Monroe City Council reconsiders and adopts ordinance 2025-01; approves park planning, equipment leases and finance reports

The Monroe City Council on Feb. 11 voted to reconsider and then adopt Ordinance 2025-01 and approved several routine resolutions and purchases, including a professional services agreement for park trail planning and two five-year lease-purchases for Public Works equipment.

Why it matters: The ordinance adoption and the consultant agreement advance planned public works and trail projects in Monroe; the equipment leases update the city's Public Works fleet and the finance report acceptance closes out quarterly accounting for late 2024.

Ordinance 2025-01: After a successful motion to reopen consideration, the council adopted Ordinance 2025-01. The motion to reconsider passed on a roll call (Dr. Clark: yes; Mr. Funk: yes; Mr. Hagedorn: no; Mrs. McElfresh: yes; Mr. Wagner: yes; Mr. Centers: yes). The subsequent motion to adopt the ordinance passed on roll call (Mr. Funk: yes; Mr. Hagedorn: no; Mrs. McElfresh: yes; Mr. Wagner: yes; Mr. Centers: yes; Dr. Clark: yes). A later motion amended the Jan. 28, 2025 council minutes to record the reconsideration and the adoption and the council then approved the amended minutes.

Resolutions: The council unanimously approved Resolution 14-2025, authorizing payment of a $3,825 annual dues certificate to the Center for Local Government. City staff member Lester described the Center's role: "We use the center for things like benchmarking with other communities. We have used them for things in the past like aging compensation, looking at other job classifications that other cities hold within the region. We also use them for leadership development as well."

The council also approved Resolution 15-2025 authorizing the city manager to enter into a professional services agreement with Fishback for design work on the Bicentennial Commons Park loop trail and the Great Miami River Trail extension. Council members noted the drainage study completed by Fishback will be incorporated into subsequent design phases and mitigation work will be built out over phases.

Equipment leases and purchases: The council authorized a five-year lease-purchase with Ohio CAT for a mini excavator in a total amount stated in the meeting as $96,186 (voice vote; motion carried). The council also authorized a five-year lease-purchase with Ohio CAT for a rubber-tire front-end loader; the amount was stated twice in the meeting transcript with inconsistent readings ($272,008.00 in one reading, and $272,801 in another). The council approved the loader lease by voice vote (motion carried with one member noted as opposing in the voice roll; no roll-call names recorded for that vote). Clarifying details below note the inconsistent amounts recorded during the meeting.

Finance reports and minutes: Council accepted the finance reports for October, November and December 2024 as submitted (voice vote; motion carried). The council also formalized an amendment to the Jan. 28, 2025 minutes to record the reconsideration and adoption of Ordinance 2025-01 and then adopted the amended minutes.

Executive session: The council voted to adjourn into an executive session to discuss details relative to security arrangements and emergency response protocols for a public body or public office (roll call, unanimous yes). The session was authorized; no details were discussed in open session and no further public action was taken at the time of the vote.

Background and next steps: Ordinance 2025-02, which would change planning, zoning and building permit fees, was read by title and will appear on a future agenda for a second reading; no substantive discussion or vote occurred on that item at this meeting.