Transcript

Welcome to us for City Council, this is the July 7th, 2026 regular meeting.

At 6.01 p.m., we adjourned into executive session to consider the purchase of specific property

for public purposes and the sale of property, or premature disclosure of information, but

given unfair, competitive, or bargaining advantage to a person whose personal private interest

is averse to the general public interest, confidential economic development information, including

business strategies of an applicant for assistance, pursuant to Ohio rice code chapter 7-0137-35

or 5709, and public infrastructure improvements directly related to such projects, which is

necessary to protect the interests of the applicant, or the possible investment, or expenditure

of public funds.

At 6.47, we adjourned out of executive session, and we are here now with the clerk of lease

call the roll.

Vice Mayor Stalker, here, Mr. Washburn, here, Vice Chair Glasgow, here, Ms. Beckett,

Mayor Grimes, Mr. Wright, here, Madam Chair Zaco, glad to be here.

Tonight's invocation will be given by Council Member Wright, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

The wretched refuse of your teaming sure, send these, your homeless, tempest tossed to

me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

These words are from the new Colossus, a poem by Emma Lazarus from 1883 that sits at the

base of the Statue of Liberty.

Please join me in prayer, or if you choose, a moment of reflection.

Eternal God, we give thanks for the rich diversity of Ohio and Westerville, for neighbors of

every background, generation, faith tradition, and life experience, who help make this community

a strong and vibrant.

Bless the people of Westerville and our neighboring communities.

Strengthen our commitment to one another.

Help us to see beyond our differences and recognize the dignity and worth that resides

in each and every person.

Grant us the wisdom to listen, the courage to speak with kindness and the humility to work

together for the common good.

May our city be a place where every child feels valued, every family feels welcome, every

elder is honored, and every neighbor can thrive.

United us in a spirit of service, understanding and mutual respect.

When challenges arise, give us hope, Lord, when divisions threaten, give us unity.

When uncertainty appears, Lord, give us faith in the possibilities that emerge when

a community stands and works together.

May we continue to build a Westerville that reflects justice, opportunity, compassion, and love.

A beloved community where hope is shared, burdens are lifted, and the future is bright

for all of us.

And now, Lord, I ask You to bless this gathering tonight.

Please provide counsel individually and collectively with wisdom, discernment, and temperance to listen,

understand, and act on the matters brought before us.

May our decisions be righteous, sound, and beneficial to all who live and work in our community.

Lord, we ask You to bless our city officials, our first responders, our residents, and all

who work to make Westerville a welcome community.

In your holy name, we pray, amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right.

Next.

I hope we have the minutes of the June 2nd regular meeting, pleasure of counsel.

So moved.

Thank you.

Been moved and seconded.

Any comments?

All right.

Please call the roll.

Vice Mayor Stocker.

Yes.

Mr. Wright.

Yes.

Vice Chair Glasgow.

Yes.

Mr. Washburn.

Yes.

Madam Chair Zago.

Yes.

The minutes are adopted unanimously.

Next, on the agenda, we have the Mayor's report, but Mayor Grimes is absent today, so we will

have no Mayor's report, and we will go right on into City Manager's report.

Ms. Dupy, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and members of Council.

Despite the incredible heat wave, the new rotary of Westerville, along with the city and other

partners hosted a full day of activities on Saturday, welcoming thousands of visitors

to Uptown, to celebrate the 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Westerville has been fortunate for many years to have successful events with no outward

facing disruptions or safety issues.

Unfortunately, there were a couple incidents that occurred this year.

After the evening's firework show, the night ended with an unnecessary tragedy, a parking

dispute led to shooting and to arrests.

I'd like the public to understand that we have emergency protocols in planning and place

for our response.

It takes us months to plan for the safety for every parade, concert, entertainment, and

fireworks, and those plans were executed quickly by the Westerville Division of Police

and our partners.

Officers rendered aid to a victim at the scene and quickly secured the area apprehending

the two suspects.

I'd like to recognize the Delaware County Sheriff's Office, Genoa Township Police, Franklin

County Sheriff's Office, and the Columbus Division of Police for their roles in helping

us secure the site so that the investigation and resulting arrests were not impeded.

I commend our public safety officers for their quick and professional response.

I am so proud of the work of the Westerville Division of Police in order to keep our community

safe.

Also, one to thank our residents and the guests who assisted in the quick apprehension.

Our thoughts are with the victim and the family.

Next I want to address and apologize for the noise and disruption on Sunday afternoon.

As a series of fireworks were required for an unscheduled and controlled disposal.

So in order to understand that, I will tell you the sausage making process of the sausage.

On Saturday afternoon, the Division of Fire inspected materials for the fireworks and found

that the encasement of some of the shells did not meet our local requirements.

Once this section of fireworks failed inspection, the state was consulted and notified and the

vendor was required to deliver new stocks for the show.

Additionally, the vendor was prohibited from moving explosives off site until the fire

department and the state confirmed the safest route and method.

Manual removal and road transportation to a second location were deemed too high of

a risk and unsafe after consultation with state fire authorities.

So the Westerville Fire Division is always to secure the site and remove potential dangers.

So we did so in the daylight.

To do this, the vendor needed to remove that equipment.

Unfortunately, there was a compressed timeline and we tried to wait until after all church

services were completed and had them set them off at 12 noon.

So moving forward, we'll continue to work with the Rotary Club to include specific material

guidelines and the city is currently reviewing an opt-in event texting solution.

This would allow us to text any of our public who opt-in on these more time sensitive

emergency issues.

We are looking at that right now and we hope to update progress of procuring such a solution

when we come back in September.

I'm glad to see there's an audience tonight because we do want to talk about the August

11th community work session.

So before the break, I wanted to share that the community workshop will be happening

on August 11th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Westerville Community Center.

This will actually be a completely different set up than what you're used to.

Other events where drop-in experiences, this is actually going to take the entire 6 to

8 p.m.

It will allow for staff to deeply listen to anyone who wants to show up and share their

concerns.

So if you are saving August 11th on your calendar, please plan to attend the entire time from

6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

If you're not able to make that date, we're working on additional ways to gather feedback.

That information will be updated on the Westerville.org slash engagement page, so keep your eye out.

So again, for August 11th, please plan to be there from 6 to 8.

It will be a facilitated conversation where staff and council can listen and the public

will actually be speaking.

With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions?

All right.

And not a question.

I just wanted to comment on the often text messaging.

I think that's an idea that's worth exploring, and we're really glad to hear that.

Thank you.

All right.

Moving on to council representative report.

We have planning commission tonight by Vice Chair Glasgow.

Thank you, Chair Zaco.

At the June 24th, 2026 planning commission meeting, we had three matters that we heard.

In case number 2026, 13, we had a concept plan review for subdivision of an existing

.58 acres parcel to create two lots, one being new buildable with variances.

So just to remind you, concept plan review is there's no decision made.

This is 30 minutes for the applicant or presenter to basically explain their project and get

feedback from planning commission at the end of that 30 minutes we were done, and then

they may come back later.

They take the feedback back.

So in this case, this is on the northwest corner of East College Avenue and Otterbine.

As you can see from the top right image, I guess at the bottom you can see what the house

there, it's a greenhouse, it's got a fire scape on the side, it's pretty notable.

There you can see on the right there is considerable piece of land they're proposing to split

that off and build a new house.

Because of the narrowness of the lot, it will require two, I think two variances at least,

fairly minor variances on the lot lines.

And the bottom left has the actual rendering of the image, so planning commission was favorable

to that image and the appearance it's proposed and generally favorable to the plan, there

will be a curb cut onto Otterbine.

So the planning commission gave feedback, it was largely favorable and we will probably

be seeing that back sometime soon.

The second matter was a request for final development plan modification with the variances

for the expansion of an existing parking area on 3.68 acres at 937 Eastwood, south side

of Eastwind Drive between Mailway Drive and Gentlewind, the applicants, as to that building,

you can see that it started there.

In 2020, planning commission approved a significant expansion.

The user now needs additional parking, so they were seeking approval for an addition

of 31 acres of additional parking spaces on the southwest side of the site.

Along with the parking expansion, the existing underground detention base and located on the

eastern side of the property will be expanded to provide additional runoff, so that's

a concern when you add more parking.

Two variances were requested.

One was both of them were for pavement closer to the building of the property line.

Staff supported that there, both relatively small variances, so that was approved unanimously

by planning commission with four conditions to of which involved additional screening and

adding new new trees, and then some issues about lighting that were, but those were all

agreeable to the applicant and all approved with conditions.

The third and final case was one that will be familiar to us all because it's coming

through here a number of times.

I think this is the third or fourth time.

I've described this project, but this is the old bank on the corner of Main Street and

Cleveland Avenue on the south west side, which is going to be a flower shop and flower

gift shop.

This came through conceptual review, then it came through planning commission for rezoning

and then through City Council for rezoning, and now this was here for a site plan modification.

We get a 4800 square foot building on point less than an acre, 0.849 acres.

Notable feature, they're getting rid of a bunch of asphalt there you can see highlighted

in green.

I'm not going to belabor this one because we've seen this before, and it hasn't really

changed and it's always been, planning commission has been in favor of it and remains so, so

planning commission voted unanimously to approve.

So I think that's the last time we'll see it now.

That is the last case and happening to three questions.

All right.

Any questions?

Moving on to our Parks and Rec Advisory Board report by Vice Chair soccer.

Vice Mayor soccer.

Sorry.

All right.

Well, it is National Parks and Recreation Month, so it's a great time to celebrate all

of our award-winning parks, trails, and facilities that we have here in Westerville.

We have a lot going on to finish out this summer now that we are through the fourth.

My personal favorite is Frog Friday.

I take my seven-year-old pretty regularly.

If you haven't checked that out, it's at Highlands, Wetlands.

Your kiddo will get wet and dirty, so just be prepared for that, but it's a ton of fun

and it gets them, you know, their hands dirty and gets them in the nature.

And we have our very own Mad Scientist there to assist and give us all of the education.

So it's a wonderful event and adults like it too.

People go who don't have kids, so it's for anybody.

We also have Nature Nights at Hopwood.

Our summer concert series is ongoing with a lot of really great bands coming in.

In August, we have Toucha Truck, also for kids and adults, if you want.

We have The Holiday Splash at Highlands Park Aquatic Center.

We've gone to that in the past and it's always a lot of fun.

Camp Rock, the musical, and then to Close Out Pool Season, the Doggy Paddle, which is just

super cute.

So a lot going on to enjoy our Parks and Rec at this summer.

And then the last thing that I want to bring everybody's attention to is our ongoing

Wander Westerville campaign to collect feedback for our Pros Plan, Parks, Recreation, and

the Outdoor Spaces plan that we are in the midst of redoing.

So make sure that you check out Parks.Westerville.org, Backslash Wander.

That's where you can find all of the updated information about ways that you can engage.

And there are online surveys as well, so if you are somebody who can't make it in person,

you can provide the same exact feedback that you would have provided in person online.

So any priorities that you might have for our Parks, Recreation, and Outdoor Spaces,

things that you would like to see in that plan, that is where you can add that feedback.

And that's all I have.

If anybody has any questions?

Any questions?

Okay.

Great.

We're going to move on to citizen comments today.

All right.

So anyone who wants to speak, please approach the podium and state your name.

You have three minutes.

When you are done, please write your name and address on the sheet with the clerk.

So come on down.

Who's first today?

Good evening.

I have a couple of quick questions.

Can you state your name?

Well, I'm sorry.

Chris Gordon Smith.

Thank you.

First, I was referred to by a city hall on a call and asked, they didn't think they thought

I could come and ask you, folks.

I was curious.

Does Westerville have rules, ordinances on rental property density?

So this is just citizen comment.

We won't answer your questions.

Right now it's not a dialogue, but we will know your questions and some of them staff

will get back to you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Second issue was.

Could you state your questioning again?

Just because I'm writing it down.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Does Westerville have rental property density rules?

Thank you.

Thank you.

I experienced this in my last residence with an HOA and everything, but there was more

and more properties being purchased by big companies and things like that.

I've been reading about it.

Sure.

Maybe you have to.

Well, last thing I had for a question was on East Rock Road, there's a lot of speeding.

I was wondering if something could be done with maybe some more signs or anything would

be helpful because I've seen everything from people to city vehicles, to school buses,

to garbage trucks, to commercial vehicles that drive quite fast up down through there when

they get out towards State Street from East Rock Road.

A lot of them are flying down ours if you want to mention that to folks so you'd be

aware.

I guess that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

If you want to leave your name and address on the sheet with the clerk, and maybe if you

have an email address, if someone can get back to you on that specific question about the

rental rules.

Okay.

That would be great.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Good evening, all.

In our discussions about 64 East Walnut Street, please don't forget it.

Can you state your name?

Peter Maxwell.

I'm sorry.

In our discussions about 64 East Walnut Street, please don't forget that it is not a vacant

parcel of land.

This publicly owned five acre site is well landscaped with 69 trees.

According to the new display panel at City Hall, Westerville cherishes its tree cover.

It has an attractive well maintained one-story 30,000 square foot building which we purchased

30 years ago, performing a major renovation and addition.

It fits into the neighborhood.

I regard the 205 public parking spaces on the site as the most valuable asset of the property.

They are in three large parking lots on three sides of the building.

I can't imagine the impact on uptown businesses, the library, and the handy park without them,

particularly on weekends.

We have known since 2018 that the City offices at 64 East Walnut would be vacated when the

City Hall renovation project was completed.

For some reason, we weren't hearing who would be moving in.

For some reason, we weren't hearing that City staff were spending vast man hours and resources

on planning a very different future for the property.

For some reason, City staff have determined that everything on the site needs to be demolished

and some new use should be pursued.

Is it true that all of the building's furnishings have been disposed of?

What a waste.

Regardless of what redevelopment is proposed, I can't imagine the parking, traffic, safety,

noise, dust, and environmental impacts of a three-year-war-year construction project

at this location on uptown, the library, handby park, the schools, and all residential

neighbors.

It starts with a chain link construction fence going up around the entire site, eliminating

205 public parking spaces, cutting down 69 trees, removing 70,000 square feet of pavement

to abolishing a 30,000 square foot building down to its foundations.

Who knows what subgrade contamination will be encountered.

And all of this before the construction work even starts.

To say nothing of the long-term impacts of a new occupancy, which you have heard so

much about from my fellow citizens, so 64 East Wallet Street sits empty rather than welcoming

a new user that we all are excited about, who could be contributing to the uptown community

without negatively impacting it.

It could be generating a substantial rental income for the city right now, rather than

being a black hole with a 20-year real estate tax of maintenance as was planned.

Let's take a tour of our building at 64 East Wallet.

Then we can put on our thinking caps and decide who would be our best neighbor there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Next.

Madam Chair, may I address the furniture conversation?

I was going to ask you to do that because you would love to answer and I would love you

to do that.

Okay.

First step, any time that we buy new furniture and move into the facility, so for instance,

we've moved into a city hall.

We allowed all other departments in the city to then tour 310 and 64.

They get to choose furniture that they would like move to their facility.

So first step is we give it to our own employees depending on their needs.

If anything is left after that, we also go to gov deals and we put different lots of

furniture up for sale so that we're not wasting the furniture.

We bring that revenue back to the city and it goes into the general fund.

After that, anything else that is left, we do an RFP to open it up to companies that

recycle furniture.

So we do everything we can to keep it out of the landfill.

We do not dispose of it and we reuse as much as possible.

Thank you so much.

Peg Duffy, we've learned a lot about ourselves in the past few months as we have confronted

the challenge of 64-years wallet.

People came to council not because the system works because they knew it was malfunctioning.

Mistakes were made, own up to them.

Hold no grudges.

We need to move on.

Resolving the future of 64-years wallet ultimately lies with council.

Residents have elected you to represent us.

Citizen engagement has been evident as numerous residents spoke in public comments.

You heard those voices.

Be sure you understood their messages.

Residents have told you what we want as well as what we want no part of.

We're crossing our fingers as somebody listen to us.

We've presented a limited list of issues for staff to explain.

However, density, safety, traffic, parking, all issues that came from numerous constituents

don't appear on that list.

Open decision-making has to be participatory, not top-down.

We deserve to have all questions asked and answered in a setting where everyone hears

the same information.

So apparently you have been listening.

Thank you.

But I would ask, will this be recorded so it will be available for those who are not

in attendance?

In simple action, council could probably act to protect a hand-by-park, support rails

to trails, discourage additional traffic on the wall in the area.

Here is a chance for council to rectify.

In addition to the peers, no immediacy necessitating the sale of 64-years wallet.

The recently published resident guide shows nearly 20 million more in receipts than

in operating expenditures.

We don't appear to be in desperate need for cash from the sale of 64-years wallet, strike

a balance between economic development and supporting the experiences that are the character

that is created Westerville.

Greetings, council.

Chris Murphy just kind of build on what Peg just said because she literally took half

of what I had to say tonight.

So thank you very much, Peg.

I appreciate that.

In addition to what Peg raised, we have an issue of public record requests related to the

development of 64-years wallet.

They've been pending now for two months.

I've been practicing law for 15 years.

Never in my life have I ever had a municipality behave in this way when responding to a public

records request.

The average municipality responds to me within four to five days.

You have attorney-client privilege redactions on your documents, but from the face of the

documents, you can't have a valid claim of privilege.

We've asked Ms. Yanger about this, and I've gotten absolutely no response.

I find this to be unacceptable.

And as Peg just reiterated, ultimately all of this lies with council in terms of what

you're going to permit staff to do to the citizens.

And it's not making a whole lot of sense.

There's been some new information provided tonight related to August 11th.

I appreciate that.

I think it would be helpful to just possibly maybe at some point have a candid conversation

with your citizens to say, hey, we're not going to develop this property immediately into

a hotel.

We're going to take our time.

We've heard you.

We're going to give everybody an opportunity to speak and have feedback.

I don't know if you've noticed, but as Peg pointed out, this is a sign that things didn't

work here.

And that's a problem.

With that, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Hi.

Julie Wildermuth.

I'm here tonight because I want to make sure that we continue to have constructive conversations

around 64-East Walnut.

I'm sure there's a desire at this point to leave the old proposal in the past to move

on.

I want to express why those of us that are also trying to drive resident engagement are

unable to move on so far.

There's still a large gap in understanding how this next proposal process will be different.

I'm just not talking about the communication elements with the actual proposal generation

process by the city staff.

We haven't seen or heard anything so far.

Maybe we will on August 11th.

That would give the reassurance that the trust can be restored and that the next time

will be different.

A couple of examples.

In the unanimously critical comments that came from the 64-East Walnut Open House event,

you're giving a count of the categories of criticisms, traffic, 122 comments, safety,

119.

There's a section where the city included a positive spin on some of the comments with

no data and what looks like an attempt to keep at least some version of their proposal

alive rather than using the feedback to see then that the proposal missed the mark.

The city summary states, and I quote, the resident suggested that the mixed use component

of the plan is attractive.

The count itself from those comments would show that only two to four at the most comments

by count if we're stretching what comments to include actually stated that they were

pro-mixed use as a part of their comment.

They use less than 2% of responses to justify their desired proposal for the property.

I'm only highlighting this particular part of the summary to show why there's skepticism

around how the engagement the city is asking for is going to be used and that the residents

are actually going to be heard when this is all said and done.

Another example is from an experience we had on East Walnut Street overnight.

On June 15th to the 16th, a few weeks ago, before the bike path repaving started.

The city scheduled sewer work on East Walnut right in front of 64 East Walnut from Spectrashealed

to be done overnight with no notice given to the residents or even to the Westable Police

according to the officers I spoke to that night.

When the same company worked on the street a year ago, we were proactively notified multiple

times and the work all happened during the day.

When I went out in my pajamas at 12.30 a.m. to figure out why this was happening in the

middle of the night, I was told by the Spectrashealed team that they do not usually work overnight

in the city scheduled the job and requested that it be done overnight because there's too

much traffic on the street and it was too busy to shut down to one lane for one day.

We're all standing up here in giving comments like we need to explain that traffic is an

issue on East Walnut when clearly the city already knows that and went forward with that

former proposal anyway.

My sincere ask, help us understand how this time will be different.

There's still a disconnect here, not just from a communication rollout standpoint, but

from a proposal generation and resident engagement inclusion perspective.

Help us see that the needs, the feedback, the investments already made by the current

residents are foundational and a priority for the city, please.

Good evening.

Daniel Vermire, 101 Springtree Court representing 90s Walnut adjacent to 64s Walnut.

I want to be clear that we oppose redevelopment of 64s Walnut based on the original plan

with concerns of safety, traffic, speeding, parking, privacy infringement, tree loss,

infrastructure impact, community, neighborhood, and property value deterioration.

We instead support adaptive reuse of the existing structure.

I repeat this to assure no confusion where our comments are summarized for analysis.

Your reset is greatly appreciated.

The revised approach for community input, evidence with the South State Street sessions are

a big improvement.

However, very little has been shared from my detailed information requests.

Why?

It doesn't feel very transparent.

I've reviewed an interesting comment summary that was shared to be from another resident's

request, in which the mentions of each area of concern are tabulated.

You just heard about that.

This non-public oversimplification doesn't capture the magnitude of opposition and causes

concerns on how our public comments are being portrayed and utilized.

I truly want to believe we will all work together openly and honestly.

Please make transparency the default, not something residents have to repeatedly request.

We can fully respond to our information requests and make studies and analysis readily available.

Residents should not be able to see that the process is working with the community, not

around the community.

When seeking public input, please, please publish materials well in advance of meetings.

Advanced access to the South Street Street planning documents would have allowed for care for

review for more thoughtful and informed input.

It is one month away, and we don't know a lot about August 11 session, what it will

look like, how we can best prepare to give you thoughtful and meaningful input.

Help us understand better your process and expectations.

I also urge you to hold public tours of 64-ish walnut, disparate ideation.

I think it's a wonderful structure with many potential uses and it shouldn't be hidden.

If more information is available that we should know about it, please let us know.

Lastly, please seek first input from the stakeholders directly affected by any change.

Hold a meeting exclusively with the owners residing in direct vicinity of 64-ish walnut.

This is the only fair and appropriate way to proceed.

Please maintain Westerville as the city and the park that we love.

We look forward to improve transparency communication through bi-directional engagement as planned

for in August 11th.

Thank you for your time.

All right.

Who's up next?

Thank you Madam Chair.

Members of Council, Mack Taylor.

Over the last few weeks, I've had the good fortune to speak with a number of my fellow citizens

about 64-ish walnut and after they get over the, how could anyone think this is a good

idea, kind of, phase of their thinking?

Their follow-up question to me, sometimes indirectly, sometimes very directly is, what is your

problem now?

And there's a short answer to that, but it's my last three minutes before you go on your

break, so I'm going to get there in a kind of a roundabout way.

I got the July 2020-26 issue of the Atlantic Monthly magazine in my house last week, and

there's an article I'm telling you would use it or lose it focused on the freedom of speech

and freedom of press.

I'm going to read one sentence to you that one requirement of self-governance is the relentless

pursuit of truth, which necessarily involves questioning people and positions of power

in order to prevent tyranny.

And obviously, not suggesting what the author had in mind was this project, but a petty tyranny

is a tyranny of clustering.

And so the answer to what's my problem is that we really don't have a full understanding

of how and why this project came up.

I was positively recommended by staff and how it got to second reading before you all.

We've had dozens of citizens spending hundreds of hours collectively and probably thousands

of dollars.

And I think there's an important question about why and how we got here.

They would inform the future of this project and future city projects as well.

So that's what my problem is, and so in somebody asked me like, why do you carry the city

council reject that proposal?

That's why I still care about that, because I think it informs what the next step is.

And my hope is that we continue to gather some additional answers.

The August 11th, formerly known as an open house down, it was a workshop and looking

forward to see what that is.

I'll echo what Mr. Vermeier said about expectations about what is the city, what is the city

staff looking for from the citizens coming into that would be appreciated.

And finally, I wanted to leave you with what the positive thing that has come out of the

whole 64-years-old process.

And to me, I've gotten a chance to meet number of my neighbors that I've never spoken

with before.

And I think there's been a real sense of renewed community.

I think that council member Wright spoke to this a little bit about the engagement energizing

camp.

And it's been across the state and national political spectrum as well.

You see a green sign next to the Navy Act and sign.

You see a green sign where there are 24 signs around the corner.

It's really kind of brought the community together in a way that I think is a positive

thing that we take away from it.

And I really hope that's kind of the legacy that this proposal, this project leads, is

not that that sense of community continues for, both from the citizens as well as council

and the city staff as well.

And I hope it doesn't resolve into a project that doesn't reflect the will of that community.

So I appreciate the time everything I look forward to seeing you all in August the

look.

Thank you.

All right.

Who's up next?

Hi, my name is Matt Duncan.

I've been here before.

I live at 31 East Walnut Street.

I just kind of wanted to echo what everybody else has said already previously.

Let's keep uptown, historic small town feel, you know, that's why people come there come

here.

That's why we have all the visitors that come here.

They want that feel.

That's what the citizens love about uptown, you know, and frankly, a lot of people in

Westerville love that.

Over the last couple of months, I've gotten to know tons of people in our community.

We passed out.

I think we're at almost 400 or a little over 400 signs already.

Just a staggering number, you know, the number of people that have come in here is just

a small portion of the people that are out there that are passionate about the issue.

People that just don't understand what's going on here, you know, and, you know, another

thing is, you know, events in uptown just continue to become more and more popular.

Fourth of July, the fourth Friday events, all of those, you know, we're running out of

parking.

We just can't afford to lose any more parking, not even a single spot, you know, every

proposal that I've seen for 64 years, Walnut, you know, the one that was proposed and then

the other ones that were actually proposed also were just to eliminate, you know, a lot

of parking that people were using, you know, we gain 100, but we lose 100 also at the

same time or lose 200 and gain 100, so we're still down 100.

We just can't lose that parking, the small businesses are going to be impacted by that.

I don't know if City Council has talked to the small businesses, but there's no way

that they're okay with that.

I mean, there's no parking, there's no visitors, you know, so that's all I have for tonight.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Anyone else?

Don't start my clock yet.

I had a handout that I wanted to have Distributed Council before I made my time.

You can hand it to the clerk.

I've given it to the clerk before the meeting.

Okay.

Then she has it.

She will give it to us after the meeting.

Go ahead with your comments.

It's my, everything I'm going to say relates to this handout, so I'd like it to have in

her hands.

She'll hand it to us after the meeting.

Go ahead with your comments.

Okay.

My name's Charles Taylor.

Thank you for the opportunity to address Council this evening.

My comments concern the relationship of four plans to Public Parking at 64 East Walnut

Street, and illustrate how the original proposed redevelopment project would impact the availability

of Public Parking in the uptown area.

Please refer to my fact sheet.

Does any plan for the area encompassing 64 East Walnut Street contemplate a four to

five-story parking garage?

The answer is no.

The 1995 Old Westerville Special Overlay District Development Standards, which I haven't

seen in the city reference, states the controlling policy in the Old Westerville area is that

the preservation of one and two family residential structures and residential neighborhood character

will always be given preference over the parking needs of area institutions and other

non-residential uses.

The 2014 Uptown Plan concludes their sufficient parking in Uptown, believe it or not.

The plan states a more long-range solution to Uptown's parking challenges is a one-story

parking deck.

The plan identifies four proposed sites for the one-story parking deck.

None of the four are at 64 East Walnut Street.

The plan states the site behind City Hall was preferred by the majority of respondents

in an online survey.

The 2016 Westerville Community Plan does not specify a multi-level parking garage in

Uptown area.

Two statements stand out.

A city within a park would make sure all parking balances, all parking balances convenient

access with visual appeal and lush landscaping.

Through a smart growth approach to development, it creates smart parking policies to be applied

throughout the city.

The 2023 Advanced Westerville Economic Development Strategy doesn't say anything about parking

anywhere.

With the original proposed project, create additional parking spots.

The answer to that is no.

It's already been explained previously, but my handout explains it in more detail.

There's at least 221 parking spots at 64 East Walnut right now.

The proposed project was going to have 100 public parking spots.

So you're going to lose 120 or more parking spots if you went ahead with that proposed project.

In addition, the proposed project under City Code, which I know you can change, the City

Code would require 672 or more parking spots.

Yet the project proposal accommodated 360 parking spots.

Having a shortfall of 312 parking spots, which is clearly, well, you're looking at processing

a variance through the planning commission that reduces the amount of parking available by

50% from what code requires.

Thank you.

All right.

Who's up next?

Anybody else?

My name is Joe Deetz.

I did with 367 East Walnut Street.

I've been retired from the Postal Service for 32 years, and I've lived here for 72 years.

So if you want some background information, feel free to call me, stop by my house, my red

trucks on my own home.

I want to bring up something other than 64 East Walnut Street that really concerns me

every day.

I told you before, the clock is ticking at the corner of North Otter Pine and County Line

Road.

You spent, I guess, a million dollars to put that bridge over.

West of that, saving for pedestrians, beautiful job.

As I'm speaking, there's no red light, by the way, there should be, there better be

the road.

In the meantime, we're putting in red lights or being mounted right now on Africa Road.

No houses being built, already put up a two-lane road.

This is a five-lane road on Old County Line, and it is basically a speedway if you're out

there at the right time and waiting in line is a pain.

After the fireworks the other night, we went the long way around Spring Road and came to

my son's house past Otter Pine, a new kind of line.

It was backed up to the moon.

This is a better time before somebody loses a patient and goes out to you soon and gets

clobbered.

I'm telling you again, the clock is ticking and somebody getting hurt killed there.

But the thing about it is, obviously, that road has been there for many years before these

other red lights would be put up as I speak.

Why isn't that first?

That's a priority.

Red lights are there for a reason, to save people.

You mirror the next guy, nobody wants to get hurt.

But feel free at any time, I'll be glad to sit down and talk to you.

I haven't retired.

I've got plenty of time to tell you what's really going on in this city and how long it's

been going on with great progress.

72 years, I live a lot more than these people in this building, I'm bragging about it.

I'd be knowing the right and wrong things that should be fixed.

Priority to me is when I've been told years ago, we go by this plan on this particular

year to fix this.

No, no, no, no, no.

Priority.

Life and death is priority to me in life, if you want to continue to come to these meetings

in a safe way.

It's very, very important, safety first in my world.

The other thing is, these bicycles, when I saw this is on your bicycles and electric

bikes and gasoline bikes should not be allowed on those trails.

Not all.

I sent a letter this past week to park my reparations about this, and I was very young,

I had a mini bike, I'm glad I got rid of it.

I was required to have a helmet and a license because I'm safety mounted years ago.

This is one of the very young, I'm at the corner of college in Otterbyne and a school bus

turn, I just get this getting hit by the dual wheels in the back.

That was then, a lot less traffic.

These kids are doing wheelies by my son's house, I actually witnessed a kid crashy, I

gave him a good lecture nicely, except for the kid who was underneath the bike, that

the bike was still on.

He gets, oh, he said, by the way, the throttle's sticking.

Would you like your accelerator to stick in your car?

That would be fun, if you don't know what to do.

I picked the bicycle up off him, his legs hurt, he's all banged up, he has a helmet on

thank God, there's a piece of cement sitting in a triangle, upside down, and I showed my wife

this last night.

He could've hit his head on that, he might not be here today.

And he hit that thing hard, it's a five or six foot drop off, I'm over my son's house

enough a lot.

I appreciate your time, come to me and talk to me, I give you a lot of good news.

All right, who else have you got?

Anyone else today?

Going once, going twice, I see some interest, come on down.

I had some things, oh sorry, many else, I remember this time.

I had some things prepared, I'm actually just going to go off the cuff and I hope that

my comments are meaningful as well as understood and I want to say things with the utmost respect.

Change is hard, change takes time.

How we view each other, how trust is involved in all these things, that takes time.

And a relationship of trust is broken, more needs to be done than just going to what

would be a normal sense of a relationship, that makes sense, normal actions.

You have to extend yourself further, and this happens from both sides, but more is required

than just getting to this status quo, if that's the right way of saying that.

And this is what we're kind of looking for.

And I mean, no disrespect when I say this, but it would have taken about five seconds for Mr. Taylor, right?

For his document to be passed out, to have be referred to, it would not have taken a lot of time.

It would have been wonderful, and just one more of those little steps that can show we do care what you're saying.

We do want to understand some of the engagement that we've seen so far that has been

taken and analyzed, has been analyzed on text, and that concerns us as well.

So when we say we want to be heard, we mean fully, we mean we want you to meet us at the table.

We want to be at the table with you too.

I had the opportunity to see Mr. Dupese, I was saying, yes, going and coming from the farmers market

and got to see your cute kids talking, you know, this is why I made a little crap to talk things

stuff, and we want to be community, we want to be friends, like you talked about neighbors and things like that.

But little things can eat away and erode at the opportunity to build that trust.

And so that's what I taught, what I mean when I say about that is that, is that we need to think about all of our interactions.

What are, what are they communicating?

I think one of the things that I want to communicate today, and I'll just email this to you,

because I don't want to kill any more trees, because I chose not to wear my Laura costume today,

but I thought about it because I believe that city within a park is an ideal that we should continue

to strive for in Westerville.

In any way possible, I was so grateful to hear that more trees will be planted in the East Africa area

where so many were destroyed.

Nutries are not the same as mature trees, we all know that, run grateful.

Anyways, I just want to continue to say, let's work together for that goal.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Casey Walker, I live on East College, and I did not prepare anything, so hopefully I can read my writing.

First, I want to thank you for creating the community engagement page.

That has been a huge help, but I would also like to see more pushed communications.

There's been a lot of opportunities in the community plan, our community program brochure,

and emails I've received, and social media posts, to tell people about the community plan engagement

that you're doing right now, and other things that you're working on, like 64 East Wanted,

and that information's often missing.

I would like to see more messaging pushed to the public on engagement,

educating people what that community plan is.

A lot of people just don't know what it is, or why they should show up or give input.

When you go to an open house for the community plan, I would love for it to focus on that actual community plan,

and not to lead the conversation into a South State Street topic,

or spend half of people's time focused on that.

When we have lots of other sub topics like that, they can be talked about later

after we establish that community plan.

If you are going to mention plans like that, things like South State Street,

also mentioned Wander Westerville, or 64 East Wanted, or other sub projects

that kind of the community plan foundation is a foundation of.

It was also wondering if you have service level agreements or goals on public records requests.

There's a lot of disappointment in the public response to the public records requests,

and I would love to see a place online where we can go and see what other people have requested.

I requested this. Here's the file. Let's all go out to this one place and see what all the files

were that people requested. I can easily see what other people have requested.

Similarly, if I'm looking at the summary of the community plan results,

I would like to be able to go out and see a page where I can see the specific

feedback that people gave to that community plan, or to the open house that we went to.

Most people aren't going to go and want to see that level of detail,

but if I would like to see that level of detail, I would like it to be very easy to find

and available to everyone.

As far as 64 East Walnut is concerned, I love that you have changed the format of the August

11th community work session. I was wondering if that is, if you're now taking away the September

work session that we were going to originally have, or if there'll be now two sessions focused

on 64 East Walnut. I'd also, it's not clear to me if you were all speaking in a format like this

to us first and then listening to our input, or if there's going to be multiple conversations

happening around the room. Also, it's still not clear to me how much time we have to find a

solution for what happened to 64 East Walnut, how much money that site needs to generate,

or what limitations we have. So I'd like to hear the city's perspective on that as I think you

have heard a lot of our input and so we'd like to know where you stand. So thank you for your time.

I'm going to answer that question real quick about the work session. Those are two separate

events. I guess, sorry, not great word, but the open house works, that is its own separate item.

It has nothing, I mean, obviously it has to do, but it's not contingent upon related to September

work session at all. Those are two separate things. Both will happen, regardless of how each one

goes. So those are going to be two separate events. They're going to have different focuses,

though listening session, that's going to be more community-based, and I'm not sure what that

structure will look like, because we're so working through that, and that's what City Manager D.B.

was talking about. This September work session, I can speak a little more to that one. It's going

to look a lot like this, kind of like when they present legislation to us. It's a work session,

just like any of our other work sessions, which is legislative, meaning it will be reported.

We're going to set up the room like this, just for everyone to hear and see a little better on

the screens, but we will have information presented at that meeting, all of those things that I

asked for, but we'll have a presenter. It'll be a meeting like this. So there's we two separate

things, but that will definitely be much more of a presentation style. There won't be

questions from the audience or anything like that, but I hope that helps a little bit.

It's okay. We're going to script here a little bit. I want to make sure that everyone's clear

what we're doing. So the feedback, the August 11th, that's really for staff to listen to the

community and engage with the community, and that is much more specific to that site at 64.

When we get to the September work session, we can't flip those because we don't really have any

meetings in the summer. We're going on recess now, so we'd have to push everything back, which we're

trying to have that time to get the community feedback. So we're going to do that September work

session, where we're going to present all that information. So it'll be out, and then it's going

to go on on social media. It's going to be available on the website. If there are questions, comments,

feedback after that, it's going to be the same way that we have it now. You can come to council

and chat with us. You can email. We can do that. And if there is significant need to go further

than that, we can evaluate at that point. But that's where we're going to leave it for now.

It doesn't mean we can never talk about it again. It's just kind of the structure because

council won't be here until September, so we really won't be able to do anything before that.

Does that help? Okay. Awesome. All right, so we're so interested in comment. Is there anyone else who's

willing to comment? Or not willing? Once to comment. Sorry. I made that sound bad. I'm moving,

guys. You know, I'm trying. I'm trying. All right. Seeing no one else. This is your last call.

Okay. Seeing no one else, this closes. This is his comment. We are going to move on to items of

legislation. Let me pull the stuff here. All right. If the clerk would read resolution number 202608,

I titled leads a resolution to adopt the tax budget for the fiscal year beginning January 1st,

2027 and to authorize the director of finance to submit the tax budget to the Franklin County auditor

and Delaware County auditor and to declare an emergency. All right. Thank you. So this one state

law requires public hearing on the proposed 2027 tax budget. So I'm now going to open the public hearing.

The purpose of this hearing is to receive public comment on the city's proposed tax budget

before accepting public comment. Staff will provide a brief overview. Ms. Love, please proceed.

Madam Chair, members of council, city staff is requesting your consideration for our proposed

tax budget, which will be submitted to Franklin and Delaware counties. The public hearing is an

annual requirement per the Ohio revised code section 5705.30. The tax budget provides the

counties the estimates of our planned expenditures against the funds which receive property taxes,

which are the general fund, the fire fund, and the bond retirement fund. The tax budget supports

the need for property taxes and requests each county to withhold the taxes in the coming fiscal year.

This tax budget is an estimate and is not legal approval of funding. The estimates of property

tax revenues may be updated during our five-year budget process, which will be held after council

recess. Updates to our estimates will also be reported to the county through the certificate

of estimated resources and subsequent and maintenance certificates as needed.

Currently, the city has one debt issue funded by a voted property tax levy of .55

mills for the Justice Center and the expected debt service payment for 2027 is $965,400.

This amount, along with our operational expenditures for the general fund and fire fund,

are what we're requesting our counties to withhold for the 2027 fiscal year. Staff is also

requesting council's permission to send this budget immediately to each county to ensure that we

meet the required deadline of July 20th, 2026. City staff recommends the approvally proposed

tax budget and I'm happy to answer any questions you have at this time.

Okay, so at this point, I'm going to open the hearing to public comments. If you're wishing to speak,

they'll have to be sworn in, correct? No, on this one. Do they have to be sworn in for? Yeah.

That is not a statutory report. They never mind. We're going to bypass that. Sorry.

If you are wishing to please speak, then you can come to podium and speak on the 2027 tax budget

only and you have three minutes. Is there anyone who really wants to talk about the tax budget?

This is your moment. Okay, seeing no one, we're going to close public hearing on the 2027 tax budget.

Are there any comments or questions from council? Okay, pleasure of council on the resolution.

Some move. Are there any other questions or comments?

Okay, please call the roll. Mr. Washburn. Yes. Vice Mayor Stalker. Yes. Mr. Wright. Yes. Vice Chair Glasgow. Yes. Madam Chair Zaco.

Yes. Resolution 2026-08 passes unanimously. There's only five of us here.

All right. If the clerk would read ordinance number 2026-12 by title, please.

To amend chapters 301-331 and 373 of the City of Westerville traffic code

to modernize regulations governing bicycles, electric bicycles, and personal transportation devices.

All right. This is the time of the third reading. Chief Dickinson.

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair, members and councilor and the city staff.

There's been no changes to this ordinance since the last reading in preparation for

the potential of this passing. Chief Merchland has spirit head kind of a three tier education program

for this new ordinance. The first one being an internal education program put forth by our

bike patrol unit not only to educate our officers but also to educate the public right on spot

when these violations are seen. Our school resource officers are working on an education program

from the beginning of the school year to get this information out through the school system

and we're currently looking at the best way to get an educational program out to large public

events such as 4th Friday and situations like that. So with that being said,

we recommend the approval of this ordinance. Okay. Any questions? Thank you. Are there any

questions or comments? I have just no questions but a couple of comments since this is our third reading.

I've said in the past that I appreciate that we're going with an education first

strategy on this. I know there are kind of two sides. There are those who just want to

sleep kids alone and there are those who really want a lot more enforcement. I think both of those

are valid views but I think the strikes are really good balance. There are some practical limitations

to enforcement. This is a nationwide problem and we can't. It becomes very difficult to enforce

when we don't even really know what the rules are. So I think this does a really good job

laying out clear expectations that are enforceable. Education doesn't mean we're not going to be

enforcing anything. I guess I do have one question. Do we intend to collect data so that we can

look maybe a year from now at how effective our education campaign is? How many reports we're

getting? How many upset citizens we have on the bike has to gauge whether this is helping or not?

Yes, our department has several different programs in place including our mobile CAD system

and our dam report that we can track these situations and look at prior to this ordinance coming

into effect. We can also track location areas where we have more issues with this so that we can

manage our enforcement action towards those areas instead of just kind of a broad sweeping action

towards them. Great. Once an appropriate amount of time has gone by maybe this time next year,

we revisit and say how effective has this program been and at that time we can leave the door open

if additional action needs to be taken. But I do appreciate I think education doesn't mean

that we're not enforcing our standards. It doesn't mean that we're giving anybody a free pass.

It means that we are trying to get everybody on the same page with clear expectations

before we move to enforcement. And then the other comment I have is just about signage.

More of a suggestion. I would love to see signage at some of our major e-bike hubs like maybe

Highlands Pool, the rec center. I would also love it if we had like a handout with

you know our clearly stated rules available at places like the rec center so that parents can take

that home and put it on their refrigerator and that can spark a conversation with their kids.

I think you know if we're going to go with this education first campaign we need to make sure we

do the education piece really well. And I know that we that we are I just wanted to throw

those suggestions out there. Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments?

All right. My only additional comment because the vice mayor's doctor just nailed it. That was

great. I think I said this before another meeting but I think it would be great if we could get

some signage uptown that kind of clearly delineates even for regular bikes when they need to walk

the bike and when they can ride. But beyond that if there's no other questions or comments

pleasure of counsel on the ordinance. It's been moved and seconded and the other questions are

comments. Okay call the roll. Mr. Wright. Yes. Mr. Washburn. Yes. Vice mayor Stalker. Yes. Vice

Chair Glasgow. Yes. Madam Chair Newsego. Yes. Ordinance number 2026-12 passes unanimously. The

clerk would read ordinance number 2026-13 by title please. To adopt a supplement to the

Westerville codified ordinances and to enact code amendments to be in conformity with traffic,

criminal and other general provisions in state law and to declare an emergency. This is the time

of the third reading presenting tonight is Mr. Winkle. Good evening, Madam Chair and members of

council. Thank you for the opportunity to present ordinance 2026-13 for its third reading this evening.

It's been about 35 days since the first reading but nothing has changed in the ordinance or in the

staff report. But since it's the last meeting before recess I want to go through the 231 page supplement

reflecting all of council's enactments for 2025. We'll hold off on that for now. But as a quick

reminder this ordinance is largely a housekeeping measure. What it seeks to do is two things. One to

formally adopt council enactments from 2025 and allow those to be published online and through

paper supplements and two to conform city code to changes in state law from last year. So as we

talked about at first reading the majority of these proposed changes exist in either the criminal

code or the traffic code and what the team has done is to review those with Westerville police. They

support the proposed amendments in the criminal traffic code. There are also changes that affect

planning development as well as Westerville fire and they've reviewed those changes as well

so they support those. So if council were to pass as what would happen is that we would notify the

city codifier that you can publish council's enactments from 2025 and then essentially conform

city code to analogous portions of state law. The final note is this ordinance does have an emergency

clause which requires a supermajority vote. So with the five members here tonight all five would

have to pass this or approve the ordinance for it to go into effect. So with that I would be

happy to answer any questions council has on the ordinance. Okay any questions or comments.

Pleasure of council on the ordinance. So moved. Tell you. It's been moved and seconded. Any other

questions or comments? Okay, call the roll. Vice Chair Glasgow. Yes. Mr. Washburn. Yes. Mr. Wright.

Yes. Vice Mayor Stalker. Yes. Madam Chair Seiko. Yes. The ordinance passes unanimously.

You got your supermajority. Thank you. All right. We are moving on to motions.

To make yourself one motion. Emotion to authorize and direct city manager to purchase

personal computer hardware from ex tech partners Inc. and waive formal source selection and notice

requirements. Pleasure of council. So moved. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded Mr.

Farah. Good evening Madam Chair and members of council. I'm

have the honor here to speaking to you tonight about our annual computer and device

refresh purchase. The IT procurement teams have submitted a proposal outlining the acquisition

of new Dell desktop and laptop computers at a total cost of $215,000. This proposal was

based through a thorough sourcing process during which ex tech partners was identified as the vendor

offering the most advantageous pricing. ex tech partners is an existing vendor of the city

and is a highly qualified technology provider holding several notable certifications including

the Ohio edge program, the city of Columbus female business enterprise, Ohio women's business

enterprise and by Ohio vendor for technology. Furthermore, each PC and laptop purchase from

the ex tech partners will include a four year warranty ensuring sustained performance and reliability

extending our fleet and maximizing the utilization of our devices. This strategic initiative aims

to replace the outdated PC fleet which consists of Dell desktops and laptops and rugged laptops,

docking stations and power adapters across various city departments fostering a standardized secure

and dependable technology ecosystem. The information technology department and procurement team fully

endorse this recommendation. This request does exclude the purchase of three Mac laptops,

48 tablets and six Chromebook devices which are also scheduled for replacement this year.

Staff will administratively solicit quotes and provide these devices later in the summer of fall

once manufacturers release all of their updated equipment models. And I'm happy to answer any

questions that you have at this time. Okay, questions or comments? I just have one question. What

do we do with the old devices? So the old devices that we have we take the hard drives out. We

destroy them for making sure that there's no data loss or PII or any of that's wiped and then

we take the devices and we put them either if they are completely unusable. We go and we use our

e-recycler or we try and find ways to give them either resell them back to our ex tech partners

or through other means. All right, cool. Any other questions or comments? Okay, please call

vice mayor stalker. Yes, Mr. Washburn. Yes, vice chair Glasgow. Yes, Mr. Wright. Yes, Madame

Chairs, they go. Yes, motion passes unanimously and the city manager is so authorized. Thank you.

We are going to move on to additional business. Is there any additional business staff?

Nothing further. Thank you. Okay, any additional business from council?

All right, council comments. Mr. Washburn, you're up first tonight.

So I was so looking forward to fourth of July this year and I really enjoyed walking in the parade

with some of the rest of council and I had a great day and a great time with fireworks with my

family. The boys actually went with us and rode with us and hung out which made me very happy.

Those of you that have adult 21-year-old kids, you know they don't always want to ride with you

or hang out with you and they chose to but I was pretty sad that night to hear what happened

literally moments probably after we drove past I think we got home at 1045 and we drove right past

that where it happened. I'm just it was horrible to see and I was very proud of our police

department. I watched all the all the videos that first Gary shared that the amount of professionalism

and just how they handled the crowd and that the person who was shot and even the young men

that they arrested I felt was handled with the utmost of professionalism and I appreciate that

and I'm happy to live in a community where we have that and I just as far as it relates to the

fourth of July I'll be back next year for the 211st I hope it doesn't ever go away because I think

it's something that we should do and we need to do and we shouldn't let a tragic thing happen

to cancel it. Just on another note in continuing with America 250 a few of us from the Sunrise

Rotary will be reading the full Declaration of Independence tomorrow at six at City Hall so we're

looking forward to that. I actually get to read a piece there's some words in there I don't use

every day so I'm hoping I don't fumble over them but and I guess you know lastly I we try to

listen but I have to take one thing I don't ever have to park in and uptown I always find a

place to park maybe I don't park right in front of the store I'm going to but I never have

problems parking uptown so on that end I hope to see some people hope to see some people tomorrow

night where we read off the Declaration of Independence it's all I got. All right thank you Mr.

I just want to thank the residents again for their continued engagement with council and the whole

process it has been invigorating it has been a sudden arm for me and just want to thank you for

that looking forward to the the respite to recharge and come back more focused and energized

I wish everyone a good summer with your friends your families and the one thing I want to

share is that along with the engagement there's going to be an opportunity for those that want to

see real change there will be an election next year for council and that's your opportunity to

make some change so now is the time to really roll up your sleeves and get involved there will be

opportunity to apply for boards and commissions in September that's a way to get involved to serve

so don't let this be the last thing you do really roll up your sleeves and get engaged and consider

all that you can do if you really want to make a difference and change the way things are done

you'll be at least one seat open next year so have at it run that's all I have

thank you vice mayor stop here yeah I have a smattering of things to mention tonight I wanted to thank

everybody who put hours in to make the 4th of july in westerville what it was

city staff who put hours in that day and rotary club it was such a great day

and you know my son and I really enjoyed it we went to the 4th of july festival for the fireworks

we had a great time we we parked in the opposite direction of the incident and we had no idea

that that had happened until we were you know very far away and safe and that what that tells me is

that it's clear that there was a plan for something like that and that plan was executed the way

it was supposed to because if you weren't in that immediate vicinity you probably had no idea until you

you know until you saw Facebook post the next day so it's just a good reminder that there are people

keeping us safe even if we don't see them and so I'm thankful for the people in our city who put

those plans together and of course to our first responders our police officers and our partner

departments who who came to our aid in that situation that being said I I did want to take a moment

to thank a lot of the youth in our community that morning before the parade I went to get coffee

at a family room they were open they were people working I thanked them for working

um they were like we're getting paid so you know we don't mind um and uh that afternoon my son and I

went to the pool we went to highlands and you know the lifeguards there are typically young people

we ordered pizza that evening which was delivered by a young person everywhere I went the city was

continuing to function and um you know in ways that allow most of us to just take the day off and enjoy

our day and a lot of that is coming from our youth and you know I just thought it was a really good

really good example of young people in our community that have a good work ethic and value

responsibility to you know I appreciate adults that have to work on holidays too but we can

kind of rationalize it you know we're adults we have bills to pay this our job our career whatever

when I see kids putting in that kind of work it's like you're you know you're saying no to

plans with your friends and things like that and I just I just appreciated it so I wanted to

to highlight something that I saw a lot of times when issues about youth make it

here it's because um they're bugging us in some way so um that that was a moment where I was like

there no they're they're actually really great um and then lastly um if you've been to

previous meetings um you've heard me mention my coffee meetups um so I have one coming up

for July it will be Tuesday July 21st at 2 o'clock we will be at Meshawi stop in the Westerville

Plaza and I'll post that on my social media as well as a reminder um and I do change the time

in the location to try to accommodate as many people who want to calm as possible but I'm trying

to take advantage of being on summer break um right now so I'm I'm putting in some daytime

hours I'll have you know evening meetups once school starts back up um but if you can't make it

you can email me um you can also reach out just to have a one-on-one coffee um I would love that

so if you can't make the the meetup you know just just reach out um and a reminder that you know

we don't have to be in crisis there doesn't have to be anything wrong you can just want to get to know

me or let me listen to you um or we can just have a meal together and um talk about like the weather

I don't know um you know it's just it can be um I get to know you kind of thing it doesn't have to

you don't have to have some brilliant question to ask me um so when you know we talk about

digging in and getting involved and staying engaged um you know that's just one way so

reach out or show up um on Tuesday July 21st and that's all I have thank you all right

vice your last go yeah I would just reiterate what Mr. Wright said so thank you all continuing to

come here and comment uh the comments are are good and constructive um so it's appreciated

as I've said before I'm going to be a broken record at these things for some of you people but

um I will be sitting out over the summer probably starting next week I'll

announces on my social media sitting out in front of city council um some some of you I've seen

there some of you I haven't um so I would be happy to have any discussions this format is not

necessarily conducive to us answering questions uh the way I think you guys have asked and like

but I think for the people that have come out uh to those sit-outs can attest that I'm happy to

answer questions on a one-on-one basis and uh whether permitting I'll be out there as much as I can

and schedule and travel baseball permitting um so with that I would just say I hope everyone has

a good summer and we'll see you we come back all right uh so tonight I wanted to touch on

Fourth of July like everyone else uh the festivities overall were amazing we're so excited to see

everyone out I'm impressed with everyone who hung in there for the heat there was a lot of people

out for the parade some of you might not know this but I am the parade planner with the rotary

and uh so it was a big lift and I'm glad it all went well and the rotary has so many volunteers

that day who make that day happen and not only that but the police firm and the fire department

city administration service of permitting it is really all hands on deck and everyone did

such a phenomenal job I think to echo uh Mr. Washburn's comments I also watched the footage um and what

struck me was just how chaotic it it was really in that parking lot I mean there's so much happening

after the fireworks in general in a situation like that there's a lot of people and our officers

were so professional and focused and calm I was very impressed by that um the dispatchers as well

listened to some of the calls the Gary shared and I was just struck by how calm everyone was

how professional they handled the situation so well and so I just wanted to know that that was

really quite impressive um and made an impact on me going back a little bit to say a couple things

that uh we haven't been here in a few weeks so we had our city hall dedication that went really

well as well and it was very fun to welcome everyone into the new city hall you have not had

chance to see it please stop by this summer come see our new customer service area it's a really

beautiful building it's nice to have everyone together in the same spot so I was exciting fourth

Friday went really well despite the rain it actually ended up being very nice out the it wasn't

probably great if you were setting up in it but I think for the rest of us who came at 630 and enjoyed

the weather was lovely um so I'm looking forward to more of those coming up this summer and I'm just

excited to see you guys all out at the sitouts and all the events as we've said before we're always

happy to talk and we're on a public we might not always have all the answers so sometimes bear

with us we might have to take a note and get back to you um but we do we do try we do want to hear

we've got our next meeting is not until September 1st it's going to be at 7 p.m. and that's

likely here at the Justice Center I can't imagine chambers will be ready at that point so we're

going to say the Justice Center um and then the work session where we're going to talk about some

of those questions that have been discussed that'll be September 8th at 7 p.m. um so I have a a

thought that I kind of threw out at another meeting which I think um to Miss Walco's kind of

thought process we'll probably have some some cards out so you can jot down questions if you

think of them while we're going through stuff at that work session we will not have time in that

work session to go through all those questions just because by the time we get through that it'd be

you know 10, 30 and 11 o'clock at night so what we would what I would like us to do is collect those

cards and then maybe provide answers maybe not to every single question but like themes of question

right I mean if there's seven questions that kind of hit the same thing we're not going to be able to

but we could work on that so I think that would be a maybe a way to kind of hit that that information gap

and see also maybe where we kind of didn't explain well enough or maybe if something we missed

that people are curious about that would be interesting as well to see so with that said I will

entertain a motion to adjourn today. It's been moved and seconded. It's called a roll. Mr. Washburn.

Yes. Vice Mayor Stocker. Yes. Mr. Wright. Yes. Vice Chair Glasgow. Yes. Madam Chair Zaco. Yes. We are adjourned

for the summer. I think it's a definite decision. Yes.