Committee of the Whole

200 South Hamilton Road City of Gahanna Gahanna, Ohio 43230 Meeting Minutes Committee of the Whole Jamie Leeseberg, Chair Karen J. Angelou Brian D. Larick Nancy R. McGregor Brian Metzbower Stephen A. Renner Michael Schnetzer Kimberly Banning, Clerk of Council Tuesday, May 29, 2018 7:00 PM Council Committee Room Note: Tuesday meeting due to holiday CALL TO ORDER Chair Leeseberg called the meeting to order at 7:07 p.m. Present 7 - Brian Metzbower, Nancy R. McGregor, Karen J. Angelou, Stephen A. Renner, Jamie Leeseberg, Michael Schnetzer, and Brian D. Larick UPDATES FROM THE FIRE DEPARTMENTS Not present. UPDATE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SAFETY Mark Thomas read from the attached report. Thanked everyone for supporting National Police Week. ITEMS FROM THE DIRECTOR OF PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT ORD-0032-2018 TO AMEND PART ELEVEN, PLANNING AND ZONING CODE, CHAPTER 1150, OLDE GAHANNA DISTRICT, SECTIONS 1150.05(A) PERMITTED USES AND 1150.05(B) CONDITIONAL USES, OF THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF GAHANNA. (reference Planning Commission CC-0001-2018) Anthony Jones said that his Deputy, Michael Blackford, spoke to this at the last meeting; want code to reflect current conditions; some of these activities are already occurring, want to ensure are allowable by code. Wants to add overnight animal boarding as conditional use; now allowed by right; want extra scrutiny. Jones explained the conditional use (CU) City of Gahanna Page 1 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes May 29, 2018 process, and how it would go before Planning Commission; explained they must make a case to allow occurrence; must see as necessary to operation of business. Schnetzer asked about number of required hearings for CU, Jones explained that Planning Commission is required to have 1 and usually votes that night; process also requires submission to Area Commission. Recommendation: Consent Agenda. ORD-0052-2018 TO AUTHORIZE THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE LOAN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF GAHANNA AND THE COLUMBUS ACADEMY AS AUTHORIZED BY ORDINANCE, ORD-0070-2015; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. Jones introduced Marc Kamer and Maggie Koerner, here representing Columbus Academy. Kamer, a bond attorney, explained that this does not impact the City; poses no risks to the City; said City issued tax exempt bonds in 2015; rates were provided by PNC Bank; were special conduit bonds; reiterated that City has no financial responsibility for bonds, just needs to give consent; asking for emergency because this needs to be completed by July 1 deadline to meet requirements. Schnetzer said he heard predictions of these things coming, and this is the first he has personally witnessed. Recommendation: Regular Agenda, Waiver/Emergency. ITEM FROM THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE & ENGINEERING RES-0008-2018 TO AUTHORIZE THE CITY TO SUBMIT A FORMAL GRANT APPLICATION FOR THE 2018 MID-OHIO REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION (MORPC) SURFACE TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM (STIP) FOR BIG WALNUT TRAIL SECTION 8 AND WEST SIDE INTERSECTION; AND TO AUTHORIZE THE FINANCE DIRECTOR TO ESTABLISH A SPECIAL FUND FOR THE GRANTS, IF AWARDED. Rob Priestas said this request is an effort to secure funding for Capital Improvements; preparing to submit a grant application for funding for the trail and the west side intersection. Recommendation: Consent Agenda. ITEM FROM THE DIRECTOR OF PARKS & RECREATION ORD-0049-2018 TO AUTHORIZE THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO CONTRACT WITH BUILDERSCAPE, INC. FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF WARD 1 City of Gahanna Page 2 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes May 29, 2018 PARK. Larick asked about portion of playground covered by grant funds. Jeff Barr explained; talked about how half the money goes to the playground and half to the park itself. Angelou asked if there was a name picked out yet. Renner said still working on it. McGregor asked about the types of trees, Barr explained. Recommendation: Consent Agenda. ITEMS FROM THE DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES ORD-0050-2018 TO AMEND THE SALARIES FOR PERSONNEL OF THE CITY OF GAHANNA. Melissa Jackson, HR Administrator, here to discuss changes to ordinance; want to take two positions and combine them, was a part time Director of Marketing and part time plus public information officer coordinator; would eliminate Director and combine some duties; cost savings to the City. Larick asked about the benefit of part time plus, Jackson explained that full time position gets medical, dental, vision and more hours per pay period vs. part time has medical insurance only. Larick asked if this is an open position being filled. Mayor explained that there is already a PIO coordinator doing this work, the changes to the ordinance reflects what the employee is actually doing; explained the history of the position; brought employee from Parks & Rec department because the employee was doing marketing for them and doing it well; wanted to combine talents into the marketing team. Leeseberg asked if spending less money for someone working less hours, will the person be able to do the work of 2 people; Mayor said thinks workload will be manageable; said PIO and Manager will report directly to Mayor. Jackson said next changes are to move paralegal to full time because current vacancy caused reevaluation; McGregor asked Ewald to clarify. Ewald said position is for administrative work and having a full time employee allows him to focus on his work versus taking time to focus on the clerical aspects of the job; has been fortunate to have found qualified candidates in the past to fill the role, but not easy to find part time employee with qualifications needed. Jackson said wage scale calculations were previously based on 4 decimal places; fixed formula and formatting in excel to allow for 2 decimal places. Added language back for time clock because in 2016, formatting caused us to lose this language. Jackson said adding engineering to title based on movement in City of Gahanna Page 3 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes May 29, 2018 department. Franey said previously the Service Director did not have engineer skills; now Service Director also serves as Engineer. McGregor asked about changing it in the future. Leeseerg asked about changing job descriptions. Franey said in the future we could split it again if needed. Larick asked if we still have Director of Engineering and Director of Service; both are still listed. Franey said believes not back filling that position. Larick said job classifications are very different in range; asked if intent is to not have 2. Bury suggested to remove Director of Engineer entirely. Leeseberg asked if Deputy Director title would change too. Melissa said yes. Larick said needs some more work. Angelou said appears fine. Leeseberg asked how we hire a person into the position if the position does not exist, so this is difficult; needs some work and have time to make adjustments. Recommendation: Regular Agenda. ORD-0051-2018 SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION - USW Health Plan Expenses Melissa Jackson explained that the United Steel Workers voted in late 2017, to come aboard the City's health plan; wrote in benefit that if member had $500 or more of out of pocket expenses, will be reimbursed by City. Had $3,000 reimbursed in first quarter; this $9,000 is projection for the remainder of the year; may not continue at this rate, but ask is to be safe. Recommendation: Consent Agenda. ITEM FROM THE RECORDS COORDINATOR ORD-0048-2018 TO AUTHORIZE THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO CONTRACT WITH ASSUREVAULT FOR RECORDS MANAGEMENT SERVICES. Krystal Gonchar, Records Coordinator, here to ask for permission to enter into contract with AssureVault and transfer records; said the City is currently paying for services that we are not using; new company has agreed to price match on some items, and lower the cost for other services; this place is local, was not in business here in Gahanna the last time we looked into switching vendors; took a tour of facility and all meets our needs. Angelou said would be a great partnership to have someone local here. Larick said these are the City’s permanent records, wants to ensure they are protected; does the company meet all the standards required. Gonchar said they do; OSU is one of their major clients; the City of Gahanna Page 4 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes May 29, 2018 facility had the benefit of being the first tenant at the corner and asked for extra reinforcements and barriers based on use of their space. Recommendation: Consent Agenda. ITEMS FROM THE CITY ATTORNEY 2018-0115 Mobile Food Vendor Code (draft) Ewald said met with Police Department and Mayor’s Administration on this code; met at Code Review Committee. Chief Spence said these trucks are proliferating; there was nothing in code to regulate or ensure safety; Columbus has robust program; has solid licensing and great resources that make this a seamless process; the business self regulates. Lesseberg said wanted to piggy back off Columbus process to create our own and discovered that Columbus has great code and didn't want to duplicate the effort; Code Review Committee looked into in several different ways. Chief said City Attorney was correct; had several meetings with Columbus, has spurred Columbus to entertain the idea of creating a metro pass so that other cities can piggy back as well. Larick said all this is geared towards food vending, not gaming; asked if there’s any intention to incorporate those other items, especially since they are targeted for children. Ewald said there was no intention to look into other types of mobile businesses at that time, but can. Larick said he wants to know if Columbus has general rules to cover those types of things so that we could refer to them. Leeseberg said if so, should be a separate section; this is just for food. Chief said had round table where discussed some of those things that fall into the cracks; does refer to zoning code; other mobile businesses popping up and Columbus is still in the early stages of dealing with those; adapting to changes and will go back as needed. Larick asked about permits for mobile vendors setting up location on a more permanent basis. Leeseberg said they are in violation if not moving periodically; operating in the ROW needs a permit and will have a schedule. Larick asked if there’s a benefit to the City for a mobile food vendor not moving, if not a benefit how do we manage them moving? Ewald said Ch. 11 will cover this, will review and confirm. Chief said those types of restaurants pop up in the areas that are always congested; we do not have the conditions like those in the Short North; some of those conditions just don't apply to us. Larick said great start. Recommendation: Held in Committee 2018-0116 Rental Registration Code (draft) City of Gahanna Page 5 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes May 29, 2018 Ewald said have approximately 3,000-4,000 individual rental units; have significant code enforcement issues. In an attempt to ensure that owners are showing responsible property ownership, wants to enforce this, working with a few Council members, but this comes down to enforcement of regulations and code; areas where we can be more proactive. Schnetzer said this is a departure of regular introductions; Law Department has legal writing experience so he is sponsoring this; in short years on Council, have had several complaints from residents regarding zoning issues for rental properties. For owner occupied properties, this is one of the biggest investments in their lives; hearing from administration that enforcement is currently reactive; this is a framework to get us more proactive; hoping to flush this out with administration; excited to see this come forward. Ewald said Ch. 7, Business Regulation appropriate place because this is investment property; this is for exterior not interior; penalty section has misdemeanor items which can be handled in Mayor's Court for resident convenience. Larick asked to elaborate on exterior only, what about basic safety issues. Ewald said the complaints generated are not necessarily involving the interior, having issues with high grass and falling gutters for example; things directly affecting neighbors. Ewald asked do we want to be held liable for missing things like gas during inspections. Leeseberg said we don't want to submit staff to liability of entering properties, unsafe for staff. Angelou said Board of Health would be called in for those issues. Leeseberg said multi-units have interior inspections already. McGregor said Bed and Breakfast has inspections, considered commercial. Asked how hard to add that third party inspector. Leeseberg said once we establish database, could add later. Schnetzer said let's move incrementally. Larick asked about short term stay properties, if this would be a distinct code separate from that. Leeseberg confirmed. Ewald said once we get to Bed in Breakfast code, could build inclusion; not here. At this point no exclusions, would have to build those in. Larick said this is for residential and not those, those can have more internal inspections. Mayor said had meetings with staff, last version was 3; wanted to give opportunity for staff to ask questions. Priestas said exterior/interior questions have been answered; said will take additional resources and will need staff and time; likely 6-7 months to get boots on the ground. Leeseberg said first a database would be established, notice given, and go from there. Schnetzer said understands that this is going to take more resources; asked if certain items in code as written, would Service have objections to. Priestas said something to consider is to define registration date; has a concern with getting 3,000 applications in June vs. rotating throughout the year; not sure how liens/assessments work with this in Mayor's Court; annual inspections would take time and resources; 709 talks about structures but doesn't dictate who actually City of Gahanna Page 6 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes May 29, 2018 makes determination; 707 on fees for non-payment, is there a way to recover fees. Franey asked if for second agent for each property (704), is that only for out of state owners. Ewald said took out owner and listed agent, to have someone local to talk to. Mayor said section 799 penalties, how to get frequent fliers, talks about misdemeanors or something separate; would property would be flagged. Ewald said will look into software app to track these things. Angelou said may be easier to set up districts. Schnetzer said starting to see idea of large private equity hedge funds based out of state taking on these properties, wants to get ahead of this. Mayor said reached out to other city that have code like this. Mcgregor asked what this can be applied to? Ewald said defined, long term; clear that it's a living space, not a rental room. Ewald said took comments and all are consistent, question now of how to tackle. Leeseberg thanked Schnetzer and Ewald for doing the research. Schnetzer said thanks for the discussion. Recommendation: Held in Committee. COMMITTEE REPORTS - No Action Required 2018-0112 Committee Reports - 5.29.2018 ADJOURNMENT 8:40 p.m. City of Gahanna Page 7