City Council

COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -623- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: With a quorum being present the Chair calls this meeting of Canton City Council to order. Roll call. ROLL CALL TAKEN BY CLERK TIMBERLAKE: 12 COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: (DAVID DOUGHERTY, TERRY PRATER, MARY CIRELLI, JOSEPH COLE, BILL SMUCKLER, GREG HAWK, THOMAS WEST, JAMES GRIFFIN, CHRIS SMITH, PATRICK BARTON, MARK BUTTERWORTH & BRIAN HORNER) TWELVE COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT. CLERK TIMBERLAKE: All present, Mr. President. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Member Prater I’ll accept a motion excusing President Schulman. MEMBER PRATER: Mr. President I move we excuse President Schulman from tonight’s meeting. MEMBER CIRELLI: Seconded. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: It’s been moved and seconded to excuse President Schulman from tonight’s meeting. Are there any remarks? Roll call. NO REMARKS ROLL CALL 12 YEAS, 0 NAYS CLERK TIMBERLAKE: Twelve yeas, Mr. President. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you the motion carries. President Schulman is excused from this evening’s meeting. We’ll have the invocation given by Member Griffin. Please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. The regular meeting of Canton City Council was held on October 4, 2010 at 7:30 P.M. in the Canton City Council Chamber. The roll call was taken (see above) by Clerk of Council Cynthia Timberlake. The invocation was given by Ward 3 Council Member, Jim Griffin. The Pledge of Allegiance led by President Pro Tem Dougherty. AGENDA CORRECTIONS & CHANGES PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you Member Griffin. We’re now under Agenda Corrections. Member Prater I’ll accept a Suspension of Rule 22A. MEMBER PRATER: Mr. President, I move Rule 22A be suspended to add 2nd Readings of Ordinance 2 through and including #8. MEMBER CIRELLI: Seconded. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: It’s been moved and seconded to suspend Rule 22A of Ordinances 2 through 8. Any remarks? Roll call. COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -624- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 NO REMARKS ROLL CALL 12 YEAS, 0 NAYS CLERK TIMBERLAKE: Twelve yeas, Mr. President. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Rule 22A is suspended. These Ordinances are a legal part of the agenda. PUBLIC HEARINGS PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: We’re under Public Hearings. We have no Public Hearings tonight. OLD BUSINESS PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: We’re now under Old Business. Is the Administration ready to discuss Old Business? SAFETY DIRECTOR REAM: Mr. President, the Mayor is out of the Chambers at this moment. If you have something to address when he gets back, I’m sure he’ll be glad to. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Yea we had a lot of questions that were presented to us to be followed up on. Is he do back? SAFETY DIRECTOR REAM: Yes as far as I know. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Oh, alright. We’ll go back to that then. PUBLIC SPEAKS PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: We are now under Public Speaks. We have 10 signed up this evening. I’ll call you up one at a time and you’ll have three minutes to speak. The first speaker tonight is Julie Sparks. Good evening. JULIE SPARKS: Good evening. Julie Sparks... PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Yes we need your name and address. JULIE SPARKS: 1514 Vassar Avenue NW, Canton 44703, Ward 9, Precinct F. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you. JULIE SPARKS: You’re welcome. At the end of the evening at work tonight, I saw something and I thought, you know I had been debating about whether or not to come to Council and there was a great opportunity but, I saw something I wanted to share with you so I basically wanted to share two or three things with you in the little bit of time that I have, and I hope you can hear me. I tend to preface so I’ll preface that by saying that I don’t often come here because I have a working a relationship with you, but I’m here as a private citizen and I want to attest to a couple things to my community. And the thing, one of the things I want to attest to is that in my experience as a professional and as a private citizen that are Council and our COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -625- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 Administration is very responsive. As are Department heads and their employees and I find, and that’s my view, and I find that that responsiveness comes from a relationship or from a willingness on my part and citizen’s parts to reach out and share things that are of concern to them. And I could site plenty of examples from a pothole to you know, things far more serious but that’s my observation and I want to thank you for that because I know you have thankless jobs but I have a lot of respect for the work that all of you do. And I guess I even want to say a little farther that I’m seeing some positive energy and synergy moving forward and so at the end of this I’m going to throw something out there as a challenge just for thought, not to pressure. But two things that I were, a couple things I want to share. The thing that brought me here. I saw a Weed & Seed report on my desk and Councilman Dougherty I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to see it yet or not but it came from the Police Department as part of the North East Canton Weed and Seed Initiative includes community policing. I know we don’t use that term anymore. Call it what you will but anyway, folks that are patrolling within the Weed and Seed area, and the August report showed me that we’d finally gotten to where we’d been trying to get to for quite a while. The type of information that was on there and there were so many citizens that were contacted and stopped to and talked to in a positive way and appropriate way and other things that were matters that were dealt with. I was just really happy and blown away and so I have to believe there’s some sort of, that they’ll be a cumulative effect where people will notice that and have to validate that and I’m kinda excited and I think that’s the direction they’re heading so I want to really thank Director Ream and Chief McKimm and Sargent Pressley and Council Majority Leader Dougherty who’s the Chair of the Northeast Canton Weed and Seed and Officer Kinlow, etc. Very exciting. And then on to the issue of the day, the demo stuff. I want to also say that in, I’m astounded by the work that being done right now and the number of demo’s that are coming down in northeast Canton and all over Canton. I think we’re getting to a place where we have an important visual impact. I think it’s stunning and I think it’s inspiring to neighbors. And also frankly, I think that’s a sign of leadership, anyway. The last thing that I want to comment on is back to the demolition stuff, OK. I don’t know if this is true or not but the bottom line is, we’ve got thousands of properties that we own. You own, we own. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Your three minutes are approaching so please bring your remarks to a close. JULIE SPARKS: Yes sir. And we’re knocking these down so my challenge then is, can we, citizens need to be more involved in the plan that we need to develop. I would like to see for example, by next September, us being as aggressive in dealing with these properties as we’ve been with demolishing these properties and getting them out of the hands of the city and into the hands of the citizens. I know there’s a lot of stuff between here and there but it sure would be a strong statement about our forward movement. Thank you. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you very much. (APPLAUSE) Second speaker is Alice Sarver please. We need your name and address please. ALICE SARVER: My name is Alice Sarver. I live at 1225 41st Street NW. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you. ALICE SARVER: Initially I’m going to be Veronica Callahan because she was called away from the meeting unexpectedly and her words were these “N.A.V.E. and N.L.C. and the Neighborhood Leadership Council of which these two groups are actually adhoc or committees or subcommittees under the Leadership would like COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -626- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Honorable Mayor Healy and City Council Members for allowing us the opportunity to address City Council and to make our voices and concerns known. We appreciate Council for their accomplishments that have been made in recent months but we are here tonight to let you know that the job is not done and there is still much to be done. Having said that, I would like all of the representatives from Leadership Council to please stand or if you’re here from your neighborhood. (APPLAUSE) These people do an amazing job of meeting every, you know once a month and talking and explaining what’s going on in their neighborhood and they give all of us who attend a greater appreciation for the entire City of Canton. I also need to announce that on October the 11th at the McKinley Grand there’s a meet the candidates night sponsored by N.A.V.E. The doors are open at 6:00 and you are all invited.” I think that’s all that she needed to do. Now for next, for the meeting in two weeks just so that there’s an Old Business to be addressed, on May 24th I found me minutes from that meeting and there was $92, 800.00 passed to buy lithium smoke alarms and fire extinguishers and at that meeting Mary Cirelli asked about distribution. I’m concerned that I had not read about distribution. The answer to that is they have not yet been purchased and that needs to be done because we’re talking $98,000.00, $92,800.00. The Neighborhood in Action Members of the Neighborhood Association are here this evening to express the frustrations that many of the residents of this city are feeling right now and to attempt the communication necessary to prioritize those steps needed to revitalize each neighborhood according to its needs. We ask only that we be heard. We recognize that you are all facing the same frustrations and need to communicate also. Quite frankly, I think we have come to the eye of the perfect storm. It is time for the rhetoric to stop and a plan to be put into action. Ideally we will turn this city into the wind and face the problems with courage and dignity together. Sadly it is extremely difficult to take a step away from past situations, personality conflicts, confrontations and politically motivated verbalism that must be put aside in order that there’s a positive approach and a free exchange of ideas and suggestions from this moment on. We must all work together as a crew on a ship to survive and to ultimately celebrate that survival as a well planned recovery takes place for a city that deserves nothing less. After these opening remarks, I would like to offer this suggestion to the....oh, I’m sorry. I trust that you all read the packet of information you received last week. Since then many of us have also attended a presentation by David Bolkey and I hope I’m pronouncing his name right. Called the Healthy Neighborhood Concept which was an amazing in depth study of real estate data and neighborhood data necessary to make key decisions that make common sense. Again another part of that perfect storm. Are his recommendations going to be put into effect? Will neighborhoods receive his workbook, which I think they should. After these opening remarks I would like to offer this suggestion to the total plan. There’s a lack of communication being provided to the public about such efforts being supported by the city such as the Canton Neighborhood Project and the Leadership Council here this evening. News releases have to be provided to the local media and followed up with updates to achieve a proactive buy-in by the residents. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Please bring your remarks to a close. ALICE SARVER: OK. Another possibility would be to send this news to the neighborhoods that have newsletters. We would all be aware of the available partnerships that can make a difference in a logical approach to the unique challenge of each neighborhood. Thank you for your time. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you very much. (APPLAUSE) This, Members just so there’s no confusion, there was extra time allotted do to the fact that she wanted to introduce and Veronica couldn’t sign up, so just in case you’re wondering. I am keeping track. Thank you. Jason Scaglione. COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -627- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 JASON SCAGLIONE: Hi, my name’s Jason Scaglione. I reside at 3027 Glen Place NW, Canton, Ohio. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you. JASON SCAGLIONE: I just want to say that, I’m gonna touch on some things that Alice did here. The event at, with David was outstanding. I really enjoyed what he had to say and we realized a lot of these things all along. It takes everybody working together. All the neighbors, all the, everybody, you guys. Our particular neighborhood, Fairgrounds Residential Neighborhood Association has spent over 240 hours so far mowing grass that were vacant lots in the city. I think that kinda shows a little bit of our commitment to our neighborhood. And we’re going to continue to do what we can but we need your help. One instance that really, really bothered me that we need to do something with is, there is a specific Ordinance on sidewalks that says they shall be free of snow and the way it’s written I don’t think it does work and it hasn’t been enforced for that reason but we need to provide safe sidewalks for our children at least to get to the schools that they must walk to. It takes us all working together. I hope that we can look at some of these Ordinances that were written back in 1967 and may not work today and see about cleaning them up and getting things to help us get our neighborhoods to where they should be. It’s hard for you guys as a city to enforce some things that obviously don’t work anymore. Thank you. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Pat Kirk. Good evening. PAT KIRK: Hi, good evening. My name is Pat Kirk and I live at 131 5th Street NE. I would like to speak tonight about the demolition and the vacant land that we have after we have the demolition. We live in a city that is very, very friendly to cars and vehicles. In the area where I live we have a new asphalt parking lot next to a parking garage which is next to parking meters. But it’s people that we are trying to attract. When was the last time you heard someone say that they were going to step outside and enjoy the cement and the pollution while they’re stepping over run off flooding. But anyway, I say a very sad sight three days ago. It was at the bus zone. There was like a little toddler who was enjoying himself, running through the ground cover that’s in those little square tree pits and he was happy and he was laughing because he was enjoying the wild side of nature and sad part is that he was enjoying the wild side of nature in Canton. We have an absolutely tremendous opportunity in front of us. We have a lot of land and it doesn’t all have to be turned in to a parking lot. And I feel that the first thing that should be done with this land is offer it to the nearby homeowner that may want a bigger lawn or may want a garden and some of the things that other cities like New York and other cities do, they make, they called them nature explore classrooms. And they do it at a vacant lots and empty alleys in between buildings. And they use them and if there’s a vacant lot in between a classroom or a school, this would be a perfect use. And it would really attract people and make them happier. Thank you very much. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Next speaker is Marcia Zawacky. MARCIA ZAWACKY: My name is Marcia Zawacky. I am the President of Harrison Hills Neighborhood Association but I didn’t come to talk tonight about the neighborhoods as much as I did the idea that we need to make appropriate choices in times that are very, very hard. Times where economic, economically we are not thriving. One of the things I do want to mention to you is this is out of the Healed Stark County Storybooks and I know one of the things that we’re considering right now is a Charter form of government, COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -628- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 OK. In here it says how many times, now in the past, that the Charter form of government has been turned down. There must be something that the humans know over time, OK about cronnyism. OK, I don’t think we need any more cronnyism in government. We seem to have plenty of that, okay. And I would caution anyone who is deciding right now that this is great form of government to go back and do some history review on, one of my favorite sayings is “He who forgets the past” and then I add my own little piece to that, “or never learned it in the first place, is doomed to repeat it.” OK, there must be something about Charter government that doesn’t work very good, OK. Anyway certainly I think one of the things we need to figure out is we do not have the revenue that we had in the past to run a lot of the things that we need to have, Fire Department, Police, whatever and that what we really need to do is begin to think about ways we can continue to have those services and cooperate with each other instead of making what we have like the Fire Department or whatever bigger and bigger to the negative effect of everybody else. I think we really need to cooperate with the other facilities we have. Anyway that’s what I came to say tonight and thank you very much for your, the chance to do this and thank all of you very much for your hard work too. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Jason McKinney. JASON MCKINNEY: My name’s Jason McKinney and I live at 406 Shorb Avenue SW and I’m a member of S.W.A.N., the South West Association of Neighbors and I want to thank the Council and the Mayor and the administration and all the people who helped us over the past year, such as Chris Smith, with all of her work in cooperation with our Neighborhood Association. The reason why I’m here is because in my neighborhood I’ve been approached by several people in the near southwest that I’m thinking it approximately two blocks, maybe three blocks from the new Federal Building. There’s been a like basically a drug mall that runs daily from the top of the hill on 5th Street to the bottom of the hill on 5th Street near Schroyer between High SW and Schroyer SW on 5th St SW, and the people there came to me and they says “What about those cameras that are going to be rotating through the neighborhoods to catch criminals. You know, maybe slow down some of the activities.” And I said, well I read about it in the paper but I haven’t seen anything about it being put in place so I came to Council and I was talking to Chris Smith and she sent me to talk to the Safety Director. And he told me that I should talk to Captain Davis and we’re going to do that and I understand that there might be an opportunity for us to put in a grant for our Neighborhood Association, a request for the funds but we need to find out what type of cameras we have to purchase and everybody that’s in a Neighborhood Association, I don’t want to get off the point but, they should hear me now and they should contact Captain Davis about what kind of camera to purchase that they can have that in your neighborhood. And what would be synchronizing with the system that the city might have. That way we can save some money and not have overlap and we have a whole lot more opportunity for, you know like, I’m not just saying crime deterrent but basic safety. If you have more eyes out there, you have more safety for everybody in Canton. And I want to thank you again for your time. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Demetruis Truitt please. DEMETRUIS TRUITT: Hello everyone. My name is Demetruis Truitt. 2150 3rd Street NE, Canton, Ohio. I came here to make public CNB3 Corporation which is a non-profit corporation charity for Canton, Ohio. We have geared ourselves to accept and provide reconstruction of our community. Our mission statement is to provide, our mission statement is the purpose to restore and modify urban technology. To change adversity in the era that will hinder the next generation in believing there is no limit to what one can achieve as long as COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -629- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 you, the individual and/or the group can give credit to a higher power whom deserves it. You vision as a case in commitment and approve an upbringing degree is to be 110% satisfied through the concept of perceptions. Right now we have executed the proper steps for land maintenance from Straight from Scratch which is a growing development which starts a little and blossoms. At this moment in time, we have a building under reconstruction which was the old Smith Company on 3rd Street, 1221 3rd Street NE. We’re asking for the community from their, of their assistance to bring this building back to its proper running order. By doing this, we are looking at trying to raise $660,000.00. This will be a gift given to us that we will give back to the city and to the community that connects to us. While we keeping charity and self-improvement, also environmental manification we ask for these volunteers, supplies and donations so we can show our youth the power that we hold as economically and education and restoring more than just our neighborhood but ourselves. Inside this building, what we looking at producing is a three lane bowling lane for the kids, a movie theater, a area for many offices can be rented out or can be part of this corporation to provide any kind of help that the community offers. We’ll be like a pipeline and we will have a let out to our community. We are creating jobs, many jobs. We are also giving training, many training and the money and funds that we raise for and through these trainings, when it’s time for these folks to be certified, we’ll help pay for this or pay for it 100%. This is the only thing we can help, the only thing we actually do is to help the community. And it will take a board like ours, a board like yours which has a has a system that helps others. Let us take the burdens off a lot of you folks hands. You all have a very complicated job. So will we. We are going to be trained for this procedures and I ask this for the company and for the city and the community that we all come together as one and help so we can get something that’s on as great as ideas as we have especially starting with the youth. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Patricia Howard. PATRICIA HOWARD: Good evening City Council. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Good evening. PATRICIA HOWARD: My name is Patricia Howard. I live at 1109 Melchoir Place SW in Canton, Ohio and I thank you for this opportunity to speak with you. I’d like to thank City Council for the excellent job they have done in the southwest area as far as addressing our vacant land, our vacant buildings that once resided there. I would like to report that as an update at least 90% of those homes have been torn down and with that update and with that in mind we are ready to go with step 2 of our project, Neighborhood Beautification. We are looking at what to do with the vacant lands and some of my prior neighbors have mentioned such things as the neighbor next door adopting that property and actually purchasing it if they are up to code for that or actually even building homes on it if there is enough property for that. We have a third vision for our neighborhood cause in the past we have had our dear neighbor, Mr. McKinney who takes care of making sure that the empty lots are kept cut and we also have people who are adjacent to that property who are making sure that that area is cut and kept in decent condition. We would like to see something done as far as a landscaping training starting for the neighborhood, possibly we’ve seen as...I’m sorry, I have spoken at one time to the Director of Multi-Culture at Malone College and she mentioned that she has started a project with her young fraternity brothers to teach them how to do floor covering and I thought that concept might work for some of our neighborhoods as far as someone taking the initiative to use the vacant land as an opportunity to teach our young men a landscaping skill and to use the finish product as an advertisement for the landscapers and an example that would be our own S.W.A.N. garden. It started out as a vacant land and we have transformed that into a beautiful S.W.A.N. garden, which anyone is welcome to come by and see. We COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -630- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 have postcards of that if anyone would like to see those. But with that in mind, that is what we would like to see done. Everhart Company which is on 9th and Cook has transformed some of their vacant land into beautiful landscape with evergreen trees and they have tractor mowers which they use on a monthly basis to make sure that the grass is kept cut and that it is looking beautiful for others to see as they walk by or as they drive by. I would like to see something along that line done for our neighborhoods with the vacant land so that with the land being vacant it would be a lot easier to get a buyer for it if it looks attractive. Thank you for your time. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Gloria Hackenberg. GLORIA HACKENBERG: Good evening. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Good evening. GLORIA HACKENBERG: Gloria Hackenberg is my name. I live in Plain Township. 5311 Woodtrain Avenue, 44705. I was really pleased to see that the recycling bill for 1100 is going to be having it’s 1st Reading. My sister lives in Grandville, Ohio which is a suburb of Columbus and what they do for their recycling is they have one bag for their recycling, and I’ve always been frustrated that we can only do the one and two pieces for recycling. She uses, puts everything in one bag including styrofoam and then a company collects it once a week and then divide it up and products are made out of all of her trash. The products are like benches from...I was made aware of there are benches up on walking trails that, they’re plastic and weatherproof and also my sister does not pay for her trash collecting because the products that are made from the trash, pay for the collecting and this has been going on for four years so it isn’t something that they don’t know anything of what to do, they know what they’re doing. And I really think it would be a good idea to look into Grandview, Ohio’s trash recycling program. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you very much. (APPLAUSE) Constance Brown. CONSTANCE BROWN: Good evening. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Good evening. CONSTANCE BROWN: Constance Brown. 620 Bachert Court, Canton, 44707. I’m actually in the process of moving over into the northeast portion of town. Good evening. It is a delight to be here tonight and to share some ideas and concerns and to try to offer some solutions. A number of people have spoken tonight about vacant properties and that seems to have been a real concern for everyone, Council and neighborhoods alike. And knowing that sometimes the challenges, where does the money come from to actually demolish the houses. What do we do with the land afterwards? And there does need to be a general plan in place. But what we’d like to suggest is that all of us that are here tonight have spoken on numerous occasions that we would like to be included in brainstorming committees as to what to do with some of this land, recognizing that not all of the houses we might like to see demolished are actually funded at this point. But we’d like to come up with some creative ideas that would provide a payback period for the city where that money would not all be money that’s being spent but also would provide a location where we could start doing some things that would actually bring revenues into the city. Whether that would be an extension of the education program as we heard tonight. Whether that would be small truck gardening areas. Whether that would be starting some green energy forming that could put us on the poster. There are a number of areas in which we COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -631- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 could brainstorm and as communities we really want to be involved in this brainstorming process. Now, I am also Chairman of the Communications Committee for Neighborhood Leadership Council so it’s my job to make sure that you have a way to communicate with us. So you’ve heard from Alice Sarver, who is Neighborhoods in Action and what we’re offering tonight is an email address so you have a way to contact us that is nia, stands for Neighborhoods in Action, nia@cantonneighborhoods.com. There will be a number of us that would be willing to volunteer our time and it would just be a part of this ongoing process that we are going to be working with for some time to come. Thank you for all that you’re doing. We’re excited over every move that we see but we’d just like to help move things along and not be seen as an advisary but rather as a part of the team that’s getting us all to where we wish to be. Thanks a lot. (APPLAUSE) PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you. OK, that ends the Public Speaks for this evening. INFORMAL RESOLUTIONS PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: We are now under Informal Resolutions and we have no Informal Resolutions. COMMUNICATIONS PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Moving on to Communications. Under Communications let the journal show that all Communications are received as read. NOTE: ALL COMMUNICATIONS WHICH FOLLOW, LISTED BY AGENDA TITLE, ARE ON FILE IN THEIR ENTIRETY IN THE COUNCIL OFFICE WITH THE AGENDA ITEMS FILE DATED OCTOBER 4, 2010. 380. AUDITOR MALLONN: CERTIFICATE OF TOTAL AMT FROM ALL SOURCES FOR 2010. - RECEIVED & FILED 381. AUDITOR MALLONN: MONTHLY RPT BY FUND FOR 9/1/10 - 9/30/10. - RECEIVED & FILED 382. AUDITOR MALLONN: YEARLY RPT BY FUND FOR 1/1/10 - 9/30/10. - RECEIVED & FILED 383. DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR TORRES: AUTHORIZE MAYOR TO SUBMIT/FILE W/HUD A FISCAL YR 2011 CONSOLIDATED PLAN ACTION PLAN, EXECUTE GRANT AGMTS W/HUD & ACCEPT THE CITY’S 2011 CDBG, 2011 HOME, & 2011 ESG; AUTHORIZE MAYOR TO REVISE &/OR AMEND THE CONSOLIDATED PLAN & BUDGETS FOR CDBG, HOME & ESG FOR PROG YR 1/1/11 - 12/31/11. - COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE 384. HEALTH COMMISSIONER ADAMS: REQ $24,415.00 APPROP TRANSFER FROM PERSONNEL LINE ITEMS IN FUND 2328 PHEP. - FINANCE COMMITTEE 385. SERVICE DIRECTOR PRICE: REQ THE NECESSARY & FINAL LEGISLATION FOR ODOT PROJECT STA. 172–17.28 (O#29/2010); AUTHORIZE $66,620.00 SUPP APPROP FROM 5201 WATER FUND. - FINANCE & PUBLIC SAFETY & THOROUGHFARES COMMITTEES COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -632- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 ORDINANCES & FORMAL RESOLUTIONS FOR FIRST READING PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: First Reading Ordinances. We are now under Ordinances and Formal Resolutions for the first Reading. Let the Journal show again that all Ordinances are being given their reading as required by State Law. Please Clerk. NOTE: PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY CALLED UPON CLERK TIMBERLAKE TO READ ORDINANCES #1 FOR THE FIRST TIME BY TITLE & ANNOUNCED THE COMMITTEE REFERRAL, AS FOLLOWS: #1. (1ST RDG) AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE TO ACCEPT AND EXECUTE THE 2011 RECYCLING MAKES SENSE GRANT FROM THE STARK-TUSCARAWAS-WAYNE JOINT SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT DISTRICT; AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY Referred to Finance Committee ORDINANCES & FORMAL RESOLUTIONS FOR SECOND READING PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: We’re now under Ordinances for the Second Readings. Madame Clerk please read Ordinance 2. NOTE: PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY CALLED UPON CLERK TIMBERLAKE TO READ ORDINANCES #2 THROUGH AND INCLUDING #8 FOR THEIR SECOND TIME BY TITLE AS REQUIRED BY STATE LAW, AS FOLLOWS): #2. (2ND RDG) AN ORDINANCE AMENDING APPROPRIATION NO. 1/2010, AS AMENDED, BY MAKING THE APPROPRIATION TRANSFER HEREIN DESCRIBED; AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY (CIVIL SERVICE - TRAVEL $200.00) #3. (2ND RDG) AN ORDINANCE AMENDING APPROPRIATION ORDINANCE NO. 1/2010, AS AMENDED, BY MAKING THE SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS AND APPROPRIATION TRANSFERS HEREIN DESCRIBED; AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY #4. (2ND RDG) AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING THE FAIR REUSE VALUE OF ONE PARCEL OF CITY-OWNED PROPERTY; AUTHORIZING THE SALE AND CONVEYANCE OF SAID PROPERTY PURSUANT TO THE CITY’S RESIDENTIAL LAND DISPOSITION PROGRAM; AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY (OLLIE FLOYD - PARCEL #02-13144 ON 3RD ST NE) #5. (2ND RDG) AN ORDINANCE APPROVING AND ACCEPTING THE REPLATTING OF ALL OF OUTLOT 889 AND LOT 34931; AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY (NEAR SW CORNER OF HARMONT AVE NE & 34TH ST NE) #6. (2ND RDG) AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SAFETY TO ENTER INTO A ONE-YEAR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CONTRACT WITH COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -633- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 OHIO BILLING, INC. FOR THE BILLING AND COLLECTION OF USER FEES FOR EMERGENCY AMBULANCE SERVICES AND PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICES; AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY #7. (2ND RDG) AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND/OR DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE TO ADVERTISE, RECEIVE BIDS AND ENTER INTO A CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE BRIDGE IN MARTINDALE PARK; AMENDING APPROPRIATION ORDINANCE NO. 1/2010; AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY (WEST SIDE PARKS TRAIL & BRIDGE PROJECT GP 1093 $109,994.00) #8. (2ND RDG) AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE CLERK OF COUNCIL TO CERTIFY TO THE COUNTY AUDITOR UNPAID AND DELINQUENT CHARGES FOR WATER AND/OR SEWER SERVICES; AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY ORDINANCES & FORMAL RESOLUTIONS FOR THIRD AND FINAL READING PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you. We’re now under Ordinances for the Third and final Reading. Madame Clerk could we please have Ordinance 9. NOTE: PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY CALLED UPON CLERK TIMBERLAKE TO READ ORDINANCE #9 FOR ITS THIRD AND FINAL READING BY TITLE AS REQUIRED BY STATE LAW, AS FOLLOWS : #9. (3RD RDG) ADOPTED AS ORDINANCE NO. 186/2010 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING APPROPRIATION ORDINANCE NO. 1/2010; AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY (IAP GRANT FUND - $50,000.00) PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Member Prater. MEMBER PRATER: Mr. President I move we adopt Ordinance #9. MEMBER CIRELLI: Seconded. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: It’s been moved and seconded to adopt Ordinance 9. Are there any remarks? Roll call. NO REMARKS ROLL CALL: 12 YEAS, 0 NAYS CLERK TIMBERLAKE: Twelve yeas, Mr. President. #9 ADOPTED AS ORDINANCE NO. 186/2010 PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Ordinance 9 has been adopted. Ordinance 10. #10. (3RD RDG) ADOPTED AS ORDINANCE NO. 187/2010 AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SAFETY TO ACCEPT THE FEMA SAFER GRANT COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -634- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $3,440,134.00; AUTHORIZING THE AUDITOR TO ESTABLISH THE 2815 FEMA SAFER GRANT FUND; AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Member Prater. MEMBER PRATER: Mr. President I move we adopt Ordinance #10. MEMBER CIRELLI: Seconded. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: It’s been moved and seconded to adopt Ordinance 10. Any remarks? MEMBER CIRELLI: Mr. President. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Member Cirelli. MEMBER CIRELLI: Thank you sir. A question to the Safety Director. Safety Director Ream somebody came to my house, a fire person and told me that we lost $13,000.00 or something like that because we didn’t apply for it in time. Is that correct sir. SAFETY DIRECTOR REAM: No the initial grant was for 28 employees who were named in the initial application. Two of them have left the employ of the Fire Department so, until we get a waiver or replace those two firefighters we will not receive this full amount. But the Fire Department’s fully aware of it. The Administration’s aware of it and at this point, that’s just the way the requirements of the Safer Grant go. MEMBER CIRELLI: Mr. President and Safety Director Ream. So what I’m hearing you say is it was based on the employees that we have. Is that correct sir? And since we have two less we will get less money for those employees. Is that right sir? SAFETY DIRECTOR REAM: The number of firefighters had to be named in the grant application. We named those. They were the bottom 28 firefighters in the department and two of them left for employment elsewhere after the application was submitted. So we will not receive that money until those two firefighters are replaced. MEMBER CIRELLI: Thank you. Thank you Mr. President. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Any other comments, remarks? OK, roll call vote. NO REMARKS ROLL CALL: 12 YEAS, 0 NAYS CLERK TIMBERLAKE: Twelve yeas, Mr. President. #10 ADOPTED AS ORDINANCE NO. 187/2010 PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Ordinance 10 has been adopted. Ordinance 11. COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -635- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 #11. (3RD RDG) ADOPTED AS ORDINANCE NO. 188/2010 AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR OR DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE TO ENTER INTO CONTRACT WITH THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PROJECT, INC. TO PROVIDE A GRANT IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $50,000.00 FOR MISCELLANEOUS SHORT-TERM HOUSING SERVICES; AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Member Prater. MEMBER PRATER: I move we adopt Ordinance #11. MEMBER CIRELLI: Seconded. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: It’s been moved and seconded to adopt Ordinance 11. Any remarks? Roll call vote. NO REMARKS ROLL CALL: 11 YEAS, 0 NAYS, 1 ABSTAIN (Mark Butterworth Abstained) CLERK TIMBERLAKE: Eleven yeas, one abstain Mr. President. #11 ADOPTED AS ORDINANCE NO. 188/2010 PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Ordinance 11 has been adopted. Ordinance 12. #12. (3RD RDG) ADOPTED AS ORDINANCE NO. 189/2010 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING APPROPRIATION ORDINANCE NO. 1/2010, AS AMENDED, BY MAKING THE APPROPRIATION TRANSFER HEREIN DESCRIBED; AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY (PHI $455.46) PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Member Prater. MEMBER PRATER: Mr. President I move we adopt Ordinance #12. MEMBER CIRELLI: Seconded. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: It’s been moved and seconded to adopt Ordinance 12. Any remarks? Roll call vote. NO REMARKS ROLL CALL: 12 YEAS, 0 NAYS CLERK TIMBERLAKE: Twelve yeas, Mr. President. #12 ADOPTED AS ORDINANCE NO. 189/2010 PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Ordinance 12 has been adopted. Ordinance 13. COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -636- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 #13. (3RD RDG) ADOPTED AS ORDINANCE NO. 190/2010 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING APPROPRIATION ORDINANCE NO. 1/2010, AS AMENDED, BY MAKING THE SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION HEREIN DESCRIBED; AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY (FEDERAL FORFEITURE $40,125.00) PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Member Prater. MEMBER PRATER: Mr. President I move we adopt Ordinance #13. MEMBER CIRELLI: Seconded. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: It’s been moved and seconded to adopt Ordinance 13. Any remarks? Roll call. NO REMARKS ROLL CALL: 12 YEAS, 0 NAYS CLERK TIMBERLAKE: Twelve yeas, Mr. President. #13 ADOPTED AS ORDINANCE NO. 190/2010 PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Ordinance 13 is adopted. Ordinance 14. #14. (3RD RDG) ADOPTED AS ORDINANCE NO. 191/2010 AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE SERVICE DIRECTOR TO ENTER INTO A LOAN WITH THE CANTON NEGRO OLDTIMER’S IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $61,156.00; AND DECLARING THE SAME TO BE AN EMERGENCY PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Member Prater. MEMBER PRATER: Mr. President I move we adopt Ordinance #14. MEMBER CIRELLI: Seconded. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: It’s been moved and seconded to adopt Ordinance 14. Any remarks? Roll call. NO REMARKS ROLL CALL: 12 YEAS, 0 NAYS CLERK TIMBERLAKE: Twelve yeas, Mr. President. #14 ADOPTED AS ORDINANCE NO. 191/2010 PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Ordinance 14 has been adopted. ANNOUNCEMENT OF COMMITTEE MEETINGS PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Announcement of Committee Meetings please. MEMBER HAWK: Mr. President. COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -637- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Yes, Member Hawk. MEMBER HAWK: Finance Committee will meet Monday, October 18th at 6:45 PM right here in Council Chambers. MEMBER SMUCKLER: Mr. President. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Member Smuckler. MEMBER SMUCKLER: Community Development will also meet on the same day at 6:30 PM and it’s nothing on the agenda. It has to do with the presentation that the Community Development Department wants to make. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: OK, thank you. MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: We are now under Miscellaneous Business. Is there any? MEMBER WEST: Mr. President. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Yes, Member West. MEMBER WEST: Just a couple things. Tonight there was a couple issues brought up that was in my Committee, in the Judiciary Committee. One was IPMC. The International Property Maintenance Code and I wanted to ask the Law Department. We held this up some time ago because they were going, we had the State come out to educate us on the IPMC and all the difficulties or non-difficulties that would happen as a result of us putting that into action. To the Law Department, do we know where that’s at right now? LAW DIRECTOR MARTUCCIO: Mr. President. Mr. West, yes. The Ohio Building Board sent us a very lengthy letter upon analyzing our proposed Ordinance at the request not only of the City of Canton but a number of people who are involved as landlords and the trades. As some of you know and we will be explaining in more detail soon, a great many of our current Ordinances, Codified Ordinances, are in conflict with State law and we are going to revise the Ordinance that is pending in your Committee, somewhat, but largely come back with the International Property Maintenance Code as adapted to you for passage. They left the issue of rentals pretty much to us because that’s not specifically covered by the Ohio Building Code. Director Ream called a meeting recently in house to meet with some of us lawyers and a few people from the administration to discuss that letter in more detail. I think that it’s his intent to meet again and come back before Council with a presentation so that we can prepare you for the Ordinance that will be revised for your Committee. I can, with your permission I’ll ask, supplement my remarks. MEMBER WEST: Please. SAFETY DIRECTOR REAM: Mr. President. Yes, we had an in house meeting. We received some direction with the assistance of some Council Members. Legislation is being drafted. After it is completed from a draft proposal, we will have another in house meeting and we will be reaching out to different Members on this Council to explain some of the meetings behind some of the parts of that Ordinance and we hope to bring it out of Committee for a vote at that time then. COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -638- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 MEMBER WEST: Director Ream I want to thank you and the Law Department for working so hard and diligent on getting back that information to us. But also, the second thing was, Charter Government came up. Not only by Member Barton, Member Butterworth but also by a constituent out in the community. And that stands in my Ward and one of the things I did, I asked Member Butterworth to give an educational session to this Council in which they gave an informational meeting of process with little debate when questions came up. Where I stand with it and what I’d like to see happen, not only through this Council but also through the community where everyone is educated on, educated on Charter Government, not so much the process but what does that mean for Ward 2. What’s that mean for Ward 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. If I asked the Members today that’s in the audience to say if they thoroughly understand what Charter Government is, what would they say? My question to you right now is, if you understand Charter Government, please stand up. Yea, I’m talking to you guys. If you understand Charter Government, please stand up. So we have 1 individual. So that’s a representation of our whole community and what I would like to see happen at this point in time, I asked Marilyn Thomas Jones if we could possibly have maybe two educational people who really understand Charter Government. Somebody that speaks for and somebody that speaks against and let them go before the Neighborhood Leadership Council and I’m going to draft a letter next week asking them to allow Charter Government to be brought before them so they understand what Charter Government is and then after you are educated, then call your Council Members and tell them what you believe they should do. I think that takes it out of the political process and puts it in the hands of the people. Voting on this process in my mind, right now is immature and premature until this community is educated. So that’s the two things and that’s the only reason why it’s held up in the Committee at this point. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) MEMBER CIRELLI: Mr. President. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Yes, Member Cirelli. MEMBER CIRELLI: Thank you Mr. President. Safety Director Ream could you tell us Council people were involved in the meeting that you had sir with the Ohio Building and what have you and the lawyers. SAFETY DIRECTOR REAM: Yes. Council Member Cole, Council Member Dougherty and Council Member Hawk, yes. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Any other Miscellaneous Business? MAYOR HEALY: Mr. President. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Mayor. MAYOR HEALY: Thank you Mr. President. I apologize for getting here a few minutes late so I wasn’t here when you started with Old Business so I’ll just recap some of this real quick. Some of the things that were brought up by prior Public Speaks, Monique Connor, is this on? Can you hear me? There we go, sorry. This is to discuss issues that were brought before us by Public Speaks at prior meetings. Monique Connor had addressed this body asking about the HUD monies and the effects on that. Just to clarify, those dollars do not effect subsidized housing or would ever be in a situation to have anybody relocate. Those are support programs for the folks who have problems with their housing. Were going to have a, an update hopefully within in couple of weeks. The HUD folks were here last week. They’re working on a report right now so we’ll have a more thorough presentation that we’ll give to Council and then share with the public as well. But it will have no effect on those people that are in subsidized housing or SMHA or, it’s a totally different program so for clarification for you. The next thing was Minnie Evans also had addressed us two weeks in a COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -639- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 row. The issues she had were Police Department issues with a individual who was incarcerated who was released into her neighborhood and I believe the Police force has been, or at least the Safety Director has been in communication with her on that. Demetruis Truitt spoke to us last week and he spoke again today in reference to a program he’s working on trying to rate a non-profit support program for the youth in our community and I believe that Fonda, our Community Development Director is meeting with him tomorrow to discuss that in detail. So those are the three things that were out there. The last thing was Alice Sarver did approach us last week and ask me to address a few things and some questions that she had prepared. I’m gonna go through a little, just kind of an outline of this and I think what you’ve seen at that meeting from the David Boehlke presentation probably answered many of those questions but I do want to give you a quick outline history of what’s going on in our neighborhoods so this will take just a couple of minutes in you bare with me. We came on board two and a half years ago, almost three years ago now. We were looking at what was in place from a planning perspective for the neighborhoods. Most cities, in fact all cities are supposed to have a city plan. We went through and found that the City of Canton did not currently have a city plan in place but what we did find was there was a plan in 1998 and 1999. They had decided to put together a study to work on this comprehensive plan for the city. The administration, Council, hired a consultant, paid quite a bit of money and this study here was presented to them. This study is dated July of 2000. That’s when the final work came out and it is kind of a comprehensive outline of laying out what the city should do currently and in the long term. This plan was never implemented. The study was done and presented to Council but the same plan was never implemented and so when we came on board and talked to our Planning Department and others in the system, there really was not anything done with it. So now it’s a ten, eleven, twelve year old plan that is not real helpful in today’s environment. If you think about the economic changes we’ve had in the last few years as well as 9-11 the whole world has changed since 1999 when this thing was drafted. But there was some outlines in there that was implemented. For example one of the things that they recommended was to create a historic preservation effort and they started the Architectural Review Board. That was a recommendation out of here and there’s a few other things that actually happened. I don’t know if it was by coincidence or if was just things that they brought to their attention, but that’s what was out there. Now after that, I believe it was 2006 this City Council, I know Allen Schulman was kinda heading the charge on this, along with the administration, put forth and paid for a study on a road map to sustainability. This particular document here, many of you may be familiar with. I’m gonna back up a second. This neighborhood project did not include the neighborhoods. They did survey by phone 300 constituents around the city and that was the involvement from the community. This particular project here, I think it was headed by MIT and a study. Very, very good report, covered a lot of things. Some quite obvious, some not so obvious. This was the model that we had, that this administration has been using as kind of a starting point in reference to dealing with our neighborhood and community. There’s a number of items in this list. In fact, we’re preparing a progress report to deliver to Council here at the next Council meeting cause we were reviewing this and there’s probably about 75% of the recommendations that’s in this manual that this administration has completed or has addressed in some way shape or form and we’ll make that public as well at the next Council meeting. But that was the guideline that we had. A lot of very good things had come out of that dealing with housing, energy, transportation, water, tracking processes, land use and again that’s the model that we had. When I participated with the US Conference of Mayors early on in my administration, one of the things that became glaring to me was the lack of preparation and support that we had with our housing and city planning. As a matter of fact, we don’t have a certified planner here in the City of Canton and we desperately need one. Unfortunately with the economic situation we’re not really in a position to create new positions unless it’s absolutely critical. I think the planning issue is a very, very important issue and we need to look at that in the near future, but I went to a, I actually registered for a conference and I had to wait about a year and a half to get accepted because they only take eight cities at a time when they do these seminars, and I was accepted in January to participate in The Mayor’s Institute on city denign, city design which is a US Conference of Mayor’s program. We had experts from all over the country come in and there COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -640- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 was eight cities that sat down and kind of learned about the processes, as well as we put a test model of a neighborhood in our, in each of our cities and talked about the possibilities and options. Great learning experience but it also showed me more than anything else the critical importance of having a city plan and a city planner which is something that we need to move forward towards. Since that point in time we have been lobbying for and applying for grants and state money and federal money and stimulus money. We’ve been very successful in bringing new dollars to our community. Typically the Community Development, CDBG block grants that we receive on an annual basis is between 3 and $4,000,000.00. That’s what our budget is in Development, over the past many years, between 3 and 4 million. This year our budget is over $20,000,000.00. We brought in a tremendous amount of programs, dollars (APPLAUSE) yea that should be applauded. That’s a huge amount of money. But CDBG recovery dollars, energy shelter grant money, HOME community housing development organizations, money for summer job programs, Brownfield training, Clean Ohio. There’s jobsite ready programs. But again, the budget is $20,000,000.00 so you can see we have a lot, a lot more work and responsibility and resources available to us but are very, very aggressively getting that done and I’ll point out too, this letter came in last week from HUD that we have it says, “Congratulations, HUD records indicate that the City of Canton has met both the total obligation requirements and the 25% targeting requirements for NSP 1", which is the housing and economic recovery program to obligate and spend our dollars. This was $3,678,000.00, additional dollars that we received as part of this $20,000,000.00 so you can see that they’re extremely busy. But another thing that we did, and you guys have been just introduced to that recently is the contract work with David Boehlke. Since we do not have an in house planner and we have limited resources, we did start this project using some of these HUD dollars we brought in and this is the Canton Neighborhood Project. This now is the extension of the stimulus project that we have been working on, or excuse me, the sustainability project that was here but this one is really a starting point to what I would say is the ground work for our city plan and design for short term and long term planning. The one thing I can tell you though is, the only way that we’re able to do this and move us to the next step and move the city forward on a formalized plan is the question, one of the questions on here was “Who’s in charge?” I will tell you that the answer to that question is everybody in this room. All of us and then some. This is an administrative function, this is a Council function, this a neighborhood and citizen function and I think that we all need to be engaged and involved in this in order for us to have a successful plan to move the city forward. So as we learn more about this Boehlke report, it gives us a great tool to utilize and address many of the questions that you have on the table. But most importantly, and it was addressed by your members, and by the way before I finish this, I do want to say thank you. Thank you so much for coming down here. Thank you for sharing your ideas and thoughts and you know again, this isn’t about me as Mayor or these folks up here as Council. This is about you. This is about our community. This is about moving Canton forward. It can’t be done without you. I really, really want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for your involvement and your interest in helping us move Canton forward. (APPLAUSE) The last thing I’m going to address, and I’ll try to speed this up Dave so we can get out of here. The last thing I want to address is two things. One, I talked about how we need to have communication and working relationship. I’m available to attend any of the meetings that you have whether it’s an individual neighborhood, whether it’s the N.A.V.E. Leadership meetings, if you want me to walk the neighborhoods, you’ve got my numbers. Call me, we’ll schedule it anytime but most importantly, and this was brought to my attention when I was at a restaurant here just Friday night, thank you, is you know, I’m able to invite you to a meeting as well instead of just showing up at your meetings. So I’m going to schedule a meeting right now for Tuesday, October 26th, that’s 10/26/10 from 5:30 to 8:00 PM. This is a meeting, if you would for the Neighborhood Association Leadership teams and the administration. Certainly Council’s willing to attend and participate or any of the elected officials. We’ll finalize the location but I’d like to do it right there at the Foundation Center because that room works for everybody, but if that’s not available, we’ll find an alternative. But we’ll schedule that and what I’d like to do is I’d let to schedule quarterly meetings where the administration can meet with the Leadership Council Members from all the different associations and we COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS JOURNAL 98 JOURNAL PAGE -641- MINUTES OF THE MEETING OCTOBER 4, 2010 can share with you things like this that we’re working on and also hear from you to make sure that we’re all working together in the same direction. One final point, sorry Dave. One final point is in reference to the demolition process, again there is a very detailed process on how we work on that. I just wanted to give an update though since this administration came on, in the last 2 ½ years we have torn down over 400 homes. 400 homes and we expect that they’ll be over 600 homes that will be taken down by this time next year. 600 houses. Now think about where you live and think about how many houses are on your block and try to image what 600 houses looks like. It’s a monumental feat and like you said, that just solved one problem but it created another. Now we have to figure out what to do with those lots. So I look forward to working with everybody, individually with your units or certainly together at our meeting on October 26th and again thank you so much for being a part of this and being here tonight. (APPLAUSE) PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Thank you. Any more Miscellaneous Business? Member Prater. MEMBER PRATER: Mr. President I move we adjourn. MEMBER CIRELLI: Seconded. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Roll call. NO REMARKS ROLL CALL: 12 YEAS, 0 NAYS CLERK TIMBERLAKE: Twelve yeas Mr. President. PRESIDENT PRO TEM DOUGHERTY: Goodnight everyone. (Gavel falls) ADJOURNMENT TIME: 8:40 P.M. ATTEST: APPROVED: CYNTHIA TIMBERLAKE DAVID DOUGHERTY CLERK OF COUNCIL PRESIDENT PRO TEM