Board Meeting Minutes
City of Seneca Gardens
January 16th, 2026
Present: Mayor Kaufman, Commissioners Kessinger, McGuire, Perkey and Smith, Treasurer Sanders, Engineer Niemann, Arborist Hayman, Chief Lamey, and City Clerk Jones
Guests: Residents Dan Simon, Meadow Rd., David Jones, Woodcreek Rd., and Charlotte Jones from International Society of Horticulture
Meeting called to order at 6:30 p.m.
Minutes from December 2025 meeting were approved unanimously.
Arborist: Hayman introduced Charlotte Jones. She is helping Mike move the Level I Arboritum designation forward. She will be using her expertice to code/identify the neighborhood trees to comply with the certification process. The project will hopefully be ready to launch by Arbor Day April 24th.
Mayor: Kaufman recognized resident Dan Simon who wanted to call the Boards attention to the vandalized sections of sidewalks that have recently been replaced.
Public sidewalks are a shared asset funded by the residents. To address this, the City engineer will work with the contractor to smooth the surface that was defaced. The police chief has been notified and will prepare a report regarding the vandalism.
Chief Lamey: The Strathmoor police expanded their patrol hours in response to the car break-ins. Since those expanded hours there have been no additional break-ins in the City. During those expanded hours there were 12 pedestrian stops, most were delivery people, the rest moved on quickly.
There were 12 traffic stops and 6 fire lane violations that moved upon request.
Treasurer: Reports all bills paid and still within the budget.
Engineer: He has requested pricing from American Concrete to replace vandalized squares.
Permits issued for Seneca Drive, Broadmeade Rd., and Meadow Rd.
McGuire: Residents have had different responces from Ecotech customer service. He has asked management to work with customer service to give more consistent answers.
Perkey: Needs submissions for the next newsletter as soon as possible. He will send out a Reach alert about the sidewalk vandalism.
Smith: Has received good responces to her Gardens Gazette and is working on content for next months’ submission.
Hayman has requested that the Board amend the dangerous tree ordinance to include wording that states work and remitance be approved by the Arborist prior to work. Smith will review the ordinance and present a propossed amendment next meeting.
Kessinger: Received a letter from Family Ark thanking the City for our generous donation.
She is working on dates for the 2026 events.
Meeting ended at 7:54 p.m., voted unaminiously.