Mayor Duncan then led a discussion on the following agenda items:

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  COUNCIL COMMITTEES
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    Finance, Vice Mayor Byington
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      Permissive Licensing Fee: Mr. Klopsch explained that the recently approved Ohio Transportation Bill authorized municipalities to impose an additional $5 per year fee for vehicle license renewals. The current licensing fee (permissive tax) is $20 annually per vehicle, with $12.50 remitted to Montgomery County and $7.50 to Oakwood. The additional $5 fee would go entirely to Oakwood and would generate about $45,000 annually to be used on street maintenance projects. Mr. Klopsch mentioned that it is staff's intention to present an ordinance at the May 6 council meeting for a first reading on this matter. Mr. Stephens questioned the need for imposing this additional $5 fee. Mr. Klopsch explained that the amount of money the City receives from licensing fees has been relatively unchanged since 2006, yet street maintenance costs increase every year. This $5 fee helps to address cost increases experienced over the past 13 years. It will also help to delay the need for the City to consider future tax increases. Mr. Klopsch added that the permissive tax can be viewed as a fee for service, given that it only applies to citizens that have registered vehicles, and is dependent on the number of vehicles owned by each person.
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      Police and Fire Pension Fund: Mr. Klopsch reported that the remaining City liability under the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund is approximately $440,000. The City pays 4.25% interest on this liability, and currently earns approximately 2% interest on investments. Under the current payment plan, the final payment on this liability is due in year 2035. If the City chose to pay off the remaining balance now, Oakwood would save approximately $170,000 in interest charges. Mr. Klopsch suggested that this would be a prudent action, and that the matter could be presented to the citizen Budget Review Committee for opinion, or Council could decide the matter directly. Mr. Klopsch opined that this is a matter that Council should decide directly. Updated liability payoff numbers will be provided to the City in the fourth quarter of this year. At that time, the City can consider options for paying off the liability. This could be done in one installment or perhaps two installments, one in late 2019 and one in 2020.
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    Law & Minutes, Mrs. Hilton
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      S.B. 331 Update: Mr. Jacques provided a brief update on the City's involvement with S.B. 331 (small cell wireless) litigation and recent updates with the case. He reminded Council that the City had joined a coalition of other municipalities to challenge S.B. 331, and had prevailed at the trial court with a finding that S.B. 331 was adopted in violation of the single-subject rule. H.B. 478 was subsequently adopted while the S.B. 331 case was on appeal, rendering much of the S.B. 331 case moot and leading most of the coalition municipalities to drop out of the case. However, the appeal is ongoing and all of those cities are still parties. Recently, the State of Ohio filed a motion to vacate the court's original finding that S.B. 331 violated the single-subject rule, on grounds of mootness. This could undo the positive precedent we established for future single-subject rule cases. The only cities actively litigating the case are Columbus and Akron, but they have offered to extend their representation to continue covering cities that have discontinued active litigation. Council supported this approach and asked the Law Director to reach out to the Columbus Law Department.