Committee of the Whole

200 South Hamilton Road City of Gahanna Gahanna, Ohio 43230 Meeting Minutes Committee of the Whole Nancy R. McGregor, Chair, Vice President Jamie Leeseberg, President Karen J. Angelou Merisa Bowers Brian D. Larick Stephen A. Renner Michael Schnetzer April Beggerow, MPA, CMC, Clerk of Council Monday, July 6, 2020 Virtual Meeting Immediately Following Regular Council Meeting Call in details: 513-306-4583 Conference ID: 282 291 680# A. CALL TO ORDER The Committee of the Whole meeting was called to order at 8:05 p.m. by Chair Nancy McGregor. All members were in attendance. B. DISCUSSIONS 1. ITEMS FROM THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE & ENGINEERING ORD-054-2020 ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ENGINEERING TO ENTER INTO CONTRACT WITH BURGESS & NIPLE, LLC., FOR THE WESTERN GAHANNA SSES-PHASE1 PROJECT, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFORE; WAIVING SECOND READING AND DECLARING IT AN EMERGENCY. Mr. Crawford presented his legislation. Maps have been added as requested by public/council members. These are in some of the oldest neighborhoods in the City in hopes of mitigating and reducing impacts to large wet weather events. It includes the purchase of flow monitors (Ord 55-2020) as well. This will determine areas that will need fixed to reduce wet weather event impacts. Ms. Bowers asked if there was a report from Pipetek who did the CCTV of the area. Mr. Crawford stated that there wasn't a report, they generate a project of lines that need to be re-lined. They CCTV the lines and present a project. City of Gahanna Page 1 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes July 6, 2020 Ms. Bowers asked if this project was in writing. Mr. Crawford replied that the project was one of the other legislative items approved earlier. Mr. Renner emphasized the access to the maps. Mr. Larick said he's trying to understand- is there an underlying concern around a report? Mr. Crawford replied that there are- there is a yearly camera and cleaning program that generates a program. This year we had these 2 huge events that showed us that there are areas we can look into for future projects that were impacted by these events. The evaluation survey is to find out why there was so much stormwater that went into the sanitary system. Mr. Larick said he didn't understand the subtext. Mayor Jadwin said that there are 3 projects, the CCTV project we do every year. Based on the one from 2019, we generate the project for 2020. Then we have the CCTV for this year, that was the one voted on. Now we have an overall project from the west side because there were residents with raw sewage in their basement. Mr. Larick said that Cliffview was mentioned and that's not west side. Mr. Crawford said that parts of Grammercy- Cliffview were also affected. Mr. Leeseberg asked when was last times these areas were cleaned and videoed. Mr. Crawford said a majority (14 miles) was cleaned in 2019. Grammercy was 2014-2015 Mr. Leeseberg asked if there were problems. Mr. Crawford said there were some improvements but nothing that said why all this stormwater was getting in during these events. Mr. Leeseberg asked how much was left in the sewer fund. Mr. Crawford replied $2.2 million beginning balance for 2021 with this project balance would be $1.6 million. City of Gahanna Page 2 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes July 6, 2020 Mr. Leeseberg asked what the annual income was for this fund Mr. Crawford replied $600,00 Mr. Leeseberg said and we just dedicated $250K for this years CCTV, more for repair and then a request for another $400K and we may not find a solution. He expressed concern. Mr. Crawford said that sewers are not designed to handle crazy wet weather events, but they weren't 100 year events. When we checked that last manhole before it dumps to the main trunk and it was handling what we sent it. So the problem is not down stream. Item sent to regular agenda for Waiver, and Adoption as an emergency. RECOMMENDATION: Regular Agenda. ORD-055-2020 ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ENGINEERING TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH HACH COMPANY, FOR THE PURCHASE OF FLOW MONITORS FOR THE WESTERN GAHANNA SSES-PHASE1 PROJECT, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFORE; WAIVING SECOND READING AND DECLARING IT AN EMERGENCY. Mr. Crawford presented his legislation above, this item is shared with item 054-2020. Item referred to regular agenda for adoption with waiver and emergency. RECOMMENDATION: Regular Agenda. 2. ITEM FROM THE INTERIM DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ORD-056-2020 ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING AN AGREEMENT WITH OPRONA INC. (ROSEN USA), FOR TAX ABATEMENT FOR PROPERTY LOCATED AT 1195 TECHNOLOGY DRIVE; PARCEL ID NO. 025-008886; FOR A PERIOD OF FIFTEEN YEARS, FOR ONE HUNDRED PERCENT TAX ABATEMENT ON THE INCREASED VALUE OF THE PROPERTY; PART OF COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT AREA #1; WAIVING SECOND READING AND DECLARING IT AN EMERGENCY. Ms. Syx presented her legislation. Rosen USA is a global company that desires to expand their location established in 2014. Timing is critical because we are in direct competition with Houston, TX. Jobs Ohio has put an offer letter into Rosen. Ohio Development Services has offered a job tax credit with this as well as a grant from Jobs Ohio. We want to keep them here and invest in them as they have in us. City of Gahanna Page 3 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes July 6, 2020 Ms. Bowers asked if Rosen doesn't expand here, the abatement would not survive that? Ms. Syx replied correct. No jobs, no abatement. Mr. Schnetzer said that these are well paying jobs that would be beneficial to have. He asked about jobs created or retained and when was the last time the city was able to create 70 full time jobs with that kind of payroll. Mayor Jadwin said it has been awhile but she would have to look. Item referred to the regular agenda. RECOMMENDATION: Regular Agenda. 3. ITEM FROM THE PLANNING & ZONING ADMINISTRATOR (ITEM HELD FROM 6/15) ORD-052-2020 ORDINANCE TO AMEND THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF GAHANNA, OHIO: Amending Chapter 1171 Fences. Mr. Blackford presented his legislation, there were no changes from the previous discussion. Mr. Larick asked that outstanding items that were being evaluated, is there direction as to when those items will come back. The items need resolved. Mr. Leeseberg added that he was disappointed that the committee that assembled those recommendations were never heard by Planning Commission. He too wants answers to those questions. Mayor Jadwin stated that there was a conversation about that issue of the fence code and it was decided that they would continue to work on that. There is a design code review and zoning code review upcoming. This would be rolled into the edit of that portion of the code later in the year. This is just a simple edit that will help clean up some needed language now. This will help with 90% of the variances that come through now. The other topics will just take a little longer to work through. Mr. Larick said that as long as we have a method to make sure it's monitored, he was ok with the opinion of council regarding this legislation. He suggested maintaining an agenda item or push it back for additional changes. City of Gahanna Page 4 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes July 6, 2020 Mr. Leeseberg said it could be years before the outside items are addressed. Mayor Jadwin said she disagrees, that it would be more like fall. She's spent hours working on this and wants to get it addressed. Committee members agreed to move this legislation forward and maintain a discussion on future changes during upcoming Committee meetings. This item will be on the Regular agenda on August 3 for introduction and public hearing on August 17th. RECOMMENDATION: Regular Agenda. 4. DISCUSSION: CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS Ms. Bowers shared that she wanted a conversation about how we can ensure our meetings are accessible to the public. She said there is a loss of interaction when there isn't a face to face meeting. She understands that there is a public health crisis, but there have been comments from constituents frustrated with the loss of public comment. She asked the Clerk to share the results of a survey among state clerks. The Clerk shared that the survey was conducted asking who was remote vs. in person and what City Hall buildings were open vs. still closed. Approximately half of respondents are still virtual. Mr. Larick stated that we have not eliminated public input, we just changed the process. Mr. Leeseberg stated that there was an option to have public comment. That it is sent via email and read. Ms. Bowers pointed out replied that on April 6 we suspended the rules to eliminate Hearing of Visitors. Mr. Larick said that public comment is a distinct role and if we need to clarify that we should do that. Mr. Leeseberg said he would work with the Clerk to improve this process. Mr. Renner said that we should have an active participation part to how our meetings are. Live Stream, and participation. He is asking that if we are staying virtual, then we need to figure out how to live stream and give the public ability to interact real time. This process we have in place isn't acceptable anymore. City of Gahanna Page 5 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes July 6, 2020 Mr. Larick said that we took action to conduct business with as much information that we had and virtually every meeting has improved since the beginning and this is just another a step to make an improvement so we can continue to conduct effective transparent business and public input. Ms. Bowers said that if we can use this tech better, that solves the concern. We have new tech in chambers, a number of municipalities are doing hybrid meetings with some members in person, some virtually. She wanted to add that as an option. Next topic: Masks. Ms. Bowers shared her memorandum regarding mask policy added to the minutes. She feels that it isn't the role to implement a mask policy, but to be attentive to constituents concerns. Concerns revolve around enforcement. Mrs. Angelou feels that if you want to feel safer, you should wear a mask but it should be up to person to wear the mask. She suggests it be encouraged. Mr. Schnetzer said that during committee meetings there are agendas and documents, it's typically a fact finding endeavor. In this case, how would such a mandate evolve. And how would enforcement come into play. Chief Spence replied that any mandate or requirement there would be an expectation of compliance and enforcement. From the law enforcement perspective compliance and enforcement would be tricky. This is the enforcement of public health which is usually performed by Franklin County Public Health. There really is no enforcement mechanism. Compliance really rests with the individual. Voluntary compliance is best. Any private business can refuse business with anyone. Enforcement is last on the list. Mr. Renner stated that the Governor and local officials ask people to wear a mask, but health officials stop short of issuing mandates. He doesn't want to criminalize it. He feels that the model that Westerville has implemented is a happy medium that makes it pro choice but empowers businesses to push people out. It should be a pro education campaign. The science is clear, wear a mask. When it comes to a pandemic we just don't understand. We should be promoting education and public awareness. He encouraged a look at the Westerville City of Gahanna Page 6 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes July 6, 2020 language. Mr. Leeseberg said its hard for our PD to enforce. He is not in favor of penalties or mandates, but he is in favor of education. Next Discussion: Police Policies Mrs. McGregor stated that the next topic for discussion was on Police policies and that there are lots of policies that affect the police department, those that are dictated by the union, those dictated by HR, and others that should be addressed to the Mayor, Safety Director and Chief. If you have concerns, the Mayor is who you should speak with as the Police policies are really up to the Mayor. The chain of command is Police Department, Safety Director, Police Chief and the Mayor is at the top of the chain of command. If there is an issue, you can make a suggestion but they are the ones in charge of making the policy decisions. Ms. Bowers said the discussion she wanted to have was along the lines more of a fact finding. The conversation on June 10 opened the door to some topics and the questions she had for the HR Director were around what types of investigations do we conduct with regard to hiring police officers and she was comfortable not having that discussion this evening. Mrs. McGregor replied that this was a discussion she should have directly with Ms. Vollmer as it's her question and not a Committee of the Whole issue. Mayor Jadwin said she preferred it to go through her because it involves policies that are in place. Back to Discussion on Meetings: Committee members discussed a return to the office and it was agreed upon that meetings will remain virtual through the end of August and will reassess. Meeting adjourned at 9:54 p.m. 2020-115 Bowers Memorandum Regarding Mask Policy City of Gahanna Page 7