City Council Regular Meeting

VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 28, 20 1. CALL TO ORDER. President of Council Kilway called the Virtual Regular Council meeting of Thursday, May 28, 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 Pub. Service Rorar, Dir. of Economic Development Springer, Dir. of Law Raber, Dir. of Finance Gilbride and Clerk of Council Burton. 4. MINUTES: 5-14-20 Virtual Regular Council Meeting minutes Mr. Sisak moved to adopt the 5-14-20 Virtual Regular Council meeting minutes as presented. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Voice vote 7-0. The 5-14-20 Virtual Regular Council Meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 7-0. 5. FINANCIAL REPORTS: None. 6. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None. 7. COMMUNITY INPUT: Pres. of Council: Because this is a virtual meeting, if there is anything that the community would like to discuss, they have been asked to e-mail or contact our Council Clerk prior to 3:00 p.m. today with any kind of discussion or community input and we have not received any to date, so there is nothing from the community at this time. 8. ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. 9. AGENDA ADDITIONS: None. 10. REFERRALS OF FIRST READING ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS: a. The following shall be referred to the Finance Committee: • Ord. 41-2020. • Res. 6-2020. 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: None. 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 Madame Chair. I want to welcome Council to this Virtual Council meeting. A couple of things; starting off with Memorial Day, you know we had the Memorial Day ceremony. As you can see in that picture, it was a very low-key Memorial Day ceremony; myself, Jim Forsythe, and a couple other Legionnaires and also the Gun Valley folks and the bugler. This was the 152nd Memorial Day remembrance and so we wanted to continue that for the archives. So, I’m sure next year we will be able to get all of us back together. Also, yesterday we had a parade around town, and I have a picture of that. That was up at the Tallmadge High School. I was on the back of the fire truck standing up. There were about 160 to 170 vehicles and you can see them all in their own cars. This parade came out . . . it was an 8-mile long parade. We pulled out of the High School exactly at 6:00 p.m. and pulled back in by the football stadium one hour later. So, it was a nice parade and the kids really got to see a lot of folks along the way and everybody did a great job on that. So, thank you to all the people who helped organize that and the safety forces helping with that. I want to talk a little bit about the Rec Center and I’m not sure if Mike Rorar was going to bring this up or not, but we are in the process of getting the Rec Center ready to go on June 1st. It will be very limited access. The walking path inside and also the weight and strength area upstairs and the machines and there will be more to come on that on the Rec Center Facebook where you can see all of the requirements, but June 1st is the day that we open up the Rec Center. We also brought in a team for park maintenance on cleaning of the restrooms and Lions Park and for JC Howe Road Park. Some of the Rec Center staff; we brought them back in from being laid off so we can work on getting those utilized a little bit better and so that seems to be going along very well. The State of Emergency is in existence until June 15 th. We are evaluating what will be the next step from that if it will be changed a little bit. That is under evaluation. Planning & Zoning is next week, and we are going to have that in Council Chambers.  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 28, 20 Mayor (Cont’d.) There are three items on the agenda. One item is strictly setting the public hearing and with only the five members of Planning & Zoning we will be able to maintain the social distancing within Council Chambers and then the other two items that people will be coming in for is Tallmadge City Schools; the athletic field Phase 2A. and that is grading off for the softball area in the practice field up top and then Scott Miller for Dermamed warehouse on Crystal Parkway, or Progress Parkway. So that is what is going on around here. I would gladly answer any questions if you have any. Before we go to that, again, to our staff; the Administrative staff, Mollie and Jill and Megan; everybody working together through this event and they have done a phenomenal job getting things done and I am just proud of the team and all of the safety forces and everyone. Andrea has been right on top of social media and getting things out and press releases and that, so I just want to thank the team personally. End of report. Pres. of Council: Mayor Kline, I want to thank you and the administration for everything you have done. We have been informed greatly on everything that has been going on with the State of Emergency. With the Planning & Zoning meeting real quick; is that one that is going to be live streamed so we could watch it because I know you don’t want to have too many people in attendance, so is that going to be live streamed or not at this time? Mayor: That is under evaluation. Pres. of Council: Any other questions for the Mayor? No one responded. Dir. of Pub. Service: Good evening. How are you guys? I don’t have a report this evening, but I would like to follow up with what the Mayor talked about with the Rec Center. The hours are Monday thru Thursday 8:00 a.m. to noon and 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. We are closed between noon and 3:00 p.m. for the general cleaning of the facility. Friday’s hours are 8:00 a.m. to noon and Saturday’s hours are 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Sunday we are closed for a deep cleaning and this is just the hours that we are starting off with. I mean, it could change week to week, so we will keep you posted on that. Also, there was a power outage on May 26th which was Tuesday night and . . . there were two of them actually; one of them affected Indian Hills and East Avenue from about 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. so it was about an hour. It was a fuse down at Maca Drive that caused that one. The bigger one was the Gilchrist substation went out and that was from 9:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. and that affected about 6,000 First Energy customers. So, I will commend them for getting that one back up and running as quick as they did. If there are any questions; I will be happy to answer them. Mr. Loughry: I have a question for Mr. Rorar if I could please. Mike, the comments that I received about the power outage, and it comes on the heals of Memorial Day and Republic Services notifying us like six different ways that our trash was going to be picked up a day late and then we have a power outage and either First Energy typically does not communicate with municipalities or it just takes them longer to identify the problem so that we can let our residents know, but my point is that people were contacting me kind of sarcastically saying hey, I know when my trash is going to be picked up; when is my electric going to be back on. I know we do the best we can do, but people get aggravated and we have had more outages this spring than I ever remember. Maybe that is a wrong observation; maybe it just seems like it. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, two different contractors there; the garbage we can keep our hands on a little bit tighter because we do hire them. First Energy is a much broader company than that and so they are a little bit harder to pull that one in to get that information, but they do have a point of contact that I have been in contact with and he does a pretty good job of keeping us posted. Mr. Loughry: So, thank you very much. I just want to keep you in the loop. Mayor: If I may add just add one little thing on that Carol, the outages; why we are experiencing so many of the outages was not from Tallmadge, but it was like Mike just said that this one was on Gilchrist Road and the other one was a major transmission line; a substation in Akron blew up. I think that when we have the knowledge, we try to post it on our website or social media that Andria works on if we can get that information. It takes us so long to get that, but our rep, Rick Gardner, from First Energy, does a pretty good job of eventually catching up to us. Mr. Loughry: But Mayor, do we have the ability to use our alert system for something like that? Mayor: Yes, Civic Ready; we can put something if the people are signed up to receive that type of alert. 2  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 28, 20 Pres. of Council: Just to ask a little bit more about the power outage; of course, I didn’t get phone calls until about 9:00 p.m., but the residents were saying that it was going on and off all afternoon long. It would be off for 15 to 20 minutes and then they would have power for an hour and then it would be off for 15 to 20 minutes and then it would be on for an hour. This is the Tallmadge Woods area. So, was that basically the substation getting ready to blow and then it finally gave out at 9:00 p.m. Dir. of Pub. Service: You have to remember that that was probably the hottest day that we have had and the air was on and trying to work and it was the first time it got fired up all year and so I am sure there was quite a bit of draw at that station. Pres. of Council: And I did reiterate to the residents that did contact me that they need to let First Energy know when their power goes out because they might not get as many notifications and it won’t be as urgent to get it fixed. Mr. Sisak: Yeah, as far as that goes, I mean, even if we could direct people to the First Energy website because they always give an estimation of time and so even if we put it out on Civic Ready that hey, we are aware of the situation; please check First Energy’s website for up to date timing of when the power is going to be restored. I think that is probably the best way to handle that and then it has to be reported like Carol said or they are not going to know about it. Dir. of Administration: Dr. Cooper was not present. Pres. of Council: Is there a report for Dr. Cooper today? We will then go onto the Dir. of Economic Development, Mr. Springer. Dir. of Econ. Development: Good evening. I will be very brief. I just wanted to give Council a brief update. There were 12 new applications filed as part of that second round through the Chamber of Commerce for Summit County’s Small Business Grant Program that are being vetted as we speak. Once those awards are announced, we will be sure to let you know and just keep you posted on that. Again, 12 new businesses did submit applications for that. Next the Mayor and I had an opportunity yesterday to meet with some representation from Summa. We had the opportunity to tour next door and look at their urgent care. That is a really nice facility. It is a really great addition to the community. They will be bringing in over 30 new jobs and so it was a really good opportunity to see the interior taking shape and it is to be wrapped up sometime in August with opening expected for September. Other than that we continue to engage with the businesses as we can as they open up. We are certainly making ourselves available to meet with them and address any concerns that we can. Otherwise, that concludes my report and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have. Mr. Sisak: I have one for Matt. I saw the UPS store opened up; did they plan on having a ribbon cutting or anything in the near future? Dir. of Econ. Development: You know, I will reach out to them. I have not heard if they have planned anything, but I will certainly find out and then I will communicate that back to you. Mr. Sisak: Great. Thank you. Dir. of Finance: Thank you. I neglected last meeting to report and so I just wanted to get it on the Council record that we did wrap up our debt issuance and that all went well. We were very pleased to get the 1.2% on the refinancing which was a great rate; one benefit of this crazy time, I guess. The other thing we are evaluating is the May income tax. It looks right now that we are going to be down about 5% from where we were last year which is not terribly bad. The majority of that decrease is a result, obviously, of the change in the tax due date to July 15th and so hopefully we will see that rebound a little bit. I will be beginning in June putting posts out on social media and working with Andrea to get information back out to the residents to remind them that income tax returns will be due July 15th along with their first and second half estimated payments if those are necessary. So, we will work to get that word out to the residents to remind them of that. I will also be working in my office to come up with a plan which we are in the process of doing to be able to assist residents who need help completing those returns. End of report. 3  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 28, 20 Dir. of Law: Good evening. As I reported last Council meeting, my office continues to be very busy during this period of time and we have been working hard to adjust policies and contracts to provide for re-openings as they happen and so we are trying to keep up with that in addition to all of our other routine responsibilities as well. End of report. 12. REPORTS OF STANDING COMMITTEES OF COUNCIL OF THE WHOLE: a. PUBLIC SERVICE Rebecca Allman, Chair Dennis Loughry, Vice Chair James Donovan No legislation at this time. Mrs. Allman: I call the Public Service Committee to order; myself, Mr. Loughry and Mr. Donovan are present. We have no legislation at this time. Does anyone have anything that they would like to say? No one responded. OK; I close committee. b. FINANCE Craig Sisak, Chair James Donovan, Vice Chair Michael Carano • Ord. 41-2020 (1st Reading) – Authorizing the Mayor to apply for the Fiscal Year 2020 Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding Program, to accept, if awarded, any funds; appropriating said funds; and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak: I call the Finance Committee to order; myself, Mr. Donovan and Mr. Carano are present. We currently have Ord. 41-2020 at 1st Reading, and it is authorizing the Mayor to apply for Fiscal Year 2020 Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding Program. I would imagine this is something that the Mayor would like adopted at 1st Reading. It seems to be pretty standard allowing us to apply for additional funding; is that correct Mayor? Dir. of Finance: That’s correct. Mr. Sisak: Is there any input from the committee regarding Ord. 41-2020? Mr. Carano: I would agree to move forward. There is no reason not to and hopefully something will come along that will . . . to put into the coffers and we will see what happens. Mr. Donovan: I recommend adoption. Mr. Sisak: The Finance Committee recommends adoption of Ord. 41-2020 by a vote of 3-0. • Res. 6-2020 (1st Reading) – Expressing support for and urging the State of Ohio to maintain or increase the Local Government Fund distribution in the next budget cycle and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak: We also have Res. 6-2020 expressing support and urging the State of Ohio to maintain or increase the Local Government Fund distribution in the next budget cycle and providing for immediate enactment. So after . . . at the end of the last meeting I talked about possibly having the State of Ohio tapping into the rainy day fund a little bit. I had a great discussion with Megan and Mollie about what does that look like; how does that money get to the local municipalities and after discussing with them it was decided that Local Government Funds would be the vehicle to get us possibly some more money potentially from the rainy day fund. So, it was explained, and Mollie can chime in. A couple years ago we were cut about 50% from that fund and so we are working with less money from the State basically and I think this is an excellent opportunity for us to communicate our desires; our needs; our wishes to the Governor and the Senate and House of Representatives at this time. So, Mr. Donovan or Mr. Carano; any recommendations or thoughts? Mr. Carano: I recommend adoption of the resolution. The hope is, that communities across the state will be able to tap into these funds. It seems like as far as the line goes for people to receive a bail-out . . . some cities and local communities have been sort of on the back end of it and let’s hope that something comes about because the strength of our cities across the State and the country actually are . . . it is a strength of the nation, so hopefully they will see some more funding and keep solvent local communities. Thank you. 4  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 28, 20 b. FINANCE (Cont’d.) Craig Sisak, Chair James Donovan, Vice Chair Michael Carano Mr. Donovan: I would recommend adoption. Mr. Sisak: OK, so the Finance Committee will recommend adoption of Res. 6- 2020 at 1st Reading by a vote of 3-0. Is there anything else to come before the Finance Committee? No one responded. Seeing nothing; I will go ahead and close committee. c. 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 nothing before us today, but does anyone on the committee have any comments on Personnel? Mr. Bollas: This is Jonathon. I just have a quick question. Regarding the Rec Center, what does the staffing model look like with the modified hours and the approach going forward? Mr. Carano: That’s a great question. Mr. Rorar; might you inform us on tha Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. We are going to run that with 9 employees for each of those shifts as I explained. We are starting with that and see how that works and there is a shutdown between the two shifts and the first shift is going to run the facility and they are going to clean up for those four hours and then the next shift is going to come and do the same thing at the end of their shift as well. They will be running with 18 employees. Mr. Bollas: Thank you. Mr. Carano: I have a few . . . I will try to keep it short; I don’t want to take too long. Just a few quick comments. I was wondering if Mr. Kline; has the Tallmadge Police or Fire; people who have to deal with Covid; have we been pretty fortunate in that they have been safe during this time as far as the Covid goes? Mayor: Yes. Thank you for asking. All the City employees, to date, have fared very well and so everyone is healthy and everyone is doing their job and everyone is maintaining their proper techniques and the cleaning and again, if you saw all of those memos that have gone out; we have had 10 memos over the time and it talks about personal safety, cleaning, washing of hands, do your social distancing at work and not at work, face coverings when needed; so everyone is doing well. Mr. Carano: That is a good testament for the work that you have done, and it is very much appreciated. The other thing is for the Veterans of Tallmadge, just a brief comment and people within the public service sector; hopefully they had a good Memorial Day and that their families also and my hope is that for the future we make sure that whenever we send our soldiers out there that there are good and just causes for the benefit of the nation. The last comment I would like to make is I want to commend our Police Department. After seeing some of our recent developments like Minneapolis with George Floyd, I am very happy to be a part of a community whose Police Department engages in very restrained, sensible Police actions and I think that is some sort of testament to the people of our community and the values that we express here. I hope that continues. That’s it for me. Does anyone else have any comments? Mr. Loughry: I have a question for the Mayor. Mayor, actually I was just asked this a couple of hours ago and a resident asked me if our Police Officers were wearing masks when they are interacting with the public and I said that I assumed that they are, but I would be happy to ask the question this evening? 5  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 28, 20 c. PERSONNEL (Cont’d.) Michael Carano, Chair Rebecca Allman, Vice Chair Jonathon Bollas Mayor: Yes, thank you. They are instructed . . . they have the masks and they also have all necessary PPE safety equipment; face shields, gowns, hand gloves and masks when the appropriate time comes for them to put them on; they have those available. They have been trained to do it. We are in good shape with all of the PPE equipment for our safety forces. Mr. Loughry: Thank you. Mr. Carano: If nothing else I will close committee. Thank you. d. 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; myself, Mr. Sisak and Mr. Loughry are present. We do not have any legislation at this time. It looks like we may have something in the near future though. Is there anything from the committee or Council? No one responded. I will close committee. e. 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 present. We do not have anything in our committee. Does the committee have anything? No one responded. Council? Mr. Bollas: I was just going to one, say thank you to the Law Director for following up with me on some questions I received about some permits and regulations with regard to open burning and then also regarding some property damage, so thank you for that. I did follow up with that resident with the information you provided. Secondly, I was working with the Service Director on a complaint regarding continued water flooding in the area of Washburn and Hanna Drive. He is continuing to be in communication with that resident. Those were the two items that I had for today. Mr. Loughry: Administration? Mayor: I think I covered everything community-wise. Mr. Loughry: Thanks. I close committee. Mr. Sisak: Mr. Loughry, I just wanted to say real quick congratulations to the 2020 graduates of Tallmadge High School. It has been a unique graduation and final semester for all of you, but I think this experience will bode you well in the future and I wish them all the best in their future endeavors. Mr. Loughry: Thank you. I close committee. Mayor: Hey Dennis, one thing before you do close it; tomorrow is the last day of school so all of you parents out there; tomorrow is Friday; yeah it is correct, so enjoy your days and all of that virtual teaching hopefully you can send your kid to school next year and you are not continually on the camera or on Zoom or whatever. 6  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 28, 20 f. 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, Mr. Carano and Mr. Sisak are present. We have no legislation before us this evening. Does the committee have anything at this time? No one responded. Anyone on the Council or Administration have anything for the Safety Committee this evening? No one responded. I just want to say thank you to our safety forces again as we venture through this unprecedented time and also thank them for the 2020 parade and everything they do for us. I close committee. 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. 41-2020 (Finance) – 1st Reading. Authorizing the Mayor to apply for the Fiscal Year 2020 Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding Program, to accept, if awarded, any funds; appropriating said funds; and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Ord. 41-2020 at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Carano. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Carano, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman – unanimous. Ord. 41-2020 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. b. Res. 6-2020 (Finance) – 1st Reading. Expressing support for and urging the State of Ohio to maintain or increase the Local Government Fund distribution in the next budget cycle and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Res. 6-2020. Seconded Mr. Carano. Roll Call: Mr. Carano, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. Res. 6-2020 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 17. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Donovan moved to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Carano. Voice vote 7-0. The Virtual Regular Council meeting adjourned at 7:37 p.m. sb Adopted: ________________________________ _________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Carol A. Kilway, President of Council 7