[Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey hey hey. Heat. [Music] Hey Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Hey, hey hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] All right, this is your one minute warning. If uh we got a couple colleagues that are still not up here, if they would make your way up. We're going to have the pension. We'll have public comment first and then the pension report. Just so everyone knows the initial the initial date. [Music] We're just We'll start. We'll start. [Music] All right. This uh your budget and finance committee is hereby in session. We are going to start with public comment by way of the agenda. As I said, we'll do public comment. We'll do the CRS update. My plan is to go through the regular agenda and then go to the manager's presentation and the public safety motions. If that doesn't work for anybody, let me know. Uh with that, uh let's start with public comment. I have one public speaker. It's Daniel Buridge. Sir, welcome to City Hall. You have the privilege of floor for two minutes. The yellow light is your one minute warning. The red light is your twominut. You're done. Okay. Um, thanks so much for um uh having some public comment here. I'm actually surprised I'm the the only one here. That's kind of a kind of a shame. Um, I was uh interested to see that the package for uh this new investment of 4.6 $6 million in public safety is kind of already uh seemingly a a package that's going to be voted on today by this committee and then potentially to be sent to the full city council on Wednesday. I understand that is the process. I might be okay. Um so I am wondering on one hand about the extent of public consultation that has happened with this public safety package. Um, as you all know, there's been a lot of uh, you know, a lot of comments, a lot of feelings, a lot of, uh, activity out in our city, out in the communities about public safety right now. And so, this would be a prime moment, I think, to include and incorporate, uh, some really authentic community engagement, uh, especially now that, you know, this $4.6 million is on the table for public safety. And I just want to point out that public safety is not just law enforcement. Public safety is about also community engagement. It's about prevention. It's about intervention. And it's about authentic opportunities for people who have been historically marginalized. Um and so there are a lot of proposals on the table for looking at that end of public safety. Advanced pieces one led by Jam Michelle Kernney and many of us in uh the communities. Um, also increased financing for prevention uh in our communities, ongoing programs that already exist. Um, and finally, I just, you know, again, want to say that we need to look at the research. We need to look at the data. Technology feels good. We can, it's easy to put that receipt on our budget, but does it actually work? What studies have you all been looking at um that show that this technology will actually help us solve violent crime? We can't incarcerate or techn technology ourselves out of this. Just want to say that. So, thank you. >> Thank you, sir. We appreciate your comments. Okay. Our first our first presentation is going to be the retirement system by director John Salstrom and Bill Mohler. And after that, the manager and police chief will be presenting immediately after that. So, Bill and John, the floor is yours when you're ready. Uh, thank you for your service and stewardship looking after our retirees. >> Uh, well, thank you to all the council members. I really appreciate the opportunity. Uh, quickly, uh, I am John Salsstrom, the executive director of the Cincinnati Retirement System. I am joined by Bill Mohler, uh, the chairman of our board of trustees. Uh just to level set quickly, we'll probably spend a few minutes giving kind of a state of the union as far as kind of the 2024 year for us as far as an annual report to council. Uh at the end of kind of my few minutes talking, I'll give it over to Bill Mohler, our chairman, to present the recommendations to council. So, first off, just like to begin by again thanking the the council members for all of the hard work that they do. There's a lot of stakeholders involved, city administration, the board of trustees and council members, but your willingness to kind of vote and continue to put the CRS funding, you know, kind of in a light, uh, has really improved the overall funding of the plan and the health of the plan over the last few years or five years. Um, each year, uh, the council kind of votes to approve increased in contribution rates that the city pays. those dedicated steps forward have really really helped improve the overall funding. Um, looking at the the presentation that you have, uh, we always kind of start off with what the overall funding level is and I always kind of caution that this is a snapshot in time that it's, uh, much more important to kind of think about the overall direction and kind of what's been put into the plan over the last few years and kind of the direction of where we're heading. Uh so if you look at kind of where the pension plan is right now uh with assets and liabilities we have an overall funded ratio of 68.3%. Uh that is slightly down from last year when it was 68.8%. But I will cautious everybody on the council that that is slowing. So that deterioration in the funding status has slowed over the last few years and that's kind of a testament to the work and the inde increased uh contribution rates and increased funding that's been put into the plan from the city. If you rewind back to 10 years ago, we were at a 77% funding and we're generally losing maybe about a percent a year. Uh that pace has slowed and I do anticipate that that will reverse in the coming years and and marginally improve as we move forward if the city continues to uh kind of execute on the plan that we have in place right now. Uh you can see on this page the the health care trust is still well funded and at 155% is in very good shape and very good health. >> Just to add to that if I might on the um health trust, you cannot transfer money from the health trust to the pension trust. There's IRS prohibition against that. So, so the next page in the presentation, uh, page two, this is just showing you what the actual determined contribution rate is. This is the rate from our actuary that tells us how much the city should be contributing in order to get the fund 100% funded in 30 years. Uh, it's 31.43%. Again, that number has been improving. Uh, a few years ago, it was 34 35%. uh and that is a testament to the city and the council to improve excuse me increase the contribution rate of the city. Last year the contribution in the city was roughly 20%. That is combined the dedicated 17.5% contribution rate as well as a few payments from the early retirement program and the stabilization the waterfall structure, excuse me. 17.75% is the the contribution rate by the city. uh that has been increased to 18.5% this year and earmarked for 19.25% next year. All of that again will improve the overall health of the plan and keep us heading in the right direction. Visually, you can see on the next slide, this is just the gap between the blue line on this presentation, which is the ADC or the actuary kind of tread water, what we would need to contribute in order to get to 100% funding in 30 years, and what the city has actually been contributing. Um there is a gap, but I will say that gap is narrowing and we continue and improve that as we move those two lines closer together. Eventually they would kind of intersect and swap and you'd see the funding level of the plan improve to 100%. So that's the goal and kind of what we're looking to do uh and what we're trying to ask the city council to continue to think and focus on as they move forward. Lastly, I'll just just comment on the overall performance uh of the fund. This is just showing you calendar year returns for the last 10 years. Last year 2024, uh CRS had a 9.5% return that was above the 7.5% actuary assumed rate of return as well as the peer manager within the public plan space. So this is just looking at kind of similar plans to ourel and how their performance has been over the last year showing that the investment decisions and investment policy statement is doing well by the the city of Cincinnati and the the members. >> With that, why don't I hand it over to to Bill to give a quick update? Did you want me to touch on the the fiduciary audit? >> Um I can do that and then if I miss anything, you can uh certainly jump in. Um the board decided to do a fiduciary audit in 2023. It's not a financial audit. It's an audit that uh address the uh legal and regulatory context, governance, um investments, pension operations and administrative and compliance. Um it was an independent firm that we brought in. Um, pension systems do this frequently and the objective is to see how well you match up with your peers. And um, we had to come in um and it concluded that the board functions effectively and the director and staff functions effectively. Um, so there weren't any issues there. although they did make 37 recommendations and over the past year and a half the board has addressed about 90% of those. Um some of those have to do for example uh we now have a very comprehensive governance manual. So uh literally if you want to know how the uh CRS uh pension system operates if you refer to that manual it will tell you give you a lot of information about it. um we have a more comprehensive investment policy. Uh for example, we now have a statement of beliefs, our our um beliefs and our assumptions, if you will, about how we approach investments. That's there now. Um and we also concluded that the CRS financial information is well represented within the city's audit uh every year. Um although there isn't a separate audit opinion for the retirement system, we are um convinced and we are um certainly okay with the fact that the pension system information is looked at by the auditors and we are very comfortable with that. Um, and if you needed any more information about the fiduciary audit, we have it uh on the website and can be referenced. Okay. Okay, on the next slide, um the this is a summary of the report uh that we have to do by law um that was sent to council annual report um and it was approved and filed uh August 6th I believe. Um and I'll go over the recommen recommendations uh briefly. Um you recall in the presentation that the um actu actuarily determined comp contribution is 31 plus% of payroll and it's currently about 60% of that. Um so the board determined that it wasn't likely that council and the mayor would approve a contribution that would get you up to that. It's it's fiscally impossible to do. We recognize that. So we asked the actuary to come up with a plan. If you just bumped it up incrementally yearbyear to 2045, 2045 being um a reference to the CLA to settlement agreement. Cabora to settlement agreement which we have terminates in 2045. So that's our end date. So we asked the actuary to come back with that and um what the actuary has determined is if it's increased by8% incrementally each year you would get to full funding in 2045 assuming all your other assumptions work out. What we're also recommending we're calling this an incremental annual increase plan. What we're asking the council to do is to adopt a policy that puts this plan in place as a permanent budget policy, if you will. That is, it would be updated every two years and whatever the recommendation is by the actuary that would be included in the budget so that um you would have an incremental increase every year as recognized in that budget policy that we're asking for. Some years it might be a little bit more than 0.8 depending for example on investment returns. Alternately if investment returns were great that year it it might be less. So what we're asking for again is that a policy be adopted by council to put this in place a permanent policy. the other uh two issues four and five that the board has recommendations on. Um four has to do with the futures commission that if uh the futures commission um their u analysis and recommendations with regard to pension if those are pursued that the board be included in any of those discussions. Uh number five um is that the city administration continue to work uh with the CRS board with regard to the fi fiduciary audit recommendations. Um the city administration has worked with us well in a number of them. We still have some to go but we would like um for the city administration to continue to work u with us on that. So that concludes the recommendations. If you look on the next page, what you'll find is that incremental increase approach. It's a table that shows what the recommendation would be from 20 24 in this case to 2045. Um those incremental increases uh start out at 17.75, increase to 18.85 85 uh excuse me 18.55 and that's a8% increase each year. Now um I commend the council um on increasing the employer contribution over the last few years. In fact uh for fiscal year 2026 it's 18.5 and for fiscal year 2027 it's 19.25. So incrementally it's just a little bit shy of the recommendation. So we're getting there. Um so we appreciate that from a board perspective, but again we would like to see this incremental increase approach become a permanent policy of the city. Are there any questions that you have for myself or Mr. Solstrm? >> Council member Jeff. >> Yeah, thank you. um always very comprehensive. I just had two uh one to your point I think in 200 2021 it was 16.25%. So over the last four years for budget cycles we've increased it uh every year uh to what will be 19.25. Prior to 2021 can you expand on what was being done? Were we incrementally increasing it? Was it I think it was stuck at 16.25. Right. So since the last four years has been increased but prior to that was not. Is that correct statement? >> That's correct. If you look at the collaborative settlement agreement the CSA the 16.25 is the minimum contribution and for many years the city stuck to that. That was the minimum contribution that the city made. Um fortunately with this council and this administration this has changed as you have noted. >> Okay. Thank you. um on the return just a a question because I I know we've talked about this before the 7.2% 2%. Um, if you the right comparison is not apples to apples to say like the S&P, right? Because this is a pension. S&P I think over a 10-year compound is like 11.7, but this is a pension. We have to pay out benefits. Uh, there's therefore more risk. So, you want to be a little more conservative. But are there other benchmarks? Um, I know we're one of the few cities that have a pension, so it's tough, but what is the right benchmark of a good return for our pension? It's not the S&P because that's more risky, but what is 7.2 like what are the right benchmarks? >> Well, the 7.5 that we have u is in the CSA. That's the assumed rate of return that's in the collaborative settlement agreement. our um our investment consultant has constructed um our investment policy and what we invest in to achieve that goal. Um you'll note on the page that we have the investments uh our peers uh have it at about 6.9. So we're a little bit above that. Um it's a little bit riskier but we've been able to achieve it. If you compare our risk uh standard deviation from the mean and all that kind of thing, um we're not all that much uh riskier than our peers. So I I think from a board perspective, we're in a good place right now. >> Thank you. I did not see that. So that that's super helpful. So we are above the mean public plan. Um perfect. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. Council member Walsh. I just want to say that um sitting on the board or committee, I think it's a board, um the pension board, uh there's a lot of hard work that goes in behind the scenes. I really want to give compliments to the the department, the staff that are working on this perpetually. Um Chairman Mohler is always here at city hall, allegedly retired, but um I guess it's the best compensation we get, right? We don't pay you for this anymore. Um but he's always here. Uh and there just a wealth of information. So, when you do look at the data, you see that we're pretty consistently doing really well, especially in that 3 to 5 year window against our peers. And I think that speaks uh very highly of the department and those who are watching over this. So, thank you guys for that. >> And thank you, Council Member Walsh, for your participation on the board. Much appreciated. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you both for your presentation and work. >> Thank you for the opportunity to be here. >> Thank you. All right, the um manager is going to make her way up for her presentation. In the interim, I I note that we've got a couple speakers here on item excuse me, a couple attendees here on item 13. So, I'm going to try to dispense with this fairly quickly. Dr. Dudis, do you mind introducing item number 13? Uh to the chair, item number 13 uh is an ordinance for the Department of Community Economic Development. Uh it would transfer $150,000 of existing uh capital resources and the economic development initiatives uh account uh to the operating budget uh of DCED and the general fund. Uh this $150,000 would be uh utilized for uh represent Cincy um to provide operating uh budget support um for their efforts to retain and attract small businesses uh primarily in over the run. >> Any questions on item 13? Council member Walsh, item 13. Uh, no, no questions. But I do just want to raise up I think this is a phenomenal group, a phenomenal organization for a muchneeded um support within the city of Cincinnati. We do a really amazing job of launching businesses and then as soon as they get out the door, that's kind of where things stop. Uh, and for Represent and other, there's a few other groups out there, but Represent especially to be able to provide that critical step for groups that um, they've now out on their own. they're trying to figure out how to put the make the ends meet and having somebody um like Jasmine who I also think is just phenomenal. I can't say enough kind things about her. I'm really excited for this investment and I I can't wait to see where it goes from here. >> Vice Chair, >> thank you. Thank you, Mr. Walsh. You took some comments right out of my brain. Uh I am glad to see this and you you talked about Miss Crockett. She's an amazing lady and I know this is uh something that's just a plus plus for this city and our small businesses. We know small businesses are the backbone of this city and this nation. So, uh this is a plus plus win-win for the city. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Council Jeff, >> just want to add to that. Obviously, we're talking public safety here. A big part of public safety is having vibrant small businesses. uh especially as we're thinking about over the rine making sure we're supporting the small businesses uh helping them making sure we're guiding them and so I think this fits right in as we talk about public safety is not just police it's so much more acti and represent is certainly a part of uh fostering and supporting um a a public uh a safer uh environment of the public. Thank you all. We will put item number 13 on for passage to the clerk. We will also while we are dispensing with things, we will file item number 16. Uh in my excitement to get started, I forgot to introduce those uh on the dis. So uh starting on my right is solicitor slip, solicitor swim, director web, and Dr. Dudis. Scotty Johnson is the vice chair of your budget and finance committee. Uh Evan Nolan, Anna Albby, and Mark Jeff are on my right. Uh Council Member Parks, Walsh, and Owens are on my left, and Rebecca Lutenoff is your clerk. Keeping us in order. With that, the floor is yours, city manager. Good afternoon, council members, and thank you for having me here to present my recommendations for additional public safety investments. Creating a city where everyone feels safe is a top priority that we all share. I believe these smart intentional investments will improve public safety, reduce the load on Cincinnati police, and build into a more sustainable approach through innovation technology. On August 6, council adopted a motion directing the city administration to utilize $2 million from the general fund contingency to pay for public safety measures like police overtime, lightning, and technology investments. Following that vote, I directed my staff to determine the needs of our public safety departments and what recommendations we could provide to council to spend these funds. Through those conversations, we determined the need for an additional $2.5 million. Before you today is my recommended ordinance for $4.5 million on public safety spending. These dollars are divided into four main categories. Outreach, curfew, CPD staffing and training, technology, and technology upgrades. We've been we've seen success in our urban core addressing quality of life issues and building relationships with our youth providing resources like food, personal hygiene products, and employment opportunities. 3CDC is a critical partner through their established programs to have a visible presence taking care of our public spaces and ensuring our community has a posit positive experience when they're in our city. For that reason, under outreach, I'm recommending a one-time investment of 880,000 to expand the 3CDC ambassador program in Over the Rine and additional 100,000 for 3CDC outreach workers and Fus technology in the central business district in Over the Rine. Additionally, I'm looking to bring more experienced community partners to the table to help our youth outreach efforts. We cannot rely on one or two organizations to direct this work. That's why I'm recommending an additional 200,000 to build up upon what we've we've instablished in downtown and around Government Square and recreate that in Over the Rine. We are still seeking partners for that. We've talked a lot about our efforts to create a fair and equitable curfew for unaccompanied minors. this summer and enforce it in a way that ensures public safety while avoiding unnecessary harm on our kids. Thanks to our partners at Lighthouse and Seven Hills, we have successfully been able to implement an updated curfew that includes curfew centers for youth who can't immediately contact a reason responsible adult. These have been open every Friday and Saturday night since August 15th and thus far the majority of kids have been in compliant have been compliant. This summer police has been conducting targeted patrols in our central business district working overtime to be a more visible presence in our community and addressing hot spots. That comes with added expenses. So including in my recommendation is half a million dollars to cover the overtime acred as a result of that additional commitment. We've continued investment in what's proven to work, our pivot projects and targeted towing enforcement, specifically at the banks in Queensgate. The most insignificant investment is one that I believe is most important to usher out our policing operations into a more sustainable model. While we prioritize recruitment and reaching our full complement of officers in CPD and that commitment is recognized in this ordinance with additional funding, we cannot rely solely on police presence to fight crime and make feel make people feel safe. Police cannot be everywhere, but investment in street lightning, new cameras, and other safety improvements provide 247 coverage and deter crime and capture evidence in real time to help police do their job more effectively. In total, I'm recommending more than two million for technology upgrades. Chief Theiji has been talking about the new drone program that CPD rolled out this summer and how they are using as a first responder for investigations. We've asked for additional investments for their use of CIC and pivot areas and to help expand the program to cover 90% of the city a year from now. We've also been talking about the Fus camera system and encouraging property owners to be part of it so we can add their cameras to our real-time crime center, giving us eyes beyond our own city cameras and the ability to stop crimes before they occur and track them when they do happen. I am so grateful to the men and women of CPD for stepping up this summer and taking on extra patrols and details to respond to the needs of our community. What we found in a new number that came in that we are seeing officers have worked over 15,000 hours in the month of August to show their presence in our city. We recognize the hard work they are putting and we need to supplement that with common sense sustainable solutions that expand our camera network and provide blanketed security across our city and specifically our urban core. is what we've heard from our community and and it's the investment that makes sense now and for our future. Thank you for your commitment to a safe Cincinnati. >> Thank you, manager, and thank you to all of our officers who uh we know put in hard work and it's it's been appreciated. Um, a couple questions of the spending allocation. How much would you see going into the central business district versus the other neighborhoods right now it looks like with the CB 3CDC outreach workers and fuses um a portion of that is going to the central business district and over the rine um and total we can get a more detailed version number um associated with the s central business district and a followup >> uh is it is it um and feel free to bring up chief the if you want is it a danger I know we've this before if we focus more resources in the CBD that we're going to be just moving some of the crime some of the bad bad actors in other neighborhoods >> I would argue with under the acti our goal is to making sure that we are creating working with communities trying to find a way to address root cause with public safety throughout the city and with you all and your investment that has been working successfully. Um so what I would say is with pivot addition to and we've also incorporated a pre pivot that focuses on how do we make sure that the the crime and that is happening is not moving to different locations and that we're talking to community partners about ways to intervene in that. So I would say it's not just about chasing the crime, it's making sure that we're holistically putting investment elsewhere through not just the policing work, but also the technology in addition to the uh working with community partners. And so we will continue to continuously keep a pulse on that, but I think we've had interventions to to keep an eye >> when we talk about the many hours of police overtime that have already been acred. What percent was that mostly in the central business district and in district one? >> Chief, would you like to um respond to that a little bit more in detail? >> Welcome to DAS Chief. Thank you. >> Good afternoon everybody. Thank you for having me. So the question was the offduty details. Um is it >> was yeah was the uh overtime that we've already allocated was that disproportionately spent in district one or was it across the city? >> So it is spent across the city specifically the PVO funds. Each district commander when they have a staffing um shortage or hotspot that need to be addressed they design a plan and then they make a request for the funding to support that plan. And so it varies throughout the city based on what's going on in the different parts of the city. So the money is allocated on a monthly basis. We give them a draw um on the money that they need to address what they're dealing with at that moment. And I mean, we've heard or it's been indicated that, you know, certainly the district one officers are justifiably tired because, you know, we've been pushing them and there's been a lot of patrols. I mean, is that the same are you getting that same sentiment across the the city? >> Yes, thank you for that question. Uh yes, that is accurate across the city because while the officers are patrol officers specifically are designated into a geographical area of a district, when it comes to working things like PDO, CDRT and SWAT deployments, offduty details, those resources are drawn from anywhere in the city. Anybody who raises their hand and says, "I want to be a part of CDRT. I I'm available to work this PVO or I want to work this offduty detail." They can come from anywhere in the city to work those hours. >> So, we're drawing from all over the city, all the districts, but most of the work is occurring in district one in in CBD. >> Currently, because of what we have seen throughout the summer, we have had a concentrated e effort in the urban core. Yes. >> Yeah. And I'm gonna ask you the same question I asked the manager. And this is no way intended to be accusatory, but you know, we're hearing it out there from citizens. And I want you to ask, I mean, is there a possibility we're focusing more resources on the CBD? Uh are are people like property crimes? Are people going to say this is this is too hard of a target. I'm going to move and break in windows in a neighborhood or or or move out of the this area and try it someplace else. >> Yes. To the chair and the committee. uh that is always a possibility. No matter where we deploy our resources, it is always a possibility that crime is displaced. That's why our datadriven approach is so critically important to us. We can watch those numbers daily to see what is happening and are we displacing the crime or are we uh eradicating it. And so that that is always a possibility and we are ready to pivot if that occurs, if the data shows us what is occurring. But it is no secret that downtown in many many cities, large cities across this country. Downtown can be a target-rich environment because of the activity that goes on there. And so that's why it is critical that we focus our efforts there. At what stage will that is that data available and are you already already studying it? >> Yes. Uh we study that daily. Uh each district commander is responsible for knowing what is going on in their district and our crime analysis and problem solving. Our analyst assigned there do a tremendous drop job analyzing that data, pushing it out on a daily basis to those commanders. And for the 500,000 for the additional 500,000 for police visibility overtime that will be for the central business district but will draw people from across the officers from across the city. >> Yes, potentially the the PVO is offered. Uh the way we do this is each district is given a pot of PVO money. Like I said on a monthly basis they can ask for a certain dollar amount. Central Business Section is considered as is one of our districts per se and so central business section can ask for a certain amount of money depending on what is going on uh at that time. For example, if we have largecale events, we know that they'll need a little bit more than when we don't have a large scale event going on. So, they make a request, we divvy up the money. And what happens is in those districts, the people assigned to those districts get first dibs at the PVO that is scheduled. But if it doesn't get filled, then anybody from another district or another assignment can come in and work those as well. >> Yeah. Know I uh have been in communication with the chief. This is anecdotal. you know, on the on the west side, we had several very very visible shootings over the past two weekends and people are very concerned and they're asking questions uh just like this. So, I appreciate your answer and you know, Chief had a fast response yesterday when an incident occurred. So, sincerely appreciated. >> The Hamilton County Sheriff's, how much do we do we owe them? Is there a figure that we owe the sheriffs? to the chair to the council. Right now there is an invoice that I am currently evaluating um to look into but I think the what we had was about 156,000 I think is what they charge for Court Street alone >> with that money that we owe the sheriffs and any future expenses we would incur working with the sheriffs would that be out of this money >> to the chair. There isn't any plans at the moment to have any future >> um work any uh future partnerships with the sheriff. Um but I would say that that we would potentially use this for the 156,000 >> would come out of the police visibility line probably >> potentially. Yes. >> Uh great questions. Uh first I'll turn to the vice chair to see if he has any questions. >> No. No. >> The vice chair is not I'll turn it over to my colleagues. Council member Jeff, Nolan, Albby Walsh, sorry I went right first. We'll get everybody. Council member Jeff. Excellent. Thank you to both of you. Uh I just had some questions about the specifics of some of the line items just um because uh it's just listed here. So lighting, cameras, hugely important. Added lighting deters. We know it deters crime. Uh cameras obviously help um potentially deter but especially catch. uh are these in pivot areas? Uh where are we placing them? How are we going to decide where to place them? Um if you can just share some details on that. >> Yes, absolutely. Thank you for the question to the chair and the committee. As you know, our pivot locations can vary and they can change once we pivot goes in, they do their work and then ultimately at some point they need to move on to another location. The cameras, yes, they would be critically important during a pivot endeavor in any one area, but then when pivot moves on, the cameras would remain where they they've been installed. Uh, so the cameras are um definitely a a force multiplier for us. Um, they do have a deterrent effect, but they also have a significant investigative value if something does happen in those neighborhoods. uh but to if pivot moves on the cameras don't don't leave so they don't remain simply with pivot but they are a an essential tool to a pivot endeavor >> okay so said differently they'll they will I mean we'll identify the high crime areas which is where the and and lighting presumably also near parking lots because part of what we're trying to solve for are break-ins and cars so I'm assuming some of the lighting is in and around parking lots that we own are we also investing in private parking lots for lighting or are we asking them to do that? What's the what's the line there? >> Yes, to the chair. Currently, we are um updating a parking lot licensing program that will include um the request for park private parking lots to address their lighting situation in addition to other security um concern, safety concerns. >> Good. Thank you. Um just a few others. uh youth outreach just in terms of the details of the what that is where are they being deployed how do we train them when part of the genesis of you know I think a lot of folks like okay youth outreach at the transit centers feels very different when it's during the day for you know it's light you know kids are getting off you know it's a soft touch it's great that feels very different than late at night having youth outreach like I mean it could be different situations so how are we thinking about training those folks when they would be deployed like what's the mandate we're giving um those those folks >> um to the chair the goal is definitely um you have to have the ability to deal with youth and understand the importance of of dealing with youth um and have a pro proven track record of doing so also trauma-informed care is very important making sure that people um understand the touches that has to be with mental health and supportive at the at the core of it um which is also we were when This ordinance was requested. It was in the meet in the heart of summer specifically to talk about Washington Park in addition to Ziggler. We are now getting near fall and so if this money is is approved I mean is approved then we will be holding off to make sure that we have the right partner or this could be folded into something else that we're doing. So what I would say that we whatever um mental health training that we are we are currently doing trauma informed care and all those the same partner will be asked to do the same thing. The goal is to reach out to people that we're already working with to see if they can extend their services. >> Okay. Uh and then the fus expansion like what does that just to provide a little bit more detail. What does that include for those of people at home? That's the integration of cameras within CPD like where are we expanding that? What's that 100,000 going for? >> To the chair. I'll have the chief expand upon this. But the goal is to make sure that we are eliminating barriers for people to participate in fuses. As we are saying, we can't have it be pre police personnel that is potentially there that people are tying to safety, but to have as many people plug into fuses and have it to remove as many barriers as possible for them to do that is important. Chief, >> yes, thank you. So, just as I said, the city cameras for purchase and installation of city cameras would be a a force multiplier. Same thing with privatelyowned cameras. That is a tremendous opportunity uh that without Fus I think we we miss a lot of opportunities there. So this would be a way to assist in funding uh privatelyowned cameras with the modem or core that they need so that we have access to their cameras. Uh and so that would again be a force multiplier for us. >> Okay. Thank you. Just last question, not solely on the budget, but something that was in the news, the food truck uh chain shift of Can you just talk through what our what our thought process is on that in terms of like restricting the hours of the food truck? >> Yes. Um to the chair, to the council, um I'm appreciative that you said this. This is not a ban on food trucks. I want to make sure it's clear. We are just trying to um make sure it is clear where food trucks can be and what time they should stop serving food. The goal is we have capacity issues when it comes to not just our health department, not just our police department, but we need to know where food trucks are and this makes it a little bit easier for us to have a specific geographic location to that. Now, I want to be clear, we have had this before years ago. We do we had food truck zones and that's you could only park your food truck within those zones. We then loosened it up a little bit and we are now problem solving and scanning to determine that maybe we loosened it up too far. So this is to put a time frame on it is important to when you can operate food and when you're not and also make sure that we know exactly where they are when they are operating is very important to us because of capacity issues with public safety, our health department and all of those things. >> Just one follow up on that. So are we creating zones now for food trucks again? >> There will be yes there is a place where you can actually park your food trucks and where you cannot and we have a map that will that is f it may have already been distributed but in case we will make sure that we communicate that out. >> Okay. Thank you council member Nolan. >> Thank you chair. Um thank you both for being here and for the presentation. Um just to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. um in in the bianual budget that we put together, you know, my my understanding that based on the the data and the performance that we have, we put together a budget in response to the department's request that we believed at the time was sufficient to address the needs at the time and there was no major gap in funding that was missing at that point. Is that right? >> Correct. >> Okay. So, and in in that bannual budget, we have provided funding for a significant number of officers beyond the number of officers we have today. And the issue is not that the re resources haven't been provided by this council in the city, but that we just have not been able to hire those officers. Is that right? >> That is correct. >> Okay. So for someone for a community partner to suggest that we the city has not provided resources to the police department I guess in my mind would would not be accurate. And you know I think part of the problem that we have with the um inability to keep up with the number of officers is that there are some that think that those officers maybe aren't fully respected in the jobs that they do. And so we have a lack of people willing to apply for those positions. And so to suggest that this city is not funding the police and is not funding those positions and to suggest that this council in the city does not respect the police department, the officers that serve us every day in my mind actually hurts our ability to hire more officers. So for someone to suggest that is actually hurting hurting the cause and I I just wonder why anyone would suggest that. Um and so fast forward to where we are today. We we've had public safety incidents, a number of them. Some of them that I in my opinion could helped be addressed with additional police resources. Some of them I'm I'm not sure there's too much that we could do. But today we are discussing a pretty significant amount of money. And I just want to understand that um this is based on recent trends. This is based on recommendations coming from the police department about how we can invest these resources both in capital improvements in short-term and in long-term ways that will improve public safety and that that is coming from from you chief and and your department. >> Yes to the chair and the committee. Uh thank you council member for the the question and you are completely accurate. Uh since I have sat in the chair as the police chief every recruit class that we have asked for has been funded. when I've needed PVO funding, you have put it in the budget and I am very comfortable in knowing with this council that if I need additional funds throughout a fiscal year that I can come back and justify that ask and that that the resources are available, you would the financial resources you would give that to me. That is that is accurate. It is challenging to hire in law enforcement in this country for many different reasons and I won't get into all of them. But my challenge when people think that we are not doing enough to hire, we being me, the city administration or whomever, is to ask them to help me recruit. Help me recruit the next generation of officers for this city. I don't care if you're a business in this city, a community council, a community individual and community member. Help me recruit for future classes. I have the spots. I have the money. I need the bodies. Thank you. Thank you for that answer. Um, one specific question with respect to the line items for the curfew centers. I'm just curious since we've implemented the curfew program, how many teens have been taken or how many, um, children have been taken to a curfew center? >> Sorry. Go ahead. Sorry. Uh to the chair, uh to council, we have had um violations for the curfew that we've been able to site for, but the ones that we have violated have mostly been gone to 2020. Um the curfew centers have not been had to have any have not been in use as of yet. But I would say that that's a good thing. The city does not want to have to utilize our curfew center, but we need to make sure that we are prepared to give every tool to CPD to do their jobs and also make sure that they do not have to they they have a place for for kids that are in violation of the curfew to go and they can go about doing their jobs. So that is why we also wanted to make sure it's year round because we also understand that there's a period of time in which we probably will use them more than not which will probably be during the warmer months when kids are actually in school. But I also think it's important for us to not be figuring it out only when school happens. We need to get on the same page when we're dealing with operations of city. You have to make sure police knows how to speak to the CMO and everyone is understanding who's whose roles are what and we practice it. I think I appreciate your help in giving us funding for that because this will allow us when we do need it to make sure that we have had enough practice to stand before we really are in need. Chief, would you like to stand on that? >> Yes. Thank you, manager. Uh so to to your question, we have not had a juvenile curfew violator. That that is the sole reason we have in interacted with them and had to take them to the curfew center. However, we have had curfew violators that the officers have interacted with, but it has come with other activity other than just a curfew violation. And when they have an additional charge, as you know, we we're taking them to 2020 uh and not to the curfew center. And so to the manager's point, I understand it was an endeavor and I understand it is an expense to have the curfew centers, but I what I'm hearing from the officers and from community is the message must have been received because we are not having the curfew violators, the ones that are just solely violating curfew out on our streets right now. But I do think it's important to continue with the curfew centers in the event that we need them. They will be there at the ready. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Going to interject a quick follow-up question. Manager, it's my understanding that if the numbers stay low, which we all hope they do, and we're getting very few people in the curfew centers, that those contracts, those costs will go down and and we'll get money back. >> To the chair, to the council. Um the hours are the hours. >> I would say that I would not be doing any adjustment to the hours unless we get a whole year of work that would determine what the data has told us. And say for instance, if we say that it looks like we can shorten it for the winter months or something, then I can adjust it accordingly. But the contract is the contract. That's what we agreed to based off of what we know at this moment and we will in future years we will pivot accordingly. >> Okay. Council member Nolan, are you done? Council member Albby, >> thank you. Thank you for being here. So, just one more uh to cover off off on the curfew. So, this 380,000 collectively is to fulfill the contract that's already been agreed upon. Correct. >> Correct. >> And that covers the full 12 months, so whatever July to July, I think. >> Correct. >> Okay. Yeah. I think we should definitely take that time afterwards to assess. Um right now we're paying 380,000 for zero kids, which is good, right? optimal outcome, but definitely worth the conversation down the line. Um, I I want to get back to the the police visibility, but before that, I want to start with SEPTED, my favorite topic. Um, crime prevention through environmental design to some of the comments in um from public comment, Danny. Um, crime prevention through environmental design is a highly effective uh approach specifically when we look at property crime. And I think that that is something in the city we um while there have been other things that have made the headlines, we've had a continual issue with property crime specifically in otr and central business district. So when we talk about these street lighting and cameras, uh to me, these are really vital uh investments into preventing those types of crimes, which frankly are not just quality of life, but those are the type of things that are going to keep people from coming downtown. Right? If your car gets broken into and your window smashed in, you're probably going to be less likely to come back down. So to me, that is a really important piece. I would like though, chief, if you could also add the city manager talked about us changing our regulations for parking garage and parking lots. That is working arm-in-arm with what your department is doing around evaluating the safety of parking. Can you talk a little bit about that program? >> Yes, thank you uh to the chair and the committee. This is something that we did um several years ago that Captain Henny had worked on and he is kind of reinvigorating it. This is where we can do an evaluation on parking lots and garages and almost grade them. Think of like a restaurant that gets graded by the board of health. You're going to want to go to the restaurant that has the highest rating. Similarly with the parking lots and parking garages. If we give people access to the grading of these different locations, uh the idea is they will park their cars with the the garages with the highest rating where we feel like their cars would be the safest. And then it also hopefully uh ups the game for the remaining parking lots and garages to come into compliance with what a high rating would get them as well. >> Thank you for that. So, just to reiterate for folks as we think about um car breakins, specifically guns being stolen out of cars. That's something we've talked about over and over again. Over 60% of the stolen guns are coming from cars and we know that sometimes these are kids and that's how they're getting guns. Um we are looking at a multi-prong approach. First one is updating our uh requirements to be certified and licensed as a parking lot parking parking garage operator. Part of that will include increased safety requirements, lightings and cameras and whatnot. that will get paired with the grading system from Cincinnati Police. So, we'll kind of have the carrot and the stick approach there. The stick being you have to do this to be licensed, the carrot being you get a good grade, and we want people to come park here. And then the last piece is Chief, I'm really excited. I'm working with your team to talk through how we can get gun uh lock boxes that work in cars out into the community. So, if people are coming downtown to enjoy events, we're able to prevent that uh provide that solution right there in the moment again to make sure guns aren't being stolen out of cars. So, I just wanted to highlight those very specific uh solutions that we're doing to hopefully reduce the number of car breakins and what that comes with. So, thank you. Um, next piece uh as we talk about cameras and um and drones, I think I want to just highlight for a moment something the city of Dayton does is they release a state of surveillance report where they talk through and make it very transparent and open for residents what that looks like in the city. As we continue to introduce these solutions, um, I'll be working with our law department to talk about what that looks like for us. So again, we can be transparent and engage with our community and what the state of surveillance, that's kind of a scary title, but that's what they call it in Dayton. Um, what that looks like for our own residents here. Uh, the last piece I wanted to dig into, actually two more pieces, I apologize. Um, on the first page, the outreach page, I do want to clarify kind of the 3CDC ambassador program scope of work versus youth outreach workers and specifically 3CDC ambassadors. Their focus is trash cleanup and customer service. And right now, city manager, we have them in central business district. Is there discussion of expanding that into the west end or uh more otr areas? to the chair as we the current footprint the goal is for um speaking to Steve Leaper is to try to add more people u to otr is more an option than it would be the west end but those are ongoing discussions of where the footprint print would would be >> thank you I appreciate that I know um as we talked about act for cincy that's a the conversation happening in those beautifification action teams is how to expand and that resource out. Again, the focus there is making our city look clean and having that hospitality that is different from the scope of work for the youth outreach workers. Whereas these are people who are trained in trauma-informed care like you said, SEPTA, crime prevention through environmental design, Sarah and deescalation. And those are where those uh trained credible messengers are actually working and engaging directly with youth like we've been doing at the transit station. Would you like to add anything to the chair? Mr. Council, you're correct. What we have found in the last, I would say, two years that there is definitely need for us to get in that space more than what we have been in the past. Um, it has been a wonderful effort that I think we have seen show very good receipts from. Um, what we know that there are several different people from different experiences that are experienced in our city and we need to have people who are capable and trained to work and communicate with those individuals. And that has been a commitment with your help that you all have allowed us to do. And what we're trying to do is continue to um bring people into that space. you see it a little bit with the 311 community responders that we've been able to professionalize um a group of individuals who are also doing that work. So I would say that this is going to be a continued space that we are going to be in and we're excited to do so. >> Thank you for that. I really appreciate it. I I believe the the stats we've talked about at the transit station is like reducing the disrup um violence and disruption by like 50% year-over-year. And if we could knock any of these stats down by 50%, I would say that was a good job. Um job well done. So I I profoundly support and believe in this uh violence intervention model with the outreach and uh will continue to support this as a key initiative that I believe is just as important as any other solution on this list. Even though it's one of the smaller line items, I believe this is where the city needs to invest because this is the key lynch pin when it comes to prevention. So, with that, I want to talk a little bit about the uh the staffing PVO here. Um, Chief, I assume that you and the city manager talked quite a bit before she put 500,000 um on this slide. Uh, my colleagues are proposing an increase to that number, but could you get the job done that you need done with that 500,000 as requested? >> Thank you to the chair and the committee. As I said before, city council has generously put PVO money in our budget each year um along with the salary. So, thank you for that. It does not go unnoticed by me that you're very generous to us in that arena. This this dollar amount, this $500,000 would be a significant boost to that. And so, I am grateful for that. And like I said earlier, I also know that if something happens in this city that we go through that PBO money quicker than we thought. I am comfortable coming back to council to the manager and saying, "Here's what happened. Here's how we spent what you already allocated to us." I try to be extremely fiscally responsible in those expenditures, but I also know that I could come back and ask for additional funds when needed. >> Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. And the pick up where Council Member Nolan was talking to, you know, we've already approved uh 150 officers for this year. Can you remind everyone how long it takes to to get those many officers trained up? Because this is not a snap your fingers and you got 1550 people out on the street. >> Yes, thank you. Uh so our recruit class is 7 months long. We have a recruit class in right now, one of the largest I've seen in a long, long time. uh they started in July so they will be graduating in January and we have a lateral class that we are planning for to start after the beginning of the year and we are currently testing and in the process to hire the next full-size traditional recruit class after that. So it takes time uh seven months in the academy then three months with a coach before they are ready for solo patrol and can be counted as an actual officer in our department. >> Yeah. Thank you for that. And I might not have my terminology correct here, but as we think about today or tomorrow in the next couple weeks before this next class is out, you know, how many patrols do we have unfilled? Like, do we have an like officers covering all the different patrol routes? I I mean, as we think about increased PVO, I mean, we only have so many officers, right? You to me, it's like, have we capped out our ability there? >> Yes. to the chair and the committee. Uh you are correct. So our staffing levels are very very fluid. We graduate a recruit class and then we have officers who retire all year long. Uh so it our numbers are very very fluid. But to your point, the patrol staffing, we try the best that we can to keep their staffing levels what where it needs to be to answer calls for service and take care of crime and other things. Keeping in mind that we also have what we call preferred assignments which are significant to keeping uh the crime violent crime and other types of crime down. So there is also a continual ask to fill those vacancies and those bodies for those let's just use a homicide investigator as an example. More than likely that position that body that's going to fill that homicide vacancy is going to come from patrol. And so that's why it's so important that we keep having recruit classes to backfill those vacancies. Uh, think about the tremendous work that is being done at our crime gun intelligence center. When we first stood that up several years ago, those bodies had to come from somewhere. Uh, our drone unit, same thing. Those bodies had to come from somewhere. So, that's why this hiring and recruiting process for us almost nonstop nowadays is so important. >> Thank you for that. And I think I would just emphasize one last time that this council has already provided the resources and we're in progress with 150 new officers coming in. So as we think about being able to be out there more, having more officers around, we have already done that work from our perspective and now it's just a matter of time because we don't want to short change the training process. It is important to us that our officers receive all the appropriate training. So thank you for this. I appreciate it. I know we're going to have more discussion, but thank you for this. Okay, I'm going to go to my left now. Uh, Council Member Owens, followed by Council Member Walsh. >> Mr. Chair, I think I'm good for right now. >> I apologize. Council member Walsh. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, so the ambassador program, we're I am a big fan, big supporter of the expansion of the ambassador program, $880,000. Uh, city manager Long, you said it was a one-time increase. what is the plan to ensure that we don't just infuse more ambassadors who I think do a really phenomenal job all around downtown in many ways that none of us can even appreciate and make sure that we continue to do this in years to come as well to the chair to the council of um in my conversation with Steve Leaper he understood that it was important for me to not have ongoing for him to give me a proposal that did not have need of ongoing support because as you understand that could be the same ongoing support I'm giving to employees in the city So he has made a way to make this a infu in infusion of cash for one time that will allow him to take his current capacity and add it on in a way to where he won't need any ongoing support from the city. So I would leave that up to him on how he did that. But he is going to take this and and mathematically distributed in a way that he will not need to come back later on to need some additional resources. >> But we but we do not anticipate a rise in ambassadors and then pulling it back. we anticipate will continue up >> to the chair. I believe he is going to increase the number, but I think he may be balance it out balancing it out with other resources. Maybe that I I can't speak to that, but he will be balancing out with other resources that he has. >> Great. Um, on the 15,000 hours of visibility, I believe you were talking about city manager Long, can can you just put that in perspective for us because because you gave a number for one month and one moment of time. Uh, what does that look like historically compared to other months? What does that look like in terms of actual dollars for police overtime? I know I'm asking a very technical question, so you may not have the answer right now, but I I'm curious for more perspective on that >> to the chair. I'm going to leave that to the chief to communicate. She her and I were in discussions of how much and how much effort the police department is putting and she gave me that number which I thought was astounding and I wanted to make sure we shared to talk about what that looks like with one month. So, Chief, can you expand upon that please? >> Sure. Thank you. to the chair and the committee. Um we've had a lot of conversations going on around um having the officers take on additional offduty details, PVO, other things. And I understand why that is important, the perception of safety. Everybody feels safer when they see an officer in close proximity to them. And I I'm one of those when I'm not working. I understand that. But I also wanted to kind of wrap my head around a number to see how much have the officers stepped up recently. And so we pulled the numbers this morning for the month of August. For the month of August of 2025, our officers worked collectively over 15,000 hours in one month of offduty details. In addition to that 15,000 hours, they worked almost another 8,000 hours of PVO, whether it was for staffing shortages, um, hotspot, the CDRT and SWAT deployments. So, in one month, above and beyond their 40 hours, above and beyond them going to court, above and beyond if a late radio run or an arrest or an investigation um requires them to work overtime, they have done another 23,000 hours in one month. And that is not an anomaly. That is consistent with month after month after month of what we're asking them to do. Thank you for that um clarification there. Transitioning now um you have called out here street light cameras. Um one of a big area is the west end that we're trying to invest in. For the residents at home, how many cameras are we expecting to put in? I'm I'm particularly curious about West End. How many are you planning to put in and when do they expect these to be purchased and installed? to the chair. I think it depends on what we what is the mount approved. I have instructed the team to start some ordering on some of those cameras. I can get that more in details at a later date. Um that would be between the department of CPD and and DOT that is trying to expedite because in addition to the camera installation, we have to look at some trees, cut back some things so that when we when we are able to um put the tree put the cameras up that the visibility is there as well. So, I will have to get that specific number, but it also depends on what we have to work with. So, we're a little bit gunshy depending on what dollar amount we have that gets approved. >> Okay. But can you elaborate a little bit on kind of like what the timeline looks like? I know you said expedited, but that probably ranges for different >> Yes. So, I have um I have instructed the team to start ordering the parts. Um I don't know the time of what that is. Chief, maybe you can um share a little light on that. >> Sure, absolutely. To the chair and the committee. Uh it's very hard to say exactly the timeline because supply chain will pay play a little bit of a role in that. Uh we need to have access to certain type of equipment. Uh and if a city camera may be going on a private business through a partnership, we would have to work through the the legal part of that. So it would be very hard to determine exactly when, but I can tell you it would be a priority. >> So speaking exclusively for myself, you know, should this get approved today, I would hope the message is clearly communicated to all involved working on it that expedited means like imminent as soon as we possibly can. Um, I think it'd be nothing more frustrating than to hear some bureaucratic legal jargon for why it was not installed quickly when we were expediting trying to get funding available for this. So, I just want to make sure that um I think we promised the West End a couple years ago these cameras were coming and and we are dramatically delayed already and let's make sure that we don't delay that any further and actually get that message out to everybody working on that. Um, last question I want to pivot into. I don't see a lot on nuisance issues being addressed here in the budget. And when I talk about nuisance issues, um, you know, it's kind of the broken window theory. So, I see a rise in graffiti around the city of Cincinnati that is not being removed. Um, I think we've ended some programs through funding maybe before this council. I I hear a lot I have gotten a number of complaints this morning from people about nuisance issues and loud noise programs and bars. What is our plan as a city to really get back to the basics on the broken window theory and making sure that before crime is escalating before we start having break-ins? We're taking care of the basics so people don't know that we are encouraging, you know, that we're not creating an environment which encourages further crime. >> To the chair, regarding nuisance, I'll break that apart into a couple um responses regarding the graffiti. the city. Um, you all have done a great job of already supporting us with the ability that if there is graffiti on a building building that we can do through an assessment if somebody was to call, we can remove it ourselves. It wouldn't be anything to match the specific color, but we could notify, we could move it ourselves and we could charge the business owner if somebody calls. The caveat is I think there has been a request from a member of council and my apologies if I have not I can't remember which one it was but for our BNI building inspector to kind of take this a little bit step further and he has come up with an idea to work directly with the community council or CDC's to try to give a pot of resources so they can take that more into their lane to be able to support businesses that might be seeing the graffiti um so that they can deploy a lot quicker because you have to call us. we then have to go out and some people we don't want to have any barriers for people saying well if you're going to assess me then I'm not going to I'll just leave it as is. Um so that's the first but we have ordinances on the book that allows us to be more a little bit more proactive in what we have. Um secondly, regarding the loud noise, we are enforcing what we have, but we are um that is on the books right now. But what we are asking and looking at is we are having our special permitting um our permit, our special events manager is working through to see cuz there are some loud noise ordinances and some things that need to be clear and clear and it could be cleaned up and could be recommendations for you all to adjust accordingly. The city is different than what it was years ago. We have more residential on top of bars than we did back when the initial loud ordinance was put on the books. So, it is time for us to look at it and say how we used to do it does not work now. Do we need to modify what that looks like and how we are measuring what is how loud it is? That is something internally administration is working on and we will have recommendations to count to council. We are doing a lot of scanning as you've seen. I don't know if anybody has been out in otr, but we have open con container signs that we have put up that have went up over the weekend telling people that you cannot have open containers in certain areas. That is a way for people to communicate what the expectation is and what you can and can't do. Through acti and the work of making sure that we're looking at what is on the books and problem solving, we are trying to bit by bit address some of those things. A lot of these things are outdated and this is the time for us to be able to when we talk about thriving neighborhoods, what does that look like? What orders can we adjust and what recommendations can we give you all as the policy holders of the city to be able to to pass? >> Just a couple questions. This is so I understand probably the CBA you mentioned the 15,000 of offduty hours. So, these are officers that are just working at a private establishment on their own time. >> Yes, sir. >> How does that um potentially conflict with us trying to recruit officers to do overtime? Because if if they're, you know, doing offduty and they're doing, I don't know, 10 hours a week. They're like, I I don't want any overtime. Are there any safety valves in the CBA that said, you know, we have to cut off offduty patrols because we have to have you guys work in overtime? >> Yes. to the chair and the committee. There is potential for conflict in what an officer will choose to work. Do they want to go work for uh a local establishment or do they want to work overtime for hotspot visibility? I will say the city reaps a benefit no matter which one of those two um overtime the officer chooses to work. The whole idea of having an offduty detail at a private entity is so that it frees up our onduty resources to deal with other things. So if you have a a bar um that is letting out and maybe there's some unruly or intoxicated individuals, the officer work in that detail handles that versus an onduty officer having to go and take care of that. So there is pros and cons to both um opportunities for the officers to work these. It's also a question sometimes of what is conducive to their working hours. Maybe the out the offduty private entity wants a start time that doesn't uh coincide with an officer's time that they're getting off work from their their normal assignment, but the PVO might uh be conducive to that. So, it it's all kind of what fits in their schedule and what uh really their their passion is. What kind of work is it they want to be doing on their overtime? >> Is there a limit in it or any regulations in the CBA or can you work and what's the limit on how much offduty time an officer can do? >> Yes. To the chair and the committee. So, we do have a procedure that limits the number of hours. It's uh mostly within a 24-h hour period. they can only do so many hours because we want to make sure they get their sleep, they get their rest. Um, we also look at if they go over a hundred hours of offduty details in a month, we just look at what is their onduty productivity. We want to make sure the offduty uh details are not becoming more important and more significant than their onduty hours with the department. Okay, this last question is in no way a suggestion, but I just want to put all the information on the table as we do, which is a very thorough dive into this. If there is an emergency, the manager or mayor can declare an emergency and make overtime mandatory. >> Yes. >> Thank you. I just wanted to have everything on on the table here. Great. Any other questions? >> Sure. >> Council member Jefferson. >> Yeah. On the 15,000. I mean, that's just a remarkable in one month. >> One month. So, how does that compare versus, I don't know, a typical August? Like, on average, what does that look like? I mean, is that twice as much? Is that three times as much? Like, what does that just for for context? >> I'm I'm sorry. How does it compare to >> 18,000 overtime hours in one month? Like, how does that compare to a typical month or even a typical August? Like, how many roughly not exact numbers, but is it by order of magnitude, is it massively more or is that on par? >> Yeah, it it is it is about on par. um it fluctuates depending on the the month of the year. So, for example, January was almost 11,000 hours. So, there's less activity, less um requests for offduty details versus in the summer months. So, it does fluctuate depending on the time of year and depending on what again what events are going on. So obvious, for example, when the Cincinnati Bengals are playing a home game, there's more requests for offduty details than it when they're not here. >> That makes sense. And that context is helpful because I mean, regardless, it's still burnout, right? 15,000 hours in a month is just unsustainable, I think. But the fact that it's not atypical. I mean, um, uh, if there's around 11,000 in January, um, but it is unsustainable, clearly, and that's why we've added 150 officers etc. >> Yeah. And if I could add to that, I'm sorry, sir. The that 15,000 hours is at an 80% fill rate. So that means there was requests for more than 15,000 hours. We filled 80% of the requests which got us to the 15,000 hours. >> Thank you. And to the chair to expand upon that, when we talk about the mandating of overtime that I can mandate overtime, when you look at the amount of extra hours that our officers are putting in, when we talk about the morale of the ability to recruit and the morale of the consistent department that of the department, that is why it's also a last last resort because at the end of the day, if our officers are not showing up in their as their best self, that does not help them with our residents either. They're not giving the customer service that they normally will. When you think about it, all of you are tired during this period. So am I. You know, when you're not yourself, your best self. So that is why it's important for us. I just thought it was important to show the value of how many in addition to their regular shifts are these officers putting out. These are times they're not at home with their families. They are out in our community. And so we have to also maintain the morale which then helps us recruit because they then tell their sons and daughters that they want them to be a CPD officer, right? Because that is also what you've seen. >> No, that it totally makes sense. One other ad on the quality of life because as we're out there like people are just fed up to hear with a lot of the quality of life stuff people deprecating on their areas or preventing them from getting to their homes especially in some parts of the over the rine as we've as we've discussed. Um the mayor asked a similar question but I think we need to be unequivocal. I don't think anybody up here has said let's not enforce our any of the quality of life general laws, but I think we need to reinforce that. That is not the intent and I've never said I don't think any of my colleagues have ever said we don't want to enforce these laws. I just want you to comment on that, Chief. Just to reiterate. >> Yes. To the chair and the committee. Uh, you are correct, council member. The officers have the discretion when they see a violation, no matter how low level of a violation or how severe of a crime, they have discretion to act based on their training and I will support them no matter what they get into as long as they follow their training and our policies and procedures. And to the chair, also to piggy back off that the quality of life issues, what if I see it and I think this is a terrible offense. I need to make sure that it's addressed and I'm calling the police. What it is legally is probably a slap on a a slap on the hand. It is not significant to what people's emotions are of what those incidents are. That's why it's important for us to continue and I I hate to be redundant to look at the 360 approach to how are we making sure we are investing in every aspect of community. We have not only do we have outreach workers, we have the community cares connects. We have 311 community responders, but we also have a h homeless outreach place managers that are out there trying to recruit people or not recruit to do case worker to try to connect them in addition to our other partners. So we can't just people may see these things and think oh my gosh this is something that I need you to address but then legally it is something that is not it's a ticket or a citation and then that that is into frustration. So some of those emotional feeling emotional reactions to it did not line up with legally what it is. >> Yeah. No thank you. And I just want to read I've been saying to people asking them a simple question. Do you know how many homicides there are downtown and in in the in the banks this year? Zero. And I think it's 1 point whatever in the last three years. But the point is I think people now there are issues with breakins and robberies significant. So that's where we have to focus. Um but these quality of life issues do impact people's ability to feel safe because they feel their personal space is being infringed upon and therefore they don't feel space. So I think we have to acknowledge that and figure out how we address it and yes it's CPD has a role but act for cincy all of these things have to work together to solve it but thank you >> vice chair Johnson then council member albby then the vice mayor >> ju just very quickly let me let me bring something into perspective you know we've been talking about the 15,000 hours that 15,000 hours worked by Cincinnati police officers for the month of August, April, and this is at a 80% field, 20,237, May 21,563, June 19,655, July 17,948. I don't think we are embracing the demand on our first responders. We cannot keep pushing our first responders to this limit. We can't keep doing it. I get perception. I get reality. I get all of that. I did it for 33 years. We cannot keep pushing our officers like this. We talk about wellness. We talk about how much we care about police and firefighters. We can't keep doing it. You're going to h we're not going to have anybody that wants to work as a Cincinnati police officer or a firefighter. There's stuff going on in the fire department that I'm going to get into that is unacceptable. Yes, we're doing everything we can to recruit. Yes, we are talking about younger people for the most part than are sitting on this deos. But as the manager pointing out, we get tired and we're not working nowhere close to that. We have to stop believing that money is going to solve everything because it is not. We are dealing with a different generation of employees that would rather have a mental wellness than a big fat bank account. And I don't blame them. These jobs of police and fire take decompression even after you retire. It takes you have to really if you're serious about it, you have to step back and go talk to people to decompress from having a gun on your hip every day, from running into burning buildings, seeing the disaster of society that our fire and police see. I don't think we're really embracing what we are demanding of our first responders. and money is not going to solve it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Council member Albi. >> Yeah, thank you. And and thank you, Council Member Johnson, for sharing that because I think that is what I was trying to get with get to with my questions in terms of the recruit classes and how long it actually takes to get more bodies in. A couple things I wanted to follow up that have been brought up since I last was on the mic. Um to Council Member Jeffy's point about Council Member Walsh, these kind of nuisance complaints, these quality of life issues. I think that is one one thing I'm hearing as well from residents. Um, and we can name the neighborhood whether it's otr or one of the price hills where certain things aren't captured in the stars report. They're not captured in the neighborhood report, right? How many times someone's property has been experienced trespassing, right? Or or things like that. And I I guess my ask and I I've talked with members of the administration is how can we start looking at those pieces of data too? because when we think about people's everyday sense of security in their neighborhood, if they're constantly having someone trespass on their property, that can really impact that. So, that's one point I wanted to make around the data. One other thing, um, Chief, I want to give you an opportunity to talk to this. So, I did a police ride along, uh, a couple week uh, weeks ago, Friday night, last Friday in August, I think, or the one before, 6 pm to midnight otr. Um, officer Holland was great. Um, but I was really surprised how much time we spent filling out reports in the car. So, there was a delivery truck that hit another car. We had we spent time on the scene, 20 minutes there going through everything, and then he drove to to kind of a parking lot to spend another 20 or 30 minutes doing the the um report there. Um, a critique I've seen of our officers is, "Oh, why are they parked over in the middle of nowhere not doing anything?" Can you speak to what that looks like and just respond to that critique that I've heard? >> Yes. To the chair and the committee. Uh you said this was a accident, an auto accident type thing. So that is probably one of the calls for service that takes the longest to complete from beginning to end. Um but yes, when you see an officer pulled to the side, they might look like they are just kicking back and relaxing. Um they they have everything they need pretty much to do their job in their car. So they could do all the data entry in their car. They can uh look at videos, things like that from their vehicle. And so they're they are doing work. They just are doing it in their car. And the best scenario for something like that is if they need to pull over to do some of that, uh, do it where they're visible because we talk about perception here today. That that gives people the perception of safety. Just seeing a marked car with an officer in it, even if they're doing some data entry in their computer, in their car. So, as we talk about the police visibility over time here, would that funds in your mind go to patrol cars or something more like the walking patrols, the the trikes and uh bikes and others like that? >> Yes. To the committee. Um that money would give us an opportunity to use it whatever however is necessary because different areas of our city could use different modes of transportation. Obviously, like downtown, the mountain bikes are great down there. The trikes that we have now are great down there. Um, walking patrols, but when you get into a larger geographical area, let's say Sailor Park, it's a little bit more difficult to get around on foot. So, the best uh choice of transportation for that might be a vehicle. >> Great. Thank you. The last thing I'll add about my my ride along, we did experience a car break-in that was in a parking lot that was dark, and having uh those new requirements around lights and cameras, I think would have made a difference. So, thank you, >> Vice Mayor. >> Thank you. Thank you um for this. So, you in looking at this, I'm I'm just concerned about other neighborhoods because this is was, you know, very um otr central business district heavy. And I think about neighborhoods like Price Hill, Whinton Hills, um you know, Walnut Hills, Aenddale, where they've been saying they really need more cameras and they need more lighting. And so how will that figure into this because we need to look at those neighborhoods as well. as to the chair and the committee. You know, I learned a long time ago in policing that what goes on in our business district is extremely important to the success or the flourishment of our city, the economic engine that keeps us running. And so, you're right, we have to pay attention to all 52 neighborhoods. And we try to do that. We try very, very hard to do that. But there is a significance of an the reason for investing in our urban core. That doesn't mean that any other neighborhood in our city isn't just as important. They are. And we have resources available to them. That's why our neighborhood liaison program is such a success. They are a touch point for all 52 neighborhoods uh to the department. And so we prioritize what we think is important at the moment and then when we take care of that business then we move on to the next priority for us. >> So um and I appreciate that. I'm just not reassured. Um do you understand what I'm saying? I really I mean just hearing so much from residents of of of certain neighborhoods that have hot spots um where their businesses I think about um Price Hill some of the businesses are really suffering. Um you know Winton Hills um we've had you know quite a few homicides there and um some not on camera. uh the west end. I I notice you're putting cameras there, which is great. And I understand district one has worked with the residents and the community council and they've been, you know, as council member Walsh said, asking for that for um you know, at least since, you know, Dominic Davis was killed in 23, uh if not before. And so I appreciate that, but I I am concerned about the what we're doing with these other neighborhoods that um have been, you know, begging for more lighting. I know Walnut Hills um uh when uh Mr. George was shot, they said it was a dark street and they really wanted more lighting. So what are we how are we assessing that to see what plan we can roll out for these other neighborhoods whose businesses are suffering and the residents are struggling as well >> to the to the chair to the council um in mentioned in the ordinance the PBO the mobile cameras and even curfew is mentioned to be citywide also I would say we are continuously working with communities throughout the year specifically when you talk about the community budget requests for instance Whitten Hills was able to get shot spotted through there. So we this is not this was one set of resources that you all asked us to give recommendations for but we are looking at all community all neighborhoods and working with them whether it's through community budget requests whether it's walk safe and clean boots on ground all of those things there are several different resources that we are making sure that we have them at the table to say what is next for you all where would you like this to with these resources to go >> okay I appreciate that I'm I'm just Um, I'm just concerned that the spending here isn't equitable. And so that's always a concern. You know, as chair of neighborhoods committee, I've got to speak up for the for the neighborhoods. And I know that um a lot of them are calling for for more cameras uh and for lighting um so that's you as well as um uh PVO. So um and and and other resources which we'll talk about, but I just, you know, I just have to we have to stay on top of that. And and just to clarify, so it's PVO, mobile camera cameras, even curfew is citywide. >> Yeah, I don't point this out the challenge you manager, but it says police visibility overtime central business district in the presentation. Is that incorrect? >> In the correct, but in the ordinance, it states uh that that is it's referenced citywide in the ordinance. >> Okay. Thank you. I just wanted you to be able to clarify that. So, >> all right. Uh, seeing no more questions from my colleagues, here's what we're going to do. We are going to first file number Oh, yeah. I'm I'm sorry. Um, city manager and police chief, thank you for being here. It's obviously uh, you know, an important subject to this council. So, we appreciate your thoughtful presentation and a lot of data and us understanding this issue will help us make informed decisions below. So, thank you. We appreciate All right. So, we are going to file item number 17, the presentation. Uh, a number of the motions on public safety spendings are now redundant. So, uh, we are going to file item number one. Uh, we are going to skip for the moment item number two, which is not public safety. We will of course come back to that. Council member Abby, I'm also going to skip item number three for right now because depending what happens procedurally that may be back or not. Does that make sense? >> Sorry, chair. So, are you filing the first one or are you indefinitely holding the first one since you proposed a >> The first one is filed because that is now redundant. >> Yeah, the next two I'm just making later on the agenda. Those are your two items. But we will get to we will get to certainly two and three depending on what happens with the other motions. We will also file number motion number four item number four which is a motion uh because that is also redundant with uh with a new item. With that we are in item number five. This is the vice mayor's motion. Vice mayor would you like to introduce your motion? >> Oh thank you. Okay. So, what I did, um, so some of the information is old information because it changed today, but what I did was I looked at what the city manager recommended and what you recommended last week. Uh, and um, a lot of it was was similar. I try to support as much as possible, but but let me just say um, I think we need to look at, you know, two two things, equity and transformation. And so, you know, as I just mentioned, we need to see concern and investment in all of our neighborhoods, especially the ones experiencing uh hotspots. And so, I I don't want us to lose that opportunity by um investing so much of the money in the central business district and ignoring uh the other communities that don't have as strong of a voice. they don't have as loud of a voice um as those in the central business district. They're all important um such as uh Wooden Hills for example, Price Hill. And so um so one thing I in terms of transformation we we talk a lot about our problems with youth and you know we have the curfew uh ordinance now but we have a lot of complaints in various neighborhoods about youth running around with nothing to do. And so instead of uh monitoring them so much and you know why don't we look at how what we can do to really help them and one way is to give them afterchool jobs. You know let's take some of these funds and expand our wonderful youth to work program so that our young people can have afterchool jobs I think and and yearround jobs. A lot of people tell us adults that having a job and having a mentor really helps them change their lives. And so instead of, you know, just saying you've got to get off the street, you know, you can't be here, you can't be there, how about really getting them something to do that's going to be transformative. And so I would like to see a million dollars invested uh in our youth to work program. My son was in youth to work several years ago. Uh it's the Cincinnati Recreation Department does an excellent job. They have um I think it was every Friday they had workshops and I won't go on and on and on but they did have workshops on things like what are your future goals? How will you reach those goals? What about financial literacy? I mean they did things to help these young people uh envision a bright future for themselves and start working toward it. And I think we need to invest more in our young people. Our young people need jobs. Uh we've also we can also do uh mentorships. There are all these organizations the uh divine nine all these just tons of organizations all across the city where people are looking for ways to make our city better. And so I think we have a wealth of resources to have mentors for young people as they get jobs. So that was one. Two, I talked about advanced peace several weeks ago, but that's community violence interruption. I don't know how we can talk about public safety without talking about a way of really making permanent change. We can't just do things for the optics. It looks good now. It feels good now. What changes are we really making in people's lives? And so I think going back to look at advanced piece, which I already presented, I won't bore you with it again. Um I've, you know, I've beat the horse, but it's not dead. I'm still, you know, beating that beating that drum because I know that we need that. We need that in in cities where gun homicides, for example, have really significantly decreased. They have community violence intervention and uh advanced peace is one of those programs that's been that's been shown to actually work. and all the misconceptions about paying people for for bad behavior. Um just throwing money at criminals. I mean, it's just it's just a false narrative. Um employing people from the outside. These are people from the streets, from the neighborhood with lived experience in our city, giving more people jobs. And so I I'll just put a plug in for that. The other things are pretty self-explanatory. A lot of them align with what you and the city manager have already suggested and maybe some changes in numbers, but thank you very much. >> Thank you. There are any other comments or questions on the vice mayor's motion? Seeing none, since there's many motions, I'm going to ask for a roll call vote on each. The clerk will give a roll vote on item number five. >> Council member Kramering, >> no. Council member Nolan. >> Sorry, which one are we voting on? >> Item item number five. This is the vice mayor's motion. >> Um, sorry, chair. I I wanted to make a comment and wasn't able to get your attention on that. >> Oh, I apologize. Uh, I apologize, Council Member Nolan. And of course, anybody don't hesitate to interrupt. We want everybody to be able to comment. >> Yes. Thank you, Chair. Um, I appreciate the vice mayor putting together uh the the first proposal and I I absolutely believe that is something that we need to find a way to invest in and and I think you know I would even expand beyond that. I think you know in uh developing a a good working relationship with CPS and I know the vice mayor uh and the healthy neighborhoods committee holds uh a joint committee meeting with them. Um, and I think a significant investment in those efforts is absolutely appropriate and I and I think we should try to do that work. I I guess for me that is separate from the the the urgent public safety issues that we are facing here and and the short-term measures that we are taking to try and address those. So, um I I just wanted to say that um given, you know, my my vote against this particular motion because of uh what I think is missing, but I I would like to continue having that conversation about um how we can invest in that uh in in the future of our youth in a more meaningful way. >> Council member Albi, >> I think the vice mayor might have wanted to respond to that directly. Did you? >> Vice Vice Mayor, please. >> Thank you, Council Member Albi, and and thank you, Mr. Chair. So, you know, I think this is um this is difficult because we're looking at motions for the first time today. Um and I noticed that yours has gone from 4.63 million to to 5.5 million. It it seems inappropriate that we're voting on this now without having any time to actually digest any of this information. Uh so my understand I know you mentioned voting but my understanding from our discussion today is that since these just came before us and I doubt that everyone's read all of them that we would discuss them today and not vote on them. >> Uh no vice mayor it was as I said last week we had people have a week to introduce them. It is my hope to uh vote today because that I think that these are all urgent. It's an urgent issue. uh the manager uh has said an urgency and you know when I introduce my motion I will say that there it is the manager's items plus three additions so it's certainly something that uh uh everybody's had time to digest over the past week so I would uh be asking us to vote today >> well let me ask you so this is so you're asking for 5.5 million from the carryover budget and so what does that leave us for the carryover which has not even been discussed yet we're not taking uh anything out of the carryover. We're taking out money out of one of our reserves uh once the carryover happens in a couple weeks, assuming we have the waterfall, that reserve would be filled up again. So, we're not taking it out of the carryover, we're taking it out of the reserve. >> And so, what do you expect us to have um in the carryover? >> Uh >> for the for council to allocate. >> Uh I will leave it I'll ask Dr. Dudis to answer that question. uh to the chair, to the vice mayor. Um finance department is uh still working to close uh the books uh for the end of the year. Uh I'm not sure of the exact uh timetable uh to have uh official numbers. Uh but we would expect it could be uh late October, early November. And so how does how does our allocation of let's say it's 5.5 million how does that allocation affect what council's left is left with to allocate for the carryover? uh to the chair, to the vice mayor. Um as the chair indicated um uh funds would be taken from uh the weather what we call the weather reserve uh and per the stabilization funds policy uh assuming there is uh sufficient uh carryover. Um the waterfall process would uh replenish uh the weather reserve and any other reserves um to bring them back to um the percentage um required by the policy. Uh so that same process would happen uh for use of the weather reserve uh back in say January or February uh for any other use. it would still be subject to replenishment uh through the closeout process. >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Dudis. >> Council. >> Yeah, thank you. I I I think um given the the various packages we have in front of us, well, I think um youth to work is great. I I would love to have them come and present similarly to how we had um the city manager and chief present today to really understand what our capacity there is. um you know how much are we investing right now when it comes to youth employment um I don't have those numbers in front of me a and same uh with the advanced piece so while I'm not going to be supporting this program holist this package as it's presented here it's only because I would like more information on those two um major uh line items in this motion um and I know we have another motion coming up with the all the others things in it so just wanted to state that before we take a roll call vote >> council member Jeff >> yeah I was going to make my comments on the other motion But I'll make it here. Just just a few points um to the public comment especially on public safety being more than police. I think we're all in agreement with that which is why we have act for Cincy. Uh if you think of all the investment we're making in housing, three times more affordable housing being built in the last four years than before. Investment in neighborhood plans. uh the investment in parks and wreck uh CRC, wreck at night, you know, boots on the ground, the building futures, all of these things are designed to make sure we're giving people opportunity, which does affect public safety. So, I think what we're voting on here is very single focused, but it should not take away from all of the other work that we're doing. Uh which I think is uh important to the focus on downtown. And I I agree, it is always a balance. Um, what I've heard recently from several business leaders though of hesitation to invest. If there's hesitation to invest without some sense of a what is the long-term plan downtown and I think it's very bad for our region if we have business that is hesitant to invest or businesses that leave downtown and we had one visible one uh leave downtown. So I do think we have to to the chief's point make sure that that core is really uh really strong. Uh the other thing that I would say is um the outreach workers. Um I think the transit workers have been super helpful. I still want to make sure that we understand we're not putting people in harm's way. Um so that's my only concern uh there. Um as I think about like folks going out to Republican Green at night. Um you know uh it could be potentially very harmful. uh and making sure that we're sending out trained folks and um so just want to continue to get clarity on that and engage uh youth to work 100% I do support I think we should need to have them come back uh to share a little bit more what is CRC investing in now um you know because we do have some budget issues on CRC that we'll also be voting on separately so I want to understand what's the implication for for both an advanced piece I've made my my my um comments before but no We're not investing in bad behavior, but we are paying people for good behavior. $1,000 a month, which I just fundamentally think is not fair. It is not right for people who play by the rules. I like the idea of community engagement, partners, uh community responders. Uh I think that the concept behind advanced peace of engaging people who are committing gun crimes is is right, but uh for me, uh investing paying people $1,000 a month for good behavior, uh I don't think is right. So for that I'm going to vote against it as well. >> Mr. Chair, >> I just need to correct what >> Vice Mayor followed by Council Member Owens followed by Council Member Parks. >> Okay, let me make this really clear because this is misinformation. So Advanced Peace does not just pay people $1,000 a month. People who are in the program get a stipen when they reach certain life goals. It could be $10. It could be a $100. It is up to their supervisor known as a neighborhood change agent. No one in the program automatically gets $1,000 a month. And so that is totally incorrect. Uh it's a narrative that's out there and it's just wrong. So stipens are given because it's positive reinforcement. They are given when people reach certain goals, for example, maintaining a job. And that depends on the neighborhood change agent as to how much it can be. It is not an automatic $1,000. And so, uh, that is just misinformation. >> Mr. Chair, Council Member Jeff, >> we can go back and forth on this. What I would say, I just Googled it. Advanced Peace is a nonprofit provides a stipend up to $1,000 per month, uh, up to nine months for, uh, reaching milestones. So, we're we're not going to go back and forth and resolve it here. People can go back and and uh see for themselves what the what the truth is. >> No. No. Up to $1,000 is not an automatic $1,000. And the stipen is only given when the person reaches their life goals. Now, I was just in Montgomery, Alabama with the Advanced Peace Program, and I mentioned how that narrative is going around and they said that is totally incorrect. It is completely incorrect and it needs to stop. So, let's stop it now. >> Council Bruins, >> thank you. Um, yeah, I appreciate the comments from both Council Member Jeff and Nolan. Yeah, this is not the place to go back and forth because public safety, there are two components. Investing in people, investing in place. Today, just to regground us, our conversation is focused on place based on the initiatives that we took as a city over the summer to make particular investments to reduce crime, to solve crime. And so, in addition to that, um just reminding us that you, Mr. Chair, put forth a motion of $2 million to be able to support uh what we've seen being successful over the summer and the recent incidents. And so I just want to remind us that you know we are using uh crime data analysis all of the things to make the hardcore built environment investments like operationalizing yes more officers and police visibility capital improvements and technology there certainly is a conversation about how we continue to invest in people and so where we see that through act for cincy where we see that through how we fund our human services that's where those conversations belong and so today we are talking about public safety built environment. >> Council member Parks. >> Thank you. Um I've been listening to everybody's comments and um I I really do not like the idea of this council reacting to outsiders defining our city. We just got finished with our budget process and we have allocated funds to the different programs and things that we know are important. We know our city. We we know what happens here and and our problems and we actually address them. I do not want to react to being defined as something that we are not. >> Vice Chair Johnson, >> you um just quickly, we keep we're sitting here I was going to say this, but we're sitting here talking about what is public safety. We heard the police chief say that um she can do this with a half a million dollars and there's a proposal for I think 1.2 million. She can do it for half a million. But we keep talking about what is public safety. We have a fire department that are first responders that are definitely public safety that are dealing with issues that as I said earlier that were that are unacceptable. We got firefighters and I don't know how far I can go with talking about this. I don't know if this isn't litigation law so shut me down if it is. We got firefighters that are paying out of their pocket for possible injuries or illnesses that they are getting while on the job. Safety. We got firefighters that are fixing their own equipment because we don't have 24hour around the clock mechanics that would tend to fire apparatus if they go down public safety. We need to increase the compliment of firefighters because data has shown that on the west side that there has been an 40% increase for calls for service. Public safety. So when we start talking about what really is public safety, let's include everything that we're talking about public safety. Let's include it all. If we're going to spend this amount of time, let's talk about everything that is that is included in public safety. The fire department needs a lot of assistance. They need bodies just like the police department. They need equipment upgrades. They don't need to be paying out of pocket for illnesses and injuries that have happened while serving this city. So, if we're going to have a conversation about public safety, let's talk about public safety. The fire department, unfortunately, once again, it appears are going to be told, "Hang in there. Hold up. We're coming for you." If we've got this amount of money, then let's make sure at least a million dollars goes toward addressing some of these issues that the firefighters, our first responders, the other half of safety in this city get the attention they deserve. Also, thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, vice chair. I always appreciate comments. Just to be clear about how we got here, the manager uh put forth a proposal to increase public safety funding around CPD. So that is what is before us today. Uh so we can uh vote that up or down or vote one of the amended ordinances up or down. But that is where we got today a specific funding proposal from the city manager. So just to reorientate us about where we're at. Any other comments on item number five, the motion? No other comments. We'll take a roll call vote on item number five. >> Council member Kramering, >> no. >> Council member Nolan, >> no. >> Council member Jeff, >> no. >> Council member Johnson, >> yes. >> Vice Mayor Kernney, >> yes. >> Council member Albby, >> no. >> Council member Owens, >> no. >> Council member Parks, >> yes. >> Council member Walsh, >> no. The motion fails. That takes us to item number six. And to be clear, uh what we're voting on these, it's my understanding that these uh line items largely comport with those uh brought forth by the city manager with three changes. Uh, I will introduce the first. Uh, Council Member Nolan will introduce the second and Council Member Owens will introduce the third. The first and the one that we've had the most conversation about is the police uh overtime visibility. You know, we heard from the chief, we heard from the manager. Um, there's $500,000 in that proposal. 160 of that may go to pay pay for the sheriff's patrols which takes that number down to 350. Uh my concern here is is the same as the vice mayors. It's one of equity. Do we have enough to deal with our needs in Price Hill and Bond Hill and all the other neighborhoods. Uh they're going to be addressing these. You know, we've got a task force being informed Price Hill. We need to make sure they've got the resources necessary uh to address uh these significant issues. You know, the chief said if if we don't use it, um, excuse me, the chief said if we need more, we'll come back and ask. Well, to me, that's respectfully that's backwards. We need to make sure these resources are on the table. And if they don't use them, if we don't use them, we'll take them back. And that's what will happen. No money will be wasted here. These overtime dollars are not used by the end of December, we'll take them back and can repurpose them. So ha having said that I I think this is a a modest increase uh in that line uh and it's uh it's uh critically important. So with that comments starting with the vice chair >> uh Mr. Chair uh thanks um I I just think that >> vice chair could can you uh can you accept my pardon? I said we would introduce the entire motion first and that's probably wise. So, I'm going to have council member Nolan talk about the the addition as far as the uh task force on bonding and sentencing. Then, council member Owens will talk about license plates, and then you have the first comment. I'll just >> Thank you, chair. So, I'm I'm speaking specifically to the line item references bond and sentencing project. Um, you know, one one thing I have continually heard from the officers I've interacted with and something that Chief Fiji has uh repeated publicly multiple times is this reference to to what I I'll use her words uh is the revolving door of justice. And I think, you know, from uh the time that I have spent with a lot of the folks in the criminal justice system, what I've come to learn is that there is significant opportunity for growth and improvement over at the courthouse. And and I know to some they may say, "Well, is isn't that uh the county's jurisdiction?" And I would say in response um it is the city prosecutors that staff courtroom A for arraignment where uh these decisions are being made in large part and we are putting them in a difficult position to do their job. there are real opportunities to improve the technology to improve uh the processes and uh this I think is a small investment uh in a way that could pay huge dividends in terms of how we uh you know prosecute justice here uh in Cincinnati. >> Council member Owens, >> thank you. Yes. I just want to say I think this is a very comprehensive we as we continue to make investments into public safety. A few things that I want to call out. one, police recruitment, super important. We've made the investments for lateral classes, all of those pieces, but the way that we attract those officers uh is also a part of that. And so happy to see investments there. As it relates to technology, we've talked about it, there's a correlation between crime and stolen vehicles. And uh if we look at a particular kind of network of of what the city looks like in comparison to other jurisdictions, there's a little bit of a hole here. And what that means is if you want to steal a vehicle unfortunately um you go to Cincinnati to do it because of uh the lack of that license plate reading technology. And so uh just since September 2nd published on STARS data 1500 over 1500 auto thefts in the city of Cincinnati while that is down by about 10% it's still far too many. And so again, these are technologies that help us track these vehicles better with better infrastructure. Um, and there's certainly other instances of awful events that have happened with stolen vehicles. I also want to say going back to PVO, um, certainly incentivizing the officers that we do have is important. An 80% fill rate, well, I think that suggests the need, um, but also that officers are certainly, um, taking that on. What I am very comfortable with are are two touch points that we are uh calling out. By December 31st, what have we spent? And by June of next year, as we're continuing to make capital investments, uh what what needs to be reallocated, if anything, and so I think this is a thoughtful motion, certainly continuing in the right steps. >> Thank you, Council Member Owens. We'll go to the vice chair and then to Council Member Alley. >> Uh just a couple of quick things. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First and foremost, how do we arrive at $250,000 to how is that going to assist in bonding on the police bond and sensing project? I just need clarification because um this revolving door, the police chief and other police chiefs from around the county are already coming together to address that in conversations with judges that I have personally have. There's a roundt going on to address that also. So, how does the city uh how does the city's almost a quarter of a million dollars help in this process? Just clarification and then I have another question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Yes, thank you, Vice Chair. Um, so there the the work that you had referenced regarding the uh chief's association and I understand the judges received a legal opinion that they're not able to engage in those conversations directly. Um but it's work I think that we all agree needs to be done. And so um there has been some some work done in in the past um with some of the judges who have tried to move forward with uh this evaluation project. Um and this is the the price tag that has been put on uh that project to evaluate. And and again there is no criticism of any of the specific people involved in this. So I I I'm not suggesting that there's a criticism of of the judges or the prosecutors or anyone else. I think there are opportunities for improvement related to the technology and and the processes that are in place. Um and and this is a project that has been talked about in the in the sort of the some of the criminal justice landscape before and so just sort of bringing it back up and and hoping to move forward with it. >> Thank you for that. Um and let me be clear about just a couple of quick things. The license plate readers, they do not prevent autothefts. The license plate readers are after cars are stolen, the license plates are put in a system. The license plate reader, all that does is alert officers to the recovery of a possible stolen vehicle. So, I'm not saying we don't need license plate reading vehicles. We do. But $360,000 is not going to help us prevent stolen autos in the city of Cincinnati. It may expedite the recovery of vehicles possibly, but it's not going to help in the prevention. That's not going to help in the prevention. Uh I'll conclude with this. $1.5 million is a whole lot of money. The police chief said she can do it for a half a million dollars and she has no hesitation about if she needs more to come back. And we talk about re we talk about just having a million dollars or plus sitting somewhere as I pointed out earlier and I didn't hear the manager or the chief say we're in an emergency situation when it comes to this. So to hold this a week as the vice mayor talked about, I don't see that being a big deal. But if we've got money like this, and I understand we're addressing police overtime visibility, and we already talked about the exorbitant amount of hours they're working, so are our firefighters. If we've got a million dollars extra based on what the police chief saying she only needs half a million, why don't we allocate a million dollars to this fire department so they can address some of these emergency issues that I talked about a couple of minutes ago. I I didn't, you know, I I get it. Uh, I get the perception and I thank President Pro Tim Parks for pointing this out, but I think we are responding to allegations that just aren't true. They're just not true. Cincinnati is a safe city. Our Cincinnati police officers are completely overworked and we can't keep believing that we can just throw money at it and it's going to solve the issue. We got to stop doing that. Money is not going to solve this. We don't have the bodies in our police department to get done what we want to see done. I think you heard the chief say that too. We need more bodies in our fire department. So, these are things we have to be practical about. I understand the perception that the city of Cincinnati is this place nobody wants to go. Have you been out the last six weekends? There are people out all over our city and they don't look like they're scared. They look like they're having an amazing time because I've been out there with them. So, I just think we don't need to always just respond because people are saying bad things about our city. We've got a great city here and we I know everybody's working their tail off to make sure it stays a great city. Thank you. >> Thank you. If I have my order correct, it's Albi, Vice Mayor Carney, and Nolan of Speakers. Order of council speakers. >> Thank you. You know, I want to echo what uh Council Member Johnson just said is we have an amazing city and people are still out and about enjoying it. I had friends from out of town come in. Um in August we stayed in otr. We spent uh Friday going out doing a brewery tour, going to restaurants and then finished the night at Washington Park. There was a concert there. And then Saturday we explored the city and spin finished the night in um at Fountain Square. There was live music. So those are the type of uh events and activities we have. So, I thank you, Council Member Johnson, for highlighting that we have an amazing, safe, wonderful city. My two friends who have made fun of me for years from being from Cincinnati were blown away with everything our city had to offer. Um, I want to also just take a moment on this um, judicial part and just be very uh, firm and forceful and I know council member null and I were just talking about this and I'm sure my colleagues agree. The attacks on our judges currently are unfounded and inexcusable. Folks are welcome to disagree, but the the attacks that have been coming at our judges are totally inexcusable. They are doing their job every single day. And if we are able to assist them by providing better technology and other resources, great. But we are an important part of that process. So I'm asking uh for everyone's uh support for our judges there. Uh to the the nuts and bolts of this uh motion before us. Um I'm really excited to see that the out youth outreach was added back in as well as um increasing the funding for the street lights and cameras um back from how this was initially proposed. uh when we do talk about the things that we're responding to, property crimes are have been an issue and since we don't have all the bodies we wish we had um in the police force, being able to do this crime prevention through environmental design helps take pressure off of um endless patrols and being able to prevent those crimes. So, I'm glad to see uh that investment there. I will also echo again what Council Member Johnson was saying with the 1.2 million for the uh police visibility overtime. Chief said it again. She asked for five 500,000. So my question to um the chair and I think it this is from council member Kramer Ding and Owens. Um if December 31st rolls around and there's extra money I know you said we claw it back, where does that go? Is that predetermined? Does that go back into the general fund? Where does extra dollars end up at that deadline? Yeah, I mean those would be unallocated dollars and council and or the manager would decide how to allocate those with the ordinance and normal process. >> Okay, great. Yeah, I I think you know it's clear to me that the chief is saying that you know 1.2 is not needed at this moment. Um I believe public safety is more than just police. It's all these other things. Um so I think I take comfort in the idea that if there that there is a hard deadline and we'll be able to reallocate those dollars. So, for that reason, I I'm going to be supporting this. But I but I do want to uh emphasize that I that I agree with Council Member Johnson in terms of we just don't have the bodies and this is a national issue. Um this is not unique to Cincinnati, but this this council has done everything to invest and put dollars behind recruiting new officers and we've got 150 of them on their way, but it's going to take seven months to get them trained up. So, um, you know, we are continuing to put those resources forward. Thank you, >> Vice Mayor. >> Thank you. Um, so I'm looking at some things here that, um, I think we could amend and make this make more sense. Um, you know, public uh, visiting visibility overtime for CPD. Since the chief did say she only needs 500,000, I think we should take her word for that and make that 500,000 and allocate that $700,000 elsewhere. Um this um expanded ambassador program for $880,000, which we were told last week was to walk people to their cars so that they could be safe. That's just a no. I just think we could take that 880,000 and do something that's much more transformative than walking people to their car. And then um the license plate readers is just it's $360,000 for cars. Um you know, I know when people's cars are stolen, they want them recovered, but that's not urgent for public safety. And so that would give us um $1,940,000 that we could allocate elsewhere. Um, Council Member Johnson mentioned the 1 million to the fire department to address emergency issues, which would still leave us another $940,000 that we could discuss at another time, maybe next week. But I do think that um to make this make sense, we need to make those modifications on this motion. >> So, I ask for that amendment. Council member Nola, >> I just wanted to address uh two of the comments. First on the police visibility overtime, I I uh understand the recommendation from the chief and I guess my concern was with respect to uh that being limited to the central business district and understanding the concerns that we're seeing across the city and I heard from a number of my colleagues about uh investing these funds equitably across all the neighborhoods. So the, you know, what what brought me to support that increase was the opportunity to more equitably invest that money. Um, and then to Vice Chair Johnson's, uh, comments about the investments in the fire department, I I think there's probably a lot of support up here for that. Um, and and and I hope, you know, that in the near future, we can have that conversation. I I know a number of us have been pushing the the city manager and the city administration to try and work through these issues so that we can get that motion before us. And I you know my hope is that in a public safety committee meeting soon we have Chief McKinley come forward and discuss these issues just like Chief Diji did today so that we can move forward on those issues uh in short order. >> Mr. Chair, >> Council Member Jeff. >> Yeah. On fire 100% agree. I would like to and I was I'd like to ask the administration for how much it would cost to fund keeping the mechanics there 24/7 because it is a real issue. Uh fire truck breaks down in the middle of the night, mechanics aren't there, they're not able to turn it around. Um so I think separately they can come back with that and whether it's in the carryover some other time. I think it's an issue that we we do have to address but absent that I have no idea what how much that would cost and I think that's the first place to start. Mr. Chair, >> Council Member Parks and Vice Mayor. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, I agree with Vice Mayor. Um, where we we're at a point where we need to negotiate to come to a solution and make this make sense. and um and with equity and transformation in mind. Also actually listening to what the chief says about the money that she needs and being a realist about our the true needs in our city, which would be the fire department. Um, I I would really like more information about the bond and sentencing project. I'm I'm not totally clear on that. What What does that mean? >> Yeah. Councilman. Um, so there there's a group called Measures for Justice that uh does an evaluation of the criminal justice system in place and it's all driven by data and transparency to get more information out there about um how uh criminal defendants uh face the the criminal justice system and and how they move through it and making that information available to the public. You know, I think we've heard from a number of folks up here about the perception that has been created by by many about how that system works or doesn't work. And the reality is we don't have that information. It it's a paperbased system. Uh the the technology was implemented in 1983 um and has not been updated since then and we need to find a way to move that forward um at least to where we are today so we can have that information. >> Yeah. And I'll just add, council member parks, that all of our say many of our county electeds have joined us in this effort and are as well as our judges and and are very enthusiastic about this expenditure and know that we're deliberating it about it today. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Um, so with the changes, I I can accept um getting rid of the um $880,000 for the ambassador program. That that is a wonderful program and it works. Um and as far as the license plate reader is concerned, $360,000, we need that for other things. So, and and it is important that we take care of the fire department because they play a huge part in our public safety. Most of the time when you see the police, you also see the fire department. So I I am in agreement with that with with making adjustments to this. >> Mr. Chair, >> Council Owens, >> just one thing. Um, unfortunately in in Whitten Hills, uh, there was a young child, 12 years old, uh, one of 14 siblings, um, killed in the back seat of a car in a a stolen vehicle in July. So, at the end of the day, I want to be able to solve crime sooner as it relates to stolen vehicles because other bad things happen again related to stolen cars. >> Are there any other comments? >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes, Vice Mayor. I'm I'm just appalled that we are um investing in certain aspects of technology and not in our young people. Um our our youth need jobs. The fire department needs help. We have we we seem to be moving away from investing in people and that's what we really need. We need um community violence interruption. Um that's so much more important than some of the things we have here. uh license plate readers, you know, after the fact. Um, you know, it's it's really they're not going to save lives. So, let's I think we should keep it on the table for a later time for the carryover budget. I don't think we need to do that right now. There's so many things that are more important uh especially in Whitten Hills than than license plate readers. Uh I I think you know walking people to their cars is you know that that's wonderful. We have ambassadors now who can do that. But I think that money needs to be invested of jobs for youth. I just think that's so important. People are constantly complaining about our young people not having anything to do running around in groups. Let's do something for them. Let's get them moving in afterchool jobs and add mentorships to that. Let's help them change their lives. There's so much more we can do with these funds. And I I feel that um we are just misspending a lot of this money and we're doing it quickly and without consideration. Uh some things are urgent. Uh police overtime is urgent. Um the pivot specialized training. Um having money for the for the curfew centers. Uh the the lighting and the cameras, those are in the drone expansion. I can see those things that we need now. But some of these other issues um that we've just mentioned, they can wait and we can use that money elsewhere. >> Yeah. Uh vice mayor, just where I am at is I think the manager and chief largely too. As I said, this is the the chief's and managers effort with a few additions is there are things occurring right now in our city that have to stop. I feel absolutely safe downtown. I feel absolutely safe in Priceell. But having said that, uh the past two weekends, my phone has blown up from about 9:00 in the morning until night in Price with one incident after another. The community council president was sitting on his porch on a Saturday at noon. A car comes up, his neighbors having a barbecue, and they unload firearms in that house while he's sitting there. I need to say, what do you tell him? You can't tell them we're going to do this, fix this in two years or four years. We need to fix it right now, which is what this motion does. It's putting everything on the table for an immediate impact. The answer is and I am all about the root causes. I will continue to be an ally and support that. Uh but this is where we are right now. >> Mr. Chair, there is nothing here that would stop those people from shooting. There is nothing here about community violence interruption. Now, Advanced Peace would do that. they would stop that shooting, but this will not. And so, and the the city manager did not ask for the bond and sentencing project, though I I understand you you're working with the county and that's a joint effort. The city manager not asked for license plate readers. Those are not from the city manager. If you look at in my motion, I compared um as I said, your motion and the city manager's list. So, those are not on there. There are there are things in this motion that we could hold and we could allocate that money towards something that is urgent. And so having someone driving down the street shooting um in Price Hill, the ambassadors walking people to their cars in OTR is not going to affect that at all. But we can do something to stop the shooters. We can do something to stop the active shooters in our neighborhoods. And that's what we have to have the courage to do. And that's what we have not had the courage to do. >> Uh I was just I do think a visible police officer is the most important thing that we can do as a city and need to continue to work towards that end. Are there any other comments? >> Well, just to add to that, the $500,000 that the police chief has requested, I think everybody has agreed to that and I have as well. >> Okay. Vice Chair Johnson. >> Thank you. I think it's it needs to be clear um that I think the chief pointed out also that this um this 500,000 and then we have other PVO money for each district. Um, so this is this is I don't I don't want the perception to be that police will not be in our city working their tails off like they have been doing and that like they continuously do. If we don't move if there's only $500,000 there, that's not a drop in the bucket. That's a lot of money. I just think we have to pay attention to the expert who said she can get it done with a half a million dollars and then we've got a million dollars extra to go to address other public safety issues. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Are there any additional questions or comments? Seeing none, I will ask the clerk to call the role. >> Council member Kramering, >> yes. >> Council member Nolan, >> yes. >> Council member Jeff, >> yes. >> Council member Johnson, >> no. >> Vice Mayor Kernney, >> no. >> Council member Albby, >> yes. >> Council member Owens, >> yes. >> Council member Parks, >> no. >> Council member Walsh, >> yes. >> Thank you all for a >> Mr. Chair. Council Owensson, >> I think there's one small amendment just because of the investments that we've made. So the we move that 2 million allocated from your original motion an additional 2.6. I think that is now 3.42. >> Uh so that was just a motion on clarifying that dollar amount. >> Correct. Amendment. >> That's a friendly amendment. Does anyone object to that? Just clarifying a dollar figure. >> Sorry. Can you repeat, >> Council Member Owens? >> Yeah. So, um, the we move that 2 million allocated to public safety in motion, uh, the chair's original motion, um, an additional 2.63 million because of our investments today, it's an additional 3.42 million. >> Mr. Chair, >> should that since we are focusing just on police and not really all public safety, that needs to say police public safety. Um, thank you. I I uh appreciate your advocacy. I will decline to accept that friendly amendment, vice chair. Um, do we need to do anything else on that issue? Do we need to vote on that? >> No, it already passed. I just want to make sure that the clerk got the friendly amendments. >> Great. All right. So, we will now try to get through. Again, thank you everybody. This was uh important. This takes us to item number seven. Dr. Dudis uh to the chair. Item number seven uh is the uh public safety investment ordinance from the city manager uh that uh would have uh implemented uh the items uh included in the city manager's uh presentation on uh police public safety. >> Okay. We will file item number seven. uh to the chair. Item number eight, uh this is uh an ordinance um related to the um uh the home investment partnerships program uh as part of the community development block grant. Uh the city is receiving an additional $14,845 in American Rescue Plan funding uh from the federal department of housing and urban development. Uh so this ordinance would accept and appropriate those funds uh additionally within fund 411 the home investment trust uh just over $1 million uh is reallocated um to realign uh spending uh within home authorized uh programs uh essentially um to uh help with uh the timeliness of deployment of funds. >> Questions or comments on item number eight? We'll put item number eight on for passage >> uh to the chair. Item number nine. Uh this is also an ordinance uh related to the city's uh home uh investment uh trust uh funding. Uh this uh ordinance would uh transfer and return to source uh $679,483 uh 94 cents uh and then uh subsequently uh reallocate those uh also to uh uh various programs within uh the home trust investment trust fund. Uh this is a realignment of funds um utilizing uh uh uh reducing older accounts uh moving those resources to the strategic housing initiatives program uh also for more timely deployment of funds. >> Great questions or comments on number nine? Number nine on for passage >> uh to the chair. Item number 10. Uh this is a ordinance to uh accept an appropriate $8,660 uh of program income uh that is that has been generated uh through the lead hazard reduction grant program. Uh those funds will uh be uh accepted uh and then deposited back into the lead hazard control research grant fund uh to continue work to uh address lead abatement. Great. We'll put item number 10 on for passage. We are going to hold item number 11. Some of you have been briefed on that. Some of you have not. Some of you have been briefed and then had followup questions. So, this is important. We'll hold item number 11. Take it up next week. Dr. Dudis, item number 12. >> Uh to the chair. Item number 12. Uh this is an ordinance. Um a little uh brief background. Uh this was uh an issue that was identified uh by the vice mayor and brought uh to the city manager's attention. Uh it relates to um the North Fairmont uh community center uh which houses a daycare program um on the property is a retaining wall uh which is uh partially um the responsibility of CRC and partially the responsibility of the North Fairmont Community Center. the portion of the wall has failed um which uh is an endanger uh to the property uh but also uh poses a hazard to Baltimore Avenue uh which is uh running above the hillside. Uh so um having DOT uh assess uh the issue uh we need $135,000 um to uh make the appropriate repairs to the retaining wall. This is at 1769 Carl Street in North Fairmont. Um, this ordinance would transfer $75,000 of existing funds in the city manager's budget uh to the wall stabilization and landslide uh correction capital account. CRC will be responsible for their portion uh of the retaining wall, which is $25,000. uh and the remaining 35,000 uh for the project will be covered by existing funds in DOT. >> Seeing no questions on 12. Yeah, vice chair. Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um Dr. Dudis, is this I hope this is an emergency situation that we get addressed right away. Is that the game plan? >> Uh to the uh to the chair, to the vice chair, uh yes. Uh DOT has already uh done the inspection uh and they've already secured the uh right of entry permits. Uh we've been working closely with the uh North Fairmont Community Center staff um to get in there as as quickly as possible. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. >> Vice Chair, Vice Mayor, >> I'd like to thank the uh administration for um for getting this done. Uh it is pretty scary and it's it's near a daycare. It's near the rec center. It's also near a basketball court and you know how you know kids can be. They're curious and it's hard to keep them away from it and so uh the North Bar Mount Community Council stepped up and the president said we've got to get this done. So thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you vice mayor for your advocacy for bringing that to the attention and thank you for the administration for their quick work. We'll put item number 13 on for passage. uh to the chair. Item number 14. Uh this is an ordinance from the Department of Community and Economic Development. It is a community reinvestment area agreement. Uh this is with otr historical development LLC. It is a 12-ear uh one uh exemption for 100% of the value of improvements at 43 East Clifton Avenue uh in Over the Rine. Um there's actually two buildings, 43 uh East Clifton and 45 East Clifton, um that will be renovated into 16 uh residential units uh with a expected total construction cost of $1.7 million. Council Nolan, >> I just want to say how uh exciting it is to see a building that's been vacant for over 20 years uh come back to life with a a small accommodation by the city that ultimately provides a great return uh both for for CPS and for the city and for our march towards our housing goals. Thank you, Council Member Nolan. Congratulations to Solicer Faborg. was a nuisance abatement, one of her first when she joined the city. So, uh, she's seen it from a nuisance abatement to its conclusion. Congratulations, Fabard. And we'll put 14 on for passage. Uh, to the chair, item number 15 uh is an ordinance um related to the downtown Cincinnati Improvement District. Uh, this ordinance would establish the assessment equalization board. It would appoint uh three members to that board and it would set the time and place for hearings. Um all of this is to comply with um provisions of the Ohio Revised Code uh related to uh the improvement district assessment process. >> Great. We will file item number 15. We will file item number three. We will conclude with item number two. I apologize, Council Albi, to making you wait till the end. You never know how these agendas are going to work out, so that was not my intent, but here we are. Yeah, no worries. Uh, thank you all for, uh, hanging in there. So, this is a motion asking the administration, um, to provide a report within 30 days to evaluate the potentially reviving the capital arts grant program. Uh, this existed before I think all of us were on council and then also went away before we all were on council. Um, so, but what I have noticed in the past, uh, almost two years is a lot of the really big capital asks that we have are coming from our arts partners. um whether it's artworks, uh ROMAC, Clifton Cultural Arts Center, the Art Museum, Playhouse in the Park, um Cincinnati Art Academy, uh Artsville, Artsville and Madisonville. Um I'm just listing the ones I can think of. I'm sure there are more. Um but they're coming with capital uh asks and we don't have a great process to direct them to and it has led to confusion and frustration and a lack of clarity for our partners. um when basically it's you know hope you can get it during carryover if we fight over it enough. Um so my hope here is to get this report back from the administration with kind of the historical funding levels that were provided to this grant when it existed, what the historical eligibility criteria was, how the application review process worked and then recommendations for updating that process. Um when I looked back through it seems like these grants were pretty small. Um, so I think that is a point of discussion we can all consider when this report comes back is if we should um open up how much money would be available through these grants. Um, and then also my my final ask here was just a list um from the administration on kind of current outstanding capital requests we have from arts organizations. I know I can rattle off a handful and it it is more than millions and millions of dollars of asks already. Um, and the reason why this is important is because we know we are an arts city and we are investing into something that drives our economy. Not only does it bring culture uh to to our city, but we also know that the arts generate over $1.6 billion dollars of economic impact and opportunity here in the city of Cincinnati. So, I think this is a great opportunity for us to look at how we're supporting our arts partners and how we can provide more clarity for them for these big important capital asks. Thank you, Council Member Albi. That's exciting. Um, I have been asked to change item number seven, the ordinance to indefinitely postpone. So, we will do that. Any other business before this committee? Seeing none, we are adjourned.