City Council Regular Meeting

VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 14, 20 1. CALL TO ORDER. President of Council Kilway called the Virtual Regular Council meeting of Thursday, May 14, to order at 7:00 p.m. This is a virtual meeting due to the State of Emergency. 2. SILENT PRAYER: PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: 3. ROLL CALL: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Carano, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – present. Also present were Mayor Kline, Dir. of Admin. Cooper, Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar, Dir. of Economic Development Springer, Dir. of Law Raber, Dir. of Finance Gilbride and Clerk of Council Burton. 4. MINUTES: 3-12-20 Regular Council Meeting minutes 3-23-20 Special Council Meeting minutes Mr. Donovan moved to accept the minutes as presented. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Voice vote 7-0. The 3-12-20 Regular Council Meeting minutes along with the 3-23-20 Special Meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 7-0. Pres. of Council: If we could just do one thing to make this easier for the Council Clerk; when we go to make a motion if we could state our name first and then the person who seconds it states their name as well. I think that will make it a lot better for everybody. 5. FINANCIAL REPORTS: • Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $100,000 to Council on 3-30-20. • Street Maintenance & Repair Transfer in the amount of $125,000 to Council on 3-30-20. • Bond Retirement Transfer in the amount of $94,700 to Council on 3-30-20. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report and Revenue Report for the period ending 3-31-20 to Council on 4-7-20. • March Financial Reports to Council on 4-7-20. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 3- 31-20 to Council on 4-7-20. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 3-31-20 to Council on 4-7-20. • Revenue Comparisons for the period ending 3-31-20 to Council on 4-7-20. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 3-31-20 to Council on 4-7-20. • Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $100,000 to Council on 4-29-20. • Street Maintenance & Repair Transfer in the amount of $100,000 to Council on 4-29-20. • Bond Retirement Transfer in the amount of $125,000 to Council on 4-29-20. • Police Pension Transfer in the amount of $78,000 to Council on 4-29-20. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report and Revenue Report for the period ending 4-30-20 to Council on 5-4-20. • April Financial Reports to Council on 5-4-20. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 4- 30-20 to Council on 5-4-20. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 4-30-20 to Council on 5-4-20. • Revenue Comparisons for the period ending 4-30-20 to Council on 5-4-20. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 4-30-20 to Council on 5-4-20. Mr. Sisak moved for the approval of the Financial Reports. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Voice vote 7-0. The Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride were accepted by a vote of 7-0. 6. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None. 7. COMMUNITY INPUT: Pres. of Council: Since this is a virtual meeting and we do not have the public in this meeting to ask questions, we have asked the community to e-mail or call our Clerk’s office in order to have any type of discussion or have any type of questions, but for this meeting we have had absolutely no questions asked through our Council office, so anyone who is listening to this meeting right now, if you have any questions about anything we are discussing today or in the upcoming meetings, please contact our Clerk’s office either by phone or e-mail. You can go to the City’s website in order to get her e-mail address and phone number and we will address all of the community input that way. 8. ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. 9. AGENDA ADDITIONS: None.  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 14, 20 10. REFERRALS OF FIRST READING ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS: a. The following shall be referred to the Finance Committee: • Ord. 38-2020. • Ord. 40-2020. • Res. 5-2020. b. The following shall be referred to the Planning & Zoning Committee: None. c. The following shall be referred to the Personnel Committee: None. d. The following shall be referred to the Community Issues Committee: None. e. The following shall be referred to the Safety Committee: None. f. The following shall be referred to the Public Service Committee: • Ord. 39-2020. 11. REPORTS OF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS: MAYOR, DIR. OF PUBLIC SERVICE, DIR. OF ADMINISTRATION, DIR. OF ECONOMIC DEV., DIR. OF FINANCE AND DIR. OF LAW. Mayor: Thank you very much. It is a pleasure seeing all of you back on the computers and back working. First of all, I would like to recognize the Class of 2020 from Tallmadge Schools graduating. Congratulations. It is a whole different timeframe for the graduation. We do have a plan scheduled for a parade on the 27th of this month. It is coming up next week and we will just be driving around the City of Tallmadge and it is going to be a pretty nice thing to recognize the students by taking them around to all their old schools, so hats off to the Class of 2020 and the other graduating students from the universities and all of the surrounding schools. First of all, a very big thank you to my staff working diligently through this time. The office has been open, and we are very, very busy. A personal thank you to Dr. Don Cooper, the Rockstar. I will call him the “Amy Atkins of Tallmadge.” He has done such a great job helping us get through this. We have people all around, not only Summit County, but in the region, calling us to ask how did you do this; how did you do that? So, Don Cooper; my personal thank you from the citizens of Tallmadge for all of the hard work and that also includes Mollie and Megan and the other team members working every day; going to meetings and trying to keep the City running smooth without skipping a beat. The Department Heads have been excellent. We have been very busy on the budget and looking at different items on the budget. We have done a lot of restrictions on what you cannot purchase and asked them to look at their budget for cuts knowing that we are going to have to have income tax reductions. Mollie has done an excellent job in pulling that all together and helping us with that. In the future, we will be coming back to Council either with re-appropriations or reductions of the budget, but at this point we have strictly said, hold off on that purchase and that comes up to about $1 million that we have put aside. So, more to come on that. This week is the Police Across the Nation Memorial. You can see the flags flying half-staff today and that is for the Police Day Memorial, but today was the day to lower that. As you all know that on March 17 th, I issued a State of Emergency for the City of Tallmadge. What that did was to allow us to be able to operate a little bit more efficiently in the City getting things running smoother in conjunction with the State of Ohio and the Federal Government and the ordinances that are here tonight allow us to attract the funds; try to get FEMA Funds and that is a requirement from both of those entities that we adopt those so we can apply for those funds. All of the Department Heads are tracking every expenditure related to this and hopefully we can get reimbursed at a later time. Our staff has been . . . the employees around town have been doing an excellent job and staying safe. I know you are all saying, what happened today at 2:00 p.m. when there was a press conference and there was a lot of discussion that came out of that. We are evaluating all of that and are not ready to make any determinations. The requirements that came out of that, we don’t even have yet. They haven’t even published them yet. They are just coming out as we speak. So, we will evaluate all of that; the opening of parks, the Rec Center and the pool and all of that. What we can do; can we even meet the accommodations and so as soon as we see those guidelines, we will keep Council and the public informed on that. So, there will be a lot more to come on that. 2  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 14, 20 Mayor (Cont’d.) Again, thank you Council for doing your jobs and being in contact with the City and we are here to help you out and I’m sure the other departments will give their reports accordingly. If you have any questions; I will entertain them. Pres. of Council: Are there any questions for Mayor Kline? No one responded. Dir. of Pub. Service: Good evening. How are you guys doing? First off, this is two months of work that I am reporting to you guys. For Zoning, we have had 40 total permits; 29 of which were zoning certificates and we have continued working on the Code update and we have made quite a bit of progress over the past two months on that. Moving to the cemetery; in the past two months we have had seven total burials. Six of which were full, and one was cremains. Landscaping has been started; it is mostly turf repair from the winter and then we have put spring foundation insulation for the headstones on postponement until the fall and that is because of the split shifts that we are running. We can’t get in there and do that and it has been exceptionally wet as well. So, we will get all of those poured in the fall and that is basically because of the Covid-19 directive that we are on. In Parks and Rec, as you can imagine, has been shut down and the staff has put together some game plans on reopening and they have also put together some on-line programming offers, which is supposed to roll out here in the next coming days. You will be seeing that on the website. All of the shelters have been closed and the hall rentals have been closed. We removed three drinking fountains in the parks because of the Covid. We couldn’t run the water and have those drinking fountains bypassed and so we replaced them with hydrant pumps which is just; it’s not a drinking fountain, it is just a handle pump and obviously Maca Pool has been closed for the time being and maintenance issues are occurring over there with painting and caulking the pool. Moving on to the Street Department, eleven culverts were replaced, six catch basins were installed, 1,600 lineal feet of ditch work was done. Concrete Street Repair: the contract has been started and it is probably 2/3 complete. The pavement marking; the City has started that and that is about 50% complete. We have had one water break; knock on wood in the last two months. For the year we are up to four. We have replaced one sewer line and two fire hydrants, and we did a restoration of the inside of the City Hall booster pump station. It looks brand new in there. It has been a long time coming. I have just one request that we pass Ord. 38- 2020 at 1st Reading tonight unless there are any questions. Pres. of Council: Are there any questions for Mr. Rorar? Dir. of Administration: Good evening everyone. Two orders have come out from the Ohio Director of Public Health and none of them, or neither of them are related to the instructions that the governor gave today at his 2:00 p.m. briefing. So, what the Mayor said is absolutely correct; we still don’t have in writing what the Director of Public Health orders are and therefore we really can’t evaluate them so we are going to spend, as we always do, a lot of time evaluating exactly where we are at, but I will just be honest with you that I do not currently anticipate a lot of significant changes in what we are doing over the next weeks, in particular, maybe over the next month and the Mayor didn’t mention, but today, actually it is tomorrow; they are going to, very likely, unless something changes between now and then, extend the Declaration of Emergency for another 30 days until June 15th. There are a number of reasons for that, but mostly they are related to actions that we have in place. Some of them require the Mayor’s authority to do that under that particular Ordinance 509.12. So, that is the main reason we are continuing. I am happy to answer questions that anyone has, otherwise, that is the end of my report. Mr. Loughry: I have a question or a comment for either Dr. Cooper and/or the Mayor and that is; the comment is you have all done an excellent job of keeping us, as Council people, informed and in the loop and so I appreciate that. But everything that has been presented to the public appears to be very legal and probably for a reason. Is there like a layman’s document or something that could be presented and either put out on social media or to the Express so that just someone that is kind of curious would kind of know where we are at and what is happening and why things were done, or is that a bad thing. Is that a bad thing; I don’t know. 3  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 14, 20 Mayor: OK; I’m back on. I’m sorry I was muted. That is a good comment, but I will say that Andria is on social media non-stop. She is doing a great job. She is putting a lot of things out. We are asking her to put a lot of things out. We are trying to update social media. I talk to the Tallmadge Express a couple of times a week. What they put in and what they don’t put in; I can’t . . . they have actually been pretty good at posting what we want. In layman’s terms, the City is doing well. We try to get budgetary stuff in there and we try to get stuff in there as to why the parks are closed and the CDC regulations and I guess I could defer to Don if he thinks we can come up with some other more generic stuff. Dir. of Administration: Well, I would like to add that we do put out public press releases and yes, we are careful in our language. We craft our message so as not to be too, I don’t know; scary; not to tick people off that want one thing that doesn’t always get it. We are trying to be as diplomatic and as courteous and accurate as we can and I understand that sometimes things may come across a little bit in legalese, but it is important and I know you all know this already, but it is important that we craft the message correctly so that we are accurate, but diplomatic in our message and we . . . our press releases, for instance, go out to our newspapers and television; 20 or 30 of those and we don’t craft them, however, they turn that into a newspaper article or anything else. You know, they often use the quotes, but they arrange it the way they want it and so, and everything that we put out to employees and that we put out through a press release is also usually; I would say 95% of the time, also published on our Facebook page and we do kind of reduce the quantity of words and try to be a little more succinct and abbreviated with that but we still spend a lot of time; I can’t emphasize this enough; we spend a lot of time crafting the message to minimize the opportunity for it to be misinterpreted. Mr. Loughry: Thank you very much. Dir. of Econ. Development: Good evening. I wanted to take a few minutes this evening just to update the Council regarding the Summit County Covid-19 Small Business Emergency Grant Program. As you know, the Tallmadge Grow, CIC was involved with this last month and we contributed $50,000 and we did quite well and out of 28 of the qualifying businesses in Tallmadge 22 received funding through that program and so we really appreciate Brian Nelson, Executive Shapiro and the Greater Akron Chamber spearheading that effort. In fact, it was so successful that it has led to what we are calling Phase 2 of that program and just today they opened up new applications beginning at noon. They kind of broadened some of the requirements for that program so we encourage any of the Tallmadge businesses that did not receive funding the first go around that they take full advantage of this second round. They have put aside like $5 million so it is quite a bit larger this time around and again, some of the parameters have been expanded to cover sole proprietors; people who are self-employed and so we would really encourage individuals to go after those funds, but again, what the Tallmadge Grow CIC invested; it more than doubled in terms of the return and we do believe that is a qualifying reimbursement under the CARES Act so we will seek reimbursement for that. Some of the other activities; we have reached out, in the past couple weeks, to more than 100 Tallmadge businesses either through phone; through e-mail; we had a lot of really great conversations and we actually found that many of the businesses within Tallmadge have actually been considered and deemed essential and so their doors remained open. They had adjusted some of their work schedules to make sure they were maintaining safe social distancing and all of the protocols, but that is good news. Those that did have to close their doors; many of them did qualify under the SBA. They did receive part funding for the payroll protection programs and so that is good news. From some of these conversations, we have learned that there are some businesses that have had record earnings for some of these months. So, we are all staying home, and hardware stores are doing quite well. That is good news for some of those who are out there, but for those who have been struggling, we would encourage them to take full advantage of that Phase 2 Program. In other news, we have been pursuing our business visitations; most of those have been virtual, but the Mayor and I were fortunate to meet with Leppo earlier this week and we were able to tour their facility; their 18,000 square foot construction project on West Avenue is going quite well and they anticipate being completed by June and we will have a ribbon cutting/grand opening to be determined. But that project is going quite well and so we are pleased to see that moving forward. 4  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 14, 20 Dir. of Econ. Development (Cont’d.) Really, that concludes my report and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have this evening, but we are keeping busy and reaching out to the businesses that we can in the community trying to make sure we are listening to their needs and helping them in any way that we can. Mr. Donovan: I do have a question. You talked about the grants and things, but where do you actually apply for that? Dir. of Econ. Development: Yes, so the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce is really the mechanism that is administering the grant programs. So, with both Phase 1 and Phase 2, the County has moved that money over to the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce and individuals who are interested in applying for that could go directly to the Chamber’s webpage and they would be able to find the Summit County Covid-19 Small Business Emergency Grant Program application. From talking to a few people, who have completed it just today; it takes them approximately an hour to submit all of their financial documents and just some of the record keeping in order to make application, but again, directly through the Akron Chamber webpage. Mr. Donovan: Thank you. Mayor: Matt, this is Dave. We also sent it to the Tallmadge Chamber and I know Becky posted that and sent it out to her folks and we also posted that on our website and our social media for the first round and I am assuming this phase that just came out a couple of hours ago will also be posted. I’m sure, if Andria is listening, and it might already be out there. Dir. of Econ. Development: Yeah, Andria already took care of it. I believe either this morning at 8:00 a.m. or yesterday, but yes, it has been posted to our social media platforms. Mr. Carano: Matt, this is Mike Carano. Do you have a list of the 22 businesses that received funding? There are a couple businesses that I was thinking about that may be unaware of that kind of funding and maybe I could try to contact them. Dir. of Econ. Development: Yeah, I would be happy tomorrow morning, or even this evening; I will share that list of the 22 who received funding and it will include the others who did not receive funding and based upon this Round 2; those who did submit and received the funding; they would not be eligible for the second round. So, really it is the next in line for those who wish to submit an application now; those will be the people for the second round. Mayor: Matt, can you just touch just briefly on the bullet points that qualify . . . I know some of the first round we had 38 people apply, but if they had more than 35 employees; they did not make it. Dir. of Econ. Development: Yeah, so this second round, again, the spectrum has gotten more lenient and so again, sole proprietors; those who are self-employed would now qualify. They didn’t in the first round. It is also businesses up to 30 and the first round was 3 and up to 25. So again, we are allowing for both smaller employers as well as some bigger numbers. These can be used to cover salary, wages, health benefits, mortgage payments, rent, or utility bills. If you have existing fleets in some of those payments; it would cover those expenses as well. It is for only profits, so non- profits are not eligible. When you go to submit some of this documentation, they are going to ask for some financial documents and so no business who is currently delinquent on any taxes or is currently going through a bankruptcy; anything of that nature; those individuals would be disqualified. It does not cover funding for vapor shops, any type of tobacco sales; it would not be eligible for sexually oriented businesses and a host of other uses that are similar to that. Otherwise, it is a really good program and it is helping people who desperately need some funding. Mayor: Thank you. Dir. of Finance: As Mrs. Kilway read off earlier, you received a plethora of reports from me over the last couple months. I tried to convey in those where our income tax seems to be heading in terms of the downturn and the employment issues. In April we looked OK, and I am seeing in our main numbers; I am anticipating that our General Fund Income Tax is going to be down 5 to 7% over last year. So, compare that to April and that is about a 10% turnaround in that one-month period and remember the May numbers that we are receiving were actually the collection numbers from April. So those are really reflecting part of the time that this has all been going on with the economy. 5  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 14, 20 Dir. of Finance (Cont’d.) RITA did provide us with some estimates. They were anticipating a little higher loss than I was, but based on what I am seeing, I believe the 10% figure that I have . . . that I am anticipating . . . the 10% reduction for this year and our General Fund Income Tax is probably going to be pretty close to accurate. Some of this income tax money for May also is just delayed due to the extension of the filing deadline so while we are not receiving the tax returns and the payments that would have occurred on those in April, we will receive those then hopefully in July when those tax returns are due, however, I’m sure with the economy we could expect to see a higher rate of delinquency on those than we are used to seeing and potentially lower estimated payments in 2020 due to sole proprietors and you know, self-employed individuals potentially having lost work also. Other than that, I will continue to try to inform you as soon as possible in my reports and then if anybody has any questions regarding the financials, I would be glad to answer those. Pres. of Council: Thank you very much for all of the hard work you have been doing on the financials. I know it is a difficult time and I appreciate all of the feedback we have been getting. Thank you, Mrs. Gilbride. Dir. of Law: The pandemic has certainly created a continually evolving environment for us to operate in, so it has been a very busy time for the Law Department. We have continued to perform our routine responsibilities in addition to everything that the pandemic has brought along with all of the other departments who have been working very hard. The court did limit hearings for prosecutorial services, but we still have attended those as needed and most of those have been pushed into the summer months, so we are looking to having a very busy schedule over the summer as the court accepts those hearings again moving forward. So, I would be happy to answer any questions, otherwise, end of report. 12. REPORTS OF STANDING COMMITTEES OF COUNCIL OF THE WHOLE: a. COMMUNITY ISSUES Dennis Loughry, Chair Jonathon Bollas, Vice Chair Rebecca Allman No legislation at this time. Mr. Loughry: I call the Community Issues Committee to order; myself, Mr. Bollas and Mrs. Allman are participating tonight. We have no legislation. Does anybody on the committee have anything, any questions? No one responded. Any additional comments about community issues from the Administration? Mr. Bollas: I just wanted to thank the Service Director, Mike Rorar; we had a water complaint at a resident’s home, and he was very quick to respond and go visit that resident and observe and survey the issue. Then secondly, we had a second complaint regarding water around the Hanna Drive and Washburn Rd. area that I also wanted to follow up on and lastly there was a disturbing the peace complaint that I know the Law Director and the Mayor and the Police Chief were following up on and I just wanted to thank them for their time as we continue to navigate that situation and those were the three specific scenarios I had for this evening. Mr. Loughry: Thank you. Anything else? No one responded. I close committee. b. SAFETY Jonathon Bollas, Chair Michael Carano, Vice Chair Craig Sisak No legislation at this time. Mr. Bollas: I call the Safety Committee to order; myself, Michael Carano and Craig Sisak are present. We have no legislation this evening. At this time, I would like to ask if anyone on the committee, Council or the Administration has anything to discuss this evening regarding the Safety Committee? No one responded. I just wanted to add a thank you to all of our first responders, emergency services, police and fire for all your efforts during this pandemic. You are all heroes and we greatly appreciate all of your help and support. I will close committee. Thank you. 6  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 14, 20 c. PUBLIC SERVICE Rebecca Allman, Chair Dennis Loughry, Vice Chair James Donovan • Ord. 39-2020 (1st Reading) – Authorizing the Director of Transportation to replace signs on SR-91 and SR-532 within the City of Tallmadge and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Allman: I call the Public Service committee to order; myself, Mr. Loughry and Mr. Donovan are present. We have Ord. 39-2020 before us, and it is authorizing the Director of Transportation to replace signs on SR-91 and SR- 532 within the City of Tallmadge and providing for immediate enactment. Is there any discussion? Mayor: Madame Chair, just to give you what this Ordinance is; this is an ODOT requirement and since it is in our community; we have to be the community to allow them to change those signs. It is no cost to the City of Tallmadge. We just have to guarantee the right-of-ways are clean and available to them. It is 100% paid for by them, but they cannot start the project until the ordinance is adopted, so I would . . . since it is really not a financial thing to the City of Tallmadge, I would request 1st Reading adoption to allow them to do their work. Mrs. Allman: Are they the signs at the Circle? Mayor: No, these are the ODOT signs; the State Route signs. Mrs. Allman: Oh, OK. Thank you. Is there any other discussion? Mr. Loughry: I would agree with the Mayor. Mr. Donovan: I would also. Mrs. Allman: OK, thank you. I recommend adoption of Ord. 39-2020 at 1st Reading by a vote of 3-0. I close committee. d. FINANCE Craig Sisak, Chair James Donovan, Vice Chair Michael Carano • Ord. 38-2020 (1st Reading) - Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids and the Mayor to enter into a contract for playground safety surfacing at the Maca Park Playground and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak: I call the Finance Committee to order; myself, Mr. Donovan and Mr. Carano are virtually present. We have Ord. 38-2020 before us authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids and the Mayor to enter into a contract for playground safety surfacing at the Maca Park Playground and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Rorar did ask for 1st Reading adoption on this and I believe it was in the budget for this year and it is one of the most used items around the City this summer and so I would imagine the sooner we get this passed then the sooner we can get that improvement done; is that correct Mr. Rorar? Dir. of Pub. Service: That is correct Councilman. It is an ideal time to get that work done especially with the playgrounds currently being closed. Mr. Sisak: Yeah, OK. Committee; Mr. Donovan, Mr. Carano? Mr. Donovan: I recommend adoption. Mr. Carano: I agree. Mr. Sisak: OK, so we will recommend adoption of Ord. 38-2020 at 1st Reading. • Ord. 40-2020 (1st Reading) – Authorizing the Mayor to apply for the FEMA Public Assistance Grant Program, to accept, if awarded, any funds; appropriating said funds; and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak: We also have Ord. 40-2020 authorizing the Mayor to apply for the FEMA Public Assistance Grant Program, to accept, if awarded, any funds; appropriating said funds; and providing for immediate enactment. Mayor do you have anything to add to this? Mayor: No, I don’t. It is a requirement from FEMA; both of those are for the CARES Act and for FEMA for us to be able to get the money back. No guarantee, but you can’t get it back without the ordinance. Mr. Sisak: Mr. Donovan? Mr. Donovan: I would recommend adoption. Mr. Sisak: Mr. Carano? 7  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 14, 20 Mr. Carano: I agree. Mr. Sisak: OK, I will make a recommendation to adopt Ord. 40-2020 at 1st Reading by a vote of 3-0. • Res. 5-2020 (1st Reading) – Expressing support for and urging the Federal Government to make CARES Act funding, or similar Covid-19 Relief funding, flexible for local governments to use for revenue replacement in addition to expenses and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak: We also have Res. 5-2020 at 1st Reading expressing support for and urging the Federal Government to make CARES Act funding, or similar Covid-19 Relief funding for local municipal governments and it gives the City the opportunity, I think, to apply for this and whatever expenses that we have had, whether it is paying for staff or PPE or whatever it may be, if we could get some of that money back it would definitely help our financial status. So, Mr. Donovan; Mr. Carano? Mr. Carano: I would like to make a brief comment. I think in some legislation that has been put forth which it is $100 billion more than it was before; it was $250 before and it is $350 billion, and I don’t think the act is going to pass. There is a lot of other stuff in it that is . . . but hopefully they will move forward on this portion of it to take care of the cities under 500,000 that need support because of lost revenue. I think it is rather imperative and all this is is a resolution and hopefully cities across the country are doing the same thing so that maybe this will get passed sooner rather than later to alleviate some of the financial pressures in cities like Tallmadge. That’s all. Thank you. Mayor: For the CARES Act, just so you understand that there are only a few communities in Ohio that received that and you had to have a population that was so large; I think it was 500,000 or more population. Summit County did receive that. Summit County Council received that, and it was $94 million and what this CARES Act does is that the county is allowing us to submit bills to them for qualifying events. We are still not clear on a lot of the rules; we are working on that and they are working on that and so if we do apply for something and it does get rejected, we are obligated to pay that back even though it is an expenditure that we feel is necessary. So, we are being very careful in what we are allowed. We are still waiting on the rules and regs that the County is working very diligently on and so hats off to Elene Shapiro and her team putting that together but really we need to get great direction on the rules that we are allowed to spend this money on. Mr. Sisak: Thank you. Mr. Donovan? Mr. Donovan: Yeah, I would recommend adoption also please. Mr. Sisak: OK, we will recommend adoption of Res. 5-2020 by a vote of 3- 0 at 1st Reading. The only other thing from a financial standpoint; I have spoken with Mrs. Gilbride on several occasions and I appreciate her time and her efforts. The only other thing for my fellow committee and also for Council would be that maybe a resolution to the Governor might be necessary just to express maybe the need to tap into that rainy-day fund. I don’t know of another time that we will see in the next handful of years that would be more appropriate than to tap into that and get some of that money down to the local communities. So, I will reach out to Mrs. Raber and I will see if we can get a resolution and get that passed and maybe get that to Council for our next meeting. Mr. Carano: I second your idea Mr. Sisak. Mr. Sisak: Thank you. Is there anything else to come before the Finance Committee at this time? No one responded. Seeing none; I will close committee. Thank you. Pres. of Council: Thank you Mr. Sisak. I think that is an amazing idea and thank you for having the foresight to think of that and let’s hope that what do they say, a little bit . . . the squeaky wheels get the . . . Mayor: Get the dollars. Pres. of Council: Get the dollars; OK. 8  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 14, 20 e. PERSONNEL Michael Carano, Chair Rebecca Allman, Vice Chair Jonathon Bollas No legislation at this time. Mr. Carano: I call the Personnel Committee to order; myself, Mrs. Allman and Mr. Bollas are present. We have no legislation before us at this time. I have a brief comment and if Mrs. Allman or Mr. Bollas have anything to add, they can. I just want to thank again the great work that Mr. Cooper and Mayor Kline have done in protecting the personnel of our City; all of the protocol that they have put forth and follow diligently. I think it is quite exemplary in many ways. I don’t know what other communities are doing in that regard, but I am very pleased with the work of our Administration in that regard. Have we had . . . of course, like with fire and police dealing with the public like they do; how has the City done? Have we had any illnesses within our ranks? Mayor: We have had some folks that have been tested negatively so that is good. Some of the common colds and flus and that that is still going around. The staff has been doing extremely well. I can’t speak highly enough about the safety forces. All of the City workers have been doing an excellent job maintaining in their jobs and this new thing of the virtual meeting, and team meetings and Zoom meetings; this is my fourth one today and we talk to the staff that way. We have staff meetings that way. The Police Department is doing an extremely good job keeping the public safe. The Fire Department; hats off to the Fire Chief and his team keeping their employees safe. The regs and the protocols put in place to . . . wash everything down in between each call and you know we have a couple hot spots in town, but those seem to have slowed down this week; knock on wood. So, I think we are doing well. Thank you for the comments. Mr. Carano: Anyone else on the committee have a comment or a question? No one responded. Council at large or the administration? No one responded. OK, I will close committee. f. PLANNING & ZONING James Donovan, Chair Craig Sisak, Vice Chair Dennis Loughry No legislation at this time. No legislation at this time. Mr. Donovan: I call the Planning & Zoning Committee to order; I am here, and Craig is virtually here and Dennis; I’m not sure. We do not have anything before us this evening. Anything from Council at all? Hearing none; I close committee. Mayor: Jim, I will just jump in here a second. The Zoning Department has been extremely busy. They are working on the Zoning Code all the time, but I will say that next month’s Planning & Zoning meeting . . . they are getting very busy. BZA has five items that are going to be in front of BZA and Heritage; I’m not sure about that yet, but on Planning & Zoning, I know of three or four cases that will be in front of a virtual meeting coming up so there are a lot of good things going on on the Planning & Zoning side of it so things are moving; people want to come in and they want to build stuff and we are just trying to work that out. Mr. Donovan: Great. Mr. Loughry: Can I ask the Mayor a question? Mr. Donovan: Absolutely. Mr. Loughry: Mayor, on our Boards and Commissions; what will be the criteria that will be used to determine whether we will start meeting in person or whether we will have those Boards and Commissions meet virtually? Mayor: As long as the State of Emergency is still enacted, we have the ability to do it virtually. When the State of Ohio lifts their State of Emergency, then all of these public meetings; these Zoom meetings and virtual meetings will go to 9  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 14, 20 Mayor (Cont’d.) the wayside. We won’t be allowed to do those so we will be looking at their direction also and the Law Director will give us guidance on when we are not allowed to continue with that, but there is nobody who wants more than to get everybody back in this chambers; it gets lonely in here. But until the State of Emergency not only on the State level, but the City of Tallmadge has ended; the law still allows us to do it this way. Mr. Loughry: Well then based on what Dr. Cooper said a little bit ago; we are going to have an emergency stated through June 15 th. Was that the date? Mayor: That is the date. Mr. Loughry: So, we should anticipate another 30 days of this anyway; right? Mayor: So, the State of Emergency says up to that date, but it can always be cancelled prior to that date. It doesn’t mean it has to go to that date. So, we could if . . . but I really don’t . . . I see it going beyond June 15th to be honest, but we have to keep it going. Mr. Loughry: OK, thank you. 13. REPORTS OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES: None. 14. THIRD READINGS OF RESOLUTIONS AND ORDINANCES: None. 15. SECOND READINGS OF RESOLUTIONS AND ORDINANCES: None. 16. FIRST READINGS OF RESOLUTIONS AND ORDINANCES: a. Ord. 38-2020 (Finance) – 1st Reading. Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids and the Mayor to enter into a contract for playground safety surfacing at the Maca Park Playground and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Ord. 38-2020. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Carano, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman – unanimous. Ord. 38-2020 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. b. Ord. 39-2020 (Public Service) - 1st Reading. Authorizing the Director of Transportation to replace signs on SR-91 and SR-532 within the City of Tallmadge and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Allman moved for the adoption of Ord. 39-2020. Seconded Mr. Loughry. Roll Call: Mr. Carano, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. Ord. 39-2020 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. c. Ord. 40-2020 (Finance) – 1st Reading. Authorizing the Mayor to apply for the FEMA Public Assistance Grant Program, to accept, if awarded, any funds; appropriating said funds; and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Ord. 40-2020. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Roll Call: Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Carano – unanimous. Ord. 40-2020 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. d. Res. 5-2020 (Finance) – 1st Reading. Expressing support for and urging the Federal Government to make CARES Act funding, or similar Covid-19 funding, flexible for local governments to use for revenue replacements in addition to expenses and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Res. 5-2020 at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Carano. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Carano, Mr. Donovan – unanimous. Res. 5-2020 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. Mr. Loughry: I just want to reiterate what many of us have said and thank the Administration and the Department Heads for how well they have communicated and how accessible they have been in answering questions. You can imagine, and we have been gone for two months and I can ask a lot of questions in two months and everyone has gone out of their way to be extremely helpful and I really appreciate it. Pres. of Council: Yes, thank you. I would have said that you are exactly right; this administration is top notch with communication, and I thank them too as well. Is there anything else to come before Council? No one responded. 17. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Donovan moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Allman. Voice vote 7-0. The Virtual Regular Council meeting adjourned at 7:57 p.m. sb Adopted: ________________________________ _________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Carol A. Kilway, President of Council 10