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Votes at a glance: Council approves rezoning, millage, grants, property sale and several procurement items
Summary
At its June 17 meeting Columbus City Council approved multiple zoning changes, the county/city millage levy, several federal grants, the sale of a city parcel and multiple procurement contracts. The council also added outside law firms to its approved counsel list.
Columbus City Council took a series of routine and contested votes on June 17, approving several zoning requests, adopting a millage levy, accepting federal grants, authorizing city property sales and awarding multiple procurement items.
Key outcomes:
- Rezoning approvals: Council approved rezoning of 101230 First Street (motion carried), the rezoning of Schley/Sligh Road and River Road to residential (motion carried), and rezoning of 20 Third Street to single-family residential (motion carried).
- Millage levies: Council approved the county/city millage levy for final adoption. The school district millage was read for the first time at 23.075 mills; final approval for the school district is scheduled for July 8.
- List of approved outside counsel: Council amended and approved the city’s list of outside law firms by adding Greenberg Trigg (Ernest Greer) and two local attorneys (Maxine Hardy Wallace and Gwen Newsome). The amendment and the overall resolution were approved on council vote.
- Property sale: Council approved selling a city-owned property to NeighborWorks at fair market value of $6,000.
- Grants: Council approved multiple grant acceptances and applications presented on the city manager’s agenda, including a FEMA Fire Prevention & Safety grant ($250,000) to conduct a wildfire community risk analysis and develop a wildfire protection plan (staff later corrected that matching funds exist) and several U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grants totaling several hundred thousand dollars for recruitment, homelessness response, mental health and crisis-response training and anti-gun-violence activities (individual amounts included on the agenda: $175,000, $175,000, $200,000, $500,000, $175,000 respectively). Council approved the grants with the standard oversight and fund-segregation procedures described by the finance director.
- Procurement and contracts: Council approved risk management legal services for FY26; contracts for bus refurbishment (hybrid-to-diesel conversions) and annual hot-asphalt microsurfacing and road repairs; and amended the traffic incident management and towing contract process. On the towing RFP the council declined to add a second vendor after debate and directed staff to follow the original recommendation (single vendor Griffin and Griffin) per the RFP committee’s submission.
Votes on the above items were recorded on the scribe system during the meeting. Councilors asked for supporting documentation on the grants and procurement items, and staff said grants would be set up in separate funds and audited as required.
Ending: Most items on the business agenda passed with routine or unanimous approval; a few items drew discussion about process or future legislative fixes and will return with additional documentation as requested.
