www.Cincinnati-oh.Gov/citicable.
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>> Councilmember Harris: all
right, we'll begin. Welcome to
budget and finance, I'm your
committee chair reggie harris.
Joined today with with the
commit vice chair, councilmember
cramerding, we have
councilmember anna albi and
councilmember jeffreys,
councilmember owens,
councilmember johnson,
councilmember walsh. I believe
the vice mayor will be in
shortly, so is PRESIDENT Pro tem
parks. We have from the
administration DR. Dudas from
budget, monica morton from
finances, and DR. Brandenburg
from law. Robert neely is our
clerk. We have one public
comment stephan pryor the floor
is yours.
>> don't look at me like that's
correct man. Good afternoon,
good afternoon. As a matter of
fact off will looks what's up
DR. Andrew over there, I see you
over there too. Off that look,
$197,000 for the red bikes just
to get fixed?
You need to get some brand new
bikes. Those bikes are so old.
You got news ones coming in, I
hope so. Those bikes are so old
I don't want to get on it. I
talked to the couple council
members meeka owens, and scotty
johnson, and I talked about that
aggregation program. I keep
talking about it, DR. Andrew,
and they keep sending letters in
the mail to my family members
and saying we're going to
automatically opt you back in if
you don't respond to this
letter. It feels like a threat.
it feels like the energy company
is threatening people and they
need to stop them letters. If
you opt out one time, you
shouldn't have to keep operating
back in and they automatically
operating you back in and that's
kind of wrong, that's real
wrong, that's extortion it feels
likes extortion and they
threatening you. So we have to
figure that out. I'm here today
to talk about this five million
dollars, DR. Andrew, we need to
find out where it is going and
what project it is going to
toward. So people can be
accounted for and transparent
about money that's move around
in the pot. You are the
DR. Doctor you got to will he
people know sometimes. Please
maine know what's going on,
DR. Andrew. And seth walsh,
quit playing that video game on
that phone and pay attention
when I'm talking it is important
today. I see you too cramerding
you are looking on the glasses
on your knows, put them on your
face so they won't fall off.
Make sure you do that you need
to be more paying attentions
what's going on, I feel good
today. I'm in my good mood
today. DR. Andrew, and the
crew, I don't want to leave you
out city solicitor's, police in
the back. I love you guys, I
can't do nothing about it. All
right.
>> Councilmember Harris: thank
you. All right. DR. Dudas,
let's jump into our agenda.
>> DR. Dudas: to the chair, item
number 1 is a grant ordinance.
This is from councilmember
jeffreys. It would authorizes a
grant of $3,765 from the william9
william.
>> Councilmember Albi: pom row
foundation. These are to
partially offset a orcal marker
for cincinnati historic dunbar
community previously known as
corsica hollow a
african-american community on
the western edge of
madisonville.
These funds would come through
ohio history connection. There
is a additional $380 required
for the historical marker, which
there are existing funds in the
city manager's office budget to
cover.
>> Councilmember Harris:
councilmember jeffreys?
>> Councilmember Jeffreys:
awesome, thank you. This is
about a year plus in the
makerring, so for those of you
who are not familiar dunbar is a
neighborhood that used to be in
madisonville.
It was dissected
by red bank expressway anchor
circa the main street is still
there, but it has been
completely redeveloped. And so
the back story on this is the
community as I say over a year
and a half, two years ago
reached out and said, hey, they
want some acknowledgment of the
history. And so over the course
of several months we
collaborated with them, went out
to talk about the sign and the
words on the sign as well as
where the right location is,
including going on-site. And we
have identified that location
right on corsica and bank
express way. And we have
aligned the sign wording with
the community way with folks in
the community and so this is
really meaningful for people in
the community. There used to be
what they called dunbar days
where the community got
together. They want to use this
as an anchor for bringing those
back. And so what we're
authorizing here today is it is
national foundation that helps
support some of these historic
markers. They are paying over
90% of it and then as DR. Dudas
said there is about $300 that
the city will pay, so city
manager thank her for her
support on that. So, once we
approve this, then they will
actually make the marker and
then we'll do a unveiling and
invite everyone to the
unveiling, the community will do
an unveiling of the marker. I
have thed withing here of the
two sides of the marker if folks
are interested. But it is a
huge support from the community
for this. And thank you.
>> Councilmember Harris:
absolutely, it's wonderful.
Absolutely. Great, without --
>> Councilmember Albi: I wanted
to thank councilmember jeffreys
for leading this over the past
year and a half, two years. As
you mentioned he did come to the
community council I watts there
that night and this means a lot
of we had members of our
community who grew up in den bar
when you presented the community
council I want to highlight how
much this means to the folks who
grew up in that community and
sadly saw it torn down to make
way for red bank. So, thank you
for all your hard work on this.
>> Councilmember Jeffreys: to
add on that, I would say that
evening was probably one of the
most meaningful and powerful
that I have had on council. I
mean I had a roomful of people,
maybe a hundred plus, very
diverse old, young, black,
white, it was very cathartic for
the community. You had members
of the community who talked
being displaced and folks
sitting next to them who in the
end sad I had no idea, I thought
it was incredibly powerful this
just going through this exercise
with the community.
>> Councilmember Harris: for me,
one of the most powerful
madisonville experiences was
with you, PRESIDENT Pro tem
parks, we were out and you
walked me through we were just
like going around the
neighborhood you were like let
me tell you about this street
corner, this family, and
connecting it to present things
that happen on the council. One
thing I never forget, you sort
of connect it had to how
neighbors migrate between in
neighborhoods. And so I just
think, yeah, I appreciate you
doing that and just like the
deep history, mean there are a
lot of communities that have a
lot of deep history I got the
insight through being able to
like learn about it from your
family. PRESIDENT Pro tem
parks?
>> Councilmember Parks: good.
I'm happy about that. My aunts
lived in madisonville, my
mother's sisters, one in
silverton one in madisonville.
And so as a kid, you know, we
went to birthday parties and
sleep overs. My cousins were
there. They are like sister
cousins. And so I know about
dunbar neighborhood and the
cemetery and just all of the
history, the richness of
madisonville. So, this -- what?
>> [Indiscernible].
>> Councilmember Parks: the
creamy whip, other the creamy
whip in madisonville, that's
right. So thank you. Thank you
councilmember, this is
wonderful. Thank you. I
appreciate your time and
attention to it.
>> Councilmember Harris: agreed.
All right, without objection
we'll move item number 1 for
passage.
>> DR. Dudas: to the chair, item
number 2 is a grant ordinance
for the cincinnati health
department, this would be a
grant of up to $349,000 from
ohio department of health,
community and faith based infant
and maternal health support
services program grant. The
goal here is to focus on
improving maternal health and
birth outcomes through the
increase of prenatal and post
pardon doctors visits and
supporting nutrition of mothers.
>> Councilmember Harris: yeah,
I'm glad to see this grant. I
know in our city and region the
past decade or so we have been
really making huge strides and
investments in maternal health
and over come some of toes
disparities. Kudos to the
health department.
>> Councilmember Albi: I want to
highlight we're in the middle of
nation at black maternal health
week, it is APRIL 11-17. This
is important week to recognize
there are some very stark
statistics and facts about how
maternal health so pull a couple
data from 36 states finds that
more than 80% of pregnancy
related deaths were preventable.
And black women are
approximately 3 times more
likely to die from a pregnancy
related cause than white women.
So I am really glad to see this
grant come through. It is such
an important thing and it is
important to the making sure
that our city continues to grow,
thrive, and people are healthy,
especially expect and mothers,
I'm excited to have this before
us.
>> Councilmember Harris: all
right, without objection we'll
move item number 2 for passage.
>> DR. Dudas: item 3 is a grant
nor the police department. This
is the drive to succeed 2024
grant. The administration would
ask that this item be held for
one week. Police was just
notified of a slight increase in
the grant award amount and given
that, we would like to hold this
for a week and come back with a
b version with the increased
grant amount.
>> Councilmember Harris: without
objection we'll hold item number 3.
>> DR. Dudas: to the chair, item
number 3 is a grant ordinance
for the cincinnati recreation
commission. This is a grant up
to $191,000 from the hamilton
county digital divide public
wi-fi grant program. These
funds would enable crc to
install public wi-fi
infrastructure at various crc
park locations.
>> Councilmember Harris:
fantastic.
>> Councilmember Jeffreys: do we
know the locations, DR. Dudas,
where these are going?
>> DR. Dudas: to the chair, to
the councilmember, I have not
seen the final list of
locations, but we can coordinate
with crc to identify where those
are.
>> Councilmember Jeffreys: I ask
the in part I was out at winton
hill recently and this is a big
issue not just at the crc but in
the community is wi-fi access,
that was the genesis of my
question.
>> Councilmember Harris:
absolutely. All right. Without
objection we'll move item number 4 for passage.
>> DR. Dudas: to the chair item
number 5 is a donation for the
cincinnati police department.
This is an in-kind donation of a
therapy dog related equipment
and supplies and training
services. This value is $8,000.
The dog is coming from the k-9s
for warriors group. And the
therapy dog will be utilized by
the police department's peer
support team.
>> Councilmember Harris: without
objection we'll move item number 5 for passage.
>> DR. Dudas: to the chair, item
number 6 is a donation ordinance
for the department of
transportation and engineering.
This is a scholarship that is
being donated valued at $3,300.
This is from the north carolina
toto, nacto, the will send one
dote employee to the nacto
designing cities 2024 conference
next month in miami, florida.
>> Councilmember Harris: I mean
they could have picked a better
location.
>> they should have picked miami
in JANUARY, that would have been
nice. The only comment is
similar to the training that
councilmember cramerding talks
about. I think this is great
the continuing to make sure our
employees are trained on the
latest and greatest, thank them
for this.
>> that's right. All right.
Without objection we'll move
item number 6 for passage.
>> DR. Dudas: item number 7 is a
mid year adjustment ordinance
for the dced, there are two
items included here in this
ordinance. The first is the
transfer of $5 million from the
general fund balance sheet
reserve a down affordable
housing. This is the five
million dollars that was set
aside as part of the fiscal year
2023 close out process. The
department is now transferring
and we are appropriating those
funds department of community
and economic development non
person operating budget which
will facilitate providing those
resources to the cincinnati
development fund for affordable
housing projects. The second
part of the ordinance is
transferring $280,000 from a
balance sheet reserve account
hampton in reserve account for
capital projects. This is
funding that easies in parking
system facilities fund 102. It
is being transferred and
appropriated to the operating
budget for parking, division of
parking facilities. Those funds
will be utilized for satisfying
the terms of a garage finances
agreement which is with 3,000
vine llc. In both cases
existing funds are being
utilized and transferred in this
ordinance.
>> Councilmember Harris: thank
you, DR. Dudas. I also wanted
to say we often have these mid
year adjustment orders or second
orders odds because allocation
of dollars at the budget, at the
conclusion of the budget process
doesn't then get those dollars
to projects. And so, for people
who track it closely you will
likely see allocations come
before us multiple times based
on the expenditures these
dollars are not new. Second
thing I want to highlight I want
to bring back the $5 million
that we're transferring to cdf,
those dollars are in our motion
that we passed I think MARCH 23
or 22, 23, it is fine. When we
passed it, we essentially said
that those dollars had to be
highly learned and those dollars
had to go to projects affordable
to 80% ami or lower. And so
want toking just highlight that
those city dollars that we set
aside have a specific earmark in
use in cdf. All right. Without
objection we'll move item number 7 for passage.
>> DR. Dudas: to the chair, item
number 8 is a ordinance, this is
related to the urban forestry
assessment. This ordinance from
parks will establish the 2025
urban forestry program
assessment equalization board.
This is a requirement under the
ohio revised code when there are
objections to the urban forestry
assessment there are current
objections, so this ordinance
would appoint three
disinterested free holders,
hamilton county residents but
not city residents to the
scalings board and they
equalization
board and they will meet on
APRIL 30 at 12:30 P.M. To hear
the objections to the
assessment.
>> Councilmember Harris: great.
Without objection we'll move
item number 8 for passage.
>> DR. Dudas: to the chair, item
number 9 is a ordinance that
would authorizes the city
manager to take all necessary
and proper actions to cooperate
with the director of the owe dot
this is related to odot's
planned replacement of
pedestrian bridges with a shared
use path bridge over interstate
71, interstate 471 and route 22
from van meter street in mt.
Adams to east court street.
This work is being done by odot
but the agreement is necessary
for the city to make right of
way and city property available
for odot to use as part of the
project.
>> Councilmember Jeffreys: this
is a great project. There is a
bridge there now as people know
it is narrow and a little run
down. If you look at the new
designs that odot which they did
a fair amount of engagement and
surveys of folks, a lot wider
bridge for both pedestrians and
cyclists and easier to get up.
It connects downtown and mt.
Adams in the a lot better more
efficient way.
>> Councilmember Harris: agreed
greed. Without objection we'll
put item number 9 on for
passage.
>> DR. Dudas: to the chair, item
number 10 is a motion submitted
by --
>> Vice Mayor Kearney: excuse
me, I'm sorry, excuse me for
interrupting I was going to say
this is our motion and we're
indefinite postponing it.
>> Councilmember Harris: great.
>> Vice Mayor Kearney: sorry to
interrupt.
>> Councilmember Harris: item 10
we'll indefinite postpone.
We'll move to item number 11.
>> DR. Dudas: to the chair, item
number 11 this is at budget
policy motion. This is from
councilmember harris, anna albi,
walsh, parks, cramerding,
jeffreys, johnson and the vice
mayor. It provides council's
budget policy direction to the
city administration for the
fiscal year 2025 budget update.
>> Councilmember Harris: great,
thank you. First I want to
extend a hard I thank you to all
my colleagues for your work on
this.
Some folks have asked why are we
doing this this way and we're
being more broad at the
beginning. One of the things
that the administration had a
conversation with our office
about that, I actually really
precious that in the budget
process having a broader sense
of what our values are and our
goals can also help with sort of
the allocation of existing
revenue, so it is not always
about what is the new spend but
like that we might be spending
dollars in areas that are a
priority for us so they have a
larger understanding of what's
important. When the city
manager comes back she can
address some of these things and
n a more comprehensive way I
thought that made sense. We
will get back to the process
where we're starting to get down
a little bit more into the weeds
but this broader sense will be
helpful and hopefully see more
of our values reflected. Yeah?
>> I want to thank you your job
a good job of organizing this.
It can be really unwieldy and so
many things we want to do and
accomplish, and this helps us a
lot of thank you for the
process.
>> Councilmember Harris: credit
to my chief of staff, gus, he's
incredibly organized, very good
handle on this. And I think,
you know, they meet weekly and
all in touch. Yeah.
Absolutely. All right.
>> Councilmember Owens: thank
you, I will add the same echos,
thank you so much for creating a
great process. I do think this
was a more efficient way to talk
about in a comprehensive manner
our priorities. And so it was
good to see that we are largely
aligned. And so being proactive
in what community safety means
for cincinnati, identifying
growth at the neighborhood
level, certainly important.
Service delivery, all of those
pieces that keep a city
functioning and growing and
recognize that's we know our tax
dollars are not treatment as it
relates to non-profits and
competitive processes,
extremely, extremely important.
Twenty-two to your office and
all of my colleagues.
>> Councilmember Harris: all
right. So without objection
we'll move item number 11 for
passage. And with that, this
meeting is adjourned.
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