Committee of the Whole

200 South Hamilton Road City of Gahanna Gahanna, Ohio 43230 Meeting Minutes Committee of the Whole Brian Metzbower, President Stephen A. Renner, Vice President, Chair Jamie Leeseberg Karen J. Angelou Brian D. Larick Nancy R. McGregor Michael Schnetzer Kimberly Banning, Clerk of Council Monday, February 25, 2019 7:00 PM Council Committee Room CALL TO ORDER Vice President of Council, Stephen Renner, called the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m.; all members present with the exception of Michael Schnetzer. FRANKLIN COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS - Presentation on new voting machines The Franklin County Board Of Election attended the Committee Meeting for the purpose of informing Council and the public of the new voting machines which will be used during the May Primary. DiAnn Cole and Howard Williams were representatives of the FCBOE. Cole stated the new slogan is “Mark, Verify, Vote.” She stated they are always looking for poll workers; said poll worker hours are from 5:30 a.m. and polls close at 7:30 p.m., so workers remain until everything is cleaned up; pay is $133 for the day, plus training. Deadline for registration for the May Primary is 4/8/19 and November General election is 10/7/19; wonderful civic experience; can be a fun day. Cole explained the new voting system is hybrid voting system, which means you can vote on paper ballot or on the screen; BOE spent 2 years trying to determine which was the best machine; paper ballot with fill-in ovals will be counted the same evening which was different from the past; ballot counter at exit will ensure all ballots are counted; new system will eliminate lines and reduce risk of errors; maintaining secure election is our primary concern; not connected to internet, always stored in secure area; ADA compliant machines; voters will mark and verify marks at review screen before submitting. City of Gahanna Page 1 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes February 25, 2019 Larick asked what happens if there’s a mistake on the slip. Cole said same as paper, can void twice; voter gets 3 attempts total. Angelou asked how many slips the counter can hold. Cole said around 1,000; stated the screen has a digital display to show total vote counts. Renner asked if BOE is doing any other outreach and going to any other locations. Cole said they are 2 weeks in; libraries are doing a great job with this; will be going out to other places too. Metzbower said they have done a great job getting these out, not many cities are going to have items on the May ballot, so this is a good roll out. Larick asked if the slip can’t be read, then does the machine spit it out. Cole confirmed. Metzbower said now we won’t need as many machines now. ITEM FROM THE DIRECTOR OF PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT ORD-0027-2019 TO AMEND ORDINANCE 0141-2013 TO AUTHORIZE THE FRANKLIN COUNTY TREASURER TO MAKE PAYMENTS DIRECTLY TO GAHANNA-JEFFERSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT AND THE EASTLAND-FAIRFIELD CAREER & TECHNICAL SCHOOLS AND RATIFYING PAST TRANSFERS OF FUNDS FROM THE COUNTY TREASURER TO GAHANNA-JEFFERSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT AND THE EASTLAND-FAIRFIELD CAREER & TECHNICAL SCHOOLS IN CONNECTION WITH ORDINANCE-0141-2013. Director of Planning & Development, Anthony Jones, stated this is a request to modify the Ordinance for the Central Park TIF; County said the language requires the City of Gahanna to distribute funds collected to the school district; allows too much room for error and is burdensome; the ask is to allow for the County to distribute the funds directly to the schools; County is aware and welcomes this amendment; they already have a system in place. Angelou asked if they have the millage percentage information. Jones confirmed; stated that the millage has already been accounted for in the ordinance language. Recommendation: Consent Agenda. ITEM FROM THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE & ENGINEERING MR-0008-2019 MOTION RESOLUTION TO AUTHORIZE THE CITY OF GAHANNA TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SOUTHWEST OHIO PURCHASERS FOR GOVERNMENT (SWOP4G) ROAD SALT COOPERATIVE BID FOR THE 2019-2020 WINTER SEASON. City of Gahanna Page 2 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes February 25, 2019 Director of Public Service & Engineering, Rob Priestas, stated the request is to cooperate in the Southwest Ohio Purchasers For Government Road Salt Cooperative and bid for the upcoming winter season. Leeseberg asked how much salt has been used this winter so far. Priestas said around 1,500 tons which is about 60 percent of what we used last year. Recommendation: Consent Agenda. PENDING LEGISLATION ORD-0015-2019 TO AUTHORIZE THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND ADOPT THE PAY PLAN ADMINISTRATION POLICY, RETROACTIVE TO JANUARY 1, 2019; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. Larick stated this is pending legislation which was brought back for more discussion. Ewald said Section 7 was removed. Larick asked about other sections. Ewald said all others left intact. Metzbower said Larick expressed an interest in bringing this back; asked for him to share his thoughts. Renner asked how this affects classified positions. Director of Human Resources, Miranda Vollmer, stated that all classified positions are covered under a collective bargaining agreement. Larick said his preference would be to remove Sections 8 and 9 too, but if Section 8 were to stay in even temporarily, would want to remove Section 9 at least (under 4b). Metzbower asked if “appointing authority” means administration or council. Larick said in administration, this means only Mayor. Ewald said this does not differentiate between Council employees and Administrative employees; would affect all. Mayor Tom Kneeland stated that he is trying to understand Larick’ s concern. Larick said our current situation does not allow for arbitrary adjustments in pay. Mayor Kneeland said we enter into an agreement with Council for these things; does not understand why if this has been active and in place for many years, why we need to change things now. Larick said as Council has the control over holding the purse strings, he feels they have no control over the funds. Mayor Kneeland said Council has defunded positions, therefore they do have control. Larick said he wants a control in place by Council and for the time being will delete this section. Vollmer said there has to be money in the account in order to give premium pay, so if there’s no money to give them, they can’t get the premium pay. Larick asked if there’s an instance where an employee were eligible for the premium pay, how would they go about getting the City of Gahanna Page 3 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes February 25, 2019 funds. Vollmer said they would have to go back to Council to request the money be transferred. Vollmer said she thinks that she could not move money from another department fund to her department fund to cover such things. Renner asked if there are current circumstances where an employee falls under Sections 8 or 9. Vollmer said would have to verify. Ewald said recommends getting more information on this and bring this back to the next Committee Meeting. Angelou asked if we could have the information by Friday, then it could go on for Monday’s Regular Council Meeting. Mayor said there are controls already in place; individual employee compensation should be left up to the Administration. Renner asked, for the record, are we in agreement to place this on the Regular Agenda on Monday, if information is supplied confirming controls and if someone is already under the condition of those sections. Larick said moving money between accounts is not the control he is seeking. Angelou said she asked some time ago that we get transfer reports weekly from the Finance Department, so we know what is possible as far as transfers are concerned. All in agreement to bring back to the next Committee Meeting. Recommendation: Held in Committee; due back 3/11/19. REPORTS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES/NO DISCUSSION 2019-0029 ODOT Smartlane Project Update from the Director of Public Service & Engineering. 2019-0031 Division of Police Report for January 2019, from Director of Public Safety. 2019-0032 Update from the City Administrator. ADJOURNMENT By Renner at 7:46 p.m. City of Gahanna Page 4