Hamilton County sees huge increase in spending on out-of-home placements for kids

 Notes

Scene

The meeting was held, as it is normally, in Room 603 at the Todd B. Portune Center for County Government, 138 E. Court St., in downtown Cincinnati. Spectators and presenters were in attendance, as were two of the three commissioners, an assistant county prosecutor, county administrator, assistant commission clerk and chief clerk. The commission’s YouTube feed began at approximately 10:02 a.m. The meeting adjourned at 10:46 a.m.

Commissioners present

• Denise Driehaus, commissioner
• Stephanie Summerow Dumas, president
• Alicia Reece, vice president (Absent)
• Jeff Aluotto, county administrator
• An assistant prosecuting attorney

Approximate time spent during the meeting 

•      13   minutes: 2026 Economic Impact Program Funding Recommendations
•      16   minutes: Solid Waste Management Program Update
•      13   minutes: Children’s Services Levy Financial Analysis
•       —   minutes:  Executive Session

Agenda

ITEM 1.  2026 Economic Impact Program Update

Kelly Adamson, Hamilton County economic development officer; and April Gallelli, community development senior program manager, presented an overview of the 2-year-old Economic Impact Program (EIP), created in partnership with Alloy. Funds come from Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) through the federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) department, as well as county Economic Development Community Revitalization Grant (CRG) funds.

The 2026 EIP program budget is $2.2 million (including $1.5 million from the county general fund and $701,840 in CDBG funds).

In the inaugural round, 14 communities submitted funding requests totaling $4.39 million. Requests are evaluated on project readiness (site is properly zoned and  architectural plans and engineering reports are completed), project need, support (from public and private entities or matching funds), place-based investments (other development projects near the proposed project) and economic development (the number and type of jobs to be created).

Some of the larger EIP funding recommendations for 2026 include:

* Sycamore Township: ($650,000) to support redevelopment of a blighted portion of the Reading Road corridor (more than 30 acres). SORTA has committed $4.3 million.

*Village of Silverton: ($400,000) for paving, lighting, striping and drainage improvements for its business district. “This supports core business district infrastructure improvements,” Adamson said.

*Village of Woodlawn: ($375,000) to acquire underutilized commercial property along the Springfield Pike Corridor.

*City of Reading: ($400,000) to acquire and raze the abandoned and blighted Rally’s restaurant site. Valley Bank, on neighboring property, will expand to bring jobs and services. Grant funds will revitalize “the gateway to what is considered to be the largest Bridal District in the country. Reading has that claim to fame,” Gallelli said. The district employs more than 350 people and has 54 businesses that will be supported by that gateway structure, she said.

“We can’t say enough about the bridal district there. It’s a destination, and we want to keep it that way,” she said. “We want to make sure people have a proper gateway when they’re coming into the Bridal District.”

*Sharonville: ($325,000) to build a public parking infrastructure to support a $75 million Downtown Loop Development housing and retail project.

“We love the idea of those mixed-use projects. They are really wonderful because they bring all components of what make businesses work into the community,” Gallelli said.

Funding requests from nine municipalities – — Forest Park, Evendale and Norwood among them –  were rejected because they did not meet the specified criteria.

Next steps: Once the commission approves the EIP funding recommendations, award letters are to be sent to the winning communities on May 18. After that comes an EIP seminar for communities, scheduled to occur in August.

Driehaus said she is super excited about the continuation of the program but worries because “there were a number of proposals that were not project-ready.”

ITEM 2. Solid Waste Management Update (Hamilton County ReSource)

Hamilton County’s 53.38% diversion rate in 2024 was the highest of Ohio’s largest counties (Franklin, 45.97%; Montgomery, 44.44%; and Cuyahoga, 40.44%), said Michelle Balz, county solid waste district manager. That percentage means Hamilton County diverts 54.38% of the waste the county generates out of the landfill, she said.

All 48 communities participated in the residential recycling incentive program in 2026 (Milford is not counted as it is part of the Clermont County solid waste district). The annual budget ($800,000) is split like a pie, Balz said, with money going to communities based on how much waste they divert. Some communities use their share of funding to create waste diversion programs. For example, Norwood created a community food scrap drop off for residents who don’t want to compost in their yards. 

Balz said the solid waste district, funded through landfill tipping fees, focuses mainly on three programs:

Household hazardous products: Her office staged nine community events and one big event in 2025. The household products program also found that 42% of residents who used the program had not used it before, and 28% of households that participated make less than $54,000 a year.

To help businesses with diversion programs, there is the 513 Green Certification program. So far, 65 organizations (schools, offices, restaurants, etc.) have been recognized for pledging to divert waste from the landfill.

Food rescue: The district partners with Food for the Soul, which was given a grant to purchase vans to gather and deliver to people food from restaurants headed to the landfill. In 2024, county organizations rescued 17,629 tons of food. In six months, Our Daily Bread and Last Mile repacked 1,133.64 pounds of lettuce.

Balz said that, going forward, the district is using its “significant” carryover balance to invest in its food rescue infrastructure (the district has established a $1 million food rescue equipment grant to help food rescue organizations) and partnering with farmers interested in an on-farm composting program to support their small-scale efforts (21 farms have expressed interest in partnering with the county). “There is a big interest in the farming community for that support,” she said.

Driehaus applauded the district for the work done in diverting waste from the landfill.

ITEM 3. Children’s Services Levy Financial Analysis

There is “nothing in the three audits [of the levy performed since voters approved it in 2021] that would cause suspicion in the underlying financials,” said Joe Brown, managing director, Clark Schaefer Hackett Consulting, which was tasked with analyzing audits of levy revenue and spending cycles since 2021.

In 2021, the levy carried a balance of $145.8 million, Brown said, and the analysis agreed with the audits of subsequent years that reported a drop in levy revenue in 2025 to $41.9 million. The Public Consulting Group and levy administration performed those audits annually as part of their duties.

The leading causes were huge increases in spending for out-of-home placements (Lighthouse Youth Services and National Youth Advocate Program Inc. among them), and contract services concentrated in a small set of vendors (county mental health board, juvenile court, Talbert House among them).

How the county contracts for services warrants a closer look, according to the executive summary of the consultant’s presentation. With out-of-home and contract services concentrated in a small set of vendors and categories respectively, and growing rapidly, the county has an opportunity to strengthen oversight of quality, value and delivery, building a defensible story ahead of any level renewal or increase, the summary states.

The out-of-home spending nearly doubled from 2022 to 2025 ($48.3 million to $93 million), according to the analysis, and the top six vendors, led by Lighthouse Youth Services, “drive nearly half” of spending in that category ($141.7 million).

Driehaus asked whether there was anything the county could do to bring out-of-home spending under control.

Brown said the consultant’s evaluation of the reasons for out-of-home spending was beyond the scope of the analysis.

Driehaus said someone from Jobs and Family Services is reporting to the commissioners in a week, to propose ways to reduce spending on out-of-home placement and contract vendors.

ITEM 4.  Executive Session

The two commissioners adjourned and went into executive session to discuss the sale or disposition of property

Dustin Montgomery, CIC; Michelle Klingenberg, JLL managing director; and Roger Friedmann, representing the prosecutor’s office, were part of that session.

Public Comment: None

The meeting was adjourned at 10:46 a.m.

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