Finance and Personnel Chair Mrs. Thompson presented and the committee called for several pieces of legislation Thursday evening, moving them forward for council consideration.

The committee approved requests to reappropriate $6,375.18 to the Barberton Fire Department’s operating budget as reimbursement from an Assistance to Firefighters grant; to appropriate $7,500 for police resiliency, health and wellness training; and to appropriate $24,000 for outfitting a K-9 vehicle and a detective-bureau vehicle. The chair said each request carried emergency wording and was called for passage by voice vote in committee.

The committee also moved forward two vehicle procurement items tied to service requests from Service Director Todd Shreve: a request to enter a contract with a Kenworth vendor in Richfield for three 2025 Kenworth T480 snow-and-ice trucks (amount reported in committee at approximately $786,992) and a separate lease-purchase financing arrangement for three dump trucks, also reported at about $786,992. Committee members discussed sequencing the city-hall Justice Center construction-manager-at-risk process and the architects’ work so design efforts do not duplicate mechanical and structural work. Chair Thompson and members agreed to refer procurement items to finance or to schedule second readings as needed so design and construction tasks run together.

Finance Director Jeremy Flaker asked the committee to accept the auditor-state selection of Julian and Group as the city’s independent public accounting firm for fiscal years 2025–2029; the committee approved the acceptance and called it for the full council.

Councilor Heidek’s referral requesting a $150,000 appropriation from the general fund (structured as $50,000 per year for 2026–2028) to Main Street Barberton for downtown economic development was also approved in committee and sent forward.

Other administrative items the committee advanced included payment of a $13,002.54 invoice to GPD for construction administration and inspection services and a request to enter a contract with Hazden Staub Architects for architectural services on the City Hall Justice Center project; emergency language was requested on several of these items.

Chair Thompson closed the committee by calling for acceptance of the finance report for October. The committee voted by voice on each motion; committee minutes record members answering “Aye” on the calls to move items forward. Next steps for most items are second reading and a council vote at a subsequent meeting.

Reporting note: dollar amounts and vendor spellings are taken from committee materials as presented in the meeting; some procurement vendor names appeared with minor spelling variants in the materials and transcript and are recorded in the council’s referral paperwork.