Budget & Finance Committee files audit, approves grants and transfers including $3.5 million parks donation

The Cincinnati Budget & Finance Committee met and approved a package of ordinances, grants, donations and transfers covering urban forestry assessments, health and food programs, infrastructure repairs and departmental appropriations.

Key actions approved or filed at the meeting included levying the 2026 urban forestry assessment, state and county grants for public health and food-rescue freezers, a $500,000 Ohio EPA grant for lead service-line replacement at licensed childcare facilities, a $562,120 Ohio Public Works Commission emergency grant for landslide repairs on West Fork Road and a $3,500,000 donation from the Cincinnati Parks Foundation for improvements at Lot 23 of Smale Riverfront Park.

The committee also accepted smaller grants and transfers: $1,000 to the Office of Human Relations from the Greater Cincinnati Foundation Harry F. and Mary Anne Frey Fund; $15,000 from Hamilton County for community freezers at Hartwell and Winton Hills recreation centers (with a $5,200 local match covered by the Health Department's staff expenses); a $12,000 UnitedHealthcare grant to the Bobby Stern Health Center to fund on-site retinal screenings; and a $250,000 one-time operational support agreement with the Children's Home of Cincinnati doing business as Best Point Education and Behavioral Health to support a youth mental health urgent-care program. A transfer of $145,786.02 into Fleet Services' capital account from proceeds of equipment sales was also approved, and a then-and-now payment of $197,899.95 to CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc. for software licenses and maintenance was authorized.

Finance staff reported that general fund revenue continues to be above estimate for the fiscal year and highlighted that income tax receipts were $10,200,000 above forecast; the committee filed the fiscal report for the month ending February 2025. The committee also filed the FY2024 audited financial statements; the audit returned no findings, though auditors provided suggestions for improvement that finance staff will review.

Council members and city officials praised partnerships supporting the city’s food-rescue and freezer programs. "This is really, amazing and hugely needed," Council Member Mark Jeffries said about the lead-service-line replacement grant, noting the public-health importance of removing lead from plumbing at childcare facilities. Council Member Anna Albee described the community freezer program as part of an effort to use recreation centers as resiliency hubs and thanked partners including CareSource and LeSoup.

All items listed on the meeting agenda were moved forward or filed as recorded in the committee transcript; the provided transcript indicates items were advanced but does not include a full roll-call vote record for each item in the excerpt.