City Council

City of Groveport 655 Blacklick St. Groveport, OH 43125 614.830.2052 www.groveport.org . Meeting Minutes Monday, September 25, 2023 6:30 PM Council Chambers City Council Mayor Lance Westcamp Council Members - Jean Ann Hilbert, Ed Dildine, Shawn Cleary, Becky Hutson, Scott Lockett & Jack Rupp City Council Meeting Minutes September 25, 2023 I. Call to Order Mayor Lance Westcamp called the City Council meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Staff Present: BJ King - Administrator, Kevin Shannon - Law Director, Jason Carr - Director of Finance, Casey Adams - Chief of Police, Mindy Kay - Clerk of Council Guests Present: The Guest Book is on file with the Clerk of Council. II. Moment of Silence The Mayor asked everyone to join him in a moment of silence. III. Pledge of Allegiance Chief Adams led the Pledge of Allegiance. IV. Roll Call Present: 6 - Shawn M. Cleary, Edward Dildine, Jean Ann Hilbert, Becky Hutson, Scott Lockett, and Jack Rupp V. Approval of Minutes The September 11, 2023 City Council Minutes stand approved as submitted. #208-2023 September 11, 2023 City Council Meeting Minutes Attachments: 2023.09.11 City Council Meeting Minutes.pdf VI. Business of Guests VII. Ordinances and Resolutions A. 3rd Readings Ord. 2023-035 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NUMBER 2020-023 ESTABLISHING CREDIT/DEBIT CARD CONVENIENCE FEES FOR PAYMENTS RECEIVED BY THE UTILITY DEPARTMENT AND THE DECLARATION OF AN EMERGENCY Sponsors: Hilbert City of Groveport Page 1 City Council Meeting Minutes September 25, 2023 Administrator King explained that this ordinance will cap convenience fees at 3.00%. The lowest rate before this was 3.75%. This is capping it at 3.00% for Utility Department payments. Council Member Cleary asked if since we are locking in at 3.00% with this company, they can’t come back and raise it. Mr. King said we are locking it in at 3.00% so that’s the cap. It’d be a new contract that we would have to bring back to Council if they wanted to change it. In that case we will certainly shop around to try to keep it at 3.00%. Mr. Cleary said he knows that 3.00% is a deal and thanked Mr. King. A motion was made by Council Member Hilbert, seconded by Council Member Hutson, to adopt as emergency legislation. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 6- Cleary, Dildine, Hilbert, Hutson, Lockett and Rupp B. 2nd Readings Ord. 2023-036 AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE ADMINISTRATOR TO PURCHASE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE UNDER THE OMNIA PARTNERS GROUP COOPERATIVE PURCHASE PLAN THROUGH INSIGHT PUBLIC SECTOR THEREBY WAIVING COMPETITIVE BIDDING PURSUANT TO GROVEPORT CITY CHARTER SECTION 9.02(B) Sponsors: Lockett This Ordinance was read by title C. 1st Readings Ord. 2023-037 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE 2023-028 ESTABLISHING THE CITY OF GROVEPORT’S POLICE DEPARTMENT STRENGTH OF STAFF. Sponsors: Dildine This Ordinance was referred to the Committee of the Whole Ord. 2023-038 AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE ADMINISTRATOR TO APPLY FOR AND ACCEPT A GRANT FROM THE FRANKLIN COUNTY COMMISSION ON AGING SENIOR OPTIONS GRANT PROGRAM FOR THE SENIOR TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM, AND FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE ADMINISTRATOR TO EXECUTE ANY AGREEMENT NECESSARY TO RECEIVE SAID GRANT FUNDING AND THE DECLARATION OF AN EMERGENCY City of Groveport Page 2 City Council Meeting Minutes September 25, 2023 Sponsors: Cleary Administrator King stated that this sneaks up on us every year and we have to pass it as an emergency. He said he had spoken with Transportation Director Bob Dowler and what we’re going to do is include this in the beginning of the year from now on so that it is already in place and we don’t have to pass it as an emergency. A motion was made by Council Member Cleary, seconded by Council Member Dildine, to adopt as emergency legislation. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 6- Cleary, Dildine, Hilbert, Hutson, Lockett and Rupp Ord. 2023-039 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE CITY'S COMPENSATION PLAN ESTABLISHED IN ORDINANCE 2012-010 (ADOPTED 5-9-2012) AND ORDINANCE 2017-002 (ADOPTED 1-23-2017), WHICH AMENDED THE SAME, THEREBY AMENDING THE CURRENT PAY SCALE FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE CITY OF GROVEPORT Sponsors: Rupp Attachments: Ord. 2023-039 Exhibit A.pdf This Ordinance was referred to the Committee of the Whole VIII. Reports A. Mayor - Lance Westcamp Mayor Westcamp informed Council that last week we had conducted some Police interviews. We decided on two applicants. One of them turned us down. He said we will have a new Police Officer coming in and thinks the City will be proud to add this officer to our staff. We’re still looking for another one so we’ll probably open up the process again. He then said our Clerk of Court Chelle Coleman is retiring and the new hire made it through her first day today. Her name is Rachel Ricker and will be introduced at a Council meeting soon so we can all meet her. B. Administrator - BJ King Administrator King reported that he had been in contact with Redwood and they are looking at doing their ribbon cutting on October 26th as well as an open house. Everybody will be getting an invitation to it. He said they’re going to have food and tours of the facilities and for Council to watch for those invitations coming in. He then spoke about the small business classes that have been going on at the Paddock Pub. We have City of Groveport Page 3 City Council Meeting Minutes September 25, 2023 six people who are continuing with the classes. They run until November 7th and on that day, they will do presentations on their business plans. He added that he’d been asked to gather local small business owners to come and have a round table discussion. He said once he has more information about that it would be great if some of Council could attend. He concluded by reporting that the two buildouts are coming along well and are on schedule. Council Member Hutson asked when the tenants would be moving in. He said by the time the tenants do their work, because one of them is doing work themselves, it’ll most likely be early to mid November. Everyone seems satisfied with how it’s going. Mrs. Hutson inquired about the dog treat business. Mr. King said he has not heard anything from them but will keep asking. Council Member Dildine stressed that we should reach out to them. Mayor Westcamp referred to Redwood and said he thinks it is a great opportunity because he’s been asked by a lot of people who’d like to go through the facilities. Mr. King said it will be open to the public. Mr. Dildine said they’ve moved people in before having the landscaping finished or even putting mailboxes in. He said he knows development moves fast but we’ve had some 911 issues in the Redwood in Obetz and Groveport because they’ve moved people in there before their addresses are even posted. It’s a process to get the 911 system set up so we just need to make sure we stay on top of these things. C. Chief of Police - Casey Adams Chief Adams reiterated that we had interviewed four individuals Wednesday morning for the Police Department. We were pretty confident on two and the individual who had turned us down did so not because of anything to do with Groveport, but because of his family life. He’s coming from a department where he has an established schedule. The individual we did hire is straight out of the academy in May and is working for a small department part-time. He is from Madison-Township, born and raised, graduated from Groveport-Madison, has a wife and child and is ecstatic to work for Groveport. Chief Adams said that we were really impressed with his answers on family and will be a tremendous fit. He will be coming on sometime around the end of October or early November, depending when we get all the test results back. He said he spoke with Mr. King and Personnel Director Joyce Myers and if we post the other position, we will be going up against some heavy hitters like Hilliard, Upper Arlington, Westerville, Grove City, Gahanna and New Albany. He said he wants to work with HR to develop a nice flyer, some different recruiting strategies, and look at re-posting this job in early November to see if more candidates apply. We had high teens to low twenties when we did the last three hires and this time we City of Groveport Page 4 City Council Meeting Minutes September 25, 2023 only had four to pick from. Some individuals were not even in the academy and didn’t meet our automatic disqualifiers so we were already eliminating them before we even got to the interviews. Hopefully we have more to choose from come November and we can hire our twenty sixth officer for the Police Department. Council Member Cleary said we’re going up against a lot of things and he’s seen what Gahanna and New Albany were starting at. Officers have become a commodity. He said we don’t necessarily need to open our checkbooks high and wide but it’s going to be a terrific battle. Chief Adams replied that we are not the only community facing this. Detective Gilbert had spoken with a friend of his who used to be a Lieutenant with Columbus PD and they used to have thousands of people showing up to submit a resume and application. That day that he was up there they had zero people walk in. Mr. Cleary said State Highway patrol had seventy-five in the class and only twenty-six graduated. Chief Adams added that Dublin is testing every six months and that used to be one where you’d get eight hundred people showing up to test when he first got into law enforcement, so it’s getting harder and harder. We also want to make sure they’re the right fit for the City of Groveport and embrace the community policing philosophy because we know our residents expect that high level of policing. He said he would keep Council informed as we get closer to posting and spreading the word. He knows our officers are reaching out to people they know to see if they’re interested. Council Member Rupp inquired if we took the opportunity to go around to the different programs and talk to the new recruits out of those programs. Chief Adams said that he reached out to Eastland Adult Ed and asked when their next academy class is. They told him that most departments are sending cadets over there to get certified so they can get them on their Police Department. He added that is something he had talked about with Mrs. Myers but obviously that’s a long-term commitment to put someone through a six-month academy before they can even hit the street. The next academy class starts at the end of October and they won’t graduate until June. Of the twenty-five they have in that class they only have six that are open enrollments. The rest are coming from jurisdictions like Franklin County Sheriffs Department to get their own officers certified. Council Member Dildine said that the Fire Service is seeing the same thing. Fire departments are paying for them to go through the school and they get a commitment out of them at the end. On the fire and EMS side, the schools are full but departments are still having a hard time hiring because they go out and find jobs before they get a chance to get on at a department, and they start out making seventy-five to eighty thousand at a warehouse somewhere for twenty-five dollars an hour. It’s hard for municipalities to compete with that. We’ve definitely got to come up with City of Groveport Page 5 City Council Meeting Minutes September 25, 2023 creative ways, not just with finance but across the board, to entice people to come here as opposed to going someplace else. D. Director of Finance - Jason Carr E. Director of Law - Kevin Shannon F. Development Director G. Council Members - Jean Ann Hilbert, Ed Dildine, Shawn Cleary, Becky Hutson, Scott Lockett and Jack Rupp H. Clerk of Council - Mindy Kay I. Standing Committees IX. Other Business X. Adjournment Council Member Cleary made a motion, seconded by Council Member Hilbert to adjourn at 6: 52 p.m. All in favor stated AYE, None Opposed. Motion passed. __________________________________________ Lance Westcamp, Mayor __________________________________________ Mindy Kay Clerk of Council PLEASE NOTE: THESE MINUTES ARE NOT VERBATIM. A RECORDING OF THE MEETING IS AVAILABLE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE DURING REGULAR BUSINESS HOURS. City of Groveport Page 6