothing for the community and just been lying. Y'all dirty. I love you. Nothing you can do about it. [Applause] >> Thank you, Betina Ernst. Welcome. On Monday evening, we recognize the beginning of Roshashana, the Jewish new year. The first 10 days of the year are the holiest days of the Jewish calendar ending in Yom Kapour, a day of repentance. On these days, we are asked to take a solemn accounting of our actions in the past year and reflect upon our hopes for the new year. In this new year, I hope we see the fall of the apartheid wall in the West Bank, the end of genocide in Gaza, the release of the thousands of Palestinian hostages from Israeli prisons, the protection of the olive groves indigenous to the land, and liberation from Zionist occupation for all of Palestine. But this future requires radical imagination and concrete action. I call on this members of this council and the residents of Cincinnati to recognize that the international permission for unrestricted death, sorry, I'm like distracted because council members don't seem to think it's worth listening to this. Uh for unrestricted death and cruelty on our tax dollars is a local issue that we can take steps to address in our own communities. When we divest, boycott, and sanction companies that benefit from human rights violations, we challenge a system that relies on our own complicity. We envision a world that does not run on war profitering on the deaths of tens of thousands. In this new year, I pray that my people, who I love dearly, recognize that Israel is not the answer to the fear and trauma of anti-semitism. I pray that we refuse to accept that our safety is conditional on the subjugation of others. That we stand in solidarity against the rise of white supremacy in America and all over the world. As I enter the new year, I take responsibility for my part in the genocide as I participate in an economy that supplies bombs and bullets. I recommit myself to taking action politically, economically, and socially for justice. And I ask that you all do the same. >> Thank you, Lena Zerub. Welcome. If you have chosen silence, if you defend genocide, if you normalize Zionism, this me message is not for you. I'm only speaking to those in this room who still carry humanity, who still have a heart and who refuse to be complicit. Have you ever lived day by day watching Israeli terrorists roam your neighborhood with tanks and arms? Arms funded by our tax dollars and protected by your silence. Have you ever waited for a phone call from home, terrified of what news it might bring because Israeli terrorists are always inventing new ways to be evil? Did you know that they even control medical supplies? In the West Bank, cancer patients wait for months for a simple scan because Israel restricts contrast diet to once a week for the whole population, creating a system of slow death. This is oppression designed to break people down piece by piece. Senator Beth Lon was scheduled to go on a sponsored trip to Israel, but she chose not to. She did her job. She studied history. She read articles. She met with both Palestinian and Jewish Jewish constituents. She listened to every call, every message, every email that we sent. And she made the decision that she would not be used as a tool of the Israeli government. She refused to let herself be turned into propaganda. And she canceled her trip. Compare that to the rest. Those who cover their eyes, plug their ears, and keep signing off on genocide and stay silent when while pretending to care about justice. So I turn to our community. If you still believe in humanity, stop legitimizing Zionism. It is time to isolate Zionism, Zionists. Shame them, boycott them, boycott Israeli products, divest from companies that profit from our blood. Cut ties with cultural institutions that normalize ethnic cleansing. Do not normalize with Zionists. Do not share space, do not give them your silence. Because every tax dollar, every handshake, every quiet moment when you could speak but chose not to is complicity. >> Thank you, Aiko Kamura. Welcome. Hello. There is famine in Gaza and there is famine in Sudan. Not because of a natural disaster. Not because the lakes dried up or the rain didn't come this year. There is famine because occupying powers decided to utilize food and water as a weapon of war and genocide. In Sudan, over 12 million people have been displaced by the rapid support forces. A paramilitary primarily funded and backed by the United Arab Emirates. Hospitals have been bombed. Access to food aid has been blocked or diverted. And nearly half of the population faces starvation. As you well know, the genocide in Gaza has been committed. Similarly, medical care is nearly non-existent. Palestinians are dying of hunger every day now or being killed while trying to get food from the US funded Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. F-16 fighter jets are being produced for foreign military sales by General Electrics just 20 minutes from here. F-16 fighter jets are sold to the Israeli military so they can drop bombs on Gaza. And they are sold to the United Arab Emirates and then to the rapid support forces as they commit genocide in Sudan. 69% of the Israeli military's arms imports are from the United States and 64% of the United Arab Emirates arms imports are from the United States. We are the main funders of two genocides. Our tax dollars fund the extermination of two peoples and that is unconsciousable. People are being killed in droves with our funding, our bombs dropped from planes being constructed in our backyard as we sleep safe at home at night and as our grocery stores are overflowing. Divest Cincinnati from arms manufacturers. Divest from genocide. You've been asked for nearly two years to stop funding genocide. Make the right decision. Divest now. >> Thank you. Moving to Zoom. Amber Cassum. >> Mic check. >> Amber, we can hear you. Go ahead. >> Thank you. Um, Mayor Abab, I wanted to ask you um, personally for a meeting because I've called Noah several times to have Liz call me and I've not gotten any response back whether it be for my request and since they've been able to unfulfill my request and question, I wanted to ask you um, earlier today um, Marvin Dickman came and spoke before you um, just a few minutes ago and he did a great job. He's from the um community senior chateau that's about to get $43 million invested. I myself have been able to go on their grounds into the building where the door is propped open and unsecured where our v most vulnerable dense population of residents live. Um my request to you is to talk about community uh quality communication standards and what your communication expectations are for not only your office but your administration and I'm asking for your direct attention on this because I think um I can help guide that and then also give you experience as to what's going on with that. Um secondly, I would like to um encourage the incumbents to participate in candidates night. Um, none of you have filled out the uh form to build your profile on the website whether you can make it or not. So, I'd appreciate if you do that, please. And then housing and economic development committee chair, uh, Mark Jeff, a 14minute meeting. Your last meeting was 14 minutes. We could talk about Senior Chateau for 14 hours and still not solve all the problems. We could talk about the abuse of our housing stock and price. bill for 14 hours and still not solve everything. So, I'd like to ask, do you need help drafting an agenda? May I motion for things to be put on your agenda? Can we come as either invest in neighborhoods or community council presidents to come and be on your agenda? >> Thank you, Amber. Our next speaker is also on uh Zoom, Mike Ulehorn. Welcome. >> Hello. Can you hear me? >> Hi, Mike. We can hear you. Go ahead. Yes. So, I have a question today. Who here believes that it is ethical for businesses to charge people for just being ready to provide something and for people having access to it? I can't see if there's any hands up, but I imagine there's none. I'd also like to ask who here thinks that it's legal for companies to charge people just for being ready to provide something and people having access to it. Well, that's exactly what Greater Cincinnati Waterworks does. I purchased the property. The water was turned off by Greater Cincinnati Waterworks at the meter, but they began charging me from the day I bought the property just for being ready to provide me with water and me having access to it if I made a phone call. Now, just imagine if every single company you had access to started charging you just because they are ready to provide you with something. Greater Cincinnati Waterworks has set this precedent that it's okay for companies to do that. I've been bringing this point up time and time again. Nobody's doing anything about it. So, apparently the city council and Greater Cincinnati Waterworks believes that it's okay for businesses to charge for that. And since precedent has been set, my business has started charging for that same thing. I've been sending invoices to Greater Cincinnati Waterworks and City Council members. But none of them have paid the kind of invoices that they expect people to pay from Greater Cincinnati Waterworks. Now, Greater Cincinnati Waterworks, they'll sue people for not paying that kind of bill. I wonder what would happen if I sued Greater the Greater Cincinnati Waterworks people and the city of Cincinnati council members for not paying their bill that I'm sending from my business. I wonder what a jury would rule if they'd have to pay that bill or if a jury would Thanks. M uh thank you. Our next speaker is Matt Smeil. Welcome Matt. >> Thank you. Good afternoon. Um I just wanted to leave a comment on um two topics that I think are pretty crucial for the city's future. Uh the current Brent Spence design and the subway system, assuming the water main never gets replaced down there. Um I do appreciate the city apologizing for urban renewal. Uh but we're just allowing ODOT and OKI to make the same mistakes that destroyed the West End. Um the bridge is a given at this point, I know, but there is still an opportunity to improve the design and not back us into a corner for the next 50 years with very carcentric designs. Uh I talked to the project manager, Tommy Arnold. I think he's tired of hearing from me. Um but ODOT has not been very receptive to our uh concerns. I can tell that they're they just kind of follow the standards they have. They're not questioning the incorrect assumptions that they're making about traffic. Um, and I have some resources that I I can leave if that's all right. Um, about, you know, what we actually should do and why ODOT is taking the wrong approach. Um, please consider, and I know Mark Jeff knows quite a bit about this, the the standards from the Dutch, from the Netherlands. Um, they are much better transportation designers than ODOT. Um, Soul, South Korea implemented a very successful freeway conversion that I think we could do in I71 as well downtown. As for the subway, um please stop removing um rail for bike path conversions. I do think on the east end we could eventually use there's trackage that's freight right now along uh the Norwood lateral called the INO. It's not really that well used and we could in future maybe 20 years from now uh use that and the East End rail uh to complete a subway loop. So just save that infrastructure. We can reuse it in future. Um but I we do have an opportunity for a very good transit system if we try. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes this portion of our citizens forum. Uh it's now 203 and we will immediately begin the business portion of our meeting. >> Uh and the clerk will please call the role. >> Vice Mayor Kernney? >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan >> here. >> Council member Owens >> here. >> Council member Parks >> here. >> Council member Walsh >> here. >> Council member Albby here. >> Council member Kiring here. >> Council member Jeff here. >> Council member Johnson >> here. >> Please stand for a moment of silence. And now the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The minutes from the previous meeting will be approved and filed without objection. Hearing none, they'll be approved and filed. We have a couple of presentations to begin our meeting. We'll now recognize Council Member Jeff for the presentation of a resolution recognizing the Mil Creek Alliance. Mr. Jeff, come up. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You can both come up. So, uh, it's the 30th anniversary of the Mil Creek Alliance, uh, which is a remarkable thing. Uh, if you, this is one of the best turnaround stories in the city. So, if you think about 1997, the Mil Creek was, uh, declared the most endangered waterway in America. Uh, if you think about the what historically happened, a lot of our industry was around the Mil Creek. A lot of the industrial waste went into the Mil Creek. As a result, it was one of the most endangered waterways. Two years prior to that, in '95, the Mil Creek Alliance formed in part to turn this around. And in the past 30 years, and Dave can mention this, but uh the turnaround has been remarkable. Um first, in terms of the nature there, it is now as clean as the little Miami. It has returned. You you see blue herand, you see box turtles, you see a bald eagle there. Uh it is a remarkable story of resilience and turnaround and it could not have been done without a lot of leadership from the Mil Creek Alliance, from Mil Creek Conservancy uh district, from a lot of volunteers all through the years. So want to recognize that. Um I'm just going to there's seven whereas I'm just going to read one just because I basically summarize the rest of them. Uh whereas through the extraordinary efforts extraordinary efforts of the Mil Creek Alliance and its many volunteers and partners, the Mil Creek has made an inspiring recovery becoming an urban oasis for wildlife and people alike highlighting both the incredible resilience of our environment and the value of the public private partnership. Now therefore be it resolved this council, city of Cincinnati, state of Ohio, that the mayor and this council hereby recognize the Mil Creek Alliance for 30 years of dedicated service in restoring and enhancing the Mil Creek wershed and for its steadfast commitment to protect the environment and improving the quality of life for the residents of greater Cincinnati. So thank you Dave on behalf of everyone um for all of your personal leadership as well as the Mo Creek Alliance and and the board. I'll turn it over to you for some comments and we'll turn it over to my colleagues. >> Thank you, Council Member Jeff, Mr. Mayor, Council members. Uh we're deeply honored by this proclamation. Um as Mark said, we've been working for over 30 years now. This is our 30th anniversary year. We're having a celebration of that tomorrow night. But the Mil Creek is really a story of resilience and hope, both of nature and of people. The stream was greatly abused for more than a century. And 30 years ago, one of my predecessors is executive director Robin Kthers used to go around town saying, "There's nothing out there but mudworms, blood worms, and leeches." And at the time that was true. Um, 30 years later, it has made an amazing turnaround and the city of Cincinnati and all of you have been amazing partners to us. I can't count the ways that various council members have helped in our efforts. Various city staff and departments have helped in our efforts. Today, the stream is thriving. As Mark mentioned, uh, the water quality is as good as the little Miami or the Great Miami. there where once there were essentially no fish, now there are 65 species of fish. And we take people on fishing trips on Mil Creek. We take people canoeing and kayaking on Mil Creek. We are working with many many communities and neighborhoods in Cincinnati and the entire region on various um projects including one of Council Member Jeffy's initiatives, Experience Mil Creek, working with neighborhood residents to bring community revitalization, access to health and recreation, um affordable housing. We have a host of initiatives that are going to be coming up in the next few years through that project. So, I just want to thank the council again, the mayor, uh all of you, all of the citizens of Cincinnati who have helped us on this project. We could not have done it alone. It has taken an entire community worth of effort over 30 years. Thank you. [Applause] Mayor, >> thank you, Mr. Jeff. Comments from council. Vice Mayor. >> Um, Council Member Jeff, thank you so much for uh not only the honor, but also also your work with us. You know, growing up, Mil Creek was known for being just polluted for smelling. Nobody ever went there. I mean, it was just not something we we treasured at all. And I remember not long ago, maybe a year or two ago, going there early one morning because people were canoeing and kaying as you said and I I was really amazed. I mean, a total transformation. Uh and so we appreciate it. Our environment is so important to us. Our waterways are so important to us and uh it's a lot of work. And so 30 years of sticking with it um that that's huge and thank you for that. That just shows how we can bounce back from something that we ignored and really didn't take care of. So, thank you for that. >> Further comments, >> Mr. Mayor, >> Miss Owens, >> thank you Dave and company. Thank you so much for being such a critical asset to this community. It is because of your advocacy that you are helping to protect our natural resources. You're a central partner in moving our sustainability goals via our green Cincinnati plan. So, thank you for showing up. and you are you and your team are part of the reason that we are going to make Cincinnati more sustainable, more resilient for generations to come. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Albby. >> Thank you. I just want to add my congrats and thank you uh truly for for on behalf of us who are here now, but future generations who get to enjoy this space. I I couldn't have said it better when you said this is a story of resilience and hope. So, I really just wanted to echo that and lift up all everyone's hard work and how we have reclaimed this space to be an awesome spot for canoeing and other activities and what it means for the sustainability of our our of our community for generations to come. You know, everything seems impossible until it's done and this is one of those things. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Any further comments? >> Seeing none, roll call on passage of the resolution please. >> Vice May, >> yes. >> Council member Nolan, >> yes. Yes. Council member Owens. >> Yes. >> Council member Parks. >> Yes. >> Council member Walsh. >> Yes. >> Council member Albby. Yes. >> Council member Kane. >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff. >> Yes. >> Council member Johnson. >> Yes. >> It passes. >> Congratulations. >> We will now recognize Council Member Owens for the presentation of a resolution recognizing the members of the Human Services Advisory Committee. >> Thank you, >> Miss Owens. >> All right. I would like to introduce the world to the members of the human services advisory committee. And so I'm going to call you up here. And we're going to start with the board chair Lauren Mertton, vice chair Landa Ewing, secretary Shannon Nixon. Not here yet. Okay, we're going to keep going. I have other members here, 21 of you all. Uh Carla Belchure, Randy Berloo, Dari Daniels, Calvin Daniels, Venita Dell, Isaiah Kamboa, Damon George, Kristen Goens, Shaunice Lewis, Courtney Morabito, Antoanet Perkins, Leslie Rich, Mia Sears, Hammad Sadiki, Carl Wade Richardson, and Tammy West Gilmore. Ladies and gentlemen, community members, these are the trusted experts in our community who lend their expertise, their passion, and their commitment to making Cincinnati an even better place. And they do that because we commit 1.5% of our budget to fund nonprofit organizations who are the fuel and the lifeblood to helping us achieve great things. And we can only do that when we come together and make impact. And you are the professionals that lend countless hours of your time uh to have reviewed 141 programs, recommended 74 of those programs and helping us get $7.7 million in funding out of the door and into our community, helping to change lives. And when we first created the impact award to go even further upstream and to think about how we bring brilliant minds together, how we uh move the needle as my colleague would say to prevent homelessness, it was the HSAC members that we consulted with, we talked to, we partnered with, and they were ready to go, agile and nimble and ready to to be a part of the vision. And now here we are on our second impact award where we are a foster partnership with 12 organizations in our community to address food insecurity. So the work keeps going because you all keep showing up. And so we are so grateful for your time, your effort, your energy, your talent, and your treasure. And we couldn't do this without you. So I'm going to read a little bit of the uh the resolution here. So whereas the human services advisory committee evaluates all proposals related to human services funding using the performance measures established by council's priorities. Works year round to ensure the effectiveness of human service funding and works with human services organizations to foster greater collaboration between the administration and external partners. And by way of administration, Deanna White, who is the quarterback for a lot of these things, she is the point person and she makes it happen with you all and we're grateful. Whereas HSAC is a volunteer board made up of 21 members appointed by the mayor who is required to participate in bias training, declare conflicts of interest, and invest again hours of your time. Whereas the projects funded fell into three human service categories based on the priorities set by this council, 24 projects within workforce development, 25 projects within youth gun violence prevention and reduction, and 25 projects supporting securing and stabilizing housing for high-risk populations. And whereas HSAC recommended the council award, the second impact award to safe network hunger and healing and hope a food system and approach to community safety which will be led by children's hospital and 12 other partner organizations totaling $850,000. Whereas this council and this administration is grateful for your recommendations made by the by you all uh to support the efforts of moving our community forward. Now therefore, be it resolved by the council and the city of Cincinnati, state of Ohio that the mayor and council recognize you all for your commitment and your work and being partners with us and we appreciate you. Thank you. And who would like to do the honors of saying any words on behalf of >> Okay. Well, we won't pressure you. No problem. But anyone can if you want to. Anyone? All right. Wow. With that, we will turn it over to my colleagues for positive words. >> Thank you, Miss Owens. Comments from council. Vice Mayor. >> Council member Owens. Thank you so much for being the the leader of all of the of all all of this and you know you really do a great service for the city of Cincinnati. Uh I know it's a lot of work, a lot of hours. You don't get paid for it. The public needs to know that. Um you do voluntary work to look through all of the applications for human services funding uh to really make our city so much better. And so we just really really appreciate you. I mean this is transformative work. Uh we appreciate these organizations. We know they need funding. You know, you pick out um the ones that are really at the top and so thank you for that. It's a lot. Uh I just can't emphasize that. I think the public needs to know how much you give back to the city and we really appreciate you. Thank you. >> You further comments, Mr. Jeff? >> Yeah, echo that. First, um, just as a reminder for folks at home, uh, we have allocated 1.5% of our budget for human services the past few years, which for the longest time did not happen. But we can't allocate what that looks like. What does that go to? I mean, we have our buckets of what is important, but what organizations are worthy of getting it, which ones are the best investment. We need all of you and all of the hours, volunteer hours that you put in uh, in order to help us. And so thank you for that because you're closest to understanding what works, what doesn't work, who's doing good work, you know, what makes a a great application. So thank you for all of the investment of your time uh into our city uh into making it a much better place to live. >> Thank you, Miss Alb's, then Mr. Johnson, then Mr. Nolan. >> Thank you, Council Member Owens, for this. I really appreciate it. You all are superheroes. No one gets I'm glad to have you here in person so people can see you because I often invoke the amazing HSAC for all your awesome volunteer work. I know it's been said but this is hours and I mean even if you were 141 applications you know however many minutes you had to put into each of those applications reading them reviewing them considering it looking at the data doing all that and then the hours of deliberation. And these were not easy decisions. I know they weren't because we have amazing organizations in the city of Cincinnati and I thank you for doing the work to to make these kind of almost heartbreaking decisions between this or that because these are tough decisions to make and I know you all put in so much of your uh soul into this work and I'm just so grateful because this is truly what makes our city great. These are amazing organizations and this is maybe one of the the most sacred responsibilities I think the city has. The duty to give back to these organizations that really touch our residents on the front line and having you all help make these decisions, put in the work is just so special and so important. So truly from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I will continue to sing your praises to anyone in Cincinnati who will listen. So thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. >> Thank you, Mayor. It's already been said. We greatly appreciate your service. Um, like I said, it's volunteer and that's amazing and we greatly appreciate it and I pray that the groups that um receive the funding appreciate the dedication that you uh show. So, thank you. It's been said on behalf of the city of Cincinnati, it is appreciated. Thanks, >> Mr. Nolan. >> Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Owens, for taking the lead on this and our our the work that we do with the Human Services Advisory Committee. um you know the the work that we do with all of our community partners um spans a broad range and um I won't speak for everyone up here but for me it can be challenging to wrap my head around the best ways to address the issues that we face and I like to defer to the experts and I very much appreciate that you all have lent your expertise and your experience to advise us um and to do that on a volunteer basis is just incredibly um remarkable and and we are very much grateful for that. So, thank you >> Mr. Kremling. >> Yeah, you uh so many of you I know in so many capacities just want to acknowledge we outlined the work that you perform on this committee, but so many of you are involved in other boards and other organizations and other causes. So, I know that you're multitasking out there for the betterment of this city and our citizens and just want to acknowledge it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Further comments? Seeing none, roll call and passage of the resolution please. >> Vice Mayor Karnney, >> yes. >> Council member Nolan, >> yes. >> Council member Owen, >> yes. >> Council member Parks, >> yes. >> Council member Walsh, >> yes. >> Council member Albby, >> yes. >> Council member Kmer, >> yes. >> Council member Jeff, >> yes. >> Council member Johnson, it passes. >> Congratulations. [Applause] >> Thank you. Moving to our agenda. Items one through two are as indicated. Items three through four have been dealt with. Item five is as indicated. Item number six uh is a legislative appointment by Vice Mayor Kernney, President Parks, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Kmerding, pursuant to article 2, section 5A of the charter of the city of Cincinnati. That at that Anthony Coington be appointed as clerk of council designate beginning on Monday, September 22nd, 2025 through October 31st, 2025 for the purpose of training with the incumb the incumbent clerk of council, Melissa Autry, before she retires. further that Anthony Coington be appointed to the b position of clerk of council from November 1st, 2025 through the end of the current council term. Vice Mayor, would you like to introduce this item? >> Thank Thank you. Um first of I'd like to move for immediate consideration uh rather than holding this a week. We're anxious for Mr. Cington to get started with his training. Um, as you know, um, our wonderful clerk of council, Melissa Autri, who has been with us for 31 years, um, will retire on November 1st. Well, actually on October 31st. Uh, and so we would like for him to start training this Monday. And so because of that, we'd rather not hold this one week. We'd like to get started right away. Um, I should also, you know, while I have the floor, just thank the selection committee. Uh it was quite a process but moved very smoothly. We had 122 applications for the clerk of council position. So we thank everyone who's who was interested in working here in city hall with us. Um I'm I'm really honored by the amount of applications that we received, but you know it's a lot to go through. And so our committee uh led by our current clerk of council Melissa Autry um our director of human resources Leticia Hazelle, our city solicitor Emily Smart Warner, President Pro Tim Victoria Parks, council members uh Scotty Johnson and Jeff Kramering uh did an excellent job. Um the applications were all sorted through, vetted. Um we had uh interviews, three days, three full days of uh interviewing applicants and um I think everyone will be very happy with our choice. Just there were just a lot of good a lot of good candidates. So let me say that just a lot of really wonderful candidates. So it was not an easy choice by any chance. Um but I do think that you'll be very happy with Anthony J. Cington and um we ask that uh it's voted on today um and that he will start training on Monday. >> Thank you, Vice Mayor. So, the vice mayor has put a motion for immediate consideration on the floor. Anyone would like to second. >> Saw Mr. or heard Mr. Johnson. Um any any um discussion for the motion which is immediate consideration. Mr. Mayor, >> would you like to comment on the immediate consideration? >> Just one quick thing. We would like to also thank your chief of staff, Caza Framo, for her work on this, too. >> Absolutely. >> That that was my oversight. She was I'm so sorry, Miss Famro. She was a big part of of our committee. So, apologies to her. Thank you so much. >> Any discussion on the motion that is appropriately before the council? Seeing none, roll call on immediate consideration of item number six. >> Vice Mayor Kernney, >> yes. >> Council member Nolan, >> yes. >> Council member Owens, >> yes. >> Council member Parks, >> yes. >> Council member Walsh, >> yes. >> Council member Albby, yes. >> Council member Crane, >> yes. >> Council member Jeff, >> yes. >> Council member Johnson, >> yes. >> Now the item is properly before council. Uh, any further comment on the appointment? Seeing none, roll call on confirmation of the appointment. >> Vice Mayor Karnney? >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan? >> Yes. Yes. Council member Owens. >> Yes. >> Council member Parks. >> Yes. >> Council member Walsh. >> Yes. >> Council member Albby. >> Yes. >> Council member Kmer. >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff. >> Yes. >> Council member Johnson. >> Yes. >> Items 7 through 14 are as indicated. Moving to budget and finance. Item 15 is a motion from Vice Mayor Kernney that the administration allocate 35,000 from the reserve for weather events, other emergencies, and one-time needs to support Build Cincy, the annual conference that focuses on increasing the number of women and minority developers in Cincinnati, and providing informationational tools to scale the capacity of existing development companies. Mr. Kramering, may I have the vice mayor introduce this item? >> Yes. Thank you, Mayor. >> Vice Mayor. >> Okay, so it's really built Cincy this time, right? like last week when it was it was not actually an item. So, thank you so much. As you know, uh former council member Reggie Harris started Build Censey along with uh the former president of the Realist Association, Dariq Dansby. It is a free conference for uh developers and those interested in entering the field. Um we want to open up the clubhouse and give everybody an opportunity. And so, it's tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow starts with a bus tour of possible development sites and some developments that are ongoing followed by lunch in Washington Park followed by an afternoon of workshops and then a dinner for women developers at Soul Secrets and it's open to everybody uh and then workshops all day on Friday and it is free and open to the public. Um, we invite everyone to come, but please go to builds censey and that cincy is cincy.org to register and we look forward to seeing you at the graduate hotel tomorrow. Thank you. >> Thank you. Further comments, seeing none, roll call on adoption of the motion, please. >> Vice Mayor Karnney, >> yes. >> Council member Nolan, >> yes. >> Council member Owens, >> yes. >> Council member Parks, >> yes. >> Council member Walsh, >> yes. >> Council member Albby, yes. >> Council member Kdane, >> yes. >> Council member Jeff, >> yes. Council member Johnson. >> Yes. Item 16, first reading, please. >> Emergency ordinance authorizing transfer of five,420,000 from general fund balance sheet reserve account reserve for weather related events, other emergency and onetime needs to unappropriate surplus of general fund 050 to fund public I mean to fund police public safety measures and deter violent crime in the central business district. >> Roll call and suspension. >> Vice Mayor Karnney? >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan? >> Yes. >> Council member Owens? >> Yes. >> Council member Parks. Yes. >> Council member Walsh. Yes. >> Council member Albby. >> Yes. Council member Kramer. >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff. >> Yes. >> Council member Johnson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kramerang. >> Yeah. Mayor, this is a uh transfer from the city's reserves for immediate public safety needs. Uh some of the highlights are 1.2 million for police visibility overtime, uh 1.2 2 million for street lights and cameras uh and $880,000 for our downtown ambassadors, which are are the eyes and ears of the police and are critical to combating crime. Just want to emphasize that this is definitely uh more than about downtown, but about public safety throughout the city. And this is just the first step. I mean, these are providing resources. Uh but the next step uh is to make sure that these resources are used in hotspots to really reduce crime. There was another shooting in over the Rine over the weekend which was tragic. And uh last week when we were talking about this, I talked about a highly visible shooting in Praill during broad daylight. And in the intervening week, the same thing happened to the same house twice. So this is not acceptable and the resources are there. Uh but we as a city, as a council working with the administration need to provide task forces and direction uh to really make sure that these resources are being used where they're needed uh to really reduce crime because our citizens are really feeling it out there. Thank you. >> Thank you. Further comments, Miss Owens, then Mr. Johnson. >> Thank you. Yeah, I just want to again thank you to my colleagues for uh making this investment. Uh we are applying resources where we know that work uh the police visibility and overtime reminding our community that it is across the city. Uh I am also excited how we are leveraging technology to reduce crimes and and solve them quicker with license plate reading technology because there is a correlation between stolen vehicles and crime. And then also the fiscal responsibility uh part of this uh ordinance is also being updated by the administration by the end of this year as to what has been spent and by June of next year if there are any leftover funds then uh we can reallocate them. So I think we have a good plan in place and this is certainly backing that up. >> Thank you Mr. Johnson. >> Thank you mayor. Um, this is of course we always want to make sure we prioritize safety. I don't think this is a wise wise to do $5.4 million to go to the police. We need to make sure technology is updated. I'm all for the cameras. I'm all for the lighting. But if we don't have people in place to monitor the cameras, then we're just responding after events take place. Once again, I'll make it crystal clear that the police chief said all she needed was a half a million dollars. We decided to give 1.2 million. And this when you talk about emergencies, if we're talking safety, we've got the fire department who once again is dealing with emergency situations when it comes to vehicles and all type of things. I just don't think this 5.4 5.4 $4 million to the police that can't even feel the overtime that we are allocating to them. I don't think that's fiscally responsible. The police chief, the expert told told us all she needed was a half a million. We decided to up it by $700,000. We didn't and then in addition to that, we didn't even get a clear picture or a clear indication as to when we take this from the reserves what what type of condition that's going to leave us in with upcoming issues. So, I'm a strong no. Of course, technology safety is priority number one, but I don't think we're being responsible with $5.4 $4 million. >> Further comments, Miss Selby and then Vice Mayor. >> Thank you. Um, you know, this is a step forward in the right direction. I don't by any means think any of us think this is perfect. There is no magic wand solution, but there are some elements in this package here that are really important. Um, you all have heard me talk about crime prevention through environmental design. You know, we've seen a spike in property crime and being able to have better lighting in areas and really focusing on making physical spaces feel safer is really important. Having cameras to be able to do conduct the investigations and hopefully deter crime as well is important and so I'm glad to have that included. An important piece for me going into this discussion too was the youth outreach. We have seen success at our transit stations when we have people who are trained in deescalation and trauma-informed care working directly with our kids and helping build those relationships, seeing what the kids need, what resources, and what that has done. We've had great success at the transit station. So, while it's a line item here, I don't think it's nearly enough, but I'm happy for it to be a step in the right direction. So, while this isn't, you know, the the be all end all of our public safety investments, but this is definitely a step in the right direction, you know, I was late slightly um few minutes late into to public comment today because I was talking with Kevin Corey at uh Wesley and Chapen Chapel Mission Center and he was standing with two kids who witnessed the shooting in OTR last night and you know there there's a lot of work to be done um both in the upfront crime prevention but then also what we do uh to follow up and support our survivors who are witnessing this and dealing with trauma. So, I I'm supportive of this. It's a step in the right direction, but there is still work to be done, and I'm uh dedicated along with the rest of this council to doing that work and doing what we can to support our citizens and our residents uh before and after uh incidents occur. >> Thank you, Vice Mayor. you know, we are losing some of our youth to this gun violence u more so this year than last year. And so um I just cannot take this lightly and I can't sit silently while we um are really I think um you know just not being responsible and allocating our resources to really stop those bullets to stop that gun violence. We have to do that. And so you know there are things in here that I don't disagree with. I'm totally in support of the chief said, as Council Member Johnson pointed out, she needs $500,000 for the police. Give it to them. Absolutely. That's what the chief said she needs and wants, and that is a definite yes. She did not ask for $1.2 million. That's 700,000 extra dollars can be much better allocated to help with stopping this violence. you know $880,000 uh to walk people to their cars. We can better allocate that money. $360,000 for license plate readers so that we can locate stolen cars after they're stolen. It won't stop them from getting stolen. We can better allocate that money. Now, that's over 1.9 million. Let's talk about our youth. What can we really do to help our youth? How about putting a million dollars of that money in for jobs for youth? Let's let's expand our Cincinnati Rec Commission Youth to Work program year round so that our young people have jobs after school year round so they have mentors to go with that job. Let's let's allocate some of this money toward community violence intervention, things that have been proven across the country to really stop the violence. We have to deal with the retalatory violence that's going on. It's cyclical and it's going on in some hot spots in some of our neighborhoods. We can do better than this and we should do be better than this. We care about the people of the city. We care about our youth and we can do better. Yes, cameras. We need more cameras. There are things in here that are fine. lighting. Absolutely. But some of this money can be better allocated and we can't wait until December, till June. We need to allocate it now. We need to get moving now. The time is now. We need to do better about allocating these dollars. And so for that reason, I'm voting no. >> Further comments, Mr. Jeff? >> Yeah, thank you. Uh just to echo a couple of the comments of my colleagues. First, this is a part of the solution. For example, we do already invest a million dollars in career pathways for kids and that's year round. That is a great program. We need to continue to do more. So, we have to continue to invest there. What this addresses is too. There is an issue downtown over the Ryan and then in our neighborhoods. Uh and the resources here will go to both drones in I forget what percentage it covers like 97% of the city is going to be covered. Uh there are needs as we heard places like East Price Hill uh and other neighborhoods where we need that dedicated help uh and additional enforcement downtown. The issue also is in part I've heard from several business leaders who say they're hesitant to make investments until they have assurance of what is the plan. Uh that impacts the whole city. So yes, it's downtown, but that impacts the core of the city. If any business is hesitant to make investments because of potential public safety issues, that impacts jobs, that impacts the core of the city. Um, so I would just point out I think this is a balanced thing. To the point, it's been made several times and I just have to correct the record. The the folks who are doing the ambassadors, they're cleaning up trash. They're cleaning up needles on right three blocks from here. They're cleaning up litter. That is d we talk about dignity of work. That is dignity of work. They are doing a job and we are paying them for it. No, by the way, we also pay them health insurance. So, they're not just it's to it's it's I think disrespectful to say they're just walking people to their cars. No, they are actually doing a job that is valuable. If you went north of Liberty on Vine, they clean up a lot of the trash that's there. That is a a valuable job and I thank them for that work. uh and expanding that to more of them to make sure that we're making sure that we're cleaning up litter and the city is not filled with trash I think is an important part of public safety. >> Thank you. Further comments, >> Mr. Chair. >> One second, Vice Mayor. >> Go ahead, Vice Mayor. >> So, I am not disrespecting anyone and I am not disrespecting anyone's job. I am talking about the need to attack violence. Now, now I asked in budget committee, what is that $880,000 for? And the answer was, it is for people to be walk to their cars. And so that is the answer I was given. I believe our administration. I have no reason to doubt them. But it's not about the dignity of work or disrespecting people. All jobs are dignified. Any kind of work is dignified. But we are talking here about the best way to allocate dollars to stop violence. That is what this is for. It's not a workforce uh ordinance. It's about allocating money for public safety. We can do better with allocating money for public safety. >> Further comments? Seeing none, roll call on passage of item 16. >> Vice Mayor Kernney. >> No. >> Council member Nolan. >> Yes. Council member Owens, >> yes. >> Council member Parks, >> no. >> Council member Walsh, >> yes. >> Council member Albby, >> yes. >> Council member Crane, >> yes. >> Council member Jeff, >> yes. >> Council member Johnson, >> no. Roll call on emergency. >> Vice Mayor Kernney? >> No. >> Council member Nolan? >> Yes. >> Council member Owens? >> Yes. >> Council member Parks? >> No. >> Council member Walsh? >> Yes. >> Council member Albby? >> Yes. >> Council member Kardine? >> Yes. Council member Jeff. >> Yes. >> Council member Johnson. >> No. >> Item 17, first reading, please. >> Emergency ordinance authorizing the payment of $3,366.14 from county law enforcement applied regionally clear fund non-personnel operate operating budget account as a more obligation to T-Mobile USA. >> Roll call and suspension. >> Vice Mayor Kernney? >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan? >> Yes. >> Council member Owens. >> Yes. >> Council member Parks. >> Yes. >> Council member Walsh. >> Yes. >> Council member Albby. Yes. >> Council member Crane. >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff. >> Yes. >> Council member Johnson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kramer. >> Mayor, this is a moral obligation for wireless air cards. This allows our public safety officers to use their mobile data computers. >> Further comments. Roll call on passage. >> Vice Mayor. >> Council member Nolan. >> Yes. >> Council member Owens. Yes. >> Council member Parks. Yes. >> Council member Walsh. >> Yes. >> Council member Albby. Yes. >> Council member Kane. >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff. >> Yes. Yes. Council member Johnson. >> Yes. >> Roll call on emergency. >> Vice Mayor Kernney? >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan? >> Yes. >> Council member Owens? >> Yes. >> Council member Parks? >> Yes. >> Council member Walsh? >> Yes. >> Council member Albby? Yes. >> Council member Crane? >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff? >> Yes. >> Council member Johnson? >> Yes. >> Item 18, first reading, please. >> Emergency ordinance authorizing a payment of $12,130 from sustained police department general fund non-personnel operating budget account as a more obligation to Foresight Corporation. >> Roll call on suspension. >> Vice Mayor Kernney? >> Yes. >> Council member Benolan. >> Yes. Council member Owens, yes. >> Council member Parks, >> yes. >> Council member Walsh, >> yes. >> Council member Albby, >> yes. >> Council member Crane, >> yes. >> Council member Jeff, >> yes. >> Council member Johnson, >> yes. >> Mr. Kramer, >> mayor, this is a moral obligation for fitness for duty evaluations. >> Further comments? Roll call and passage. >> Coun Vice Mayor Karnney? >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan? >> Yes. >> Council member Owens? >> Yes. >> Council member Parks? Yes. >> Council member Walsh? >> Yes. >> Council member Alb. Yep. Council member Karding, >> yes. >> Council member Jeff, >> yes. >> Council member Johnson, >> yes. >> Roll call on emergency. >> Vice Mayor Kernney? >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan? >> Yes. >> Council member Owens, >> yes. >> Council member Parks, >> yes. >> Council member Walsh, >> yes. >> Council member Albby, yes. >> Council member Cameron, >> yes. >> Council member Jeff, yes. >> Council member Johnson, >> yes. Item 19, first reading, please. Ordinance authorizing city manager to apply for, accept, and appropriate a grant of up to $46,80 from the Murray of Agnes Season and Good Good Government Foundation to administer an internship program for temporary placement of up to eight interns. >> Roll call and suspension. >> Vice Mayor Kernney? >> Yes. Council member Nolan. >> Yes. >> Council member Owens. >> Yes. >> Council member Parks. >> Yes. >> Council member Walsh. >> Yes. >> Council member Albby. >> Yes. >> Council member Karding. >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff. Yes. >> Council member Johnson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kramering. >> Yeah. Mayor, just as a point of clarification, this is item 14. Uh, and this is the city accepting money from the Season Good Foundation for our season Good Fellows, which is obviously an exciting program. Thank you to the Season Good Foundation. >> This is item 14. >> 19. >> Mr. Kramer, I believe this is item 19. >> You, as always, are correct, mayor. >> Okay, no problem. Fours and nines are easy to mix up. Uh, further comments on item 19? Roll call and passage. >> Vice Mayor Kernney? >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan? >> Yes. >> Council member Owens? >> Yes. >> Council member Parks? >> Yes. >> Council member Walsh? >> Yes. >> Council member Albby? >> Yes. >> Council member Kermadine? >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff? >> Yes. >> Council member Johnson? >> Yes. >> Item 20, first reading, please. >> Ordinance. Emergency ordinance authorizing city manager to accept and appropriate up to $61,725.90 from the village of St. Bernard to capital improvement program program pedestrian safety improvement major street comming to install trafficcoming infrastructure along sections of East Mitchell Avenue. >> Roll call and suspension. >> Vice Mayor Kernney. >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan. >> Yes. >> Council member Owens. >> Yes. >> Council member Parks. >> Yes. >> Council member Walsh. >> Yes. >> Council member Albby. Yes. >> Council member Kerdine. >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff. >> Yes. >> Council member Johnson. >> Mr. Kramer. And as a reminder, this is item 20. Thank you, mayor. I sincerely appreciate that. I'll defer to my colleague, Council Member Jeff. >> Mr. Jeff, >> thank you. I I appreciate the opportunity to talk on item 21. Joking, just trying to keep the mayor on his toes. Um, so th this is a a great initiative. So, uh, Connor Morton, uh, who's city council in St. Bernard, reached out about a year ago, um, and said, "Hey, look, there are some pedestrian safety concerns on, uh, an intersection that crosses both St. Bernard and the city of Cincinnati, can you guys come out and have a look at it and see what's possible? So, uh, members of the administration, including John Brazina, when he was in his old seat, uh, went out there and we walked around and, um, he shared what the concerns were and we talked about what might be needed, what might be possible, uh, because one side of the street is St. Bernard, the other side is city of Cincinnati and, uh, we came up with a a joint solution. So, this is basically accepting their portion of the cost of um some of the pedestrian safety improvements uh there, which will greatly help both of our residents. Um and it's, I think, a great example of collaboration. So, thank you for council member uh Morton for all of his work and advocacy on this. >> Thank you. Further comments. >> Roll call on passage, please. >> Vice Mayor Kernney, >> yes. >> Council member Nolan, >> yes. >> Council member Owens, >> yes. >> Council member Parks, >> yes. Yes. Council member Walsh. >> Yes. >> Council member Albby. Yes. Council member Kane. >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff. >> Yes. >> Council member Johnson. >> Yes. Roll call on emergency. >> Vice Mayor Kerney? >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan. >> Yes. >> Council member Owens. >> Yes. >> Council member Parks. >> Yes. >> Council member Walsh. >> Yes. >> Council member Alb. >> Yes. >> Council member Crane. >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff. >> Yes. Council member Johnson. >> Yes. Item 21, first reading, please. Emergency Ordinance B version authorizing transfer of $643,263 within general fund 050 according to the attached schedule transfer to realign and provide resources for the ongoing needs of city departments. >> Roll call and suspension. >> Vice Mayor Kernney. >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan. >> Yes. >> Council member Owens. >> Yes. >> Council member Parks. >> Yes. >> Council member Walsh. >> Yes. >> Council member Albby. Yes. >> Council member Karding. >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff. >> Yes. >> Council member Johnson. >> Mr. Kmerding. Uh, mayor, these are mid-year transfers to a number of departments. Uh, the city does this uh, as a part of our routine business. You know, things cost more than they expect and we transfer money and and are basically adjusting our budget accordingly. Uh, we did hold part of this ordinance relating to CRC. Uh, where CRC was different uh, and they acknowledge this was a serious problem. either they were over their budget uh and they were either not aware of it or did not convey that information to the budget department in a timely manner. So it was a very serious issue and again they acknowledge that uh CRC you know they are as far as their general fund they are a million dollars over budget at the beginning of the year. uh they think they can absorb that $1 million uh in cuts uh without affecting the delivery to basic city services at our pools and recck centers. The reason we held that item is you know there is concern about how they're going to absorb that without us without the citizens seeing those u seeing the impact of those cuts. So uh council member Jeff uh put forth a motion that we hold that portion. CRC is going to come back and issue a report how they're going to absorb those cuts. So we specifically know how citizens will or will not be affected. >> Further comments. Roll call on passage, please. >> Vice Mayor Karnney? >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan? >> Yes. >> Council member Owens? >> Yes. >> Council member Parks? >> Yes. >> Council member Walsh? >> Yes. >> Council member Albby? >> Yes. >> Council member Kane? >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff? >> Yes. >> Council member Johnson. >> Roll call on emergency. >> Vice Mayor Kerney? >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan? >> Yes. >> Council member Owens? >> Yes. >> Council member Parks? >> Yes. Council member Walsh, >> yes. >> Council member Albby, yep. >> Council member Crane, >> yes. >> Council member Jeff, >> yes. >> Council member Johnson, >> moving to public safety and governance, item 22 is a motion from Council Member Owens that the city administration take all needed action to trim, maintain, or remove items of city-owned landscaping to improve sight lines for public safety infrastructure. Mr. Johnson, may I have Miss Owens introduce this item? Thank you, Miss Owens. >> Thank you. Um, yes. I mean, pretty simple, straightforward. Cameras are essential part of uh public safety and they're only good if they're not obstructed. And so we're just asking the administration to do what is necessary while making sure we are not uh there are no harmful impacts to our urban tree canopy goals via our green Cincinnati plan which is 40% urban tree canopy to maintain that. So >> further comments roll call on adoption of the motion please. >> Vice Mayor Kernney? >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan. >> Yes. >> Council member Owens. Yes. >> Council member Parks. >> Yes. >> Council member Walsh. >> Yes. >> Council member Albby. Yes. >> Council member Kermadane. >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff. >> Yes. >> Council member Johnson. >> Yes. >> Our final item, item 23. First reading, please. >> Ordinance modifying the provisions of title 8 business regulations of the assistant missile coal by ordaining new section 487 hookah and other smoking establishments to regulate the operating hours of hookah and other smoking establishments and to protect the public health, safety, and welfare of Cincinnati residents and visitors. Roll call and suspension. >> Vice Mayor Kernney? >> Yes. Council member Nolan? >> Yes. >> Council member Owens? >> Yes. >> Council member Parks? Yes. >> Council member Walsh? >> Yes. >> Council member Albby? Yes. Council member Kane? >> Yes. >> Council member Jeff? >> Yes. >> Council member Johnson? >> Yes. >> Mr. Johnson. >> I'll kick it to Mr. Jeff. >> Mr. Jeff, please. >> Thank you. Uh so yesterday in public safety we had great engagement with citizens from primarily Rose Lawn and Clifton come out uh on this issue of hookah bars. When I said then I'll say again our first responsibility is make sure our residents feel safe, their neighborhoods are livable. Uh in the past few years we've seen several of these hookah establishments be the center of focal point of a lot of violent activity, noise, disruption in the early hours of the morning. Um so what we're proposing here today is really just common sense. It's a responsible measured uh measure to uh a very tangible problem. And the problem is in those wee hours of the morning where folks are gathering and um leading to a lot of unlawful behavior. So we've heard from residents uh of these concerns and frankly they're they're fed up. Um they want to just live in peace. Uh this is not a case of one or two establishments. We've had actually nine or 10 nuisance claims against these establishments in the last two years. Uh which is clearly a pattern. Other cities have regulated hours, Cleveland being the most notable one. Uh and this essentially is doing the same thing. So this is not about shutting a business down. This is a striking a balance between making sure that uh we are listening to residents uh and their concerns for safety in their neighborhood and making sure these businesses can still stay up uh and and running. but just with regulated hours. Thank you. Further comments. Roll call on passage, please. >> Vice Mayor Kernney? >> Yes. >> Council member Nolan? >> Yes. >> Council member Owens? >> Yes. >> Council member Parks? >> Yes. >> Council member Walsh? >> Yes. >> Council member Albby? >> Yes. >> Council member Keringine. >> Council member Jeff? Yes. >> Council member Johnson? >> Yes. >> That concludes this the business portion of our agenda. I have two brief announcements. The first is yesterday the CSR board approved $58 million to the city for our existing infrastructure investments. That is up $2 million from last year. Even given the even given the challenging macroeconomic times that we find ourselves in. Our fund is up to $1.8 billion which is an increase of 11% year to date. There will be more to come, particularly around the work to ensure that these funds support our roads, our facilities, our infrastructure equitably throughout our communities. But it's a meaningful win for our goal to pay down our deferred capital maintenance that we all inherited in 2022. My second announcement is Oktoberfest is here. Uh Sawyer Point and Yeetman's Cave will be alive from Thursday to Sunday. Thursday kicks off with Pride Night and the Gamutkite games. I was practicing all day on that. I think I uh got think I need more practice. Uh those games will be will include Steinholding and barrel rolling. Uh and of course I'm looking forward to the wiener dog race on Friday. Uh city manager Long, any further announcements? >> I have no announcements. Thank you. >> Announcements from council. Mr. Mayor. >> Mr. Johnson. >> Thank you, sir. Um, it is with great pleasure that uh I recognize as we have as a city our Cincinnati Fire Department. They have earned their second national award in two years. This award that they just earned is the gold award status for prehosp portion of the American Heart Association. This marks the first time CFD has received this elite dual recognition for both heart attack and stroke care. The highest level of award certification possible. The Lifeline EMS Gold Award elevates agencies across a range of performance measures, including those that gauge the speed at which stroke and heart attack patients are transported and handed off for treatment at local hospitals. We know that heart that heart attacks and stroke seconds matter and this is a reflection of the amazing amazing work that the Cincinnati Fire Department continues to provide to the amazing citizens of Cincinnati. Uh the chief mccleanley was in yesterday and we thanked him for the service that he is providing and the men and women of the Cincinnati Police Department. And I just want to properly recognize the amazing work that our fire department continuously does under the leadership of Frank Chief Frank McKinley. Two national awards in two years. And I think the chief is here on his this is his second starting his second year. So great work CFD. Keep up the great work. Thank you mayor. >> Thank you uh Miss Aldi. >> Yeah. Thank you. So um part of our act for Cincy plan is reducing kids access to firearms. And one of the goals we have this year is reducing car breakins. And I wanted to give a shout out to our Cincinnati Police Department because this weekend we were able to distribute 77 uh gun locks specifically for cars during the Bengals home home opener. So big thank you to Sergeant Isaacs, Lieutenant Cunningham, and Captain Henny for making helping get that done. So this is just a one step of of many that we're taking to keep um people's cars from being broken into and guns getting into the wrong hands. So thank you also to the CMO for support on that project and really excited. This is a a win for ACT for Cincy. Thank you. Further announcements. Vice Vice Mayor. >> I was just going to say thank you for that, Council Member Alba. We have some extra gun locks uh in our office from our healthy neighborhoods committee when we had um different agencies in here talking about suicide prevention and resources. And so we have a bunch. So if anyone needs gun locks, you know, please come on in. Of course, they're free. >> Further announcements. Miss Owens. >> Thank you. So, I just want to say uh congratulations to our very own Cincinnati Zoo. Tomorrow they will be celebrating 150 years and we know that they are premier sustainability partner, the greenest zoo in the nation. Uh they are they have the largest urban solar array in the country and the work that they are doing around net zero being net zero by 2030. Not one raindrop is going wasted. And so we're very proud of them and uh we just hope that they stay open for another 150 years. >> Thank you. Anything further, council? >> Seeing none, meetings adjourned