Committee of the Whole

200 South Hamilton Road City of Gahanna Gahanna, Ohio 43230 Meeting Minutes Committee of the Whole Monday, March 8, 2021 7:00 PM Virtual Meeting Meeting Call-in Details: 513-306-4583 Conference ID: 506 285 220# A. CALL TO ORDER B. DISCUSSIONS 1. ITEM FROM THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE & ENGINEERING a. MT-0011-2021 MOTION TO AUTHORIZE THE CITY OF GAHANNA TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SOUTHWEST OHIO PURCHASERS FOR GOVERNMENT (SWOP4G) ROAD SALT COOPERATIVE BID FOR THE 2021-2022 WINTER SEASON. Mr. Crawford presented his report which is attached to the minutes. Mr. Larick asked how we have done this year. Mr. Crawford said a little higher than normal. RECOMMENDATION: Consent Agenda. 2. ITEM FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF TECHNOLOGY ORD-0011-2021 ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH iVIDEO TECHNOLOGIES, FOR THE UPGRADE OF THE AUDIO/VIDEO SYSTEM IN COUNCIL CHAMBERS; WAIVING SECOND READING AND DECLARING IT AN EMERGENCY. Mr. Schultz presented his report which is attached to the minutes. It is requested to pass with emergency and waiver. Mr. Schultz added that they are working on an additional piece of hardware for closed captioning. There is a projected additional cost of approximately $5,000. Mr. Larick asked about the CARES fund limit being about $80,000 City of Gahanna Page 1 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes March 8, 2021 Mr. Schultz replied that they were able to move some funds around to make the project whole but for the additional $5,000. Ms. Bury said they were able to move some contract services dollars and there is an ability if this is a true need, we could look to some salary and benefit lines and approve a transfer if needed. Mr. Larick said he wanted it to fall within whatever the limit is with CARES funds. Mr. Schultz said he would work with the Finance Director on that. Ms. Bowers said that the closed captioning is important and she supports the addition. Mr. Larick said it does make sense. But he wanted the information from Joann on the CARES fund availability. Mr. Schnetzer thinks the closed captioning is important but under the line items, if the cameras were reduced to one would it still be functional and under the dollar figure for the CARES funds. Mr. Schultz replied depending on the exact line, there are 2 cameras behind the dais in each corner and one above the door. The cameras are designed to work intelligently. Could we do without one behind Council, yes, but we do need at least one behind. We wouldn't save half of one of those lines, but it depends on which one. Mr. Schnetzer said he wasn't picking on the project but just trying to get the project under the budget cap. Ms. Bowers asked if there is a potential for any grand funding for the closed captioning aspect? Mayor Jadwin said that it was something they were going to look for and there is a possibility for stimulus dollars. Mrs. Angelou said we shouldn't do this part way, it is a benefit for the community and if we put in lower cost things it may not go as well. We should make it as possible for everyone to know what is going on at City Hall as we can. RECOMMENDATION: Regular Agenda. City of Gahanna Page 2 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes March 8, 2021 3. ITEMS FROM THE DIRECTOR OF PARKS & RECREATION a. 2021-0047 Presentation from the Director of Parks & Recreation Mayor Jadwin said it has been 1 year since things have started to shut down due to COVID-19. We didn't know what lie ahead in 2020 and difficult decisions had to be made. Like many peer communities, we made the difficult decision to close the pools last year. This year, we've had the time to evaluate and plan and vaccinations are occurring. We know we can't do 100% pool operation. While we are not out of the woods, we have been planning and believe we can move forward in 2021. Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell presented her report which is attached to the minutes. Mr. Larick asked about the advanced scheduling. 48 hours is the max correct? Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell said correct. You wouldn't go past that 48 hours and hopefully if you're not going you'd call and reduce that number. Mrs. Angelou said that was well done and it was very clear. Is Lifetime still in play? Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell said no, 2018 was the last year for that contract. Mr. Renner thanked the Director. He would like a copy of the slides and what is her view, the trend with COVID, a lot of the health codes may be lifted, is her view that spring and summer may be different? Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell said they are hiring as if they are full staff. There would be adjustments made to the guidelines as they are made less restrictive. Mrs. McGregor asked if there will still be the swim team. Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell said the issue is with the swim meets. Mrs. McGregor asked then what would be the point of having a team without meets. Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell said it is still the learning of the skills and as restrictions are lifted, things may change. City of Gahanna Page 3 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes March 8, 2021 Mrs. McGregor asked if the surface area of the pool took into consideration that not everyone is not in the pool at the same time. Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell said that they considered that the point of going to the pool was to get into the pool as part of their formula. It would irresponsible to say they could fit more people when if they were all in the water they wouldn't be in compliant. Mrs. McGregor asked how they schedule. Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell said online. Mrs. McGregor asked what if they aren't online. Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell said we are in an online world but there is a hotline that can be called. Mr. Leeseberg asked about the construction of the splash pad impacting the pool. Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell said that it will be constructed at the same time but they don't anticipate it being an issue. b. ORD-0012-2021 AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO CONTRACT WITH MIDSTATES RECREATION FOR PURCHASE AND INSTALLATION OF PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT AT WOODSIDE GREEN PARK, AND DECLARING IT AN EMERGENCY. Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell presented his report which is attached to the minutes. This is requested as an emergency to be able to obtain and install prior to the summer season. Mr. Schnetzer said he was pleased to see this come forward. RECOMMENDATION: Regular Agenda. c. ORD-0013-2021 AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO CONTRACT WITH MIDSTATES RECREATION FOR PURCHASE AND INSTALLATION OF PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT AT HEADLEY PARK, AND DECLARING IT AN EMERGENCY. Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell presented his report which is attached to the minutes. There is some additional shading planned for this playground. Mr. Larick asked if this is going to sit on top of the existing. City of Gahanna Page 4 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes March 8, 2021 Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell said the old fixtures will be removed and replaced. Mr. Leeseberg said it looked like a good structure. Mrs. McGregor asked if there was some thought at planting trees to provide some shade at some point. Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell said that with some age the trees there will provide some shade. Mr. Larick asked if Woodside Green Park had the natural play area and does this replace that. Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell said no, but it is going to have some updates for the summer season. Mr. Larick asked if there is a plan for a significant update to it. Mrs. Bernard-Ferrell said not at this time. There isn't a large dollar amount to make a significant change to date. RECOMMENDATION: Regular Agenda. 4. OTHER COUNCIL DISCUSSIONS a. RES-0006-2021 RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF GAHANNA CONDEMNING INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE, REAFFIRMING EQUALITY UNDER THE LAW, AND COMMITTING TO REVIVING CIVILITY. Ms. Bowers said she wanted to open by sharing her appreciation for the discussion on Monday night and was hoping to answer some of the questions that were raised last Monday. She doesn't want to rush the Resolution and she was in contact with the former consultant who worked on this project who put her in contact from the National Institute for Civil Discourse to discuss some of the information brought up from Council members last week. Mr. Leeseberg asked Mr. Mularski if we pass a Resolution holding people accountable, are we opening ourselves up to potential issues. Mr. Mularski said he would like to see what holding someone accountable means. If you do x to one person and y to another.. I would like to see what that means. Mr. Leeseberg said that was one of his concerns. He said he isn't City of Gahanna Page 5 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes March 8, 2021 opposed to the Resolution or one like it but its in our vision statement that we promote respect among our citizens. We've already talked to a couple of things. Maybe add the vision and mission to the whereas language. Mrs. McGregor said she agreed and thought that the hold accountable should be omitted but she also feels the Resolution has a negative tone to it. We have our vision and mission statement and maybe a resolution reaffirming those, that would be much simpler. This has a scolding tone and there is great diversity here in Gahanna and it feels we're addressing a problem where there isn't a problem. Mrs. Angelou asked who creates the standards and how to you hold them to the standard and who judges this. She only knows one person possible of judging and that was God in heaven so it's kind of disconcerting. Where is the evidence and statistics on the verbal assault on people in Gahanna. The three brought up last Monday were in Columbus weren't they? Ms. Bowers said no there were instances in Gahanna specifically. She said she had an opportunity to review opportunities our officers have had over the last 12 months and we have had and increase of mental health calls and they often intersect with instances of incivility. The 2 instances that she brought up specifically last time, there was a business owner on Johnstown Road that was harassed over her support of the former president and her beliefs and Mr. Nicholson that was harassed on 270 and an incident at the post office that was a verbal incident. As the region diversifies and with the higher stress of the time and unemployment and other stressors, yes there is kindness as well and she appreciates the points that Mrs. McGregor pointed out. She is happy to discuss this further and sharing the information that she pulled from NICD but she wants to take the time to understand the concerns that they have and articulate why these are here. Mrs. Angelou said that we all take an oath of office that says their going to adhere to government and charter. And that we've addressed this with those oaths. She looked at the NICD and there were not statistics or analytics and there was nothing about cancel culture which is a horrific thing going on and not very good. There was one of these things that says respond to incivility when you see it. How do you do that? It doesn't make sense. It's going to make civility vigilantes. It says here they sign a pledge, in the news paper and I don't think.. do we hold people accountable that I think is being uncivil? I think there is already civility in our community. Systemic racism in our community? Nobody would condone that. As long as we're doing our oath of office that pretty much City of Gahanna Page 6 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes March 8, 2021 contains it. Mrs. McGregor said that the instances Ms. Bowers brought up are unacceptable. But you hear in Gahanna helping people in Gahanna. It's a kind community and encouraging the kindness rather than being negative is what they should be doing. Mr. Leeseberg said that the problem is how do you enforce. Are you going to shame someone for shaming someone? Do we open ourselves up to a problem. Mrs. Angelou said she just sees that we already have most of this. She doesn't see a lot of not having civility. She doesn't see the need for this. Mr. Renner said when he first saw this Resolution he felt it was an easy statement that the City Council could just stand by. I thought it had some nice concepts then, I still feel it has some nice concepts. We live in a society, it's under the guise of a social contract that we're going to behave a certain way and when people don't, it should be on us to call them out. That's what the accountability is. I don't see an issue with this. I do recognize and appreciate Nancy adding that they are endowed by their creator, but to pick this apart and not recognize that there are constituents out there that have been a victim of hate but maybe haven't spoken publicly about it. He sees this as a statement which isn't really a bad thing. Mr. Larick said that he is brainstorming some language and will get together with Ms. Bowers to have some revision for the next meeting. Mr. Leeseberg said he wanted the language to be for all not specific parties. Ms. Bowers said that this is intended to be a statement that applies to all. Everyone is entitled to respect and we don't have to agree but we can come to the table treating each other with integrity. Mrs. Angelou said she's taken 12 oaths of office and she looks at the mission and vision statement and on the same page, we want the same thing, but this seems.. one comma can cost a whole lot, one comma in the wrong place. So it's important that we do it so people don't thing that everyone in the community is in need of being civil or are being unkind and this is for City Council to sign. Meeting adjourned at 8:29 p.m. City of Gahanna Page 7 Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes March 8, 2021 City of Gahanna Page 8