[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[4:57] Okay,
[5:16] the budget here will be called to order at 6 p.m. I'll take roll call, my self-present,
[5:23] Deborah Lyme, Amanda Boyd, Ellen Divas. Oh, he's not here, sorry, Robert Lee, Kevin
[5:30] Kuzmo, John Soder, Monica Wilson, and Kelly Zechariah. Great. And I know I will check
[5:38] Everybody office, they come in for city officials.
[5:41] Okay, everybody, I just heard Clerk of Courts ask to go first, so Mr.
[5:45] Fritarity, you're up.
[6:09] Testing.
[6:10] All right, that works.
[6:17] Thank you, Madam Chairman.
[6:21] Chairwoman, I'm sorry.
[6:27] The first fund that I'd like to go over would be 07-0, which is the Clerk of Courts General Fund.
[6:34] And if everybody has it in front of them.
[6:41] With it, if you're looking at the fund right now, there's very little change from last year to this year.
[6:50] As far as the clerk's general fund is concerned, you'll have your basic increases in hospitalization as well as the increase in employee wages.
[7:00] Other than that, there's really no other substantial changes.
[7:06] Are there any questions on any individual line item?
[7:09] Madam Chair, Ms. Wilson, yes, can you refresh our memory of professional services?
[7:16] What are those?
[7:19] Councilwoman, professional services would handle your special contracts that you would have.
[7:27] For example, with our special funds, it would be with your computer outfit that you use that they consult the,
[7:36] as far as the court is concerned.
[7:39] But professional services are non-capital expenditures that are used within the courts.
[7:49] Probably your largest professional service to be more specific though would be with our banking services.
[7:57] All your banking services and your credit cards that are handled by the courts would be paid for on a monthly basis through professional services.
[8:09] That is the largest amount and Kim, by the way, I apologize.
[8:14] We have our chief deputy here, Kim Chippey, and our IT manager, Kevin Bergen here as well.
[8:21] Kim, other than basically your banking services and on the professional services side,
[8:27] what is another major expense that we've been using?
[8:37] But that's also a revenue stream, right?
[8:39] You charge people for those credit cards, please.
[8:42] That's great.
[8:43] So there is a revenue stream towards that, Ms. Wilson, yeah.
[8:46] Anybody else have any questions here, Mr. Kruzman?
[8:49] Thank you, Madam Chairman.
[8:50] Thank you very much being here.
[8:53] My question was with the rentals and leases.
[8:58] Budgeted last year was none, but there was a 36,000 and 36,000 that was proposed this year.
[9:06] I didn't know if that had anything to do with the computer server upgrades on the other side,
[9:11] or if that was something else entirely.
[9:14] Madam Chairwoman and Councilman, that is the fee that is charged for the storage of the old court records.
[9:23] We store our oldest court records off site on Ridge Road and the first year that we moved off site was last year.
[9:33] So that was in budgeted in and it was plugged in during the course of the year but it's an exact fee of $36,000.
[9:41] dollars.
[9:41] It's over on Ridge Road, Ridge Inn, the Puzzle Valley area.
[9:46] We have the whole top level there, and what we have to do, there are many records within
[9:51] the courts that you have to keep for a mandated period of time.
[9:57] Some court records have to be kept for up to 50 years.
[10:00] Some are for 25 years, some 10, some two, depending on what type of cases they are, what type
[10:06] of civil cases, what type of traffic and criminal cases.
[10:09] Now what's been happening obviously since 2013 through our computerization and our scanning
[10:18] process were able to scan a file and write at that point, keep that file permanent through
[10:28] our computer records.
[10:30] But one of the reasons that you have the old files off site, it would be very labor intensive,
[10:36] of, for example, for a court to turn around and go back there and scan files that in many situations that could go back up to 50 years.
[10:46] So you keep those records off site and periodically we do have to send deputy clerks over there to retrieve a file if there's a situation where a judge is calling for records on an individual that might be before them at that particular point.
[11:02] Okay.
[11:04] Thank you.
[11:06] Any other questions on this fund?
[11:09] Great.
[11:10] Okay.
[11:11] Let's move on.
[11:12] Yes.
[11:12] Kevin Bergen could come forward.
[11:14] He's our IT manager.
[11:16] We have a couple of big expenditures.
[11:18] One of the things that we've tried to do throughout the years is stay ahead of the curve
[11:24] as far as we're proud of the parmakords as far as the computerization and our technology.
[11:31] I think we're state-of-the-art, maybe throughout the entire state of Ohio and we've always been ahead of the curve on that.
[11:38] So with that, you want to make sure you protect your investment.
[11:41] Your computerization is your investment and we are responsible for the, as the keeper of the records,
[11:46] to make certain that everything is protected.
[11:50] So periodically, you have to have certain upgrades done to your system
[11:54] and other things that need to be done, such as servers from time to time, have to be replaced.
[12:02] I have Kevin up here to explain, if you want to turn to 165, as well as 167, 165 is the clerk of court
[12:13] computerization fund in 167 is the capital fund and Kevin can explain, you'll see two
[12:21] pretty big new expenditures schedule for this year. Kevin, you want to explain that to them?
[12:27] Good evening.
[12:34] So the biggest one you'll see is out of the 167 account, the professional services
[12:40] light item as well as the equipment and facilities. The actual hardware of the three new servers,
[12:49] state-of-the-art, ladies and
[12:51] greatest HP, Gen 11s,
[12:53] replacing our outdated end-of-life
[12:56] servers that we have currently,
[12:59] out of memory, getting low on space,
[13:01] obvious reasons, it's time to upgrade,
[13:03] and it kind of ties into,
[13:05] it's a good time as far as,
[13:07] with the House Bill 96 that came down,
[13:10] with the cybersecurity mandates on the cities
[13:12] and villages and townships throughout the state,
[13:15] to upgrade the servers as well,
[13:17] to be in compliance with their standards.
[13:22] Any specific questions?
[13:24] Any questions on those two?
[13:25] Madam Chairman.
[13:26] Yes.
[13:26] Thank you.
[13:27] Thank you for being here.
[13:28] Kevin.
[13:30] With my day job, I've had to upgrade our servers for my work
[13:35] and I can understand the work that you're going through
[13:37] and your team.
[13:38] And I think I know the answer to this question,
[13:40] but I have to ask it.
[13:42] These are going to be on-prem.
[13:44] Did you look at having a cloud-based version?
[13:46] And the current quoted servers I got, which was retail.
[13:52] So obviously it's going to come down.
[13:53] I haven't formally gone out to bid yet.
[13:55] But they do have cloud-based integration within them.
[13:59] The storage is massive, to what we currently have now.
[14:06] An example with the amount of imaging
[14:08] that we have to store in the cloud or on software
[14:13] with the tickets that come in.
[14:14] and the photo enforcement tickets, just the scanning of the files themselves.
[14:18] The space is growing significant.
[14:22] Madam Chairman.
[14:25] Do you think this would be, it would be a hybrid where you'd have cloud in there, or
[14:32] just solely with on-prem, with the new state of the art servers, it'll all be housed there?
[14:37] Currently, it's on-prem now, however, the capability to go to the cloud in the future.
[14:42] And this is also going to eventually be tied into our disaster recovery backup system, which is on site off site and then also the capability to be in the cloud.
[14:52] Awesome.
[15:00] March, question, ma'am Chairman. Is with the technology upgrades, latest equipment? Is there a trend for in the state for more of the municipalities and courts to go hybrid or just solely all cloud-based in the future? I don't think that the state hasn't came down a mandated one way or the other. Probably the way things have been going, they're pushing towards the cloud. But nothing has been mandated.
[15:29] to say it has to be okay thank you great so this dollar amount is just a
[15:36] quote you don't know which way you're going because you haven't put it out
[15:40] for bid yet so I do have a quote okay the hardware and then also five-year
[15:44] licensing software so that's kind of where it's split between the two line items
[15:48] professional services will handle the licensing and software and then the
[15:52] equipment is on the other line item I did go out just to get like an informal
[15:57] No quote, per se, at retail cost, but I haven't formally gone out to get my five bids for yes.
[16:03] Great, so this would be the maximum.
[16:04] Correct.
[16:05] Perfect.
[16:05] It will not.
[16:06] Yes.
[16:06] We'll not exceed this dollar move.
[16:08] Awesome.
[16:09] Any questions on these two funds?
[16:11] 165 or 167?
[16:13] Yes, Ms. Wilson.
[16:14] How old is the current server?
[16:17] There's four physical servers.
[16:19] We also have 12 virtual servers.
[16:22] Those are 12 plus years old.
[16:24] The physical ones that we will be replacing.
[16:29] All good, all right, last one, seven, nine, nine, that's a quick one.
[16:35] Thank you very much, in your injured state for being here, appreciate it.
[16:40] Madam Chairman, before we go over to 799, I'd like to remind council to the two funds that we just discussed, 165 and 167.
[16:51] 165 is a clerk of court computerization fund, and 167 is the capital fund, which is also property maintenance.
[16:59] And just to give you a quick update as far as over the past number of years on the property maintenance side.
[17:06] This year, it's basically being set aside for the computer servers.
[17:12] But in previous years, we worked in conjunction with the city's capital account and
[17:19] paid the portion for the court as far as the roof was concerned.
[17:22] We have new HVAC for the facility over there is new carpeting that's been done.
[17:27] And the building now is 25 years old, and one of the reasons that that property fund has been established is to make certain that the city protects its investment.
[17:36] The building is a nice facility, the city should be proud of it, and that's what that fund is used for.
[17:43] And we, I think we're ahead of the curve, we also upgraded our phone system two years ago, out of that fund as well.
[17:50] And the good part for the city on that, that's a user fund.
[17:53] That is fund solely through the users of the court.
[17:56] That is not city general fund monies or city monies that is the individuals that do business at the court
[18:03] There's a fee that goes into little special funds. So three special funds
[18:07] But we'll continue to keep an eye on the needs at that building and I would hope long after I'm gone and and so on that
[18:15] Watch that that building is a tremendous investment for the city and it's very very important to keep it up
[18:23] Now 799 is the
[18:28] The Pewter Research Fund that's handled primarily through the judges side.
[18:36] And those are very professional services that are paid for out of $7.99 as well as when we have consultants that come in that help aid in various projects that are going on with our systems, it is paid for out of $7.99.
[18:51] And I don't believe Kevin, there isn't any major changes in that from last year, is there, 799?
[19:00] Yeah, it's actually last, so it's great.
[19:03] Perfect.
[19:04] All right, any questions?
[19:06] We all good?
[19:07] All right, great.
[19:08] Thank you so much for being here.
[19:09] Thank you.
[19:10] Okay.
[19:11] So next we have Mr. Gaser, good job.
[19:15] Come on up.
[19:15] Thank you so much.
[19:29] Evening council.
[19:30] So we have, there's two pages here for the, our budgets, the first page is the court stuff.
[19:37] The second page is strictly probation accounts, so we can go over those if you want after.
[19:42] But first, I just wanted to go over the, on the first page, the deputy bail of full time account.
[19:50] First of all, I wanted to just mention a couple of things.
[19:53] Last year we had, we're lowering that account last year than we anticipated.
[19:57] We had two employees leave, and it took us a decent amount of time to replace those employees.
[20:05] So we had a good chunk of the year of those salaries not included in there until we actually replace them.
[20:12] So that was down a little bit there.
[20:14] And also this year it's significantly higher.
[20:18] The judges built in a full time salary for the intent to add a probation officer, a full time probation officer.
[20:26] this year and that's about a $55,000 job so we built that figure into there
[20:34] that 925 that's why it's it's significantly higher in that account so I want
[20:41] to go over that otherwise like I said the second page is this probation
[20:45] accounts mostly but if there's any questions I can try to answer for you madam
[20:52] Sherman okay I'm just gonna ask a question really quick is that okay so we had
[20:57] 15 last year, you lost two, that's why we had the deficit of salary, right?
[21:01] You replaced two and now we're going up to the 925, but that 925 includes 50,000 for the probation.
[21:08] That is true, yeah.
[21:09] Okay, great.
[21:09] All right, I'm, go ahead, Ms. Lime, thank you.
[21:12] Thank you, you actually asked one of the questions that I was asking between the deputy full time of 15 and
[21:20] And then the deputy part time 16, so I was just inquiring, I mean that's a lot of employees at 31 employees that are under the judges.
[21:34] So that's why I was inquiring as far as the difference in the salaries, but it was answered.
[21:39] A lot of that part time is we have 13 or 14 security bailiffs so we have a lot of those
[21:46] only like six are on at a time but we have a big pool to choose because we choose from
[21:52] because they're retired and you know they don't want to work full time hours so we kind
[21:57] of have to have a bigger pool of employees to kind of pick from so that's kind of why that
[22:02] That number is probably high, just FYI.
[22:07] I don't see really anything else in this fund that stands out to anybody else,
[22:11] have any questions in this fund?
[22:13] No?
[22:14] Anything on the second page?
[22:17] Not much here?
[22:22] Madam Chairman?
[22:23] Yes, go ahead.
[22:24] Joel, thank you for being here.
[22:27] For the 161 account last year, original budget was 70,
[22:33] the round 39,000 was spent, but it's increasing up to 85 this year, just want to know if there's new programs or something going on with that.
[22:45] I think, is that the salary we're going to pay out of that account, Jen, do you know?
[22:50] On that 160, 161.
[22:58] I think maybe Brian, I can ask you that too.
[23:01] I think we usually pay for part of a probation officer's salary out of this special fund.
[23:07] And I think we expense that at the end of the year.
[23:09] I think that's what we were planning to do.
[23:11] Is that the account we use, right?
[23:13] That's absolutely correct, yes.
[23:14] So what's budgeted there is standard for what he would be budgeting for
[23:20] that line item towards the end of the year, though, we will transfer an expense to pay for
[23:24] a probation officer out of there.
[23:26] Okay, yeah.
[23:26] So I thought it was.
[23:28] Madam Chairman.
[23:29] Yes.
[23:30] Thank you very much for that explanation.
[23:32] I just wanted to thank you.
[23:33] I think I called you more last year than any other year and you were able to help me with all my issues
[23:38] So thank you very much for all your help you're welcome, glad I got help
[23:41] We're going to put that in as an expense to you
[23:45] Any other questions
[23:49] Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for coming out on this snowy night. Thank you
[23:56] Okay, I think we have a lot of next
[23:59] Mr. Tuma leave us
[24:03] Okay, do we want to go to the mayor's office?
[24:06] Okay, Mayor, you want to go next?
[24:09] All righty,
[24:18] I'm so sorry.
[24:20] I skipped Aaron Lolli.
[24:23] I apologize.
[24:24] Aaron, you're next.
[24:26] I apologize, Mayor.
[24:28] Yes, I am so sorry, I skipped right over senior center.
[24:31] I am so sorry, Aaron, I apologize.
[24:34] Nobody even corrected me.
[24:39] Thank you.
[24:40] Thank you, Aaron.
[24:41] Ladies and gentlemen of the Council and Honourable Electors who are still here.
[24:49] Before I present our three funds to you, I wanted to let you know how incredibly grateful
[24:56] we are for the investment you make in the older adults in our community.
[25:00] I wanted to share with you some numbers about the number of people that we actually serve.
[25:06] So last year, in 2025, we had over 24,000 visits to our center and average over 100 people
[25:14] a day attending.
[25:17] In the past two years, over 650 people have joined the senior center.
[25:23] Not all of them come back, but a heck of a lot of them do.
[25:27] And our membership database, and this is from all the old membership cards that have been around
[25:32] for a long, long time.
[25:33] We have 1,500 members in that database, but 400 of them renewing their membership last year.
[25:39] So we are working hard to find out how many of our members are still actually members.
[25:45] But membership donation to our center is $10 for the year.
[25:51] And the first fund that I wanted to discuss with you is the O26 fund.
[25:55] That's our administrative fund.
[25:57] And I have a little narrative, but I do want to point out some of the line items,
[26:01] and then answer any questions you may have about any of them.
[26:06] Our Administrative Department has five full-time employees.
[26:11] And most of the budget is formulaic and you'll see that three employees have taken the hospital by-back saving hospitalization and eye care costs.
[26:21] And the five, three, one, one, six, and five, four, one, two, zero.
[26:27] We're over budget last year due to the unplanned retirement of our social worker, but I am happy to report that we replaced our social worker with another license, social worker with experience who also happens to be a Palmer resident, Elizabeth Falkroud, and she has really bringing her expertise in willing to learn more about how to best serve the older adults in our community.
[26:55] So, as you can see in 026-62250, we have requested funds for education tuition reimbursement
[27:06] as we're considering a grant rating certificate from Cleveland State University for one of
[27:11] our staff this year.
[27:13] The 026-62520 Senior Services Programming allows us to provide adult development programming
[27:25] And many of these funds are reimbursed through to us through Kayaoga County through a senior
[27:31] services program grant.
[27:33] But because of these monies, we're able to provide monthly partnerships and monthly partners
[27:38] with Rec to connect for cardio drumming and pedal power, the loving hands group for a brand
[27:44] new thing we're doing once a month called Donuts with Dudes.
[27:49] It's men talk and it's around men's subjects and it's really been popular so far this year.
[27:54] We also do a monthly craft with them that's free to our members.
[27:58] Painting with Sarah, painting classes twice a month.
[28:01] Nature Pam who comes in to talk about national parks and monthly music mingo.
[28:06] These monthly partners have made a difference and will continue to make a difference.
[28:11] But we also use these programming funds for a variety of bus trips,
[28:15] which is you probably know are wildly popular.
[28:19] where we go to Amish Country,
[28:21] have been downtown.
[28:23] We even go to local eateries
[28:25] and invite other senior centers to join us,
[28:27] which has been pure pleasure.
[28:29] Deschenitsa House,
[28:30] Solen came to join us there
[28:33] and they wanna meet us here at the brewery
[28:35] and then we'll go out to Solen
[28:37] and meet them at a local restaurant there.
[28:40] In fact, we're having a love your lunch
[28:43] with the May Dugan Center,
[28:44] the Golden Corral buffet on Brook Park Road.
[28:46] So we're looking forward to that.
[28:47] But I did want you to know that as a part of these network that we have with other senior centers,
[28:56] I am so grateful for the network that is in existence.
[29:00] Kaya Haga County has a senior citizen network, CCSSN, it's about 70 different providers who meet once a month online and once a year in person to just discuss best practices and advocacy and things that are important as our entire region aid.
[29:18] last week I was elected one of the co-chairs of that network and I'm very excited about the opportunities to not only collaborate with other senior centers but to learn from them too.
[29:30] So I wanted to share that with you and then next month I'm going to the annual Ohio Association of Senior Centers Conference, another great network to find out about best practices that other places have.
[30:03] Thank you so much for coming, Erin. Just a couple of things. So, you had said that you have now a new replacement for social worker. Where is that line item for the budget? I'm sorry. It's human service specialist, 51339. It says one social worker on the line about it. That was a typo, but that's okay. I just wanted to make sure I thought so, but I wanted to make sure. And then I recall if I may have another question, Madam Chair.
[30:31] If I recall from last year, I know that there was a challenge with finding house keepers.
[30:39] And I see you, obviously you've budgeted for one housekeeper, and obviously the part
[30:43] time housekeeper has not been filled, are you good with what you have?
[30:48] Do you feel like that is like plenty for, especially with your growing numbers?
[30:54] Are you feeling like there's another need there?
[30:56] I just, just curious about that.
[30:57] Madam Chair, Councilwoman, that was a great question.
[31:01] We had, when I first came on board only a part-time housekeeper and in the past few years we've added this full-time housekeeper and with the exception of her either being out sick or having a surgery, we've been very pleased to have a very hardworking housekeeper who does more than just clean toilets.
[31:19] I recall that very well.
[31:21] Thank you so much.
[31:24] Madam Chair, thank you for being here, during the week, what hours is the senior center open?
[31:33] Madam Chair, Councilman, we open at 7.30 in the morning and now close at 3.30 in the afternoon.
[31:40] Madam Chair, thank you.
[31:43] Is that common with the increase in volume that you're seeing right now?
[31:48] Is that something where hours should expand more are we in line with what other senior centers are doing hours-wise being open?
[31:58] Madam Chair, Councilman, great question.
[32:00] Many of the senior centers in our region are connected to a rec center.
[32:05] So there hours are often later than ours.
[32:09] City of Parma Heights, I believe, also close to 3 o'clock.
[32:13] We just recently expanded hours to 3.30.
[32:15] And we are adjusting our staffing hours accordingly.
[32:19] I think as we see our communities age, most of you don't feel like they're seniors,
[32:27] so if we expanded our hours into the evening, I'm not sure younger older people would
[32:32] come still, but there could be more programming opportunities if we had longer hours.
[32:40] The staffing becomes an issue, the budgeting for that staff, and then the staff that we
[32:47] do have currently are all ask me union members and they're in their job description, have
[32:52] the hours that they work, or how many hours they can work a week, so extending our hours
[32:58] would be difficult in more ways than one, but I think we should be open to that in the
[33:03] future to provide more.
[33:06] I agree as well, thank you.
[33:09] Anybody else have any questions?
[33:12] Okay, let's move on.
[33:14] Oh, I'm so sorry, go ahead Mr. Day.
[33:16] I just wanted to point out, keep in mind too,
[33:19] and Eric will get to this when he gets,
[33:21] we get to community development.
[33:22] But just how Eric assists with property maintenance inspector.
[33:25] So he does the same for the human service specialist
[33:28] over in the senior center.
[33:30] So he will help offset that cost,
[33:32] and he'll discuss that when he gets to his budget.
[33:34] but I just wanted to point that out so you have that.
[33:35] Yes, Madam Chair.
[33:36] Auditor Dan, I'm so glad that you did CDGB funds help
[33:39] pay for our human service specialist.
[33:42] So this amount that you see here in the line,
[33:44] it's not her total salary.
[33:47] Thank you.
[33:49] OK, so our next fund is the 185 Funds, Senior Meals.
[33:54] This department has a full-time meals coordinator,
[33:58] three part-time kitchen staff, and five part-time delivery
[34:04] The five drivers deliver 100 meals a day to our homebound that gets financed through the Western Reserve Grant and to our community.
[34:16] And those are people who pay us to deliver them a meal to cover the cost of the service.
[34:22] In 2025 last year our staff delivered over 26,000 meals.
[34:27] We also served over 10,000 congregate lunches at the senior center.
[34:33] And that was also covered by the Western Reserve Grant.
[34:38] So all in all, we served or delivered over 37,000 meals last year,
[34:44] which was a thousand more than the previous year.
[34:47] We are, however, close to capacity for this service, not because of funding,
[34:53] but of course because of funding, but in addition,
[34:56] In our kitchen capacity, we can only prepare so many meals to deliver and to serve.
[35:02] Even if we had more drivers, I don't know that we have the ability to prepare any additional meals.
[35:10] So we keep a close eye on people who no longer want the service or
[35:14] need the service to make sure we can get as many people there.
[35:17] And we're looking into alternates like what do other places do?
[35:21] We can't provide that service who can so we can refer people to other community partners that may be able to provide that but I would like to highlight the value of our kitchen staff.
[35:35] We have three part time staff who work together to prep the meals, the delivery bags and the lunches that we serve and if any one of them is unable to work for any reason, the other two are willing and able to keep our operations smooth.
[35:49] It is we have two people hired under one line item and they are both or all three of them are incredibly valuable and I just wanted to share a little FYI with you are nutrition site coordinator Doug Glass.
[36:06] His other job for fun is he is a professional track referee.
[36:12] And he has the distinction of being the head referee for the upcoming NCAA track championship.
[36:21] So he's building his resume to become an Olympian track referee.
[36:26] He hopes in any of them.
[36:28] The 185, 62525 is our biggest line item.
[36:35] And this is for all the meals that we deliver and that we serve.
[36:40] I think we finally figured out the correct amount of budget for in this one line item, but I think it's very important that you know that these funds are reimbursed to the city through the Older Americans Act and the Western Reserve Grant that we receive and generates revenue for the city.
[37:01] Perfect.
[37:02] Any questions on this one Madam Chair.
[37:04] Go ahead, Ms. Boyth.
[37:05] Thank you.
[37:07] Due to the fact that you're part of this broader network of other senior centers.
[37:12] And you have this limited capacity for kitchen prep, so obviously you can only do so many meals.
[37:18] Is there opportunity to reach out to someone in network and ask if there's other places where food could potentially be made also?
[37:28] So not only in your kitchen, but are there other opportunities for I know sometimes restaurants will use other
[37:34] other kitchens and other places and they kind of collaborate together on other types of food prep.
[37:39] I'm just curious if that's something that I don't know if it's even an option, but just something that has already been thought of.
[37:46] Madam Chair, Councilwoman, it's a great idea.
[37:49] Collaboration is what brings about success, especially when we serve others.
[37:54] You know this.
[37:55] I think it comes down to where does the food come from, who pays for it, and how does it get delivered.
[38:00] We're very fortunate to have our very own meal delivery program.
[38:05] I know Parma Heights does this well, but there's an official meals on wheels organization.
[38:10] We're not meals on wheels.
[38:11] We can't even use that tagline because we're not part of the meals on wheels organization.
[38:16] We have a meal delivery program.
[38:17] So knowing what meals on wheels is able to handle and finding out through this network how
[38:24] other people handle their meal delivery program.
[38:27] And there's private companies out there like global meals, for example, what people can't order meals and have them delivered
[38:34] It's just not through the city
[38:38] Any other questions on this one?
[38:40] Madam Chairman. Yes, Mrs. Lane
[38:43] Just a couple things. So I know this on this budget and also your
[38:50] Next one 188 cell phones those are for the part-time drivers and drivers
[38:56] members so that they have, you have communication with them, is that correct?
[39:00] Madam Chair, Councilwoman, yes.
[39:01] And they are not used for personal-
[39:04] Madam Chair, Councilwoman, no, they leave them at the Senior Center at the end of their shift.
[39:09] Okay.
[39:10] Thank you.
[39:12] Any other questions on 185?
[39:15] Great, let's move on.
[39:19] 188 Senior Transportation, this department has a full-time coordinator, two full-time and
[39:26] five part-time drivers. Now all of our drivers are cross-trained to serve either as a transport
[39:32] station escort or as a meal delivery driver. Some drivers are trained or being trained
[39:38] to drive our 12 passenger buses. One of our transportation drivers is currently delivering
[39:44] meals as a meal delivery driver is recovering from surgery. So we have a lot of that that
[39:50] happens throughout the course of the year with vacations or people who do become sick for
[39:55] or whatever reason, but we expect to be fully staffed this spring.
[40:00] And last year we provided over 11,000 round trip rides to Parma residents over 800 more
[40:08] than the previous year, and these rides are prioritized for medical appointments and grocery
[40:13] shopping.
[40:15] However, we also transport to other Parma locations like pharmacies, and just today we took
[40:20] one of our 95-year-old members for a haircut.
[40:23] She looks so darling and she really needed one so that was great but one of the best
[40:29] transportation services we provide, one of the best services that we provide are picking
[40:37] people up at their homes, bringing them to the center and then taking home at the end of the day.
[40:42] It's life-changing and they participate in a wide variety of activities. They have a healthy,
[40:48] nutritious meal and lunch they have made so many close friends that they even go to visit
[40:53] one another's families now they're that close and they adore our drivers who are like
[41:00] sons or daughters to them which is which is really special to witness. So that's one of the best
[41:07] services but one of the most popular services we have are our bus trips. We are so lucky we have buses
[41:14] and then we can go. We recently toured the new Ridgewood Golf Course Event Center and we are
[41:19] really excited about doing a love your lunch at the Flamingo Cafe with other senior centers to showcase
[41:25] our plays. We go on mystery trips, we've been to the cinema, theater, museums, we go out to eat,
[41:35] next month. Don't tell the news, let us not out yet. We're going to see handles Messiah at the Cleveland
[41:41] in Ballet and we're going to Mocha, the Museum of Contemporary Art.
[41:47] So a couple of the line items I wanted to point out, 188-621-1-0 professional services
[41:56] line item is for membership and driver training through the state recognized community transportation
[42:03] association of America, CTAA.
[42:06] The reason I pointed out is that we would like to do some train, the trainer training so that our drivers can train drivers for other senior centers and perhaps generate some revenue for the city.
[42:20] The line item 1862530 is a transportation line item we were I was putting money into that we did not need to put money into and now it's only needed for car parts and repairs.
[42:35] And I, again, want you to understand the importance of and value of a line item, 1-8-8-5-1-6-1-8-F-S-Me part-time clerk.
[42:51] Ladies and gentlemen, four years ago when I came in as the senior center director, there were no electronic files.
[42:57] As I mentioned earlier, our membership files and our database were just cards in a card
[43:03] filing cabinet, but our clerk began the 21st century upgrade by starting as a membership
[43:10] database electronically, so all those cards are on there.
[43:14] And now our clerks are able to send out annual renewal letters so that we can get some feedback
[43:20] about again who is still a member and who's not.
[43:23] Our clerks have also created all kinds of extremely other valuable databases, like I just shared with you about the number of people that we serve in transport.
[43:37] That's all because our clerks keep a database and we have that.
[43:42] They help with flyers, sign up sheets, they work the front counter, they help serve lunch, and they help on bus trips and basically anything that is asked of them.
[43:51] Sheerle, one of our clerks, organizes our sunshine singers and then takes them on the road
[43:57] to perform, which is an income generator.
[44:00] She also is incredibly valuable because she helps with our kaya haga county grant and
[44:06] making sure we have all the paperwork and signatures that are required.
[44:10] Adrienne sends out our membership renewal letters.
[44:13] She also helps do things like our movie and hot chocolate day.
[44:16] and is essential up at our front desk.
[44:20] And Lucas George, if you don't know him, started out as an intern in the mayor's office.
[44:25] He was an Ohio State student when he graduated.
[44:27] He came to work with us part-time, but the maximum amount of part-time hours.
[44:32] He's studying to be a firefighter, but he has recently been temporarily transferred
[44:41] as the assistant coordinator, the senior coordinator from 026.
[44:49] My assistant, Tammy, means out on a medical leave, she started some treatment and
[44:55] we anticipate she'll be back sometime in the near future, but in the meantime,
[44:59] I'm Luke.
[45:00] Transfer to that position to help us get through planning trips and scheduling, but that's just to let you know how valuable he is and how valuable these clerks are to me. So all this is to say before I answer any other questions is that Team Smallwood is serving as many older adults as we possibly can. We thrive on community partnerships, and we provide some of the best adult development programs in the county. In fact, I just did a program
[45:29] These are free programs you can do with your community partners.
[45:35] Have you invited your elected officials?
[45:37] Have you reached out to county departments that are free?
[45:41] We'll come out and do scam squad stuff, all these kinds of things.
[45:45] But I know that we're one of the most active senior centers in
[45:52] county and I do feel very strongly that your money is being well spent for older adults
[46:00] at the Donna Smollard activity center and it's important to know that not only is this
[46:05] money all well spent but a lot of it gets reimbursed to the city general revenue fund because
[46:12] of the grants that we receive. So any questions on this one? I just want to thank you so much
[46:20] for all you do.
[46:20] Really?
[46:21] You do a great job and we appreciate it and we see how much you love your job and how
[46:25] well you do at it.
[46:26] So thank you so much.
[46:26] Thank you so much.
[46:27] Appreciate it.
[46:28] Keep inviting us.
[46:29] It's good to do what you love and love what you do because everything kind of falls into
[46:32] place from there.
[46:33] You know?
[46:34] Thank you.
[46:35] I am going to shake things up on the order.
[46:36] We're going to have law go next and then we'll have Eric go after that.
[46:43] We'll have Renee go after that.
[46:45] Mr. Boyko go after that and then we'll have Mayor go last because he did say he's staying.
[46:50] Correct, Mayor?
[46:50] Mayor, the hall meeting.
[46:51] Okay, great.
[46:52] Okay, so law.
[46:55] Thank you, Madam Chair, I appreciate you let me go here next.
[47:01] As law director, as the city of Parme, I serve both as the lawyer for
[47:05] the city and the chief prosecutor for criminal matters within the city.
[47:09] We have a staff of seven handling matters of the Parme Municipal Court, three part-time prosecutors handling criminal matters.
[47:15] One part-time prosecutor handling housing and code enforcement matters.
[47:18] one full-time lawyer serving as a victim advocate and two full-time administrative staff members.
[47:23] We have a staff of nine handing civil matters, claims drafting of legislation and all other matters, including legal opinions located at the law department at the office of 335 Ridge Road.
[47:34] We have four full-time attorneys there, including myself, three staff members handing the legislation, claims and office management and two part-time attorneys also handing various legal matters including housing issues,
[47:45] legislation, litigation, and specialized matters, including registration of sex offenders,
[47:50] public record assistance, and any other legal matters that cross our desk.
[47:53] We handle numerous constituent inquiries, questions from council members, and
[47:57] administration about procedures, legal interpretation, and our legal opinions.
[48:03] I'd like to thank Waterter Day for all his and his team for all his assistance in helping with preparation of the budget.
[48:11] As your law director, I utilize funds from five separate accounts, three which are small
[48:16] and have little of any variation from year to year, and I'll start with those three smaller
[48:20] accounts.
[48:21] First is Fund 17, it's the juvenile diversion fund that proposed funding of $26,750 is the
[48:28] same budget amount from 2025, doesn't change.
[48:33] Fund 176 is traffic intervention program, the tip program proposed funding of $32,613, which
[48:39] again is the same budget amount as 2025 and fund 174, which is a victims of crime,
[48:45] act, revoke, and the proposed funding of $111,000, $4.00, that actually has a minor decrease from
[48:52] budget amount of $2,000 in 2025. And that budget also includes grant funds from the Ohio Attorney
[48:59] General's Office, which require a match from the city of Parma. And we have a letter that's actually
[49:04] out, standing, pending, waiting for funding from that source.
[49:08] The bulk of the law department's budget falls within two accounts.
[49:13] I'll start with the 045, which is the law fund.
[49:19] The proposed budget for 2026 for the law department account is $1,366.
[49:26] $654 and $31, which is a decrease from the budget amount 2025.
[49:32] The vast majority of our staff at the law department draw their salaries and benefits from this account, in addition just a few comments about this fund.
[49:41] The law department maintains contracts with legal research companies to keep current on case law and provide background information on litigants, including criminal defendants.
[49:51] Some of the costs are shared with the municipal court.
[49:53] As the legal profession becomes more digital, we have taken steps in the law department to reduce our costs.
[49:59] And as a result, we've seen decreases in our law library, in the law department.
[50:07] It was spent 33,000 in 2023, in 2024.
[50:11] It was just over 19,000 in 2025, our costs have decreased to 15,000.
[50:16] And we hope the number continues to follow as materials become available online.
[50:20] And we reduced big bulky books that have been used in the past,
[50:23] although I personally kind of still like the big bulky books.
[50:27] Having said that, I did continue also to include budgeted amounts for professional services
[50:33] and special counsel.
[50:34] There are matters that arise that may require special expertise.
[50:39] Some work requires outside legal assistance due to complexity, some due to conflicts of
[50:44] interest or potential conflicts.
[50:46] As always, we aim to keep these expenses to a minimum, and we've been successful in doing
[50:50] so for the past two years under my term.
[50:55] Again, just some examples, I know councilwoman Wilson likes examples on the east side wrote some down on the on the law side example of the professional services would be our insurance consultants, we use the professional services in the past to draft review and score the requests for qualifications for our insurance contract.
[51:20] Remember, we've bit it out right before I came on board, and we'll likely do that in
[51:24] near future.
[51:26] In addition, in the past, we've used Lou McMahon, who was there for compliance with the
[51:33] integrated plan, which is our prevention of water in the city.
[51:39] So there are just a couple examples there.
[51:43] Those are different from outside counsel, outside special counsel, maybe, in instance where
[51:47] where we used for bonds for the golf course clubhouse or perhaps if there is an investigation that has to go on, we use outside counsel, so there's no conflict of interest.
[51:58] Just wanted to let you know that as far as the 605 fund, which is our claims, the proposed budget for
[52:10] About 2026 for the claims account is 1,328,419 and 26 cents.
[52:16] In 2025, the budget for the claims account was 1,225,990.
[52:22] The bulk of the increased form from the 2025 budget relates to as we discussed prior the increased insurance premiums.
[52:30] At the most recent council meeting held on February 17th, legislation was approved.
[52:35] concerning the city's insurance coverage, and I know council is well versed in the issues
[52:41] and the concerns about the future of the insurance industry, especially as it relates to coverage
[52:47] for municipalities we discussed that in quite detail last meeting.
[52:51] The questions about self-insurance that were raised and the possibilities are valid inquiries
[52:56] and will continue to regularly look at these inquiries and discussions for ways to balance
[53:01] the need for appropriate coverage against the fiscal realities of the city.
[53:04] While the issues are well-documented, but documented just a few comments, the number of insurance
[53:11] carries in the municipal liability business has drastically shrunk over the last few years,
[53:16] and this makes it more difficult to get competitive rates from the few entities in this line of
[53:20] work.
[53:21] The insurance costs, like most of our expenses have gone up over the last few years.
[53:26] We pay more food and utilities and life necessities, and the insurance premiums were no different.
[53:31] We all pay insurance premiums and are troubled by the increases in our rates when we have not submitted any claims.
[53:39] And we are always looking at the same issue with municipal insurance industry.
[53:45] We have gone to great strides to keep our claims down in the law department, but the rates still climb.
[53:51] So right now the market situation, the market tendency factor into the budget and that's something we have to take into consideration.
[53:57] With respect to the 605 fund, there are four employees pay out of this account, including salaries and benefits.
[54:07] By Parma codified ordinance 104.02, the city maintains a program to ensure
[54:14] the city its properties and its officers and employees with respect to potential liability.
[54:20] It is essential that funds are budgeted to fill these obligations.
[54:24] to this code provision, we must annually allocate at least $400,000 for this account and to pay it for appropriate claims.
[54:33] So we're starting out of the gate at a minimum of 400,000 that were required by law.
[54:40] With the approval of the insurance contract at the last council meeting, we have coverage in place for next year,
[54:45] and that was actually bound on the 21st. We've got word of that today.
[54:48] While the costs have been discussed, the need for this coverage is absolutely essential.
[54:56] Let's see, I put together where I didn't put it together.
[55:00] Mealers put it together, this wonderful graph for you guys to look at.
[55:04] And the final pages of the budget handout, you'll see some of the graphs provided by the law department.
[55:09] And I anticipate that we will continue to be physically responsible and a strong protector of the city's funds.
[55:15] And this budget is conservative yet represents an anticipated needs of the law department and its administration.
[55:23] I also did try to embrace the anniversary logo, if you guys can tell.
[55:29] This is not just, it's not like an edible product because it's purple and pink,
[55:34] and it's not been done by a 12-year-old girl either.
[55:38] So, I don't know.
[55:40] They persuaded me to do it, so there we are.
[55:42] If you have any questions, I'd be happy to take any questions.
[55:44] I also have Assistant Chief Jim Boyle here, if there's anything specific that we need to.
[55:50] Mr. Law, Director, why don't you just touch based on the 51019?
[55:54] Is that increase of the proposed over the actual of 2025 to split that dollar amount on the second line?
[56:03] Second line?
[56:04] It's 605-51019.
[56:07] The second line down in 605, the 85,000, where at last year it was actually 37,220.
[56:14] To take funds from-
[56:17] You want to show me?
[56:29] Oh yeah, okay.
[56:30] So the Assistant Law Director of Principle of Surny,
[56:32] we were without a principal attorney for about eight months.
[56:37] Okay.
[56:37] And that's why there's the increase.
[56:38] We finally actually hired somebody who starts March 2nd.
[56:41] So that's an excellent question.
[56:42] Thanks for asking that.
[56:43] Thank you.
[56:45] Madam Chairman.
[56:46] I think Mrs. Lyme is going to go next.
[56:48] I just didn't grab her early enough.
[56:50] Go ahead.
[56:51] Thank you, Madam Chairman.
[56:53] Mr. Chairman, my question is in your graphs that you show.
[56:56] You show the claims budget for 605, a five-year overview, and from 22 to 26, I mean, it's gone up almost $500,000.
[57:11] Just kind of, could you give us an idea of why?
[57:15] Yeah, in the claims, it's absolutely related to our insurance.
[57:20] That's a simple answer.
[57:24] That's that.
[57:26] So we're not, Madam Chairman, so we're not up in claims.
[57:30] It's just a matter of its importance.
[57:31] A lot of percent, yeah, we actually have, I think, two matters, Jim, correct me if I'm wrong.
[57:35] I think we have two matters in litigation.
[57:38] Yeah, and one as far as, as far as actual claims pending, I think there's two and one has been an ongoing
[57:45] matter that it's been discussed with the members of Council in executive session in terms of the ongoing askments which were defend and so on and the other one
[57:52] I think will be summarily dismissed, which is a bit of a
[57:56] Yeah, so councilwoman yeah, it's not it's not that you know
[58:00] We're filing a bunch of losses or getting tons of lawsuits against us even it's just the market right now
[58:05] And we're feeling the effects of it for sure. Okay. Thank you
[58:09] Thank you.
[58:10] Mr. Kuzmo.
[58:11] Thank you, Madam Chairman.
[58:12] Law director, thank you for being here.
[58:14] I had a question about the salaries with two of the roles.
[58:17] The, I want to get it right.
[58:22] The administrative assistant prosecutor
[58:25] and the assistant legal secretary, could you point?
[58:32] The, yeah, the 045, the
[58:42] question with this one
[58:43] One was the original budgeted, first the actual, the actual was lower, and then the proposed 2026 salaries were lower than the original budget from last year and for
[58:57] the provides down.
[58:58] So I didn't know if there was just, if the actual was lower and the proposed was lower, if job duties had changed or if there was different individuals in those roles, in my counsel, I don't usually see the salaries go in the other way.
[59:11] I just wondered if there was something with those two positions.
[59:15] If I can, I think one of the positions was we actually moved some, we had one turnover.
[59:22] And so we moved one person up in the slot and then a new employee came in.
[59:26] So both of those budget items, both the salary that was vacated and the other person
[59:31] moving up a spot were impacted by that, that would reflect the differences.
[59:35] Okay, that makes sense.
[59:37] Thank you.
[59:38] Any other questions?
[59:39] And, Chair?
[59:40] Yes, Ms. Wilson.
[59:42] I see victims advocate.
[59:44] What is a victim's advocate?
[59:46] Yes, a victim's advocate.
[59:47] Our victims have to be Sherry Purge, and she's been there a very long time.
[59:51] It does an excellent job.
[59:52] She actually is there when there is an individual who is a victim of a crime.
[59:58] She works with that individual.
[1:00:00] Is or her rights are being followed and that the Court is hearing the victim in the criminal
[1:00:06] matter. So she makes contact with the victim right out of the gate when someone is charged
[1:00:13] with a crime and maintains a continuous relationship with them to make sure that they are
[1:00:19] heard before the Court and Jim and William.
[1:00:22] If I can add a little bit to that, Councilwoman, recently the State of Ohio passed something called Marcy's Law.
[1:00:29] Marcy's Law mandates certain requirements for all victims of crimes in terms of their notification of all stages of the proceeding.
[1:00:38] And so Ms. Purge, she's also a licensed attorney, not that that necessarily is a requirement of the job, but
[1:00:45] it adds a great deal of value to the operation.
[1:00:48] And with the requirements of Marcy's Law, she has the obligation to make sure that all
[1:00:52] All those notifications come through while fulfilling not just some legal aspects, but also in that role there's some aspect of like social work and making sure that she's having informed and fruitful conversations with the victims of these crimes.
[1:01:06] So Madam Chair, so that means for victims of a crime in Parma or anywhere in the county or anywhere in the state.
[1:01:16] Well, considering that the you guys are paying her, she deals with Parm only.
[1:01:20] And that is an interesting piece because Law Director Tuma brought to my attention that he had seen.
[1:01:26] I think there was a job posting for the Court, you may want to talk about that.
[1:01:29] Right, yeah, this isn't really pertinent to our budget in particular, but the Court's budget.
[1:01:34] They were having a victim's advocate for the Department of Municipal Court, a part-time
[1:01:39] position, which I would assume is going to take care of victims in other municipalities in the jurisdiction.
[1:01:47] And which is a good thing, I mean it's not a, we didn't, we didn't oppose it or fight it or anything like that.
[1:01:53] The more that victims can have rights, we certainly would be in favor of something like that.
[1:01:58] So Madam Chair, does the victim have to reside in Parma or just have a crime committed against them in Parma?
[1:02:07] The crime itself, it has to be a crime prosecuted by the City of Parma.
[1:02:11] Okay.
[1:02:12] Right, by the City.
[1:02:13] Okay.
[1:02:14] Madam Chair.
[1:02:16] Yes.
[1:02:16] So for clarification, sorry, we're going back and forth on that.
[1:02:18] That's anyone in the eight communities that come to Parma Municipal Court that get truck or no?
[1:02:27] No, I'm sorry, and perhaps I wasn't.
[1:02:28] Anybody, any city that comes to Parma, I'm saying can-
[1:02:32] So our victim's advocate deals with the matters only in that are parma cases.
[1:02:37] So the Parma Municipal Court obviously has a jurisdiction serving I think seven other communities.
[1:02:41] That's why I think the posting was looking for somebody to assist others in the other
[1:02:46] communities.
[1:02:48] And sharing our victim's advocate serves parma cases.
[1:02:52] I think they saw the value that our victim's advocate was providing for
[1:02:58] or apartment cases, and said that would be something that they would like to duplicate for the other communities.
[1:03:03] Right, Ms. Purgit, she's been doing it for a very long time and does a great job.
[1:03:07] Yeah, it's not an easy job.
[1:03:09] Yeah, thank you.
[1:03:10] Good, everybody got their answers.
[1:03:12] Perfect, all right, great, thank you so much.
[1:03:14] All right, thank you everybody, appreciate that.
[1:03:17] All right, Mr. Talerup, you are up.
[1:03:20] Good
[1:03:31] evening Madam Chairman, for 2026 we're proposing that we're going to spend roughly $90,000 less than we did in 2025 or at least we had budgeted in 2025.
[1:03:46] I'm in the enviable position where the CDBG grant that we received yearly from the federal government,
[1:03:55] we are required to spend as much as we can of that grant per year, although we do operated tight
[1:04:07] ship to make sure that as much money as possible goes towards programming. Community development,
[1:04:14] we consist of two people, two employees, we're still able to supplement the general fund,
[1:04:22] the tune of $150,000 through code enforcement and the senior center.
[1:04:29] We do intend to have a robust, again, programs that the citizens of Parmer really like,
[1:04:38] such as the furnace safety voucher program, sidewalk replacement program,
[1:04:43] businesses like the storefront projects, we intend to have roughly five of those this year.
[1:04:51] The home improvement program, we intend to have roughly $121,000 available for that
[1:05:00] and a robust $137,000 for a streetscape.
[1:05:06] So we don't intend to have any major cuts, you won't see any differences or cuts from last year.
[1:05:13] The only thing that's different is that demolition, demolition is going to be removed primarily before because the environmental rules, it takes me two years to max everything down.
[1:05:29] So it's just not a person.
[1:05:33] Now is it?
[1:05:34] Any questions on this one?
[1:05:36] Madam Chairman.
[1:05:37] Yes, this is Lynn.
[1:05:41] Eric, last year you budgeted, but didn't spend anything, and you have nothing budgeted this year, out of the advances out.
[1:05:50] It's the last line item at the bottom.
[1:05:52] Yeah.
[1:05:54] The advance is out to line item councilwoman the city has a PMC account that consists of
[1:06:06] payments that were made when we made loans. It consists of repayments and interest payments
[1:06:13] back to the city that just hasn't been credited to the city account. So there's money there
[1:06:21] There are other counts covered that.
[1:06:24] And then also the blight elimination, you have nothing budgeted this year, last year you
[1:06:32] budgeted 10,000, you actually spent 14,200, but there's nothing budgeted this year.
[1:06:39] That's the demolition.
[1:06:41] Okay.
[1:06:46] Okay.
[1:06:47] I'm sure.
[1:06:48] Yes, Mr. Oh, Mr. Lamar, are you done?
[1:06:50] Yep.
[1:06:51] Okay, Mr. Early.
[1:06:53] Getting into the streetscaping program and everything, we know we tend to do that in selective areas like Polish village, I think I've seen it maybe a little in Ukrainian village, but mostly a lot happens north of snow.
[1:07:05] Is there a way we could get any more allocated money budgeted towards other parts of the entire city?
[1:07:12] I mean, it seems to be only in a certain area, is it always that strong restriction?
[1:07:15] Madam Chairman, Councilman, the majority of the financing for the street skate program
[1:07:23] and for the sidewalk program, they have to go into census tracts that are low-moderate
[1:07:29] income.
[1:07:31] So we do not have the ability to take more than 75% of the funding for those programs outside
[1:07:39] of eligible census tracts.
[1:07:42] Just can't be done.
[1:07:45] Okay.
[1:07:48] It's a good try.
[1:07:50] Yeah.
[1:07:50] Made an honest effort there.
[1:07:52] Madam Chairman.
[1:07:54] Yes.
[1:07:55] One more question.
[1:07:57] Over the years you've been able to purchase park benches, trash cans and things like that.
[1:08:03] Just wondering if there's any funding available in your budget for those types of things.
[1:08:09] We only got three trash cans per pro road for three wards and there's definitely a need
[1:08:17] for a few more.
[1:08:19] And I'm sure that my Polish village ones came up here to the town center so they never
[1:08:26] got put where they were supposed to get put.
[1:08:29] And I'm sure that we could use some day drive.
[1:08:33] I know that there's one resident who constantly, it's Amanda's resident, and I know that over by the bus stop on day drive by giant, by giant eagle.
[1:08:47] So I'm just wondering if there's definitely a need for that kind of stuff and I'm just kind of curious if there's any money within your budget for that.
[1:08:54] Okay.
[1:08:55] Madam Chairman, Councilwoman, I do intend to have the budget take care of several replacement
[1:09:03] issues.
[1:09:05] LeViv, foods, their mural needs to be replaced and updated that's too faded.
[1:09:13] We will have money available for garbage cans through Polish village, Ukrainian village and
[1:09:20] broadview road for the quarry district. We intend to spend some money in the
[1:09:27] quarry district for streetscape banners, signage, that sort of thing. Anything
[1:09:35] for the town center and age drive as far as trash cans are concerned? No, it's
[1:09:42] not a low-modored income census tract. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am Chairman.
[1:09:49] Director, thank you for being here.
[1:09:52] First question for the furnace vouchers this year.
[1:09:56] Is it the same number as previous years and the increase?
[1:10:02] Madam Chairman, Councilman, we still intend to have 175 vouchers available at a raised price of $90 each.
[1:10:12] So last year we had, everybody who was issued a voucher used it, except for 15 out of the 175.
[1:10:23] Madam Chairman.
[1:10:25] Thank you.
[1:10:26] That was going to be my next question.
[1:10:28] One is the date, the go live date for that.
[1:10:31] People can start calling us the third Monday in July.
[1:10:35] It'll be on the website.
[1:10:37] they can call for an appointment to come in in early August to receive their voucher.
[1:10:47] And if they are homebound and they can't get to us, we will come to them no problem.
[1:10:56] Madam Chairman.
[1:10:57] But they still need to call and make an appointment.
[1:11:00] For the home improvement program for the decrease in the 19,000 and
[1:11:07] And then the increase in the streetscape was that just allocation of funds kind of decreasing one versus the other to balance that out.
[1:11:19] I didn't know if that was if there was a reason for that.
[1:11:22] Madam Chairman, the councilman, the budgeting for the home improvement program is it's an average of what we can expect to see each year.
[1:11:31] I mean, normally for the last few years, it's been increasingly expensive for people to
[1:11:40] afford major over improvement, so we've been paying a lot more for those to be done.
[1:11:46] But again, it's been more difficult for people to pony up their share of the contract for
[1:11:55] work to be done.
[1:11:56] So,
[1:11:59] we had a significant budget last year, people did not use it, so it's going to be recycled for this year at about 120,000.
[1:12:12] Last question, ma'am chairman, for the professional services for the, roughly, there's the 275,000 budget of this year, last year, 37,000 was the actual, is there any other use for different services for the residents that can be spent out of that professional services account?
[1:12:37] Well, Madam Chairman, Councilman, $180,000 that professional services is actually earmarked for the sidewalk program when we go out to bid, so you can expect that roughly $180,000 is going to come out of that also $19,000 for the senior safer home program comes out of professional services for the yearly contract to take care of the roughly 65 seniors that have the medical alert pendant.
[1:13:08] that allows them to stay at home safely.
[1:13:12] Okay, so you're not left with much time after that?
[1:13:15] No, we, again, the professional services, the amount of money, really what we spend is rent, electric, gas.
[1:13:25] That's what we, that's our only expense out of professional services.
[1:13:29] Okay, thank you.
[1:13:31] Mr. Divas.
[1:13:32] And real quick, Eric, you had mentioned that the furnace voucher will be raised to $90, is that correct?
[1:13:39] And it was what last year, 75 or was that?
[1:13:42] We raised it to $90 last year, from 80, because everybody's costs are going up.
[1:13:50] So we had to try to do what we could to cover the more costs.
[1:13:54] I know people love them, so yeah.
[1:13:56] Great, any other questions?
[1:14:01] Great, thank you so much for being here, appreciate it.
[1:14:04] All right, Ms. Guy, you're up.
[1:14:06] Thanks, sir.
[1:14:07] Sorry, Mr. Boyko, you're last, before the mayor, I apologize.
[1:14:15] Good evening, the 029 budget is the human resources side of the office.
[1:14:20] The majority of this budget is spent on staffing and benefits, which includes three full time staff members and one part time employee.
[1:14:29] We are operating supplies and professional services in mirror the 2025 original budget.
[1:14:36] I did keep the amount at 50,000 due to increased costs for some of our services, such as background checks,
[1:14:44] our employee assistance program, and drug testing.
[1:14:50] Anybody have any questions on this budget?
[1:14:52] It's pretty straightforward here.
[1:14:53] I don't think we have much of a difference here.
[1:14:57] ok.
[1:14:59] How good?
[1:15:00] Thank you so much for being here. I have one more. Okay. Oh, you have two. Oh, I'm so sorry. I apologize. That's okay. Am I missing it? Okay. I'll find it. Sorry.
[1:15:16] Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. Okay. Just one two is the storeroom. Um, this consists of one part time clerk and the majority of this budget is spent on postage and then our copier contract with Lake business.
[1:15:33] I didn't see much of a difference on this one either. So any
[1:15:41] questions on this one?
[1:15:44] Madam Chairwoman.
[1:15:45] Yes, Ms. Christmas.
[1:15:46] Thank you for reading here, director.
[1:15:48] For the copier and duplicator decrease, that's safe to say that's because of the lake business, copier contract and the line below it.
[1:15:57] So, Madam Chairwoman and Chairwoman, Councilman.
[1:16:02] So the copier and duplicator for 2025, the original budget was $65,000.
[1:16:07] And so the money spent for the contract that was expiring at the beginning of last year,
[1:16:14] and then what I anticipated was budgeted in that line item, working.
[1:16:21] No, it's the battery backup you can keep going.
[1:16:24] Once the copier contract was approved by council, then I worked with auditing to budget that contract.
[1:16:31] So that's why I'm funding it in that line item below.
[1:16:33] And that's separate line, that makes sense, thank you.
[1:16:35] You
[1:16:39] have lots of stuff in here, sorry.
[1:16:41] That's okay.
[1:16:42] Any other questions?
[1:16:44] Thank you so much for being here.
[1:16:46] Appreciate you coming.
[1:16:47] Have a good night.
[1:17:06] All right.
[1:17:12] Karen, the team she got it.
[1:17:14] That's where I got it.
[1:17:16] Okay.
[1:17:18] Yes, Mr. Boyko, come on up.
[1:17:19] We got the alarm turned off.
[1:17:21] We're all set.
[1:17:23] Thank you everybody.
[1:17:24] Thank you, Madame Chair.
[1:17:26] This is a civil service budget, the account 075.
[1:17:30] It's at the top of the one we just went over, just so nobody's confused.
[1:17:37] So we continue to operate with two commissioners, Commissioner Hoffman and myself.
[1:17:42] Also with one secretary, Kathy Erdman, who's done a fantastic job.
[1:17:47] Really, we've reduced over the years from two full time equivalents down to one.
[1:17:52] And Kathy does a great job.
[1:17:53] we appreciate all the assistance from Director Guy and support she provides.
[1:17:58] We also continue to reduce our costs, our testing costs, and work with the safety director and the chiefs in regard to our testing, not only in regard to costs, but trying to up our numbers.
[1:18:11] I think everyone knows over the years, the police and both police and fire we haven't got as many applicants as we have, but we're still able to fill our roles with some good quality.
[1:18:23] candidates.
[1:18:24] We also of course continue to test for all the city schools, primary city school district,
[1:18:31] and we do receive annually, at least have been $22,000 a year from the schools to help
[1:18:37] offset some of their costs as well as get some in kind comp from them in regard to utilizing
[1:18:45] their facilities for the testing.
[1:18:49] So with that, oh.
[1:18:53] Thank you.
[1:18:54] Any questions from anybody?
[1:18:57] All good?
[1:18:59] Thank you for being here Mr. Boykin.
[1:19:00] Thank you appreciate it, Mr. Appreciate Council.
[1:19:02] Thank you for being patient.
[1:19:05] Okay Mayor, now it's your turn.
[1:19:20] Good evening Madam Chair, members of Council.
[1:19:23] Before I get started, I will talk to Dave Black, Councilman Lyme,
[1:19:27] and we'll make sure we get some nice looking garbage cans around the town, so all right.
[1:19:33] Before I go to my budget, I just prepared some remarks, some notes, looking at last budget
[1:19:42] hearing and some of the concerns that I have and inks I always have as we go through
[1:19:48] the budget season each time.
[1:19:50] And I always like to use the word and I know it's shared with our auditor on sustainability.
[1:19:57] This would be an easier job if you didn't have to say no a lot of times, and you say no
[1:20:03] a lot of times.
[1:20:06] So looking at it, I counted, I think, at least possibly five talked about full-time
[1:20:12] employees, and we'll always look at part-time employees, but the equivalent for one full-time
[1:20:17] employee on average is about $100,000, and I checked that with Mark Prock.
[1:20:24] So right there, if you're talking five employees from last budget season, you're talking a half million dollars that affects our budget.
[1:20:32] So we offer to consult what we think we can afford, not just going into this budget season because I always try to look ahead, not just this coming budget but the year after, the year after that.
[1:20:43] And some other factors, I just wanted to point out moving forward, we still have the unfunded mandate from Columbus.
[1:20:50] that could be up there, that bill's here again.
[1:20:52] I think that's what, 750 Brian, it's probably more now.
[1:20:56] I don't know what the last one is.
[1:20:56] They keep changing the formula, but last time it was about 8.50
[1:20:59] and the formula keeps changing, the years keep changing,
[1:21:02] how long or short it's going to go.
[1:21:04] So I haven't seen the latest version,
[1:21:07] but last time I looked it was about 8.50 mayor.
[1:21:09] I want it once it's fully implemented.
[1:21:12] Appreciate it.
[1:21:13] Also, at the end of the show, we'll be heading negotiations again.
[1:21:17] So we start doing that process.
[1:21:19] And that's always a stressful and trying to what we can afford and affordability and
[1:21:23] working with the auditor on that.
[1:21:26] And then, as you look at the economy and what you see coming, you don't know, it's like
[1:21:31] follow the bouncing ball, always concerned with that.
[1:21:34] Everything is a lot more expensive, prices have not gotten down.
[1:21:38] And I would say this too, since COVID-19, and I remember us passing that budget and it was
[1:21:46] just hitting if you remember it was just like a fake budget we passed and the
[1:21:50] businesses were closed we didn't know what was going to happen and try to do
[1:21:54] some things and since we came out of that I really think if they were given out
[1:22:01] awards on how to maximize arpa dollars I believe the auditor and our
[1:22:04] administration and this council should get an award as best practices because we
[1:22:09] have maximized those dollars completely not wasted them but then helped this
[1:22:15] and allow for these easier times in our budgeting process since then.
[1:22:23] And I was here and I know Councilman Divas, Councilman Lyme,
[1:22:27] Auditor, you were here 10 years ago or so, we had to put a garbage
[1:22:32] fee on. We had to sell buildings. I had to sell cell towers just to be able
[1:22:37] to balance budget. And you never want to lay anybody off.
[1:22:40] They have a family, they rely on that insurance, and we have not been able to have
[1:22:44] have to do that here.
[1:22:45] Through attrition, we have to have, when someone retires,
[1:22:48] we've not filled positions to do it that way.
[1:22:52] When you're, we didn't, we didn't buy police vehicles.
[1:22:55] We reduced the minimums in our safety forces.
[1:22:57] Every time I heard an ambulance drive by,
[1:22:59] I was saying a prayer, saying hopefully this isn't one
[1:23:03] where, you know, because of the reduced minimums,
[1:23:06] there's going to be a significant disaster
[1:23:10] that fortunately didn't happen.
[1:23:12] and so the swimming pools on it.
[1:23:17] So looking at it, local government's hard as we all know,
[1:23:20] but I like to look at things not at just snapshots,
[1:23:23] like this year's budget, but I'm a motion picture person,
[1:23:26] that allows us to keep floating along in these calmer seas.
[1:23:30] And just want to be mindful, I think it's worth bringing this up.
[1:23:34] I think our administration does.
[1:23:37] I know the auditor does.
[1:23:38] I appreciate his team and Mr. Prok as well, so I just want to throw that out for contacts
[1:23:45] and I appreciate y'all listening to me on it.
[1:23:48] I don't know, Father Dave, if you have anything you want to add, and I did not talk to Brian
[1:23:51] Dave that I was doing this either.
[1:23:54] So no, well said mayor, I don't have anything to add.
[1:23:57] Again, I would just, with the exception of, yeah, we've had some good conversations through
[1:24:02] the years with these ARPA dollars.
[1:24:03] I do think we really went about things the right way is you and I have discussed mayor
[1:24:09] which has put us in the position we're in right now and we're in a really good
[1:24:12] position right now but as I always tell people those our dollars aren't going to
[1:24:18] be around forever. We really maximize them by using it according to guidelines
[1:24:22] being able to pay a lot of our safety forces, salaries and benefits. Other
[1:24:26] communities didn't take that route and it's put us in a nice position so things
[1:24:31] are fairly comfortable right now but we have to be fiscally responsible because
[1:24:35] because that is not necessarily going to be around forever, it will not be around forever.
[1:24:40] So we have to be aware of that, thank you mayor.
[1:24:42] Appreciate it, thank you.
[1:24:43] So as I go to my budget, the mayor's office has two accounts.
[1:24:47] The first one is the 001 will just point out two changes from previous budget to this year.
[1:24:54] If you look at the conversions, payouts, bonus, we put 15,000 in there because
[1:25:01] as Chief of Staff, Mr. Somers, may do a buyout.
[1:25:06] And also the other change that you have hospitalization,
[1:25:10] that's increased because Michelle Blair went on city hospital,
[1:25:14] or excuse me, city insurance after retirement of her husband.
[1:25:18] So other than that, those are the only two changes.
[1:25:21] I'll entertain any questions.
[1:25:24] But do you have any questions for the mayor in this first one?
[1:25:30] Madam Chairman, yes.
[1:25:31] Just to have a question in general and may I had planned on talking to you about this, but just with schedules haven't been able to.
[1:25:42] I definitely think we are at a point in time where fire does a great job with theirs. Please do a great job with theirs.
[1:25:52] engineering is freaking awesome, but I think that we need a grant writer. Whether it's a grant writer or
[1:26:01] a grant company, I think we're to the point Mark Schneider was awesome, he's no longer doing it. I think
[1:26:08] we're missing the boat on things and I mean if you spend, you're going to spend money to make money and I think
[1:26:15] were in a position where we really need to look at that at this point in time whether it's
[1:26:21] hiring an individual, whether it's going over to case and getting somebody in their grant
[1:26:28] running program and having interns or whether it's hiring a company. I know that's what Parme
[1:26:34] Heights did this day. I heard a company. I truly believe that, you know, the three that are already
[1:26:41] doing it, doing an awesome job. But I do believe that there is things out there that we could be going for that we're missing.
[1:26:49] Madam Chair, Councilman Lyme, I know a service director, Dave Black, looked at and I'll test the Chief of Staff to follow with them on that, where they did have a company come in to talk about it.
[1:27:01] So I don't know if we ever pulled a trigger on it, or what, but maybe we re-engage with them, where they even, hey, here's Grants, you may be eligible for.
[1:27:09] So we'll revisit that and we'll look back on that.
[1:27:12] I know Mr. Schneider did a great job for us.
[1:27:15] Obviously he's no longer doing those,
[1:27:17] but it's worth a look-see in a conversation
[1:27:19] on that company.
[1:27:21] So we'll do that.
[1:27:21] We'll report back to council.
[1:27:23] Madam Chairman, also maybe you could talk to little brother.
[1:27:29] Because I know that with Joe C.
[1:27:31] is retiring, they have hired a company.
[1:27:35] And in talking with Sue Dorichko and Lisa,
[1:27:38] So they are thrilled with the company that they've hired and the resources that they've
[1:27:43] already brought in.
[1:27:44] I'll talk to Mayor Gell.
[1:27:45] Okay.
[1:27:46] Let's see what our favorite suburb in cities doing.
[1:27:49] Okay.
[1:27:49] Thank you.
[1:27:50] Thank you.
[1:27:50] Any other questions on 001?
[1:27:53] All right.
[1:27:54] So the next one, the 003 is what I like to call the candy store.
[1:27:59] Even though it comes out of my office, everybody kind of takes a piece of candy in and out
[1:28:02] Brian Day's. Brian Day can probably do a better job explaining this one. The only thing I'll
[1:28:09] will point out that I know we increase postage because increase the postage and that pays for
[1:28:14] the twice, twice a year newsletter. We also put in, as you can see by Centennial, 15 grand. So
[1:28:21] we started that three years ago. So each year we added five, five and five. Other than that, a lot
[1:28:28] of this there's no change in professional services. I know are do some
[1:28:32] subscriptions like no whack or how mayor's alliance that all comes out of this
[1:28:36] as well and there's a few other things that other touch points from the city
[1:28:41] but other than that those are all the same same same organizations of
[1:28:46] West Creek Conservancy all those how missfully get paid out of this account as
[1:28:51] well and entertain any questions on this one. Madam Chair maybe I don't
[1:28:55] Yes, Mr. Day. Go ahead. Go over some of that yet. Good point, Mayor. So, yeah, just a couple of things with Ms. Lane's executive.
[1:29:02] The big ticket items there again, I know you guys know this, but the transfers and advances out and that's what the general fund is going to subsidize.
[1:29:09] As you know every year, we don't know that number yet, till the budget's done. Once the budget's done, then we'll be able to put in what is the general fund going to need for transfers to subsidize the other funds and what will it need for advances.
[1:29:22] So just a refresher on that.
[1:29:25] Some of the other items on there, again, just a refresher memory.
[1:29:29] But if you look at CAD, state exam expense, that's our audit.
[1:29:32] That's what we paid the state auditors for to do our audit every year.
[1:29:36] The election expense, which is blank, we get that number from the Board of Elections.
[1:29:39] It's for the previous year's elections cost.
[1:29:43] We're in constant contact with them, it's always a bit of a struggle getting them to give us the number.
[1:29:48] But we are going to get that number for them from them soon.
[1:29:51] and they have assured us the cash order treasure fee is 2% fee for processing the tax duplicates.
[1:30:00] So then at the mayor said, as he said, it's pretty straightforward. Again, the big items are just the transfers and advances, but you guys will have those when the final budget is passed. Thank you.
[1:30:10] Any questions for the candy store? Madam, yes, go ahead Ms. Wilson.
[1:30:16] So on professional services is budgeted 380 but the actual was only 144 and is budgeted again for 385.
[1:30:26] So what's the difference?
[1:30:27] Yeah, go ahead.
[1:30:28] So again, just like a lot of these funds, keep in mind, when things are budgeted in professional services, which is the 62110, you have 5-0's.
[1:30:38] That's where things are budgeted until they go into a contract and until they're in comfort.
[1:30:41] So, then when labor negotiations like Zation and Rich enters into a contract, then that's moved down to that line item.
[1:30:49] So, to your point is that, you know, regarding professional services, you know, $380,000 was budget.
[1:30:59] It wasn't that only $143 was spent.
[1:31:01] What you have is that number was broken down into Zation and Rich 2024-26.
[1:31:07] Any other professional services line items there's a contract.
[1:31:11] Because once you establish a contract, then it goes into that line.
[1:31:21] Thank you, Auditor.
[1:31:22] Great, go ahead.
[1:31:23] Mr. Hussmann.
[1:31:24] Thank you.
[1:31:24] Mayor, thank you for being here.
[1:31:26] My question is for the, and I can't believe I'm beating Councilwoman Lyme to this one.
[1:31:31] The bicentennial line for the increase in $15,000, what that is going to go to this year.
[1:31:37] So I believe we've been collecting Madam Chair too on it we've added five five in each
[1:31:45] here.
[1:31:46] So what we want to do is if you see the ARP the wrap around on the utility boxes.
[1:31:55] So we want to do that here with the bicentennial seal.
[1:31:58] We're working with the local company who was just business of the month and I think the
[1:32:02] costs, I know you want to, so we are working with that company on the main streets to have those boxes wrapped.
[1:32:12] So that's where that 15,000 is going to go towards.
[1:32:15] Awesome, thank you.
[1:32:16] Madam Chairman, just to kind of elaborate with the mayor saying it's 15 of them and they're going to go from the north end to the south end or south end to the north end, but
[1:32:29] But it will be broad view, state road, bridge road and pro road, and there will be 15 boxes done.
[1:32:39] We're just waiting to get the drawings from CB graphics so we can proceed.
[1:32:45] But the idea was to put them up sometime in April.
[1:32:48] There's a, those cabinets have to be cleaned professionally.
[1:32:53] Finally, we have to wait till the snow is gone and then they have to be clean professionally.
[1:33:01] They have to be a little light-fanding done and then they will be wrapped.
[1:33:06] The mayor is looking, we're waiting for designs from them.
[1:33:10] But there will be 15 of them that are going to be put up throughout the city for the bicentennial.
[1:33:17] Any other questions on this fund?
[1:33:20] No good?
[1:33:21] All right, thank you, Mayor.
[1:33:22] Yes, thank you so much, thanks for being here.
[1:33:26] Okay, everybody, I will make a motion to adjourn, can I have a second?
[1:33:32] Great, and we will have-