All right, it is 5.30 and I will call the regular City Council meeting of the Dublin City Council of Tuesday, May 26th, 2026 to order.
Jenny, which please call the roll.
Ms. Aluto.
Mayor Amrose-Gromes.
Here.
Vice Mayor DeRosa.
Here.
Ms. Johnson.
Here.
Mr. Keeler.
Here.
Ms. Cram.
Here.
Dr. Lam.
Here.
Okay, I will make a motion to adjourn to executive session for the purposes of land acquisition considering the purchase of property for public purposes.
And to consider confidential information related to a request for economic development assistance that involves public infrastructure improvements that are directly related to an economic development project.
In which executive session is necessary to protect the possible investment or expenditure of public funds to be made in connection with the economic development project.
Is there a second?
Second.
Jenny, which please call the roll.
Mr. Keeler.
Yes.
Vice Mayor DeRosa.
Yes.
Ms. Johnson.
Yes.
Dr. Lam.
Yes.
Ms. Saludo.
Yes.
Okay.
I will remind the viewing public that we will reconvene in this location at 7 p.m.
Thank you.
Okay.
We will reconvene the regular Dublin City Council meeting of Tuesday, May 26th, 2026.
Start with the pledge of allegiance.
Greg, would you like to lead us?
Okay.
Next on our agenda is citizen comments.
This is an opportunity for citizens to comment on any topic that is not on tonight's agenda.
As a reminder, we hope that you had the opportunity to sign in at the kiosk on your way.
And if not, we will hear your comments once we have concluded those that have signed in.
Lindsay, do we have anyone who has signed in to speak?
We do not.
Is there anyone present that would like to speak on an item that is not on this evening's agenda?
Yes.
Hearing none, we will move on to the consent agenda.
Is there a request to remove an item from the consent agenda consisting of two meeting minutes
and a legislative author to transfer ownership of DBA liquor permit?
Hearing none, I will make a motion to approve the consent agenda.
Is there a second?
Second.
Thank you, Jenny.
Would you please call the roll?
Ms. Cram.
Yes.
Mayor M. Rosegroom.
Yes.
Mr. Keeler.
Yes.
Dr. Lam.
Yes.
Ms. Saludo.
Yes.
Okay.
We have a tabled item this evening, ordnance 06-25.
You want me to read the title?
No.
Okay.
Council tabled ordnance 06-25, which is a motion to remove ordnance 06-25 from the table and place it
on in July 1st, 2026 agenda for additional reading and public hearing.
Council, tabled this ordnance last August and directed staff to work with stakeholders to draft
targeting zoning code amendments to address compatibility concerns while preserving the long-term
vision for development within the WID and ensuring consistency with the approved in vision
Dublin community plan.
Planning and zoning commission reviewed the code amendment in at its May 21st meeting.
With that, I would like to make a motion to remove the ordnance 06-25 from the table and
place it on the July 1, 2026 council agenda for an additional reading and public hearing.
Is there a second?
Second.
Thank you.
Jenny, would you please call the roll?
Mayor M. Rosegrims.
Yes.
Ms. Cram.
Yes.
Ms. Johnson.
No.
Vice Mayor DeRosa.
Yes.
Mr. Keeler.
Yes.
Dr. Lam.
Yes.
Ms. Saludo.
Yes.
Okay.
And ordnance 06-25 to the substitute version for the May 26, 2026 meeting.
Is there a second?
Is there any discussion?
Hearing none, Jenny, would you please call the roll?
Vice Mayor DeRosa.
Yes.
Mayor M. Rosegrims.
Yes.
Ms. Johnson.
No.
Dr. Lam.
Yes.
Ms. Saludo.
Yes.
Mr. Keeler.
Yes.
Ms. Cram.
Yes.
This is 30 days in advance of the July 1st meeting.
So one of the reasons for placing it on this agenda.
So we have plenty of time to get out all of the public notices of the interested parties
that we have heard from to date and those that we are legally obligated to notify as
well.
Very good.
Okay.
This brings us to second reading public hearing ordinances.
And we'll begin with ordnance 27-26, authorizing the submission of a petition for the regular
annexation of 201.7 acres, more or less, of property from Darby Township, Madison County
to the city of Dublin, Ohio.
Very good.
Our staff report will be brought forward this evening by Yasashwari.
Welcome, Yas.
Thank you, Mayor and good evening, Council.
There have been no changes since the last reading.
This will permit the city to file the annexation petition for regular annexation of this property.
With the county, happy to answer any questions.
Very good.
Thank you.
We want to take some time for public comment.
Is there anyone present this evening from the general public that would like to speak relative
to this legislation?
Hearing none, Council, questions, discussion?
Jenny, would you please call the roll?
Dr. Lamb?
Yes.
Ms. Aluto?
Yes.
Ms. Cram?
Yes.
Ms. Johnson?
Yes.
Vice Mayor DeRosa?
Yes.
Mayor Amrosgram?
Yes.
Mr. Keeler?
Authorizing the provision of certain incentives to a facility construction company LLC to induce
it to purchase an office building for the relocation of the company's existing office
and the expansion of that office and its associated operations and workforce within the city
and authorizing the execution of an economic development agreement.
Very good.
Our staff report will be brought forward this evening by Abby Falcone.
Welcome.
And she will be joined by Rosili representative Andrew Friedlake, who is also with us here
this evening.
So, Abby, please take it away.
Yeah.
Meeting members of council, a zero recall staff has been working with the facility construction
company as they are considering expanding their operations to a new location in Dublin.
They are also currently headquartered in Dublin.
The proposed incentive is for a 10% performance incentive on withholdings over five years valued
at $185,000 for the term of the agreement.
Additionally, the agreement includes a location grant payment of $50,000 for the purpose of
purchasing and building in Dublin and related renovation expenses.
There have been no changes to the proposed ordinance and staff recommends council approval.
And here with us this evening representing Rosili construction company as Andrew Friedlake
by its president general council on partner and he will be happy to answer any questions
that you have.
Very good.
Thank you.
I want to take a moment for public comment.
Is there anyone present this evening from the general public that would like to speak relative
to this legislation?
Hearing none.
Council questions, discussion?
Alquandre, do you have any thoughts you'd like to share with us?
If you could start with your name and address into the record, there's a button there.
If you press it, a green light will come.
There you go.
Perfect.
One more time.
There you go.
Go ahead.
Andrew Friedlake, vice president general council of Rosili construction 58, 15 Wall Street
right down here in Dublin.
Sorry about that.
Just want to give a few comments on Rosili when we first moved to our current headquarters
in Dublin.
As I mentioned right down here in Wall Street, it was 2020.
Our head count was approximately 120 associates.
We moved in at that time as a family owned business into a 22,000 square foot building that
gave us plenty of room that we thought to grow.
Now six years later, we're 100% employee owned.
We've added 140 associates taking our head count to 260 and we're now operating out of
multiple offices here in Dublin, not just in our headquarters.
When we sought out earlier this year for our next headquarters, we looked at a number
of options that would allow us to grow and get under one roof and perhaps more importantly
provide us room to grow as we looked at another 20 to 30 associates before the end of
the year.
With that, we believe we found our next headquarters and we're excited to make it official
and get moving, specifically we're looking, we're negotiating with the building down
at 5450 France, which is located right at the corner of France and Tuddle, and our current
plan would be to renovate approximately 40,000 square feet of that space, which would
have housed all of our employees, our 20 to 30 new employees, and also make a common
area of building surroundings and improvements to the building itself.
So, might I answer any questions if you guys may have?
Well, that certainly is an impressive success story of a timeline in the work that you've
done.
We know you've built many great buildings in this community, including most of the schools
that the kids of this community attend every day, so we look forward to that.
Very good.
Any other questions?
Jenny, would you please call the roll?
Ms. Johnson?
Yes.
Ms. Cram?
Yes.
Ms. Saluto?
Yes.
Mr. Keeler?
Yes.
Dr. Lam?
Yes.
Vice Mayor DeRosa?
Yes.
Yes.
Back home.
Welcome to a new neighborhood.
How about that?
Appreciate it.
And your continued community.
So, we're so thankful that you chose Dublin, and we look forward to continued growth and
success of the organization.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Okay.
This brings us to introduction.
First reading ordinances.
Ordinance 29-26.
Amendments to sections 153.002 and 153.172 and adding chapter 123 to the Dublin codified
ordinances to address food truck operation.
I understand.
Thank you.
Our staff report will be brought for this evening by Kendall Blake.
Welcome.
Good evening, members of Council.
Before you this evening is an ordinance to establish food truck regulations within the
city of Dublin.
Two sections of chapter 153 are recommended for a removal to create a standalone chapter
123.
This chapter is intended to create regulations that are clear, enforceable and responsive
to operational needs of the community.
Very good.
Oh, I'm sorry.
At the May 11 City Council meeting staff presented the proposed regulations and reviewed
policy considerations that were previously discussed by the Public Services Committee.
Council expressed support and provided feedback.
Three specific feedback items are highlighted on the screen before you.
In regards to the 12 designated locations, Council supported additional parking lots
in the designated locations which have all been expanded.
City Council wanted staff to explore the possibility of having food trucks within Riverside
Crossing Park rather than on Riverside Drive.
After conversations with our public service team and Washington Township Fire Marshall, staff
does not recommend food trucks within the parks due to topography, changes, infrastructure,
unable to support the weight of food trucks, circulation concerns and emergency response
times.
Consistent with Council consensus at that last meeting should Riverside Crossing Park
not be an option, staff has narrowed the allowable on-street parking to the northern portion of
Riverside Drive.
At this time, I would like to ask Anthony Severin with Frostbrown Todd Givens to provide
comments on the other two feedback items.
Good evening, everyone.
There was a request by Council Member Lamb to talk about more of a progressive, disciplined
approach that might have stemmed from a miscommunication of my end, if so, I apologize,
where we were talking about how some aspects of the code are immediately a third degree
misdemeanor, while others are progressive from minor fourth to third based on severity
and repeat offenses.
The distinction is between license-related offenses in the one hand, which we treated as more
severe in the drafting process, and then operational related offenses on the other hand, which
are more progressive based on day-to-day violations.
That was the approach, so we believe that we understood the request there.
If that's not the case, happy to take additional direction, and to the extent there were any
questions about maybe how does a health department or other restaurant operators, how would
they be used to dealing with some types of offenses?
At the end of the day, this ordinance doesn't address health and safety for food operations
exactly, but it addresses where you can park, how you operate when you're engaging in your
operations and business, and then license-related aspects.
Those health-related safety concerns are still within the purview of the county boards
of health, and their enforcement mechanisms would always be available, and they can take
reports and concerns there, so we hope that that has alleviated any questions.
Actually, I think the memo cleared that up, so thank you very much, no further questions.
Very good.
And then finally, there was a request, a council member cramped, to consider something along
a revenue-sharing approach at sports complexes, and the concern was certainly heard, but for
a number of reasons, both administrative feasibility and legal, we recommend not approaching that
at this point.
If you would like more information on some of the legal aspects, we'd be happy to provide
a memorandum to that effect, but at this point, we just believe that it's not a prudent
way to add to this ordinance.
So in regards to next steps, if council approves ordinance 2926, staff would publish an educational
website, which will explain the new code licensing and application process, designated locations
and reservation process in prohibited dates.
Last week, staff met with the Central Ohio Food Truck Association to discuss how they
could be a resource to communicate with food truck operators within the region.
They were more than supportive to send information out on our behalf to their membership, which
currently has 150 operators, but they have multiple vehicles themselves on our behalf.
We also staff met with the street food finder last week, which is a public platform used
to locate and schedule food trucks.
It is used by customers, event organizers and food truck operators, so we believe that
this platform can serve as the city's registration system for food truck locations.
It has several advantages.
The public is already familiar with that platform.
Food truck operators are used to the system, and after the pilot period, we're actually
able to limit who can sign up for our locations, only to those that have actually been licensed.
Additionally, street food finder also provides location specific reporting, and an added benefit
would not cost the city anything.
The food trucks are actually charged a nominal fee when they sign up for a location, and
that's how the platform is self-sustaining.
We believe that that's a really great software that we could potentially use.
With that, staff recommends adoption of ordinance 2926 at the second reading and public hearing
on June 8th, and we would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Very good, thank you.
Time for public comment.
Is there anyone present this evening that would like to speak relative to this legislation?
Hearing none, council questions, discussion?
Candle, thank you for this.
I just had one question on this scheduling.
The entire calendar opened up at one time, or is it opened on a rolling basis?
So we would likely time that up with our, we'll open it as much as we can, however, we
want to make sure that some of these locations are near where permitted events occur, and
so we wouldn't want to book too far out in the sake of we have an event operator that goes
through the event permit process, submits their application in the appropriate amount
of time that's required through that process, and then go back until a food truck vendor.
Sorry, you can actually no longer partake here because of the buffer zone.
So we would want to be strategic in how far out in advance.
We also know that these food truck operators are planning multiple events, and so we know
that they probably, from discussions with a few operators, they don't book too far out
just because they want to keep their options open of what the best possibility is.
But we would make sure that we'd align that with the community event permit process.
Thank you.
Michelle on that one.
So I think my suggestion would be to not book it too far out.
I guess what we don't want is for someone to book the same spot every day for the next
three months or something like that.
So I think we need to consider a rolling schedule, or they can't book the same spot
more than three times in a week or something, because it turns more into a brick and
mortar type place if they're booking that same spot every day for ever.
So as you roll out that, I think we need to consider some limitations.
We appreciate that comment.
Yeah, we looked into that, and Street Food Finder does have the ability to limit.
So if we wanted to say this food truck can come to this location once per week, now maybe
they're switching locations every other day, and maybe that creates the excitement of
the neighborhood, or wherever it may be, those parks, but that software has that ability.
So we'll be looking into that through the pilot period, thanks.
Thank you.
And I appreciate the staff's analysis of the legal analysis of the revenue sharing for
the concessions.
But I think the question still is, is what can we do to help protect the revenue for some
of the youth sports that they derive through the concessions?
So in part of the legal analysis of it, was there any other ideas that staff came up with
to maybe help protect some of that without creating the legal inconsistencies that were
cited?
I don't think we had a particular consideration other than blocking out certain locations
at certain times and making it so that it's not a allowed bookable, you know, designated
food truck parking zone on that date to help reduce any competition concerns.
One of the things I really like about the pilot, if it rather pertains to what impact
is that having on certain clubs, or are we booking people to frequently, or where is
it located?
Is it going to work on the North Side of River?
I think over the next few months, we're going to learn a few things, and I think we'll
hear from some of the groups as to the impact potentially, and we'll hear about, you know,
what's working and what isn't.
So after this pass, after the code passes, we'll hear back from you when, as to what's
working.
Yes, so staff was planning on coming back in roughly around January of next year.
We wanted to make sure we gave enough time that if there were code changes that we learned
through the pilot period, we'd have enough time before we hit that licensing time frame
of March 1st.
So also, I'm assuming that it will be a very quiet time in January for food truck operations.
So we thought that we should learn enough through the summer and the fall to come back
to Council with enough information.
And I think staff knows what questions are of interest to, I mean, to the community,
to this Council, et cetera, so to provide some reports about how these are going as we're
working through that process.
That's the beauty of the pilot, right, is that we can make whatever change we feel we have
to do.
Right now, we're, in some instances, guessing because we just really don't know.
So I appreciate the staff's work on that and we'll look forward to that report back and
we'll look report to seeing this back for second reading.
Thank you.
I can just have a quick follow up on that comment because I absolutely agree.
And I think in part of the pilot evaluation framework, we actually did talk about obtaining
community feedback and also looking at operation impacts.
I may have missed this, but were there specific measures that we wanted to identify a
priority because, you know, if we don't, and then we just say, like, oh, we just talked
about them afterwards, but we haven't identified that ahead of time.
We might miss the boat on the ability to collect specific data that we're looking at.
So my question is, is did the staff had specific measurable metrics that we wanted to track during
this pilot so that we can then follow up with the food truck operators to see if it
was successful and also if it met part of the, you know, the questions that we had?
Yeah.
I appreciate that question.
So through the street food finder, we have the ability to survey the operators.
We would do that anyways.
We also absolutely on the website that we would be creating want to have an opportunity
for the public to tell us whether or not they appreciated these locations or not.
We also learned that through that system, they actually report their earnings.
Obviously, that's up to the discussion of the honesty of the operator, but we could use
that, but also, you know, we don't know yet how to determine is success five times a week
is success twice, you know, who determines what that cadence is of whether or not a location
is great or not.
I think the data will tell us how many times a few trucks are picking certain locations.
That's probably going to tell us what's the most advantageous for them, but we also through
that survey want to leave the opportunity for community members to say like we would
really love to have one here, and then we learned through the pilot period, and then
we can implement that at that change point.
So we keep track of information on our food truck Wednesdays at Kaufman in terms of like,
I know they probably don't share with us, they're revenue, but we would have an idea
of how many people visited roughly.
We should have technology that should be able to tell us that information, but we also
are currently already using that street food finder platform to get those food vendors
for those Wednesdays, so, and we limit them number of times that they can come so that every
single Wednesday, you're not seeing the same truck, so we do have some data from that already
because that's good information to, you know, for your foundation of your pilot program
and say this is, you know, what we've, what we've seen thus far and what we built on.
Okay, any other questions?
Well, thank you for that, both of you.
We will schedule second reading public hearing for June the 8th of 2026.
Brings us to ordinance 30-26, adopting and enacting a supplement to the code of ordinances
for the city of Dublin, Ohio.
I understand.
And our staff report will be brought forward this evening by Joe Bachelors.
Welcome.
Thank you, Marin, and I think you guys will be glad to know that I think I'm the last
lawyer you'll be hearing from tonight, so we'll try to keep it quick.
Just want to go through some basics of the code supplement process as well, since I know
we have some new council members.
So the city's ordinance codifier, which is the entity that puts the city's code online
is American legal publishing.
So each year when city council passes a new ordinance that would amend the code or add
code, it does not immediately go on the website, even though it might be in effect.
The same goes with the Ohio General Assembly who often immense laws that the city has incorporated
into its codified ordinances, mostly in the traffic and criminal context.
So those changes don't appear instantaneously when the new statute of law takes effect.
Instead, twice every year, the codifier, Compiles Code changes from local ordinances and the
Ohio higher revised code and adds it into Dublin's code to stay up to date.
And that is what we have in front of you with this ordinance.
So most of American legal's proposed changes are from the Ohio higher revised code.
Those are through June 25th of 2025.
Most of that can be summarized as minor changes to traffic definitions, changes to definitions
or minor alterations to criminal offenses, things of that nature.
For local changes, it's just ordinances passed last year through December 8th, 2025 as
well.
Examples was an amendment to the fee schedule as a result of the cost study and then other
minor code cleanup that went on.
So the version you are looking at as well as not the most up to date.
That is the version that the codifier sent directly to us.
Over the last couple of weeks, our office has gone through page by page, all 263 pages
to confirm accuracy as well as confirm accuracy and make sure nothing was missed.
We gave them the edits on Friday according to the timeline.
So when you consider this at your second reading, you will have the most up to date version
based on the changes that we found.
For things we caught going through, some grammatical changes, there were some commas inserted
when commas were not there in the statute and vice versa.
Potential confusion where the new comprehensive micromobility code is codified at the next
codification process.
There was a definition added that we just kept out to make sure there was no conflict.
As well as just fixing an issue in the code sections, minor issue dealing with fireworks
as well.
Those were all of the changes we caught and I am happy to take any questions with the
qualifier that if I happen to not remember something from the 263 page document, we can come
back to you with an answer as well.
Very good public comment, anyone present this evening that would like to speak relative
to this legislation?
Amy Swank signed it?
Very good.
Welcome.
If you could please come forward and state your name and address into the record, we welcome
your thoughts.
I'm sorry.
If you could press that little button there.
Perfect you're on.
Amy Swank, 5945, Vandalier Place.
When I went back to the April 7th, 2025 Council meeting minutes in order to prepare my
commas for PNZ, I recognized that there was actually an air that didn't make it into
the supplement that you're about to discuss tonight.
So at that meeting, City Council actually took a motion on the floor, mayor grooms.
We made it, Ms. Ludo, you seconded it, and it basically said, move to amend the code
section applicable to the West Innovation District to reflect that data centers will be
conditional use rather than a permitted use in ID3 zoning district.
And that's on page 10 of those minutes.
There was much discussion about ID3, it was mentioned a couple times in those comments.
And the supplement does not reflect that change.
It was approved unanimously by City Council after that motion was made on the floor.
And those code changes were then unanimously approved and adopted.
Actually, he's actually not the last lawyer you're going to hear from it, I am.
And there are legal may assert that when there's discrepancy between minutes and ordinances,
ordinances rule, but that's really only the case when you have a true discrepancy.
The motion on the floor was very clear, the minutes were very clear, you all adopted
them, set the meeting after that.
So it wasn't necessarily a typographical error or an issue where it wasn't clear.
So my ask is that you guys go back, I have an audit done, I can't imagine that I'm the
only one that found a mistake, I'm guessing that there's more than that, so that's request
one.
I think request two is to make sure that the supplement that you do adopt does reflect
the motion that was made at that April 7th meeting.
And then the third, I think, ask would be to make sure that as you are communicating about
ID6 to the community, that you make sure that you're using the correct version of the code
that reflects the actions taken by Council in April of 2025, because that has not been done.
I did raise that at PNZ, I'm not sure again since that was a council action, if that was
the right place, but I'm hoping you all are the right place, so that's all.
Thank you.
You're good, thank you.
Any others like to make public comment?
Hearing none?
Yes, so I will try to explain, and yes, we'll back me up as well, if other questions
come up.
So the supplement includes an update to the land use code that Council adopted last year,
I believe, was ordinance 4225.
The only regulatory change in that ordinance was making data centers that conditionally
use an ID2, I believe, where they were previously permitted uses, and as well, that supplement
just makes references to wood in general.
But to my understanding, the proposed new ID6 code also will include a change to make data
centers prohibited in all wood districts as well, to help clarify things.
And then as well, with not catching it in the proposed update to the code, to the best
of my knowledge, the red line is there, but it might have been perceived as not existing
previously, even though the ordinance has been an effect, it's just not been online.
But we will also go back and check to make sure that that is there correctly.
I know we do these updates periodically, where we update everything online, and then things
happen until our next update, and then the update happens, and then that lives online
life happens, and that's something we repeat.
At least annually, sometimes by annually, every year.
So, great.
Thank you.
Okay, council questions and discussion.
I just have one question, and you don't have to do this for the next one, but when you
come at, I think, when we see it in December or whatever, I ask this before, it's very
helpful if you use a two-color highlighting system, where one color is the state changes
and one color is our changes.
Again, don't have to go back and redo it.
I use the index in the back.
So you're fine.
I'll try to.
If this would have been our red line, we would have done that.
We have to go to Ambilical for that, because what you're viewing is what they gave us directly,
with the green highlights and things that are not the easiest to comprehend.
Well, there's an index in the back and tells you which sections were the state ones, which
I use, but if we can do it in a two-color one, I know we did it before, and it's helpful.
We will make that effort.
Any other questions, comments, discussion?
When we come back for second reading, can we be very, very clear?
Can we just double check and go back and walk through the process, go back through the
meeting minute notes?
Let's just cross the tees and dot the eyes on this, and I'd like to hear that you have
addressed it specifically so we can clarify it, there's a concern or not.
So if you could just please go through, and I know things happen, but let's just make
sure that we can back up what we're doing with what's on the record, and we can move forward
and feel good about it.
Yes, just to clarify, I think this is more of a timing issue than anything, because so
yeah, we'll make sure everything's cleared up.
Okay, but just if you could just make sure you'll address it and report back in the second
reading.
Thank you.
Anything else?
No.
Okay, we will have second reading public hearing scheduled for June 8, 2026 on that
ordinance item, ordinance 31-26, adopting the proposed tax budget for fiscal year 2027.
Thank you, and our staff report will be brought for this evening by Megan Murray, welcome.
All right, good evening, members of council, ordinance 31-26, proposes the adoption of
the tax budget for fiscal year 2027.
The tax budget is required by Ohio Revives Code and must be adopted by council no later than
July 15th of each year.
Once adopted, it will be filed with Delaware and Franklin County auditors by July 20th.
The primary purpose of the tax budget is to establish property tax rates and to allocate
local government fund dollars.
I want to emphasize this is not an appropriation measure.
The tax budget does not grant spending authority, nor does it commit to the city to any specific
capital projects for 2027.
Appropriation decisions will be in separately during the full budget process later this year.
So the key considerations as we build the tax budget looking first at the revenue side,
we have held the income tax projections flat, updated revenue projections we developed
later in 2026 as part of the full 2027 budget process, which will give us a clear picture
based on actual economic conditions.
Most other revenue sources in the tax budget have also been held flat reflecting this
continued development of the budget process.
On the expenditure side we have applied a 3% increase to personnel services, which
is consistent which we have done in prior years.
We have also applied a 3% inflation factor across other spending categories to account
for anticipated cost increases.
Regarding the property tax millage, 100% of the inside millage or 1.75 mills has been
allocated to the capital improvements tax fund consistent with resolution 4825 adoptive
by council.
Devoted ongoing 1.2 mills dedicated to police and safety operation remains separate and
continues as previously authorized.
So looking ahead, June 8th will bring back the proposed tax budget for a second reading
and public hearing.
And then upon adoption, the tax budget will be filed with the county auditors.
And then separately, we're going to start the 2027 budget process over the coming months
and updated revenues and estimates and more detailed analysis will be shared with council
as that budget progresses.
And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.
Very good.
Thank you.
Take a moment for public comment.
Is there anyone present this evening that would like to speak relative to this legislation?
Hearing none, council questions, discussion?
Thanks, Megan for bringing this forward.
So just to be clear, the tax budget does not need to be filed with union county at this
time.
Correct.
Okay.
Others?
Well, thank you for your work on that and thank you for bringing it forward in a timely
fashion that we can have second hearing on June 8th should there be any substantive issues
that are bought up by members of the community or anyone else we would still have additional
meeting time to pass that to meet our state statutes.
So appreciate the consideration on that.
Okay.
We will have second reading public hearing scheduled for June 8th, 2026 on that ordinance brings
us to ordinance 32-26, amending the annual appropriations for the fiscal year ending
December 3rd, 2026.
Thank you.
And our staff report will be brought forward this evening by Doug or Bansick.
Welcome.
Good evening, members.
Council tonight.
I'll bring forward the cue to supplemental.
So a little bit of background regarding these amending appropriations ordinances, so typically
they're to provide supplemental funding.
It also ensures that budget accounts remain properly funded and compliant.
So you know, for example, this could support debt service, capital projects, public safety,
and operations, and also it utilizes available unencumbered fund balances when available.
So right now with the cue to, there are four sections.
So the first section is regarding our manuscript debt payment.
So this would be a $3.4 million transfer from the general fund to the CIP fund.
This supports the 2024 manuscript debt series that was associated with the 2024 land acquisition.
There's $11 million from the water fund and $4.2 million from the sewer fund.
So this structure allows flexibility for early principal repayment if additional funding
is available.
And this year we decided to go with the standard $3.4 million payment and aligning with the
debt payment schedule.
Section 2 also relates to a debt service fund.
This is a $585,000 appropriation for interest payments.
This is related to the 2026 land acquisition notes that were issued in February of this year.
And to note, there are only interest only payments up until December 2027 and this aligns
appropriations with the payment schedule accordingly.
For section 3, this is requesting $690,000 in additional funding for the CAD and RMS upgrade
in 2026.
So the funding consists of allocation from the CIP fund, the safety fund, and the wireless
9-1-1 fund.
So right now the current system is at its useful life which was installed in 2014 and originally
we budget approximately $550,000 for the CAD equipment and $450,000 for the RMS equipment
in 2026 and 2027 in this year's approved 2026 to 2030 CIP.
And through competitive selection process that included representatives from partner agencies
they were involved in the process to select a vendor for this equipment.
So the total financial impact is $3.8 million with the phase 1 cost occurring in 2026 at
$1.7 million and within next year in 2027 we'll also work with our partner agencies
in reimbursement of $1.5 million.
And this supports the regional emergency response operations.
And here's a detailed breakdown of the project costs by phase and by funding source so you
could see in 2026 that $693,000 is needed in additional funding.
And then with section 4 of the ordinance this includes a $4,000 appropriation of the
law enforcement trust fund.
So these funds are restricted for asset forfeitures.
This appropriation will support investigative activities including evidence collection and
case preparation.
And with that, staff recommends approval of ordinance 3226 at the June 8th hearing.
They'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have.
Very good thank you.
Public comment.
Is there anyone present this evening that would like to speak relative to this legislation?
Hearing none, council questions, discussion?
So my first is a clarifying question.
So the amount is 1.7, this is the CAD one section third.
So the cost is 1.7, but we're going to get reimbursed from partners for 1.5 of that?
Correct.
Yeah, we're going to cost share it among all the partner agencies.
Whereas RMS funding is solely for the city of Dublin.
Okay.
I think that's 1.25 million, financial impact total project costs 3.8, phase 1 costs 1.7.
Okay.
So the one part we get reimbursed for, my second question is how are we so far off on
our estimate?
I mean, that was a huge difference and I get it that that's what it costs and you got asked from vendors.
But what are we doing that we were so far off on her?
Yeah.
What happened?
Yeah, good evening members of council.
Again, just to cover the first question.
The CAD project total is $2.3 million over the course of the two year CIP project.
Again, we would collect reimbursement from our partner agency solely for the CAD project
because that is a system that is used by all of our partners in NREC.
The RMS system is a system that is specific to solely members of the police department
here in the city of Dublin and our communications technicians.
So in regards to the estimates, when we started this project and consideration of this project,
we took a look at some different vendors and just got some ballpark numbers from those
vendors without deep diving into the considerations of what we may need to support a center of
our size.
We gave them kind of a background of our center, got some estimates from those companies.
What we quickly learned when we were researching vendors more thoroughly that there was a lot
of pieces of integrations and future needs for our wireless 9-1-1 system and the advancements
of wireless 9-1-1 systems that were not included in those initial proposals by those companies.
And as we conducted further research that included all of our partner agencies, we found
that the needs of a center of our size that supported regional partners needed an advanced
technological system that was able to capture the needs of that system and with that there
was obviously increased cost that we didn't initially anticipate a couple of years ago
when we started considering this project.
Thank you.
Other questions, comments?
Okay, well, we will look forward to second reading public hearing scheduled for June 8th
of 2026 on that ordinance as well.
This brings us to the introduction public hearing vote resolutions portion of our agenda
and we will begin with resolution 25-26, accepting the lowest and best bid for the Shire
Rings Road Iterman to cause gray shared use path project.
Thank you and our staff report will be from Brian Gable, welcome.
Good evening members of council.
Staff conducted a competitive bid process for the Shire Rings Road Iterman to cause gray
road shared use path project.
This project constructs 1,730 feet of shared use path along the south side of Shire Rings
Road between two existing shared use paths just east of Shire Lane and just east of Lock
Roy Drive that was constructed as part of the Air Shire Farms residential development.
The project also includes some drainage improvements to accommodate the shared use path, reconstruction
of driveway aprons and ADA ramps, while attempting to avoid impacts to larger mature trees,
drive its septic facilities and utilities within the corridor.
Funding for this project is from the 2026 through 2030 capital improvements programed in the
amount of 460,000 from the Shire Rings Road Iterman to cause gray shared use path account.
This project also received link us funding through Washington Township which will be discussed
momentarily.
The engineers estimate for the project is $486,000.
On May 7th, 2026, five bids were received and publicly opened, J&J Schleigel Incorporated
submitted the lowest and best bid of $467,884.53.
Construction is expected to commence in June of 2026 and be completed by the end of October
2026.
Funding for the project includes $544,300 grant funds from link us.
These funds require the contract to be underway in 26 and completed within a certain timeframe.
The city will encumber the costs and then be reimbursed by link us through Washington Township.
Costs for the acquisition phase of the project encumbered in 2026 have been submitted to link
us for reimbursement.
As construction progresses, the city will submit progress payments to link us for reimbursement
until the allotted funds are used.
Once the project is completed, the city will review the final cost and invoice Washington
Township for the remainder of their agreed-upon portion of the project costs.
The estimated final cost amounts for the city and Washington Township after link us funding
is applied or shown on the screen.
Staff recommends Council approval of Resolution 25-26, accepting his lowest and best bid of
J&J Schleigel Incorporated in the amount of $467,884.53 for this project.
I will do my best to address any questions Council may have regarding this resolution.
Very good, thank you.
Public comment.
Is there anyone present this evening that would like to speak relative to this legislation?
Hearing none, Council, questions, discussion?
Well, I would like to congratulate our staff.
Start with our city manager, Megan O'Callahan, who chairs the TSI program through Morpsey
for link us and has put together, I think there were 130 or so projects that are coming
out of the pipeline right now and prioritizing them and building consensus around the 50
and 15 county region of what those are going to be.
These are particularly in the code of service area, but Morpsey coalesced behind all of
those and maybe, if things go well, this might be the first link us project that gets
a ribbon cut.
So we'll hope for that and maybe that will be.
So thank you to all the voters that passed link us.
We're seeing the savings of, looks like maybe 600 plus thousand dollars to our city to
make these connections that we didn't previously have.
So thanks for your work on that, for everybody that was involved in the process.
Okay, with that, if there's nothing further, Jenny, would you please call the roll?
Ms. Aluto.
Yes.
Dr. Lamb.
Yes.
Mayor Amrosgrooms.
Yes.
Ms. Johnson.
Yes.
Ms. Cram.
Yes.
Mr. Keeler.
Yes.
Okay.
Resolution 26-26.
Appointing members to the various board and commissions of the city of Dublin and the
board of trustees of the Bridge Park New Community Authority.
I'll introduce it.
Very good.
And our staff report will be by our own vice mayor, Kathy DeRose of this evening.
Welcome, Kathy.
Thank you.
Every year council reviews the membership of our boards and commissions as terms expire
and applications are received.
I'm delighted to say that there was a wonderful pool of applicants again this year.
Folks ready to serve their community and we thank them very much for stepping forward.
The administrative committee conduct interviews on April 14th and council conducted interviews
on April the 27th.
I'm pleased to bring forward a resolution for the following appointments and reappointments
for council's approval.
Kathy Harder and Jamie Chinook to the Planning and Zoning Commission for four-year terms
expiring May 31st, 2030.
Stasha Suleman to the Architecture Review Board for a three-year term expiring May 31st,
2029.
Bridget Tisnek to the Board of Zoning Appeals for a three-year term expiring May 31st,
2029.
Lynn Reedy and Ed Armstrong to the Bridge Park New Community Authority for two-year terms
expiring May 31st, 2028.
Ingrid Fields, Dana Mack and Victoria Ginter to the Community Services Advisory Commission
for two-year terms expiring May 31st, 2028.
Lisa Bayer and Ron Barnes to the Chiefs Advisory Committee for two-year term expiring May 31st,
2028.
Stephen Dickman, Ben and Dick Awa and Tom Holton to the Veterans Committee for a two-year
term expiring May 31st, 2028.
Lauren Hunter to Personnel Board of Review for a three-year term expiring May 31st, 2029.
Deborah Rogner and Bill Root to the Tax Board of Review for a two-year term expiring May 31st,
2028.
David Walsh to Records Commission for a two-year term expiring May 31st, 2028.
And Mike Stool to the Dublin Arts Council for a two-year term expiring May 31st, 2028.
I'm pleased to bring them forward for Council's consideration this evening.
Very good.
Thank you.
I want to take opportunity for public comment, is there anyone present this evening that
would like to speak relative to this action?
Hearing none, Council questions, discussion?
Jenny, would you please call the roll?
Mr. Keeler?
Yes.
Mayor Amrostroms?
Yes.
Ms. Cram?
Yes.
Vice Mayor DeRosa?
Yes.
Ms. Saludo?
Yes.
Dr. Lam?
Yes.
Ms. Johnson?
Yes.
Very good.
Well, we congratulate all of those appointees and thank everyone who navigated the application process
and we look forward to continuing to add residents to be engaged in these spaces in the
coming years.
This brings us to the other business portion of our agenda and we will begin with a request
to refer a request to refer a review of the structure and function of the Kayak CIC
to the administrative committee and our very own Dr. Lam is going to introduce that.
So welcome, Greg.
Thank you, Mayor.
As part of the Council's annual Board and Commission appointment review process, the community
inclusion advisory committee, otherwise on his kayak, was discussed along with the
city's other advisory committees and in reflecting on the original purpose of Kayak,
it's important to recognize that the committee was established following the dedicated work
of the community task force to explore key issues, elevate diverse community perspectives
and recommend meaningful actions.
Over the past four years, Kayak has accomplished its mission in promoting cultural awareness
and fostering community conversations.
As a community and organizational priorities continue to evolve, there is value in periodically
reviewing advisory structures to ensure that they are best positioned to achieve their
goals.
And with that in mind, I'd like to propose I'm asking the Council's administrative committee
to evaluate the structure and function of Kayak and consider how the city can best continue
and strengthen this important work in diversity and inclusion moving forward.
I'd be interested in receiving a report from the committee regarding whether the current
structure of Kayak remains the most effective mechanism for advancing opportunities of community
inclusion as we achieve our goal of dubbing becoming a global city of choice.
And therefore, I move to refer an evaluation of the structure and function of the community
inclusion advisory committee to the administrative committee.
Thank you.
I will second that motion.
Very good.
Any further discussion?
Jenny, would you please call the roll.
Mayor Amro's grooms?
Yes.
Miss Cram.
Mr. Keeler?
Yes.
Vice Mayor DeRosa?
Yes.
Miss Johnson?
Yes.
Absoluto?
Yes.
Dr. Lam?
Yes.
Great.
Well, we will look forward to the outcomes of the admin committee's conversation and bringing
recommendations back to this body.
Next up on our agenda, other business administrative committee recommendations proposed Council
recognition policy in our staff report again will be by our own Jenny Nogato.
Welcome.
Thank you.
I had your April 13 meeting, Vice Mayor DeRosa reported that staff provided a draft policy
to establish a framework for recognizing Council members at the conclusion of their service.
Establishing of framework is meant to promote transparency and consistency in practice.
The policy development process included benchmarking of comparable units' palities as well as
a review of past recognition practices.
The administrative committee reviewed the draft policy at two separate meetings and provided
feedback on each occasion.
Before this Council tonight is a draft policy that is recommended by the administrative committee
for Council's review and feedback, I would ask that Council adopt the policy at the next
Council meeting on June 8th and I am happy to answer any questions or take any feedback
as is the admin committee.
Thank you.
Very good.
Thank you.
For public comment, is there anyone present this evening that would like to speak relative
to this agenda item?
Hearing none, Council questions, discussion.
Okay.
Well, we will look for potential adoption of this policy with any incorporated feedback on
June 8th of 2026.
Thank you.
Okay.
This brings us to Parks and Recreation, balancing population growth strategies update and
we will go to our Director of Parks and Rec for staff report, Matt Earman.
Welcome, Matt.
Good evening, members of Council, as you will recall, the Parks and Recreation Master Plan
was adopted in October of 2023 after about two years of a lot of public input and understanding
and evaluating, researching all of our Parks and Recreation systems, one of which was very
important item which was balancing the anticipated projected growth that is occurring in the region.
You will recall that a lot of that growth has to do with the areas just outside of Dublin,
of which we serve to certain capacities.
So there were a series of recommendations that were involved in the Parks and Recreation
Master Plan and strategies to manage this continued growth, to serve beyond the City
limits, to increases to our system demands.
We have multiple school districts and boundaries that are large and inconsistent for pricing,
for a fair understanding of where the tax dollars go and where the resources are allocated.
We have the overlapping districts that make eligibility difficult to define fairly.
That structure can create inequities for some Dublin residents that falls in line with
what's available for our residents versus others.
And then a city resident based model that supports consistency and fairness.
And the Parks and Recreation Master Plan does outline specific strategies to improve future
service levels.
Just to summarize a little bit of what that means, we implemented some or we are in the process
of implementing strategies that are in the Parks and Recreation Master Plan, including
the creation of partnerships with neighboring communities for regional planning and amenities
for funding opportunities that can help with our partnerships with regional stakeholders.
Under new pricing strategies to offset our costs and consider policy amendments with limitations
for non-residents, for amenities that are near or at capacity.
As you know, we have a lot of these resources that we provide that are near or at capacity.
So we took a lot of those into play.
There are some other strategies here.
Some of this was philosophically changed over the years from previous City Councils and
previous strategies that we've implemented to new dedicated funding options, diversified
funding strategies, allocate funding for development and operations of new facilities,
establishing implement and implement financial direction across divisions and services,
and update the department's pricing policy and partnership policies for revenue producing
facilities across all user groups.
So a lot of this has changed over the years.
And we have been a system of Parks and Recreation amenities that have basically been just
Dublin resourced.
And so this is taking our resources and trying to work with others to collaborate on a
regional basis.
So at the March 4 Council work session, a lot of discussion topics were raised about the
areas where we have capacity issues, some of which were the DCRC memberships.
Our outdoor swimming pools, athletic fields, the overuse of those fields, and the capacity
issues that we've been dealing with for decades, community events, access for independent
state risk bands, double and Irish festival tickets, and spooktacular capacity.
And then at the October 4 Council work session, we talked to the idea of proposed shift from
a three tier feed structure, which was a resident school district resident and non resident
to a two tier system that is just Dublin resident and non Dublin resident.
The transition to the new model included a phase two step implementation for certain
services such as field use and the swim team facility use fee that is applied at the Recreation
Center for the Sea Dragons program.
There are exceptions to this where our recreation programs are using the Dublin City Schools
that will continue offering school district resident rates and or participation access such
as our youth summer camps.
So strategies and the implementation updates, it has been asked from Council for us to provide
what, where are we, what is this doing, what are the results of where we are today based
on some of the things that we have implemented.
So staff has been monitoring, monitoring participation trends to assess the effectiveness
of the implemented strategies.
On going update to the cost of service study, we'll certainly guide some future recommendations.
It is a very preliminary process where we are now, it's a snapshot of where we are not
necessarily a foundation on which we should make permanent decisions.
There's a focus that remains on aligning revenues with cost recovery expectations and currently
on, we are on track to achieving at least the 50% cost recovery expectation established
by the City Council.
So to get into a little bit more of the data, information, Dublin Community Recreation
Membership Sales, the shift from 2025 to now, we are in a two-tier system, it's resident
and non-resident, the school district resident memberships decreased year over year, however,
the total memberships have remained stable.
Growth in Dublin resident memberships have offset those declines and early data.
This is something that changes every single day.
So as somebody cancels a membership or renews a membership, this is a snapshot in time.
So please understand that this is going to require some additional analysis as we progress.
Program and rolements, Dublin residents receive priority enrollment with the exception of
summer camps, as I mentioned earlier, that are held in the Dublin City Schools 2025 enrollment
has decreased, compared to 2024, this is not unusual.
We have seen a lot of fluctuation in our enrollments for a variety of reasons, cycles,
and times of school letting out and things of that nature, but the resident participation
continues to increase, which supports the strategies for making sure that we are prioritizing
the resident opportunities.
More balanced use of high demand amenities, and it supports prioritizing the city residents
without overloading the facilities, and enrollment trends may fluctuate due to the program
timing and other factors, as I just mentioned.
So not a huge change here, I'm not concerned about any of this, and I feel as though this
is going to change over time as well.
Outdoor pools, 2025 outdoor pool passes were changed to Dublin resident and non-resident
categories only.
The total season passes sales slightly declined.
The decrease included 100 fewer school district resident passes, and year to year sales, as
everything does, fluctuates for a variety of different parameters, much of which for
the outdoor pools is the weather condition.
The community swim team was a phased fee increase, which was implemented for school district
resident starting in 2025.
The first phase was initiated in 2025 for $75 for a seasonal fee or an option to purchase
a Dublin community recreation membership, either one of those will offset, and then phase
two for this year season, which starts in the long course season this summer, fees increase
to $150 for all non-residents, or again, they can purchase a DCRC membership.
This supports cost recovery and offsets operational expenses.
The initial phase showed modest shifts in the participation by residency.
There is an improved availability and flexibility for Dublin residents as a result of that, and
overall participation remains strong and consistent with prior seasons.
Athletic field use, this is a very large chart, and I apologize for all of the information
that's on here, but I wanted to make sure that we captured all of the sports organizations
that use the city resources and understand the participation numbers that have changed
over the years.
And you will find on this chart, by and large, the largest changes with the Dublin Soccer
League recreational program that has decreased almost by 500 or almost 500 participants.
And that is across all the residency statuses.
It's a resident school district and non-resident.
There are a variety of variables involved with that, some of which are coaches that can't
form teams that they move on because of the school district rate and so forth.
So we will continue to monitor that.
But just a little bit of a summary here, there's a two phase fee increase.
That is data that reflects the $75 increase for field use fees in 2025.
That fee will increase to $150 for this fall of which participation and registrations have
begun already for a lot of the organizations for all non-residents.
The participation trends remain stable after phase one with the exception of what I mentioned
there with the Dublin Soccer League.
The decline may help reduce the field demand and scheduling pressures as you know, Dublin
Soccer League uses every park by and large.
And all of their games are conducted on Saturdays, parking is quite an issue, overcrowding
is quite an issue, field rest is an issue, capacity issues with all of our field space.
In fact, we use our fields over here in Kaufman Park, which are not designated as athletic
fields because of that capacity issue.
So in my estimation here based on the initial response or the initial results here, there's
no need for, or there is a continued need for additional turf fields as per the Parks
and Recreation Master Plan to serve our community needs.
That was a eight field turf lit situation for just making sure that we are accommodating
our community needs.
So this will continue to be monitored as we enter into phase two, and we have had some
concerns about the higher fees for particularly the younger age groups.
And I have a recommendation here for that.
That is our 10 bits program for Dublin Soccer League, the U4 and 5.
Those kids use the Erlington Park for their games and practices primarily, which are not
formally groomed fields as our other fields.
So I'll bring that up here in a few minutes.
But the broader fee review is underway as part of our cost study.
And a lot of that has to do with the variation between what we charge for field use fees
between our rectangular fields to our ball diamonds and so forth.
But we will bring that forward to City Council for further consideration as we go through
the cost study.
The events, another category that was affected for Independence Day, no changes were made
to the stadium and kids' own wristband availability for school district residents.
The discounted wristbands are available to school district and Dublin residents before
the general public sales.
Reserve table sales continue with Dublin residents receiving early access.
And unsold tables are available to the public after July 1st.
Approach balances broad access with prioritizing Dublin residents and maximizing the seating
availability in the stadium.
And then the future recommendation.
There is a recommendation here in forthcoming which will limit the early discounted wristband
access for Dublin residents only.
And we'll get to that discussion here momentarily.
Dublin Irish Festival 2025 ticket pricing remained unchanged, except for one adjustment.
Pre-sale discount pricing for Dublin residents only was implemented in 2025.
And then the discount ticket sales at the DCRC decreased by 9%.
In 2025, however, online ticket sales increased by 34% during that same time period which is
a very big advantage for us to have non-weather related ticket sale applications there.
And then the overall demand remains strong for all despite the eligibility change.
Spookedacular 2025 trunk or treat priority access limited to Dublin residents only.
Dublin residents reserved 3600 tickets which is an 82% of the total inventory during the
priority period in 2025.
Thursday time slots were fully reserved by Dublin residents.
And then the remaining availability was available for a non-resonant which was on that Friday.
And then the revised structure improved resident access while maintaining strong overall attendance.
And the tier system supported high demand management and priorities for Dublin residents.
So what does all this mean in a summary?
I just want to make sure that it is understood that this is a snapshot in time.
This is where we understand the data to be today.
The findings are very preliminary.
It's not necessarily a long-term conclusion.
But continued data collection will guide future decisions, especially on phased fees going forward.
The master plan strategies support balance growth.
The sustainability and prioritized Dublin residents as it was intended.
Resident access has improved while overall community opportunities remain strong.
Participation is generally stable with increased resident share and then trend show improved
funding sustainability.
So what staff is recommending and are asking of City Council this evening is one maintaining
the current $75 field use fee for the youngest age group in the Dublin Soccer League that
uses Erlington Park.
We feel that is a fair approach to the charging of the U4 and U5 age groups that don't use
our formally maintained fields.
For Independence Day staff is recommending early and discounted wristbands to Dublin residents
only beginning in 2027.
And then certainly staff would like to hear any kind of feedback or what other kind of
data would City Council like to understand for further consideration.
Thank you.
Very good.
Thank you, Matt.
I want to take a moment for public comment.
Is there anyone present this evening that would like to speak relative to this agenda item?
Yes, can McManus sign it?
Very good.
Please step forward and state your name and address into the record and we welcome your comments.
We'll do whatever order you'd like to do.
You get the same amount of time.
Good evening, Council members.
My name is Robert Burda.
Addresses 6199 to re-loop West, Dublin 43016.
A couple major points regarding the field use fees here tonight.
Virtually all other communities in central Ohio have a field use fee that's under $60 and
that's for fall and spring.
Doublins is scheduled to go to $300.
Most communities that includes Worthington, Hilliard, Grove City, Ollentangie, and most
others consider school residents as residents, like Dublin did until a year ago.
As previously mentioned recently, Dublin Soccer League, Dublin Soccer Club, I'm not speaking
for Dublin Soccer League, but major impact to them.
From 2024 to 2025, they lost 34% of their Dublin City Schools players.
So giving an example, baseball and softball players pay 33% less than soccer and lacrosse
players.
Meanwhile, they have lighted, fenced, laser-grade fields, paved and covered bench areas.
We have grass and some paint.
Last year baseball, softball, capital expenditures were half a million dollars.
Here in lacrosse were zero.
Until fees and their effects are completely known, please consider a $50 per player per
season for all sports for the fall of 2026 and then go into the spring of 2027 season.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Next, if you would please state your name and address into the record and welcome your
thoughts.
Dominic Mann, 2163 Canter Street, Marysville, Ohio.
And I am the founding director of Dublin United, way back in 2005.
I know just a few of you now, at one point in time, all of you would have known me because
we got to speak before City Council on a fairly regular basis.
I've known Matt for 20 plus years.
We agree on many things this one we clearly don't.
Dublin Jerome High School won the state championship in soccer.
A majority of the Dublin Jerome residents, our Dublin Jerome students, are not residents
of Dublin.
498 kids are not playing soccer in Dublin because of this policy, $150 a year, $150 a year
just to use fields.
No other community is more than $50 to do the same thing.
Rob already mentioned, none of the other communities.
All the big communities, till you're worthy to in Westerville, Powell, Ollentangie.
All these large communities, it's all by school.
It's not by city.
People don't move to Dublin, no offense intended, because of the trash pickup.
They move to Dublin because of the schools.
We are ruining this pricing policy, is ruining the recreational program in Wilruin, Dublin,
United.
The $75 fee, $150 per year, affected this year, next year it's going to $300.
The DSL's rate was only $130 to play rec.
We're now charging $300 to use grass at Earlington Park, it's insane.
The smart way to handle this is to allow for the Dublin Soccer League rec teams to practice
at the schools.
Let them play their games at Avery, we wouldn't be wearing out the parks.
Now almost all the rec teams practice at Avery, there's no reason for them to do that.
And lastly, as Mark mentioned, we're spending way more money on baseball fields.
I go out and practice on the fall.
We're dark.
I look over at all the baseball diamonds, lights.
Expensive lights that if I stand five feet off the field, there's no air pollution, no
light pollution.
And yet we only get grass, we've had fields vandalized every single one of the last six years
because there's no fences, there's no protection, and yet we have to pay more.
This just doesn't make any sense.
So my ask is, please, until you get all the data, before we lose another 300 or 400
non-city residence but school residence, please consider a $50 per fee per season, $100
for the year.
Because remember, all soccer people play both seasons.
Please consider reducing it to $100.
You'll at least save the Dublin Jerome High School program 10 years from now.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Any other one?
Any other comments?
Okay.
Sorry, none.
Council questions?
Discussion.
There are six questions.
I believe that, I'm sorry, just the one question.
There are three items, one specific question.
So we can address all three of these topics.
So thoughts?
So the first question, our clarification then is, you said that the $75 we implemented last
year was for every sport, right?
That was for soccer and lacrosse.
Okay.
So there's a different fee schedule for baseball, softball.
That's correct.
Okay.
So the $75 is for grass, is the grass sports?
For 2025, yes.
Yes.
And then it's going, and phase two was $150.
Correct.
Do we, I can't remember, we had a phase three?
That was it, phase two.
Okay.
Because there was a mention of a $300, where?
So it, right now it is $75 per person, per season.
Okay.
In 2026, this fall, it goes to $150, per player, per season.
You play around 300.
And they play two seasons.
Okay.
So those fees, the $75 and $150 are based on what it costs to maintain the grass.
That's on a preliminary cost study that was conducted years ago.
We are currently doing a very updated version of that to make sure that we understand all
of the costs, to make sure that they are distributed.
The difficulty here is there are a lot of shared uses that happen at each of our parks.
The restrooms, the parking lots, the concession stands, all of those things.
So we are working with our finance department to look through the cost study, and we will
bring that forward to city council for further.
But the field sports are paying a different price.
Do you know off of what those prices, do you have off hand then, what the fee is for
the field, for the baseball softball?
Baseball softball is $100 this year.
It was $50 last year, it goes to $100 this year.
Okay.
The next is $100 each.
Correct.
And then the-
They only play one season.
Okay.
Their seasons are-
Well, baseball has a fall season.
Well, they do for certain things they do, but primarily they have a season.
But if they play more than one season, they will pay it twice.
So it is based on the length of the season, the amount of time they use.
That's correct.
And the fees that are the costs that are incurred to the city.
Yes.
Okay.
So as far as the answer to question number one, I am okay with leaving then the-
Because you're not-
You're not painting the lines that are linked in park or anything.
It's just you're purely just mowing grass.
We're seeding, fertilizing and mowing, but not to the extent with irrigation and everything
else that we do it at the Avery and Dari fields.
Okay.
So I'm supportive of the $75 field use for number one.
If that seems at the moment a reasonable price.
And number two is fine.
So first of all, I'll say that to our new council members, one of the big reasons for
these fees was because we don't-
The schools aren't using their facilities for practice, right?
So the school district residents are using city of Dublin fields for practice.
They're not using, as was mentioned in a comment.
They aren't using school facilities.
They're using city facilities.
And we were trying to-
Which are overused.
And so we were-
The attempt was to make sure our Dublin residents could have that space.
So it seems like-
So to me, in the year that it's implemented, it seems to be working the way we intended
it to work.
We were trying to support Dublin residents.
So I'm okay with the way things are going.
As far as what data we would like, one additional component that we had discussed that's not
in this was the school districts using our pools and the rates that we charged-
We increased the rates to the schools to use the laplings at the pool.
And we didn't have any data on that or how that's using it.
I'm assuming the cost didn't deter them in any way.
And they're still using it just the same.
And at least my intent was hopefully to encourage them to look into other avenues
and maybe build their own pool facilities or things like that.
So I would like to see consideration if the fees we started charging the school
for our pool use are in no way a deterrent whatsoever.
I would consider possibly re-evaluating that fee and maybe we need to increase that fee.
Understood.
And I think that is also something that we are looking at for this cost study.
But if you'll recall, that was a phased approach as well.
Yeah, I do remember it being a phased approach.
But we have not seen a decline.
Yeah, it was like a three-year phase.
But considering the improvements we're doing to the rec center, the amount of improvements
we want to do to the pool at the rec center.
And what I feel is a very minor portion that the school district, swim and dive teams
are using for our pools.
I think we need to continue to look at that number.
That's all right.
Very good.
Others?
How much?
Yeah.
I have a question about something that Councilmember Crams said about intent.
So the intent of these additional fees were to limit, help me understand, limit the use
of Dublin City Parks by non-Dublin City Residences, is that essentially?
So won't we, is that right?
Because I think-
When we conducted the Parks and Recreation Master Plan, it was understood that there
were several facilities that we provide for the community that were at capacity or exceeding
capacity.
The other issue was our cost recovery rates were not achieving what we need to achieve
in order to invest in facilities that could increase the capacity.
So it was a combined situation where we wanted to make sure that residents had the priority
for participation and or the fees that we were assessing for the use of those facilities.
That was-
The other bigger issue here is the population growth expectations for the region.
When you look at the corporate boundaries of Dublin and you combine that with the school
district boundaries, the school district boundaries are twice the size of the corporate
boundaries of Dublin.
So we were subsidizing a lot of the use for the Dublin School District that was outside
of our corporate limits.
That's what changed to the two tier system.
Okay.
And as part of that study, it found that we were facing the- based on enrollment projections
and the trends as far as enrollments in new sports, it identified the need for many,
many extra fields of all sorts and additional amenities and we were facing very high costs
to add those amenities so that caused us to start looking at the users and where the users
are coming from and determine strategies as to how best to manage those capacity issues.
And as part of that effort, we also benchmarked other cities all across the state.
We found that across the board, we were unique in having a three tiered pricing structure
in that having Dublin resident, school district resident and non-resident, all the other
communities that we researched had resident, non-resident approach.
So that's how we ended up having this conversation and coming up with a modified pricing structure.
I understand it.
I understand the data and I understand the intent.
You play youth soccer with your friends.
It's- this is a difficult decision because you play youth soccer with your friends.
You play youth soccer with the kids that you go to school with every once in a while you
get lucky and mayor grooms and I know that you can also play cross schools and those can
be really rewarding.
So thank you for the additional explanation and that helps me look at the data and understand
what's happened here.
So thanks.
Thanks for pulling this together.
I think we were all pretty anxious to hear what some of the results from the changes
that we made at least preliminarily were.
So I took a little time to do a little bit of research on what is lovingly being called
the population cliff, particularly in higher education, but it applies to younger age groups
as well.
The interesting thing about an area such as central Ohio in particular is that those youth
sports won't necessarily see a decline in population.
What they'll see is an increase in cost and that will disproportionately hurt certain
demographics.
What I hate to see is kids not being able to play group sports.
And to me, our facilities and our events tickets, those kinds of things are of a different
ilk than team sports on a field.
In looking at this and in looking at some of the demographic population numbers that
are being projected for the central Ohio area, I am concerned and worried that what we're
doing is actually exacerbating that problem, particular to field sports.
I am very okay in our Dublin residents being a much larger portion of the folks who are
buying Dublin Rec Center passes, who are buying pool passes, who are buying Fourth
of July wristbands.
That kind of stuff makes perfect sense to me.
That is a very local community effort.
I have to wonder if there is a way that we can try to start working with the schools to
get them to allow kids to do some practices.
I'll speak from my own experience.
I've had a few kids go through DFL, the Dublin Football League.
They do use the schools facilities.
Now, they're not typically using the fields for practice, the marked fields, they're
using those for games generally.
But they're using the ancillary spaces to practice, and some of them are not very big spaces.
These are little kids, right?
They're learning how to tackle.
They don't need a big football field to learn some of that stuff.
And I think in particular for some of these much younger age groups, there has got to be
a way we can work with the schools to get some of those kids off of the game fields and
on to these ancillary fields to help alleviate some of what we're talking about, and not
to raise these prices on the field sports so much.
Again, I think what we are trying to do here is a good thing in concept.
It will break my heart to hear another three or four hundred kids don't get to play
because they're essentially priced out of the market.
I just can't sit by and let that happen.
And I know they're stressed on our fields.
And I know we're working on things with sports of high, I know we're going to get to a
better place, but we've got to find some balance in between here and there.
Again, I'm fine with the rec center passes and all that stuff, but the field sports,
I mean, it just hurts my heart a bit to see those numbers decline like that.
When I know that the number of kids wanting to play is not really declining in spite of
this population cliff that is coming, right?
In the research that I did, depending on the area of the country that you're in, you're
looking at anywhere from 11 to 15% decrease in graduating students, high school students
by 2041.
Southern states, they're going to continue to grow a little bit, but again, you're going
to start to put even more pressure financially on these kids who may not afford to be able
to do these sports because the gap between the number of kids that you have and the number
of kids that can afford to do these sports is going to grow, not shrink.
And that's the part that, to me, we've got to do something else when it comes to these
field sports.
So I wouldn't, to answer your questions, yes, I would support leaving the youth at $75,
I would support maybe, and we don't have our updated costs for what these things cost
for maintenance.
So I feel a little remiss that we would be raising our fees when we're not even sure what
the costs are at this point.
I'd say kind of leave them as they are right now and don't do this phase two just yet.
I think we hit the pause button and allow ourselves the ability to do some research from a population
perspective and affordability perspective and a cost for maintenance perspective.
And let's get all those ducks in a row before we raise the fees.
I'm fine with number two, Independence Day, that's fine.
And I just talked about the additional data that I would like to see brought into this
conversation for field sports.
Thank you.
Yeah, man, thank you so much.
This is really interesting data.
I echo the concerns of the fee equity, not only the fee equity for the students within
and outside of the school, but also for the different sports too.
I actually agree that we should get more data for it.
And the other thing that I will caution to is that we're only dealing with one year trends
and you can't really actually tell trends after one year.
And so I actually, I too, would be supportive in freezing the cost increase until we have
more data.
Until we can trend this out a little bit more than one year as well too, until we also
look at a little more of the fee equity between the schools, you know, the city residents
versus non-city school residents and then also the different sports as well.
Thank you.
So I'd like to, I agree with what Dr. Lamjus said, freeze it for now.
One year as a trend, as you pointed out in your memo, which I think the memo did an excellent
job of hitting all the points.
So I appreciate the detail in that.
There's just so many factors that affect all of these things that we're looking at, the
sputacular, the weather, the independence day, the weather.
It seems to me that there's a general trend of kids moving from soccer to lacrosse.
I don't, I'm not an expert, but it seems like lacrosse is growing.
Maybe soccer is staying the same.
I could be wrong on that.
So you know, as we plan sports Ohio, I think it's very important that the turf fields
be multi-purpose, but the slide that you have up right now, I think is one that we really
need to talk more about and that's looking for additional funding sources.
A number of us visited Carmel, Indiana a few years ago and we visited the Carmel Clay
Recreation Center, which was a joint recreation center between, I think, its clay township and
Carmel, Indiana.
And you know, I know that our friends in Jerome Township may not be super interested in building
a rec center with the city of Dublin, but let's be honest, most of the growth and most
of the school district growth is in the western part of the school district, not the city.
It's outside the city and that's the problem.
And so I think we really need to work to collaborate with our neighbors.
I'm not opposed to having sponsorship of fields and, you know, banners selling banners.
The school districts do that and it's the, you know, as we're saying here, it's the school
districts that are potentially putting kids on fields that the city of Dublin residents
are paying for.
What we're trying to do is safeguard the tax payer dollars for the city of Dublin.
And so, you know, we're in a unique situation in that unlike some other municipalities where
the school district is the city here, the school district is double the size of the city.
And so we're faced with this difficult situation of trying to accommodate those kids and allowing
them to engage in sports and be fit and all those things, but at the expense of the residents
of the city of Dublin.
So I'd really like to explore collaboration more.
I don't know what that could look like.
I'm also curious, how do we monitor or document folks, whether they're a Dublin resident
or not, if they're signing up for sputacular or independence day?
How do we know that they're Dublin residents?
In that instance, they have to show proof of residency at the recreation center for
those tickets, so they have to sign up for them and bring a utility bill or what have
you.
But there's an online option, right?
If you are already registered as a resident and you are in our system, so we verify that
way.
And as far as the sports and the athletic field use fee, each organization provides us a list
of their rosters at the end of their season.
Okay.
And we run that through our GIS system and an address check and then we build them accordingly.
Great.
I figured you had a way to do it.
And I'm just curious, it looks like DSX, their numbers increased a little bit where DSL
dropped off.
And it's a one-year trend, it's not really a trend.
But I'm just wondering what DSX did a little differently from DSL?
In 2025, I don't know what that difference might have been, but as you are potentially
aware, Dublin Soccer League got access to the church property for their DSX program,
which they are now not having to pay Dublin field use fees.
They are paying the church direct, I don't know what that fee is, but that is a difference
this year.
Thank you.
Yeah, Matt's referencing the fields that were added at Radiant Life Church on the Coast
Road that went through the PNZ process last year, so those are additional new amenities
that are privately operated that DSL is partnering in using those fields.
And I will say that does take a little bit more of the burden off of our existing fields
at Avery Park and Dory Fields.
Matt, could you bring up the slide that says, field usage sheet map, I residency DSL,
do you have that slide or do you not have that in this?
You don't have that available in your deck here, do you?
I'm sorry, which...
The one that's Rex Ocker, the field map.
I'm looking at it on our, do you have that in your...
Like the heat map, as to where we're just...
Yeah, it's a plot map, the plot map.
I don't have that in this slide deck.
Okay, that's all right.
I think that one tells the story.
I want to remind us how we got here.
I want to go back to the discussion that we had when we went through this.
We did a master plan, just like we do other planning, we say 10 years out, let's look at
the projections.
What is it going to cost us to provide for our residents?
Any fields, quality infrastructure, et cetera, so forth.
And I know for the new folks that weren't through that, we looked at all the math.
I know we're going to bring some of that math back here.
We looked at that math pretty hard, and there was no scenario where, without spending an
enormous amount of money, we were going to be able to meet demand for what we needed.
I will tell you just from conversations with our neighbors, municipalities, et cetera.
They say, why should we build them, Dublin's going to build them, and that has been a challenge
that it's nice to say we're going to ask.
And if you look the reason I find that map so interesting is all the growth is happening
outside of the city proper.
So the future demands from the school district on the fields are going to be tremendous.
They may not be, but as that growth continues, all of it is outside of the city of Dublin
proper.
As a matter of fact, in your numbers, the city of Dublin actually decreases a little bit
in population growth.
So you're going to see that trend.
We don't have a one year data trend, but we have growth trend, we see housing builds,
we know this is going to happen.
The reason I bring all this up is we had this discussion in great detail, and they said
we had two choices, either we're going to build more fields, or we're going to try to encourage
our surrounding community partners to build their own fields if we were going to say we're
not going to subsidize all that participation.
That is how we got here.
So even though there's one year trend data here, all the cost study and all that infrastructure
that led to the parks and rec suggests that this growth is going to make it untenable,
it is.
So what are we going to do about it?
And that was the decision, and we said, you know, this is a hard trend.
We would like to signal that we are going to do this, so we increased it a certain amount
this year, and in two years, to signal to our partners and to our community, to create
some of those partnerships that has not occurred.
So I just want to remind us that as we look at the data.
And I'm not sure where all the growth is going to happen are necessarily related to we
don't have this economic strain.
We don't have that data to say that where the growth is going to be would be the kids
that couldn't afford.
We don't have that data.
That would be useful data because I would agree if that was the case.
I'm not sure that's the case.
I have no data to suggest that.
But these will be new homes in new areas, is that I don't know.
Again, our goal was to encourage our partners to do stuff, and we haven't heard that
occurring, to not have to plan because the master plan is a 10-year plan.
It's not a one-year plan.
So I don't want to just hit pause because I think if we do, we're going to be in a problem
where we were before.
I don't know if there's some place in the middle when we do the cost study and we say,
okay, it doesn't have to be 150, it can be 135 or whatever.
But guys, nothing has changed from when we did this study three years ago.
The scenario is exactly the same.
So my data is, requests would be, when we do the cost data, if it wasn't 150,
but if it was 135, I'm not sure that changed.
A lot of the kids that play club sports, the field use fee is not the biggest fee
on the table by any stretch of the imagination.
There's a lot more dollars there.
So I just remind everybody why we did this, and it's not going to go away by our, we're
going to be in a situation where that is the case.
So my data request is, as we do the cost study and bring this back, if there's some cost
sensitivity analysis where we could see that, and if the acquisition of our new sports
facility changed any of that demand, update us on that.
But the trends have grown through what we were trying to plan to do.
So I'm supportive of the direction that we're taking because it won't be fair to the taxpayers
of the city if we don't do that.
I mean, that's important to that.
So I'm supportive of it is there's some analysis that would be interesting.
And for the Irlington, those are small little fields and I concur with that.
Thank you.
You know, if we look back over the course of a very long period of time, certainly the
school district boundaries have not changed, but the intensity of school district residents
in the outer portions of the school district boundaries have intensified greatly.
So if we went back to the beginning of DSL, and I'm going to guess that program probably
started in the late 70s, right?
The bulk of the district residents, school district residents lived in the city of Dublin.
The ones that lived outside of the city of Dublin largely lived in the city of Columbus
in older and more established neighborhoods.
And they didn't have the opportunity to develop large parks in these neighborhoods that
were already largely developed.
And so it fell to the city of Dublin as we developed over the course of time to continue
to develop fields because we had green fields and we had the opportunity to make parks and
recreation facilities in our community.
When you look at, you know, certainly old sawmill and Riverside Green and Riverside Hills,
those were pre-existing communities that really didn't have 20, 30 acre tracks to make
green fields for this leisure kind of sport.
So fast forward all through the course of time, we established long before I think any
of us were probably on this council that we were going to have a 50% recovery rate in
leisure activities of our residents.
So that meant that we were going to subsidize all of the leisure activities, sports related,
have you swimming, the rec center, things of that nature.
We were going to subsidize the tune of 50% all of our residents because they paid our taxes
and we were interested in investing in their health.
And so we made that conscious decision that we would have this cost recovery program at
50%.
Okay?
So fast forward today, we have, if we just go to Dublin Soccer League, we have, I'm just
going to round numbers, 1,400 Dublin residents and 900 non-residents, okay?
So the question we have to ask ourselves is, are we willing to take the city of Dublin
tax payer dollars to subsidize 900 kids that do not live in the city of Dublin and don't
call it home to subsidize the tune of 50% their recreation.
Now we have, many of the growth, as was mentioned, is in the northwest portion of our community.
I'm sorry, in our school district.
And there are green fields there and there is opportunity to add park space.
And they have decidedly not done that.
Instead, they have chosen to take our subsidy of 50% and come and play here.
So I guess as an elected, that is a question of, is it our policy that we are going to subsidize
people that don't live here to the tune of 50% their recreational activities?
And I think that is a fundamental underlying question.
Now I do have some questions about when the cost study will be complete, an updated cost
study.
And then the second portion of my question is the consideration of turf fields at the schools.
I know the schools didn't want to have all of these teams practicing on their fields
because they were having a difficult time, having quality field surfaces, given, excuse
me, that intensity of use.
Well, they've doubled, in some cases, tripled the amount of turf fields that they have.
So does that double and triple their capacity?
And I would like to know the answer to that question in conjunction with the cost study so
that we have a very clear understanding of all of the different kinds of sports, not
just the turf sports, but the other field sports as well of what those might be.
But for me, the fundamental question isn't, do I not want kids not to play soccer?
It's, do I think it's right to spend our taxpayers' money to subsidize leisure activities
of people that don't call this city home?
And fundamentally, I don't feel like that is what we are called to do.
Now should it really cost $150 or $300 per kid to run around on a blade of grass?
That's why I want to see the updated cost study.
I don't, that sounds expensive to me to maintain a soccer field.
And I understand, I'm a horticulturist by trade.
I understand you, we need to aerate it, we need to seed it, we need to top-dress it, we
need to mow it, we need to stripe it, we need to do all of those things.
I do understand those, I would just like to see the outcome of that cost study before
we double the rates that we charge this year.
But at the same time I am, I don't think I'm interested in subsidizing and I'll just call
it out, the kids that live in Jerome Township to play soccer.
If I'm a taxpayer in the city of Dublin and you walk into this podium and you say my street
really needs paved, there's a pothole at the end of it and I need it to be fixed.
And we say it's not in this year's budget, we'll look at putting in the five year CIP and
when we can get that repaved.
Because these kids in Jerome Village really want to play soccer, I'm not going to say
that to our residents, I don't feel like that is the right thing for us to do in being
stewards of the public dollar.
So, I will stop with that, I would like to maybe hit pause until we understand what the
cost study outcome is going to be.
And then we give organizations another year to adapt to what might be coming and then
communicate it on that.
So, I think, did we give you the feedback you were looking for, and is there any level
of clarity of what we have?
I'll just say yes and no, kidding.
Now, that's very helpful and if I'm hearing out loud, we're going to put a pause on the
fee increase and I assume we will need to vote on that.
Yeah, pending the outcome of the cost study results.
Okay, so if I could ask Matt, when is the cost study plan to come September would be the
timing of the cost study?
So, the timing of all of this, the SOC organizations, for instance, are already taking registrations
for fall and spring.
Fall is when this new fee comes into play.
So, if we're going to cause, if we're going to call for a pause on this, we need to know
that now so that they can relay that information to those individuals or we wait and see the
outcome and then we make an adjustment.
Can I ask a question?
So, when we did the cost study to come up with these numbers, the one, whatever, we have
that data, right?
We have the data that drove us to this recommendation.
We should see that data and ask ourselves how close to that do we think that is because
something gave us these numbers, right?
And that was not included in this cost study.
So, I don't know if we're halfway home with the cost study data or not.
I think we should resurrect that and look at and say, what is going to be different
comes September than it is now.
I mean, a lot of that cost structure was there.
So, I mean, something gave rise to these numbers.
Right.
And these numbers are 100% cost recovery, not 50% for non-residents.
And that's the policy, and that is the policy decision, but there is data, so show us the
data, give them the participation, and then we'll have the data that we need, I think,
to make this decision.
Fair enough.
So, as far as timing goes, they've started taking registrations or where are we with
registrations?
You've already started taking registrations today.
You've already taken registrations, right, Ken?
So they've already processed registrations and you're assessing that fee currently.
So, that is for fall and spring.
They pay in advance for two seasons.
So the fee goes into effect for fall, which means they're already collecting the $150 fee
per season.
I mean, my boy's played soccer and Ken's organization, he is well equipped to be able
to issue a refund or a credit for an upcoming season.
I'm certain that he would be.
If you would like, thank you.
I agree with you.
I guess I would like to see what council would like to do from a vote, as far as implementing
it immediately.
So I think you're talking about across the board, not just the Erlington field at this
point.
Well, there's the Erlington field cost at $75, but then you're talking about pausing the
$150 to $75 as well.
So we're going to, what I think we need the data before we, I don't know that we have
to wait till September, because this was this data that gave us this information is available
to give us now.
Is it not?
I think so.
I think so.
The data that we're waiting on is the other field sports, the baseball, softball, some of
those.
Is that correct?
Extracting each of the sports is where the difficulty lies.
It was more of a comprehensive, what does it cost us to maintain the fields and then
divide that by the number of players to determine how much it costs per player to maintain
the fields?
That was years ago.
It's old data.
It's old data.
It's old data.
Yeah.
It's old cost or old data.
Both.
Old cost.
So the cost will have gone up.
We have, well, we have not, okay.
We have not assessed it separately per sport.
But that's what we're.
That's what would happen over the next couple of months.
So the option would be to bring back the information that we have available on the
eighth, which would be the information that we had that informed the rates that were
discussed a couple of years ago at this point.
I think it's important for us to know how this data was derived.
I think that's important because is it 150, is it 125, is it, I think it's important
for us to see that data and the new data both.
Okay.
There is no vote to be taken this evening.
So we have given you the feedback that we, that I guess my first question is, is did
you get the feedback that you need to continue to develop our policies?
I will bring back to City Council the data we have that determine the fees that we currently
have in place.
And in September, we will update those fees or update that data based on today's dollars.
Okay.
And then I guess my question to Council, in the meantime, are we in favor of freezing
because all of these entities need to move forward with these sports in the near term?
Do we have interest in freezing these rates for one more season until we have the data
and can make an informed decision?
I count.
So we're freezing them as of the increase we made this last year.
Yes.
75.
Okay.
All right.
I generally speaking, or not generally speaking, the majority of Council is in agreement
with freezing that at the, these current rates of $75 field use.
I think that we, for Independence Day, the early and discounted risk bans, I think that
we're in agreement that that is an appropriate way to move forward on question or on topic
number two.
And is there additional participation data?
There is participation data, and then there is cost data that Council would like to have
to better inform additional considerations going forward.
So we will, we will withhold the increase for this coming season.
Okay.
Is that clear?
Mayor, for maybe, for the sake of the record and posterity, could we do a quick motion
because I understand those increases were adopted via ordinance to be increase.
So I think a motion would be appropriate.
Very good.
Then I will make a motion that we hold our existing 2025 fee structure for 2026.
For all sports.
For all sports.
Including recreation center swimming team.
Including recreation center swimming team.
For the period of one year pending, and we will be reviewing this given the outcome of
the cost study that will be due in September, is there a second?
I will.
Second.
Jenny, would you please call the roll.
Miss Cram?
No.
Miss Aluto?
Yes.
Dr. Lamb?
Yes.
Miss Johnson?
Yes.
Vice Mayor DeRosa?
Yes.
Mayor Ambrose-Grooms?
Mr. Keeler?
Yes.
Okay.
Thank you.
We will look forward to you on an agenda coming sometime in September or in the fall.
Okay.
This brings us to our Q2 public safety briefing and chief is here.
Welcome.
Good evening, members and council.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide an update from the public safety briefing
for Q2 of 2026.
Just as a reminder, our goals for the police department for 2026 is critical incident preparedness
and response, theft reduction, improving overall traffic safety, proactive and collaborative
community outreach and engagement, and then effectively addressing issues of community concern.
As we talk about the goal of measurements and metrics that we track to continue to guide
our success and strategies and tactics for achieving these goals, again, the information
that is shared every month in the city manager report, we want to make sure that for clarity
sake anybody reviewing this material, these comparatives are for the same time periods
each year.
So the information that we're sharing this evening was the data we've collected through
our law enforcement planter and through our activities up to May 1st of 2026.
Certainly pleased to continue to share that Dublin is a very safe community and we were
required in partnership certainly with the community and our public safety partners
in Dublin to ensure that that is the case.
As we take a look at trends for our measurements and metrics for 2026, we continue to see a decrease
in overall theft defenses, theft from vehicles and motor vehicle theft and attempted theft
comparative to the same time period last year.
We are tracking some small increases in breaking and entering and burglary offenses again each
of these occurrences we know affect those who are impacted by those incidents significantly.
So we do pay attention as those even tend to uptick in small degrees but have good information
to share in our responsiveness to those trends as we talk through the presentation this evening.
Also tracking and one of the things that we want to keep an eye on from the traffic crash
perspective and the traffic safety, OVI crash is comparative to the same time period last
year.
We did see what we would consider a significant increase there so I want to make sure
that we're paying attention to that trend but also will report as we go through the presentation
this evening on our efforts in OVI enforcement and certainly that is an important component
of us making sure that we are in the right places at the right times and looking for the
right activity to prevent any harm to the public.
From a critical incident preparedness as our first goal for the presentation this evening,
we've had a number of what we've experienced is swatting or hoax threats in Dublin over
the same time period that other school districts and other facilities across the state have
experienced similar activity but very proud of our team certainly and those partners
in the facilities that have received these hoax threats in being prepared to share the
information and work through and navigate the right response for each of these situations
specifically and individually but continue to stay prepared and to make sure that we address
those each with intention and hold accountable people who are involved when we are able
to.
From a preparation perspective in April we held another partnered conversation and a
tabletop exercise with the Washington Township Fire Department leadership team and our
supervisory team for our April staff meeting and that conversation certainly paid dividends
shortly into May as we experienced a fire at the Asherton apartments and really proud
certainly of the member of the public who called that in early and reported that so that
we could get first responders on the way proud of our communications team for getting
the information out and getting the right equipment sent and thankful for Washington
Township's partnership and their quick response and as I reviewed the video from our response
to the incident proud of our officers for leaning into and making sure that all of those
apartments were evacuated immediately to make sure that everyone was safe and that fire
personnel could then work on containing that fire and making sure that everyone made it
through that situation safely but again thankful for that continued partnership and conversation
with the Washington Township Fire Department their invitation for us to continue those tabletop
exercises as we talk about police reports and crime trends as I said we have a staff meeting
with our supervisors every month to talk about the activities our strategies and tactics
and our progress at achieving these goals and what I wanted to share with council tonight
is the same conversation I had with our supervisory team the difficulty really is picking out the
highlights each quarter to share here because there's so much good work that's being done
through their leadership and the commitment of our members and certainly the partnerships
we share with the community in addressing these issues and reports of trends in our community
and this is just a small sampling of highlights from the last quarter the top bullet there
again highlighting the drone as first responder program and identifying individuals who are
attempting to take a trailer not only were we able to prevent that occasion from that theft
from occurring in that occasion but also to hold accountable the individuals involved in
that offense the next couple of bullet points as we talk about trends in breaking and entering
our burglary offenses we certainly work hard to to prevent those activities but when they do
occur work relentlessly to hold accountable individuals who are involved in those and so those
are highlights of a couple of occasions at the shops of Ridge River Ridge and then a separate
occasion at Aubrey Loop for a burglary and breaking and entering offense where our officers were
able to respond quickly and again hold accountable individuals involved in that activity in we're
certainly grateful for the partnership in our community to call us when they see something
that stands out that we have concern about in the Ashford Road neighborhood last month we had
a call about potential vehicle that from vehicle activity our officers quickly respond and we're
able to recover a stolen vehicle and hold accountable a couple of individuals who are involved
juvenile suspects who are involved in those offenses and then that last bullet point detective
Aronovic has partnered on the FBI task force in our central Ohio region investigating cybercrime
cases and this occasion in particular was involved in supporting an investigation that was the
first first conviction under the federal take it down act in partnership with that task force so
grateful for his partnership the support resources we get for the occasions we need them for
investigations at a principle to Dublin but also thankful for his continued lean into making sure
that we are a prize of the trends that are occurring and making sure that when we can hold accountable
individuals who are involved in those offenses that we do so from a theft prevention effort
there are still more occasions than we would want where firearms have gone missing from vehicles
and so last week again as a testament to the continued discussion about removing firearms we had
a burglary offense that certainly was a disconcerting incident that involved a firearm and to young
people who came into possession of that through means that were not legal we were grateful that we
quickly responded identified those individuals involved and had the suspects identified in custody
all of the property returned and that situation resolved within 12 hours so really remarkable work
by our officers and detectives in the community impact unit what we would continue to emphasize
in order to avoid the occasions where that occurs we would continue to implore members of the
public to remove firearms from their vehicles so they do not go missing on the occasions where
vehicles are entered we wanted to give an update quickly on the business district activity and
their second year of operation so certainly stay very active and partnered with the businesses
and residents in the bridge park area officer Lou Altimer is our newest addition to the business
district unit we had a promotion from that team Sergeant Dobny has now been promoted so he left that
team but officer Altimer is taking up his role and certainly leaning into all of those engagements
and continued activity for that team as they continue to success in the business district area
during our last presentation there was a question from councilmember Lamb as an update on the
autonomous robot in the rock crest parking garage so we wanted to provide an update I asked Deputy
Chief Latanzi and Sergeant Kirby to provide an assessment on that pilot program and what it was
an honest assessment and reflection on the technology and the leverage of that technology I'm so
grateful that we had the opportunity to lean into and assess the utilization in the rock crest
parking garage what we did find though was an honestness reflection of it is there was a lot of
downtime that we we had to work through and navigate there were some deployments of very
specific technology that we had to wait on that didn't quite work as well as we had hoped or
intended it required a lot of staff time because of those those hiccups in the pilot program and
realistically we were spending more time than we anticipated in managing that project so
ultimately what we assessed is that what we envisioned and then what we operationally
experience were probably too far apart to justify the continuation of that program so we have at this
point concluded that pilot with that vendor particularly but will continue to consider any
technologies we could implement to help augment the work that our officers are doing throughout the
community on the other side of technology projects though I want to give an encouraging update on
the drone is first responder and I just had to check this I texted Deputy Chief Latanzi to make
sure this number was right and I apologize so that 585 deployments it says year to date that's
actually since the start of the program last year but the number for year to date is 212 so we
are still getting regular utilization out of the program providing critical information for
fire personnel and police responding to to incidents to address traffic concerns and certainly
for the occasions where there's an emergency that exists our program continues to get support
and recognized across the state and Deputy Chief Latanzi and Sergeant Clark presented
the on the City of Dublin's first double drone is first responder program at the Ohio Association
of Public Safety Directors at the conference on May 8th so a number of communities have reached out
to us to either come and take a look at the program or to get information about our drone is first
responders program and just as a testament in the last couple of weeks one of those
swatting incidents Sergeant Clark was able to launch the drone as first responder from home
that evening hearing about the incident and being and was able to support our response to that
incident and the safety of the officers and the community and really as the technology continues
to to progress for us an exceptional tool and so we're very grateful for that additionally last
week we had an incident in one of the elementary schools where a student left the building having
a little bit of a difficult day and while there was staff who had the student within site we launched
the drone is first responder as an additional mechanism to keep an eye should there be any disconnect
between the the school staff and finding that young person before officers were able to get to
them and safely and safely make sure that they got back to school so a number of different ways that
the program continues to prove success and so thank you for the support of that continued technology
from traffic safety trends our officers continue to be in the right places in the right times at
the right reasons are focused on traffic enforcement throughout the community continues to be
an intentional focus on speeding but also as we talked about the OVI concerns with traffic crashes
our officers engaged and invested in making sure that people who are on the roadway who could
have difficulty themselves or cause difficulty for others on the roadway are held accountable but
also made safe it's certainly continued focus for our officers working the evening hours and
throughout the day frankly because those incidents can occur any time of the day from our traffic
enforcement unit wanted to give an update on the traffic complaints that our traffic enforcement
continues to investigate and again everybody who calls in gets a personal phone call back from
that team to make sure we completely understand what the concerns are in the community and then
the focused attention that each of those deserve resulting in again 1241 traffic stops and 710
citations for various offenses including speeding throughout the community and then the updated
location of our speed warning cameras on rings road post road and Dunnaker Park we do have one of
those cameras which is being just working through some technology issues to get deployed to the
community here in the near future we wanted to make sure we gave an update on the noise ordinance
and our efforts and activity in addressing those concerns in our community our officers and
Sergeant Kirby and Sergeant Dobny have looked for technology to help leverage for those occasions where
we're addressing those offenses so we have purchased six decibel readers which Sergeant Kirby made
sure we're compliant with the Ohio revised code for the enforcement of that type of activity
consistent with the American National Standard Institute on specifications for sound level
meters I had to look that up to make sure I got all of that correct so I had that written down but
he did all the work in research to make sure that we purchased the right equipment he's done the
training with our officers so far we have 23 total stops for noise related offenses specifically
six citations and 17 warnings we have worked specific campaigns and will continue to for
enforcement of that type of activity across the community our first of which was on May 9th
in the bridge park area and then again as a testament to being in the right places to address
that activity on Saturday night Sergeant Kovex and the community impact unit and the patrol team
work together and work for a couple hour period on Saturday evening making 22 stops in the bridge
park area and just it's occasionally it's really nice to hear from the residents that they see the
effort and appreciate it so we did get a compliment from one of the bridge park residents who
has certainly provided us some perspective on the concerns that they have with regularity but
was certainly appreciative this weekend of seeing the activity and the impact that we're having
from a community outreach and engagement for goal 4 as we talk about east scooters and bikes
and small mobility devices we continue to emphasize the education on the front end of that activity
wanted to highlight deputy chief tavernick and genie for presenting the link ahead podcast which was
released on May 7th and just as a reflection of the engagement with that activity or I'm sorry
with that podcast there are more than 500 downloads of that specific podcast which is about double
what we according to communications and marketing about double of what we normally see which is
again not just the volume but the engagement with the information that we are putting out specific
to east scooters bikes and small mobility devices we intended to release the new bike map update
at the bike rodeo unfortunately we only got about 20 minutes into that that activity on that Saturday
due to the weather but we will continue to share that information from the schools perspective
number of things that we've continued to work with the schools and partnership in sharing the
safety messaging through district-wide principal newsletters and then as we had the bring a kid to
workday produce the flyer so that those that were participating in the event and their parents
receive the same information as we move forward for resources and tools will continue to leverage the
online resources that exists the weekly e-news letter to residents and neighborhood leaders in
schools and then currently in design we're working through a rat card with a summary of rules and
motorized about motorized devices and then a Dublin ride guide as well to provide as we move forward
for future education in addition from our community education unit they've been working officer
Cochran who is the SRO at Kaufman High School has been working on a ride matrix tool to be able to
input categories and to get information back so that parents who will maybe be curious about devices
and their legality within the city of Dublin and with the the laws that exist presently can get
feedback on those rules and devices the bicycle and microability safety education integration
into programming at the rec center and in safety city is upcoming as we move into the summer and then
our bike officers and school resource officers will be conducting education throughout the community as
we move into the summer what we would ask and I know council member cram has asked this in the past
how do how do we report the places where you would like to see us deliver that education and
certainly address the concerns that exist around this activity we would ask that you continue to call
the public continue to call the non-emergency number for and record to share with us we already
have collected some locations that we'd like to focus our activity starting out in the summer including
the athernery it seems to be a location where we've seen some gathering of devices our pools
we intend to spend some time at the pools as kids travel the pools as they're open now in bridge
park and then asherton apartments has been one of the locations where we've seen enough travel
that we want to make sure we spend some time there so if there are additional locations we would
ask just that the public reach out to us so that we can focus our intention and efforts
in those locations to educate anyone who might still be learning the message
and then from I'm sorry and from an enforcement perspective while we have lean forward heavy
on the education at the front end we have had a few occasions where we've had to issue citations
either because of safety concerns or because of repeated behavior so we hope that the education
permeates to a place where everybody has an understanding but I just wanted to share that we
have had some activity for enforcing that as well too should you receive questions
and then lastly issues of significant community concern I want to thank a deputy chief tabernick
centero and the Dublin wellness alliance for helping bring together the community to talk
about mental health and conversations about the resources that exist and encouraging people
to reach out and ask for assistance because Dublin is well positioned and certainly in central
Ohio there are a number of resources what we want to do is reduce any stigma that might exist
for people who are in need of support and encourage them to raise their hand to reach out and so
that we can be good partners in mental health and the prevention of the safety concerns that might
exist if those situations go unaddressed so that is the last of the presentation I have but
we happy to answer any questions council may have great thank you chief comments I would say just
real quick the micro mobility device enforcement communication education I think it's just going
to take time I'm still seeing what I would call offenders or offenses they're just so prevalent
and frankly I think a lot of people are confused including myself as to which devices are allowed
where so I think it's just going to take repetition thanks I had one so one suggestion on the education
for the ebikes I see a lot of kids writing them from I guess they live east of Somal Road and
they're they're going to practice they're going to practice at the athletic field and I think as
the summer comes and they have summer camps or then come August 1st when they have two-day
practices at the football field or whatever if we can get information perhaps to the coaches or to
the people holding those camps to pass out information or something I think that would be
good to do yeah that's excellent suggestion thank you and then I had one question so the number
of traffic accidents have significantly increased so according to the chart the traffic crash reports
for 2026 are up at 232 and we're only five months in and all of 24 was 222 and 25 was 223 no
and that's so thank you for asking that question so these are comparative to the same time frames
as last year so for an example we had 232 recorded up to the beginning of May for January to
May last year okay and we get that question periodically and so that's why I try to emphasize
that it's the same comparative time frame okay because that would be concerning if
because I read it as weird like okay got it yeah because I was like wait a minute why is that
number so off okay and we are trending and we continue to look at that and then look at specific
trends for injury crashes particularly and then the OVI so we that is something we're paying
attention to but you know comparative nine more than we had last year okay so it's yeah I was
thinking it was that was how many we had for the whole year and then we've had that many so far
okay that's much more reassuring thank you follow a question to that chief first of all thank you
so much again great work by the double police and with your leadership so thank you so much for
the fantastic work that you guys do but follow a question to the traffic accidents do you guys
also look at the ideology for the traffic accidents like is it distracted drivers is it
deer running out is it you know what what the causes are as part of the analysis that you do
we do they tend to be the same contributors now frankly that sometimes is a product of what we
are able to definitively say when we investigate a crash so while there may be contributing factors
that that compile to add to it an accident what we might be able to tell at the end of it
is a shared-clear distance ahead is how the crash occurs so there may be other elements that
contribute but what we reflectively see are sometimes the things that we can objectively
absolutely say cause the crash for that citation but that is information that we take a look at
in in different areas of the city try to discern what exactly is contributing that we might be
able to target as a an offense a traffic offense so that we can focus our time and activity
in changing the right behavior frankly I mean speed is one that the less time you have to react
the more likelihood that a crash may occur which is why we focus so heavily on on speed in
changing that behavior to help improve safety across the community but we can go back and and
drill down to some of that information and provide maybe a little more in-depth analysis which we do
monthly for our supervisors in a future update as well you know thank you all the only reason I
asked is because that might then help identify targeting interventions you know whether it is speed
whether it is like distracted drivers texting that kind of stuff and my last thing is just a
comment I'm going to add one more resident to thank you because my parents live in Bridge Park
and they actually just told me this past weekend how they notice a significant decrease in noise
and so two more residents that thank you for your efforts we certainly appreciate there's a lot of
effort that goes into it but it's nice when it's recognized or we're we're hitting that expectation
of the public so thank you I read I hear that the number of hoaxes or whatever we're calling it
now AI generated challenges that of threats and things are rising and continue to rise are there
technologies that you're going to bring back some funny requests to help us through this what
educate us a little bit on you know what's happening and what you might need to
operate in this new environment thank you yeah if there are technologies that something
certainly to go back in research and certainly as AI becomes a tool integrated within public safety
and so many other industries that's something we would be interested in taking a look at when we
tend to have these spats and here recently it was everything from hospitals to the zoo to
our school system to residences it's hard to discern even from that short period of time any sort
of a specific trend but we do work with our federal partners in sharing information in the hopes
that we're able to one identify the individuals that are involved but also to stay abreast of trends
that may be occurring so I can't speak specifically to any ask it but that's thank you for the
encouragement to continue to look at technologies that might help us I will share in the most recent
incidents we had everything from what we expected was just sort of the same call going around to
other facilities to one specific individual who just stayed on the phone through the duration of
the event that was it was an AI it was somebody who was just having I think a very difficult day
but causing more difficulty for our community as well too so but that's something that we certainly
will continue to to take a look at and I appreciate the encouragement to look for the right
technology to help us other questions or comments thanks chief we always appreciate you appreciate
thank you good I do want to just add one point of clarity to our meeting this evening because we
don't table and and remove things from the table very often that this was not a public hearing on
that ordinance 0 6 25 it was simply a removal of the table of it so we will hold the public hearing
as we stated publicly on July 1st and we will meet all of the intense of notification of requirements
of residents but it is not a hearing this evening we do not have discussion on that it is simply
a removal of the table so just want to take a time a moment to kind of outline that because while
it is certainly something that that can happen in meetings like this we don't do it very often
because we don't typically table things so if anyone is listening this evening or has interest
that is not not up for discussion tonight that's why we do not take public comment we will notify
so that we can have a robust and well informed conversation with anyone that would like to
participate in that on July 1st so with that that will bring us to the staff comments portion of
our agenda good evening members of council I have a few staff comments this evening the first I
wanted to bring to council's attention the quarterly real estate report that's included in the April
city managers report anytime that we receive this report we do included in the monthly report
and I just wanted to call out a few highlights that you will find in that report first being
leasing activity remains strong for the city of Dublin with 15% of all central Ohio leasing volume
in Q1 taking place in Dublin Dublin remains among the most active submarkets in central Ohio
and tenants moving within the region consistently place Dublin among top submarkets for leasing
interests and there's also a few notable executed leases that we want to highlight as they are
wins without incentives so those do not come to council in the form of an ADA that's why they're
referred to by staff as wins without incentives so the first being rose in USA that's 16,000 square
feet economic development staff was engaged in conversations with that company as they were exploring
locations within Dublin and ultimately they decided to locate at 5,900 parkwood and then
miqware north america is an 11,000 square foot lease they've been a longstanding Japanese based
company that economic development staff and mayor amorous grooms visited miqware's corporate headquarters
in september during the japan business mission trip they were looking for an alternate location
they decided to locate at park center circle for their new office space their current office space
has been located on commerce parkway for quite some time so again refer to city manager report for a
link to the quarterly real estate report for additional information please and then the next
item is Columbus's fourth water plant transmission main project team they will be holding a neighborhood
meeting with property owners from mirfield green and Bristol commons subdivisions those subdivisions
and the properties within those subdivisions of but ashball road and the meeting is going to be held
at the Dublin Community Recreation Center in the talas rooms it'll start at 6 p.m. on june 18th the
purpose of this meeting is to discuss the expected impacts of the ashball or of the water main
transmission main construction on the ashball road and the landscaping surrounding the road so as
part of those construction activities Columbus is proposing to remove the invasive species and that
will include honey suckle and they will also plan to install new improved landscaping
screening so this meeting is an opportunity for residents in that vicinity to voice their opinion
on the future character of ashball road as well as how it will directly affect the right
away of budding their yards and so invitations are planned to be sent out by Columbus's team
later this week and those invitations will be going to those properties that back up to ashball
road as well as HOA leadership for their awareness so while the meetings intended to focus specifically
on that vicinity of the project meeting is open to any residents that are interested in attending
bus shelter installations the installation of the new code of bus shelters is officially underway we
have the first shelter completed at east bridge street and Dale drive the upgraded shelters are
intended to enhance the writer experience and they're already generating positive feedback as shown
on this slide some of the comments include the modern design the improved safety accessibility
in the overall appearance of the shelter so improvements are being completed at five locations
across the community several of which are along solmo road at bright road hard road snapper
road east bridge street and then at east bridge street and Dale drive so all five shelter
installations they're nearly complete and final coordination on the details is occurring with
coda to finalize those locations and then central Ohio prism awards I'm pleased to share that
the communications and marketing team are nine awards you can see Jackie up there trying to juggle
all of them these awards were received from the central Ohio PRSA at the annual prism awards last
Thursday team was recognized for environmental branding the new resident welcome packet Dublin
reindeer roundup celebrating a community champion the Dublin news now ease new ease newsletter go
Dublin texts the 2025 state of the city and the 2025 Dublin Irish festival annual report which earned
a best of show distinction so congratulations to the team for these achievements and also
congratulations to our partners at visit Dublin Ohio which also earned another five awards
and then thanks to everybody that came out to celebrate memorial day in Dublin after the rainy
weekend it was a beautiful day and special thanks to the american legion all the sponsors the
community partners and all the volunteers and staff who helped make the memorial day ceremony and
the special america 250 community picnic success and we estimated that approximately 750 guests
attended both events and then lastly in the week leading up to the memorial tournament just
want to thank the staff for all of their efforts that have been ongoing for months and will continue
on through the rest of the week week the rain certainly makes all the mowing schedule a little
challenging at this point because the grass is growing very fast but the community certainly will look
its best and is will be prepared to be highlighted on the global stage and we look forward to next
weeks activities thank you super thank you okay this will bring us to the council reports portion
of our agenda will start with finance committee council member eludo thank you finance committee
metamame 12 with two topics the first was to review draft hotel motel tax agreements for visit
Dublin Ohio and the Dublin Historical Society visit Dublin Ohio funding will be based on actual
revenue with an annual 3% inflationary increase proposed the historical society agreement will
establish direct annual funding with a starting allocation of the previous years grant award
which is $36,000 the committee was supportive of conducting an updated analysis of the Dublin
arts council lease structure a triple net lease structure was identified as the preferred framework
the committee also reviewed a draft hotel motel tax fund balance policy and were supportive as
well as requesting annual reporting on actual grant disbursement rates the second topic was
the investment portfolio update the portfolios remaining compliance with the city's investment
policy which was great to hear they did a nice job the committee is supportive of considering
strategic land banking alongside liquid at investment performance so that we can get a much bigger
picture of all of our investments committee members were also supportive of reviews every three to
five years of investment management services and that concludes the finance committee report
very good liaison reports will begin with the board of education vice mayor de rosa and doctor
lamb nothing to report thank you 33 corridor and 161 corridor group vice mayor de rosa and
councilmember johnson nothing to report thank you sports Ohio steering committee council members
eludo and keeler so the sports Ohio steering committee met on May 7th the discuss recent
planning efforts capital improvement activity and partnership opportunities capital improvement
activity continues to advance across the campus including the installation of 12 soccer goals
completion of the fuel tank replacement and progress on security and wi-fi upgrades which are
nearing completion additional improvements are planned or underway including hvac upgrades at soccer
first parking lot maintenance golf center pump station replacement landscaping equipment purchases
and park phase two schematic design which is expected to begin in the near future the committee also
discussed the interest sports Ohio is receiving from a variety of potential partners and user groups
including strength and conditioning golf partners handball and volleyball organizations and others
interested in both existing building space and vacant land opportunities due to this high level
of interest and in an effort to encourage transparency gather a wide range of ideas and better
understand potential partnership benefits staff discussed issuing a request for information or
rfi with the committee the rfi would allow interested parties to share concepts and help the city evaluate
opportunities in a coordinated manner including how proposed partnerships could enhance recreational
athletic offerings increase utilization of existing facilities activate vacant land support long
term financial sustainability and expand access to sports and wellness programming for the community
the process would also help staff compare potential uses identify operational considerations and
understand whether proposed partnerships could complement the broader vision for the sports Ohio
campus the committee was supportive of moving forward with the rfi process additionally sports
facilities company advised that based on current demand and the interest they are receiving
converting some field sports indoor turf fields to multipurpose sports courts would help address
a strong and growing need in the Dublin market the recommendation aligns with the parks and
recreation master plan and hunt and study both of which identified demand for additional
multipurpose court space sports facilities companies indicated they plan to issue a request for
proposal or RFP to convert half of the field sports building from turf to multipurpose courts
and the committee was supportive of moving forward with that process any recommended proposal
and resulting agreement related to the rfi or RFP would be brought forward to council for authorization
at a future date before implementation it is great to see the continued progress across the sports
Ohio campus and the momentum building around future partnership and facility opportunities thanks
very good thank you miss cram planning and zoning commission and ARB
so I was quite with the architecture review board they do not have a meeting again this month because of
lack of agenda the planning and zoning commission I just want to thank them for their time they both
on May 7th and May 21st reviewed the weird code updates and put a lot of thought and effort into
that and they've made a recommendation it will be coming back towards councils very good thank
you miss johnson washington township due to scheduling conflicts and cancellation on washington townships
part I don't have anything to report very good dr. layam double and wellness alliance nothing to report
mr. keeler double and arts council logon union champion county regional planning commission
so the there's a conflict with the double and arts council they're meeting tonight so I missed
that meeting and nothing to report on logon union champion thanks good I will give an update on
morpsey I was not able to get by my house today to I wanted to bring some things and I'll
actually bring them in next time because they're kind of funny but I did have my last meeting as
chair last Thursday and certainly want to congratulate ben kessler on becoming the chair the next
chair of morpsey but I will bring in some fun fun gifts I received at our next time together because
some of them were very creative like communities that have urban tree maple syrup harvesting
so I'll bring some in and share them with you because there certainly are some creative ways to
have gifts in your community that are very reflective of the work that you do okay we will now go to
council round table I'll start down here to my far right council member cream actually at the
report on the bus shelters reminded me I was really excited to see so friday it was pouring down
rain all day I drove past the bus shelter bright and saw mill twice both times people were using the
shelter they were actually out of the rain so I just it felt good to see them using it so it's
already being used um besides that I just want to thank all the residents who came out from
memorial day I mean the sun came up just in time and the number of residents that even just line
161 was amazing that they came out for that great thanks buddy I will echo council member crams
thanks to the community I thought the memorial day ceremonies were fantastic and so well attended I
loved seeing all of our young scouts out there in support as well but a huge thanks to the staff
and the volunteers because the community picnic was incredible just a great fellowship and an
opportunity to share and and so just thank you to all the folks that made that possible thanks I
am sorry I was not able to make it this year I had a conflict I typically don't miss that one but
I did hear from some of my friends who attended and thought it was wonderful so big thanks to staff
and to all of our residents who showed up for the memorial day celebration thanks
I don't want to be redundant but it was incredible the staff did a great job so thank you very
much to the staff for a really poignant very special memorial days um celebration and also for
the for the picnic as well thank you I hope that that's the last time that colonel powers us
your taps on a really really long time um congratulations to our assistant law director
Yazan Ashwari for his recognition of business first for being 40 under 40 huge accomplishment
good job I just want to be 40 but congratulations
that's wonderful congratulations much deserved um I had the honor and really the pleasure really
to join the leadership Dublin graduation celebration a couple weeks ago and for those that have
had the opportunity to attend before the leadership doubling class give project updates and
this year they were focused on project updates to many of the nonprofits that we know and love
and they just did an outstanding job everything from strategic plans to new ways to grow revenue to new
ways to serve and so it was wonderful so thank you to the chamber for that program and thanks for
the opportunity to be there um I want to thank chief and his leadership team for the police memorial
service the mayor and I had the opportunity to attend on the 15th of May to honor those who gave
the ultimate sacrifice really their lives to protect us and to do their duty it's a beautiful
touching ceremony it was a gorgeous day and thank you for doing that and for all the folks that
attend in the surrounding communities I know how much that meant to them so it's it's just it was
I wish we didn't have to have it but thank you so much for all you do in that as well
and I wanted to thank the mayor I didn't know you were going to say that it was your last board
meaning but the press release came out and said you were the longest serving morpsey chair
that's a fact yeah that's a fact so um on behalf of council we know how much work that is and we see
your schedule and so not only do you commit to this community but you've committed so much of your
time and energy to serving in central lohion we just want to you know collectively thank you we're
know we know you're not done you're going to still be out there so that as well um and in the spirit
of community involvement and volunteering I wanted to congratulate all the new board and commission
members that we approved this evening um thank you for advance for your service and for those
that are leaving service we will have a celebration and appreciation on the 8th of June when we'll
also swear in all the new members and that's a very fun ceremony as well it just makes you feel
so great to see everybody together who's raising their hand to to serve on boards and commissions so
congratulations and thank you to to all those who have volunteered thanks everybody left in
the room has to promise not to tell mayor Ben Kessler but I did receive a medal I will bring it
in his fact that I got a medal that says morpsey's longest serving in greatest board chair so
I'm not going to let I'm not going to let you see that but um but I did become the uh the chair
of the passenger rail committee so I will be continuing that work there uh okay on the 12th I had
the opportunity to attend a joint meeting of comma and our peers in northeast Ohio and we had
several delegations from the state house and had a lunch together and you know it's just amazing
the more time you spend together you realize that the issues that you're facing are the same and
there's a lot of different people doing creative solutions to try to solve some of the issues that
that face us um I did have attend the link us executive council meeting on behalf of morpsey on
the 14th uh merriganthor held that in his conference room at at Columbus City Hall um you know
there we tonight we saw some of the good work coming out of link us and there's certainly some
challenges ahead to in identifying these corridors and in garnering the appropriate amount of
easement for for this work to happen but I am hopeful and confident that that regionally we
will come together and come up with good solutions that will give the folks that voted for the
link us initiative um a viable and attractive um opportunity for new ways of transit um thank you
chief for the police memorial service uh really moving speaker that was uh just a great time and
it's it's the hardest favorite event of the year you so wish that we didn't have to hold those um but
we do and it's appropriate that we do and there are so much to celebrate from those folks that
made the ultimate sacrifice so thanks for leaning into that and representing our community with
excellence in that space um the memorial day ceremony was particularly special to me this year
Colonel Andrew Powers or Andy as I knew him growing up he he lived at the other end of McDuff for me
so I literally have known Andy since the day he was born um so it's so fun to see the success of
our native double owners that grow grow up and do amazing things grow up I say that he's 50 years old
he's he's funny uh but in in my eyes he's always the little kid I used to babysit at the other
end of the street and to see um the you know the things that they do and um I it's amazing I had so
many questions for him of you know how is it that you actually how do you fuel an airplane in
mid-flight like that that is just and who did who did it the first time and how did that go um but
just want to thank him for uh his commitment to this community is commitment to his country and
the commitment that he has that was evident in the message that he shared to the people that he
uh that serve alongside him in that space it's very moving uh and then today uh I did attend the
Ohio mayor's alliance meeting we uh had downtown we have two in person a year today was one of those two
um you know it's going to be a very interesting year we talked a lot about um centralized
collections and property tax and income tax and many of the threats we had uh doc director
Lydia Mahalek come from the Department of Department of Development um we're going to see some revised
data about um uh immigration uh net immigration into the state of Ohio um not from uh from other
uh states in the country certainly some from outside of the country but I think the numbers are going
to be uh different than what we had projected and and Ohio is growing and I think that's a
result of a lot of the good work that we've seen done in that space so um I think those numbers
are going to be uh published here in the coming week and uh it certainly is good news for the state
of Ohio that maybe we are not shrinking at the rate that we thought that we were um and then we had
some uh uh Ohio mayor's alliance and I'm happy to share this with anyone who has interest but um
this year's work is going to focus on how cities can power our resurgence for Ohio and much of
that work is is that that Ohio is a state of cities uh most states have one major metropolis
that fun that fuels a lot of what happens in the state if you think about Illinois you think about
Chicago if you think about Indiana you think about Indianapolis if you think about New York you think
of New York City um and and they have primarily one city that fuels the growth of the state and
we are really fortunate in the state of Ohio that we have a host of cities um that do that for
you know obviously the three C and D but then you also have the the Toledo's and the Akron's
and the Lymas and and all of these other great cities that um that I get to spend the day with
today uh and hear about the work that they're doing so I'll share this with staff it is
available online also but it really highlights uh the distribution the uh the or the uh green dots
or the distribution of major metropolitan areas throughout the state of Ohio and you can see they're
pretty well balanced around the state um so it it was a really good day and it's always encouraging
to hear from your peers about the the work that they're doing and try to glean some information from
that so I uh I will leave this for that uh and if there is oh I did have one question the bus stop
at Breach Park the one on 161 there there's a sign like 200 feet to the east that says bus stop
and I don't know why that's there or if we can that was a temporary sign that was used during
construction and that's a coordination uh that needs to occur with the code of staff there was
a code of staff member that was I believe often that just needs to sync up with the final um location
okay and then thank you to all the staff the city is is really looking great it is we we really
look forward to welcoming the world here next week uh it's looking great we do have a few outliers
on double and road where we recently heard about the tree survey and uh the removal of trees there
hopefully we can get some notices out to those people um that have you know turf that's in excess
of 10 or 12 inches that we can um get them to to move on that here in the next week so that uh
we get our best foot forward and certainly get to present ourselves in that space so if there's
nothing further we for the good of the order we will stand adjourned
No segments match your search.