Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey Heat. Thank you. N. N. Good afternoon everybody. The mayor will be up shortly, but we are mindful of your time. So, we're going to start the citizens forum. As all of you hopefully know, everyone will have two minutes to speak. Uh, we don't uh we don't do Q&A. Just just a reminder, we don't answer questions because everybody gets two minutes. And if we started engaging, you'd have more time than someone else. So, we're trying to be consistent and fair. That's why we do it like that. Okay. So, the first person to come up is Bishop Sunny James. You have the privilege of the floor for two minutes and thank you for being here everybody. >> Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um, I want to first and foremost, um, make sure that we as a people understand that we have a responsibility one to another. You know, we look and we see that there are a lot of things that go wrong. There are a lot of things that need to be changed. But what we have to be reminded of is that we are all one body with different beliefs. And one of the things that I'm especially troubled by is when I see how we don't show grace one to another. I don't know about you, but I have not always been the bishop. >> Oh, thank you. >> But I thank God for being able to understand real life and real people who make decisions and sometimes it's not favorable to some. Why did I come here today? I came here to make sure. I know you as city, you're going to talk about the street takeover. That was terrible. That was very dangerous. But when we as leaders communicate and voice our opinions about people, we cannot call them out of their names. And so I want to make sure that all of our leadership is aware that they did an idiotic move and it was an idiotic move. But we cannot approve whether it's the police chief or whoever it might be to just refer to people as idiots. We're not called to put people down. And so I want to ask all of you to be mindful of the words that we say about each other. God bless you. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Okay. The next speaker is Jerry Coach and you have the privilege of the floor for two minutes. >> Greetings everybody. I uh sent y'all some paperwork the other day. I ain't going to elaborate it elaborate on it right now, but what I am going to say is that I've been coming down here for a long time. Actually, I think I need to tell y'all this. I worked in this building before probably everybody except for you, madam. When I worked in the human relations commission for Carolyn Edwards, you was her boss. So, I'm saying that to say I got a different tone about this city than most of you all. Next, I'mma say when I worked at the human relations commission, people used to have somebody to talk to when they had a problem. Y'all CCA is backed up. I came here about something that happened to me on 713, case number 251347563. They ain't concluded it yet, but they concluding cases that happened in 2026. That's because I'm not lying about anything. That's why my case is it concluded. I don't lie. What I dropped y'all off ain't no lie either. I got case number 26031/7743 when I came here and told y'all them police did my little boy absolutely wrong in front of his mama. Then I told y'all I'm sticking my head in Explorer right past me. A Lincoln Aviator is a Ford Explorer. That's why I stuck my head in it cuz I told y'all I was going to do it. God bless people who take care of their children. God bless righteous people. When I used to do dirt in y'all city, I went and did my time like a man. Ain't nobody on this earth solid enough to get me to go back to that joint. So God going to keep on putting me in place to see what's wrong until justice is served for my family. I'm gonna keep serving that man and he gonna make sure everybody knew his name. >> All right. Thank you. Okay. The next speaker is Michael O'Neal. Michael O'Neal. Okay. We'll come back to Mr. O'Neal. Uh the next speaker is Todd Zenzer. Mr. Zenzer, you have the privilege of the floor for two minutes. Uh, good afternoon. Todd Zenzer from West Price Hill. I had a couple of comments I wanted to make. One was about the Chief Theiji matter. It seems to me that we're all sitting here watching a slow train wreck, including the council, and it just doesn't seem right that the council there's nothing the council can do. I've got two suggestions. One is you could retain an independent litigation risk analysis so that you know whether or not the city is doing a righteous job in bringing whatever case they're going to bring if they bring a case. But the second thing is in the future it just doesn't seem right that the city manager can just take the head of one of the the biggest department in the city just take her off the playing field and then go from there. It seems that when decisions like that are being proposed, the city should require some type of mediation, not require mediation, but require that they consider mediation for positions like that. So, those are my two suggestions there. Um, I very much appreciate all the budget presentations. What I'm doing is I'm taking all the challenges that they've listed and the 5% budget. I'm putting them all in one table. I've got to put the six or eight or whatever additional presentations and I'm going to send that to you. But my sense is that these departments have more than three challenges and you ought to be going down and getting their entire list whether the city manager likes it or not. Um, and then you have the beginning of a risk analysis. That's where you would begin. What are your challenges? And then you expand from there. So I think that would be worthwhile and uh I would recommend that. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. We really appreciate that. Look forward to seeing it. Um, and the mayor is here. And our next speaker is Pamela J. Adams. >> Thank you, Vice Mayor, and I apologize for being a few minutes late. Welcome, Miss Adams. >> Well, welcome. Thank you. Hello, council. How's everyone doing today? It's good to see you. Okay, I'm gonna talk a little fast right now. I understand what's going on with the budget. I'm going to let you know I do not like it. I do not think that our citizens in our in our city should be put through this. We need the fire department. We need the uh police department. We need CRC department. And we also need MSD department and the waterworks. No fireman is going out here putting a fire and look at his watch and say, "Oh, my eight hours is over. I got to go." They come when that alarm goes off. They come. When the police go off, they come. MSD, when it explode, when a pipe explode in the middle of the night, they come. They call them and the workers come. The same way with the waterworks. So, what I'm suggesting is this. I know you need to sleep well at night, but you're jeopardizing our city when you make these cuts like this. Find the money. I understand what you did about the railroad and everything. So, I suggest this. go back and reinstruct that. Take all that infrastructure out of there. Take some of this money and put it where we need it at. Our city cannot be vulnerable like this. We need to be safe at all times. That's what I have to say. And I hope you all sleep well tonight. I love everybody. I love my city. But mayor, I know you've got a lot on your plate. And it's more that I can say and I do understand it didn't get cleared up the first time and the people of this city need to know that if he was to let you know the predicament y'all walked in this door when you first took this office with a deficit of over $30 million. People do not understand that and why you had to get new trucks now because the new trucks was already there for the person to sign the paper and that's why this money is being used like this. So don't blame this system right now. Blame the past system of the man that sat in that chair. And I'm tired of the city attacking my mayor. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Uh Warner Long, welcome. Good afternoon, sister and brothers. My name is Wonder Lang. I'm the chair of the Ohio Peace Council. I come before you today to sound an alarm. Cincinnati is facing a grave immediate danger. Not from some foreign adversary, not from some terrorist organization, but from the White House, from the Trump administration. Just last week, President Trump actually asserted that federal funding, all of it, should be restricted exclusively to the military. Then he proposed an unprecedented military budget of $1.5 trillion dollar, 50% higher than the currently bloated budget while dramatically cutting public services. This is a moral obscenity and it poses a very real and present threat to the very social fabric of all of our communities which rely upon federal funding for vital human services. Public servants like yourselves must stand up to this grave threat. You must openly and firmly oppose Trump's bloated budget and demand sufficient funds for pressing human needs. Reverend Martin Luther King prophetically stated, "A nation that year after year spends more on the military than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." The Trump regime is already spiritually dead or comeomaosse, but the American public is very much alive, defiantly vibrant and increasingly angry. Channel our outrage into passage of the move the money resolution which is in your email box as well as your mailbox here. Thank you for your consideration. >> Thank you. Stanford Pool. Welcome. So the basic thing everything that Donald Trump doing this city is doing. He's doing it in a different way. It's just a different face in the next body. We have came down here and asked for help for the housing. Stop taking the the property from black and brown people. Now we got some white guys that you taking from. But your main idea of stealing money and stealing property is from black and brown. Your building department came in here and said, "We go to the poor neighborhood. We write them up." They didn't say it had to be a reason. And then we tell them to give their title up. Who give their title up to somebody? And then they said if they gave up the title, not for nothing, then we'll leave them alone. That's what gangsters do. This is not Chicago, but it's Cincinnati. Start with a C, but you guys are help doing it. Filling your pockets up. And then when we look at all this stuff, the chickens coming back to roost, you brought it on yourself. You're giving 8 million to a a group that snapped their finger. They said, "Who will give us $8 million?" They won't have to account for it. Scotty wouldn't. we get $8 million, but you won't help the people that got property that from the West End that got property and say, "Look, what can we do to help you develop this property?" One of your lawyers says, "You expect us to give them people them some money, but you're giving all the rich people money. You gave a bar down here $455,000 and they don't even own the building. What accountability that couple years ago a guy had a a theater on Vine the other council before you gave them money. You pull to be good stewards of our money. It's not your money. It's our money. And you should be accountable for giving unqualified people the money. >> Paul Bean, welcome. Don't do that. >> No, I ain't going to do that. First, first I ask you, can I have my project back that you stole? You yourself said, and you the mayor, you said you wasn't going to use the project. Now you say you can't find the project. He said the project cost too money. Too much money. I know that part. But I've been here looking for justice since 21. This has been laying in your chief Fiji's hands. She She threw your trash. You threw her under the bus. She throw me under the bus. But now still you still throwing me under the bus. It's like you come down here, you listen, but you can't hear. See, you can't hear. You had too many problems in this city. So, whatever you giving her, she I I've been doing construction for a long time. I'm out of work because of this accident. You don't find it interesting. Nowhere where you could come back and go investigate this cuz I told you myself. I seen this man that hit hit me and what you tell me. Oh no, don't go do that. But still I still stay here. Come here and you still can't hear me. So what you want us to do with this city and and it it looks the same to me. That's why so many shooting going down every every day, every night. You're not doing your job. I can go go with my man and bring him down here and he'll cry in your face. >> Thank you. Moving to Zoom. Uh our next speaker is Mike Uhhorn. Welcome, Mike. Hello. Can you hear me? >> Yes. Go ahead, sir. >> Yes. Excellent. So, >> I've been thinking some people out there might think that I'm crazy or insane because the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. As you know, I've been on Zoom here for many, many meetings discussing about how Greater Cincinnati Waterworks charges people for providing absolutely nothing when they have the water turned off at the meter. not providing water, not providing anything and that is theft by Ohio Vice Code 2913. And you know, I keep coming here talking to the people who have passed the laws and regulations that permits this theft to occur. But it's not just about expecting the thieves to get a conscience and stop stealing. It's about getting the word out there about what's happening and how this city is stealing money from people with Greater Cincinnati Waterworks when they're providing absolutely nothing to people. And I'm going to keep spreading the word. I mean, I don't know what else to do. I, as you guys know in the city council, my business started invoicing exactly the same way Greater Cincinnati Waterworks does, just for being ready to provide you with my business services and for people having access to it. However, none of you are paying the same kind of bill that you expect people to pay. The only other option I can think of to do is to follow Greater Cincinnati Waterworks precedent by also suing those who are not paying that type of bill. Maybe, just maybe, with a jury, things might change and they will rule that Greater Cincinnati Waterworks and businesses cannot invoice people in that way because every business could do it. They could all follow the precedent that is set by you guys in Greater Cincinnati Waterworks. Is that what I'm going to have to do to make this stop? I've reported it to the ethics and good government people there in Cincinnati. >> Thank you, Mike. Our next speaker is uh Vanessa Sparks, also on Zoom. I know that um she prefers to be referred to as Miss Sparks. Welcome. >> I prefer to be referred to as Miss Sparks because that's what my name is. Why does city council, the mayor, city manager choose to not respond to our request? We have asked for follow-up meetings to the several concerns and solution-based projects we know could address some of the repeated disparities in the black community, but we can't even get a proper response from any of you. Why is that? Has our exposure of the corruption that the black community has repeatedly been exposed to embarrassed you or hurt your feelings? Sometimes the truth hurts, but after the hurt comes the time for healing. The black community needs healing. We have never had an opportunity to do so because the success of a few of us is simply not enough for the rest of us. Repairative justice. Is that too much to ask? We have families, children, friends who we love and desire to see do well. We deserve opportunity to establish businesses, eating and drinking establishment housing and entertainment venues. Over and over, the black Cincinnati community has been studied. We don't need to be poked and prodded on any further. Now, it's time for repairative justice, and we won't stop until the justice that we need is served. Rest in peace to Timothy Thomas. >> Thank you, Miss Sparks. Our next speaker is in person. Uh, I believe I apologize if I mispronounce it, but it looks like Adrina. Adrina. Welcome. Can you tell me how to properly pronounce your name? >> Adriana. >> Adriana. I apologize. >> You're fine. Now, I just talked to an officer today and he had gave me clarity that harassment really means that, sorry, harassment really means that you are a form of actually slandering somebody's name or attacking them. However, doing your first amendment is not a crime. Now, Dena Taylor has a problem with young gay black girls, and it has consistently happened every single time I have protested at the Philly Market. This is labeled as harassment, but that is not harassment. This is my voice, and it is illegal to claim as a first amendment to turn into a crime for your own purpose. However, on opening day, March 26, I set up on Court Street along with other small businesses pitching my product. With that, Dena Taylor decided to interrupt me in the middle of a sale and told me, "Nobody wants your damn product." Okay. Then she continued to start an argument with me in the middle of public. In the middle of the public now, with others being joined in, which is two other friends she had, this turned around and she hid behind her husband and stuck the middle finger up at me and then proceeded to laugh and walk away. This is not leadership and it's not professionalism. And now that I have to be treat not only has she been treating small businesses this way, she advocates for them. Now, I have looked up to Dena for a very long time for her being in the corporate ladder regardless of her race, but this behavior is not acceptable. In addition, Dana Taylor Brewer has made statements claiming that we have harassed city officials. This is false. We have these statements documented. So if anybody believes we have harassed you, please state your claim. Now we haven't made any threats or anything else just asking for help for small businesses. And every times we have asked, we have seen no meaningful action. So vice mayor, city manager, if the city has a claim against my company, bring it forward so we can present the evidence. If not, cease and desist from for making false and damaged. Thank you, Adriana. Our next speaker is Stefan Prior. >> Good afternoon. Good afternoon, everyone. Uh, I'm here today to Thank you, Noah. Where you over here? Thank you, Noah, for let my uh honoring my cousin. I like that in you, man. You got a heart now, man. You doing something. You making moves, man. Keep it up. But I'm here today. The black businesses in Cincinnati is doing bad. Y'all need to do something to help black businesses because they need capital to keep their businesses afloat. I mean, you go to different neighborhoods, it's thriving. H Park, Oakley, other neighborhoods thriving. But the black community is not thriving because they need capital to keep it open, keep the doors open. And y'all can do this with a struggle of opinion. Y'all giving people $8 million just to have a concert. All these venues down here in Cincinnati. I can name them. Y'all know them. Some people got in trouble. Uh for the Andrew Brady Center. I mean, y'all doing all these concert venue centers, but y'all ain't helping the black community. Please do that. I hope I ain't give you no headache, M. has been sher long over there. Got your head hand on your head like you got a headache. I hope I ain't giving you no headache, girl. Okay. But y'all need to help the black community for real. From Aendale all the way to College Hill, over the Ryan. It ain't too many businesses over the Ryan. Black businesses at that. But we need help in these neighborhoods. Y'all, y'all supposed to be working for the people. Y'all supposed to have a heart for the people and loving the people. We don't see that. Y'all can do that, y'all. It's not hard to do. Come on now. I know y'all love y'all. Y'all go to church every Sunday praising the Lord. And then all of a sudden, y'all come back here and do stuff that people don't even like, disagree with. Come on, y'all. I thought we was all Christ body. Plus, we doing Christ's work. Come on, y'all. It's your time. All right, Jeff Kadine, put a smile on your face, man. It's going to be all right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Savon. Uh, Michael O'Neal, welcome. Mayor, council, how are you guys doing? Um, I was here last week, um, concerning a food truck that's in front of my house. Um, that was a nuisance. Uh, I know you guys, like I said, had a lot on your agenda last week with um, West End, but um, today I'm here to kind of voice it a little better. Uh, the other night I called the police. Like I said, it was about 11 or 12 at night that I got frustrated that this food truck was playing music and then like I said, the crowd congregating in front of my house. So, they never came and uh I got uh a confirmation of the reason why it was because something about the the um sergeant didn't deem it was like important. So, that was just something that happened after I came to this meeting. Now, the next the next um statement is from somebody that works right next to my building. >> Sorry. I'm sorry, sir. It's it's every speaker has to sign up. So, if you'd like to speak, if if you want to um grab a card. >> Okay. >> Go ahead, sir. >> Mayor, actually um like I said, I'm going to piggy back off of what I kind of just said. She um I I actually uh when I left the meeting last week, I told um a couple people that I had went up there and um lo and behold, somebody had had a almost had an accident right there and She