City Council Regular Meeting

VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 20 1. CALL TO ORDER. President of Council Kilway called the Virtual Regular Council meeting of Thursday, June 11, 2020 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, 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: 5-28-20 Regular Council Meeting minutes. Mr. Sisak moved to adopt the 5-28-20 Council Meeting minutes as presented. Seconded Mrs. Allman. Voice vote 6-0. The 5-28-20 Regular Council Meeting minutes have been accepted. 5. FINANCIAL REPORTS: • Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $100,000 to Council on 5-1-20. • Street Maintenance & Repair Transfer in the amount of $100,000 to Council on 5-1-20. • Bond Retirement Transfer in the amount of $80,000 to Council on 5-1-20. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report and Revenue Report for the period ending 5-31-20 to Council on 6-3-20. • May Financial Reports to Council on 6-3-20. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 5- 31-20 to Council on 6-3-20. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 5-31-20 to Council on 6-3-20. • Revenue Comparisons for the period ending 5-31-20 to Council on 6-3-20. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 5-31-20 to Council on 6-3-20. Mr. Sisak moved to adopt the financial reports as submitted. Seconded Mr. Carano. Voice vote 6-0. The Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride were adopted by a vote of 6-0. 6. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None. 7. COMMUNITY INPUT: Pres. of Council: Due to the State of Emergency and our virtual meetings, we have asked the community that if they had anything they wanted to discuss to please have it in writing to our Council Clerk by 3:00 p.m. today. As of, I think 4:00 p.m. today, there was no communication from the community, so we have nothing 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. 44-2020. b. The following shall be referred to the Planning & Zoning Committee: None. c. The following shall be referred to the Personnel Committee: • Ord. 42-2020. • Ord. 43-2020. 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. 45-2020. 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 Madame Chair. I will start off with the State of Emergency. As you know, it has been extended to June 15 th and I do have a document here tonight here at Council that authorizes me to extend that to July 1 st. So, we are going to take that under advisement. Most likely I will sign that for two more weeks for the State of Emergency and at that point, I will make a determination about what to do with that, but I think it will be ended at that point for that purpose. We were very concerned if that would affect our Federal funding and items like that and the grants that are coming and we do not need the emergency for that at this time, but we do need other legislation that . . . I know one is before you tonight and we passed a few other ones and so we will talk about more of those as they come up.  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 20 Mayor (Cont’d.) This week, Board of Zoning Appeals; we had a virtual meeting. There were four items on the agenda, and it went very well. We had public input. The public was able to sign in and do their case and all of the members were at home on their computers. So, it went very well. Last weekend, last Sunday, Chief Williams and myself did a joint letter to the public about all of stuff that is going on with the Police Departments and the tragic death of George Foreman and so that was posted in the Tallmadge Express and I think all Council members did receive all of that. Tonight, we have Ord. 44-2020 that is in front of you and it is at 1 st Reading. I was going to ask for 1st Reading adoption; we will see if Mr. Loughry gets on and if not, we will hold it for another week. That is the FEMA Funds for the property out on Northeast Avenue; Dewey Orinsby; we have talked about him at several Council meetings with that property that floods all the time and the City has an easement on one side. We did take to Council back about six months ago to amend our Storm Water Management Plan with the County to add a section that would allow us to apply for these Federal funding and the City’s proportion is $27,000, the State of Ohio is $27,000 and then FEMA is around $200,000. That will authorize us to purchase that land and make it a permanent storm water detention facility along that. This house floods all the time and so if we do get Mr. Loughry, or if you have questions when it comes up on the agenda, it is Item 44. Going on to parks, and I will let Mike Rorar talk about that stuff. The Rec Center is doing phenomenal. I can’t speak enough of the staff that is doing everything under the situation; putting stuff together; the Finance Department; Law Department are just doing a phenomenal job and personally I would like to thank each and every one of them and the employees of Tallmadge. Our goal is to open up City Hall by July 1st to the public. We are going to set up a reception area in the back of Council Chambers near that back door that some of you walk in and out of. We will make that the entranceway and have folks come in to a reception area and talk about what their needs are and the receptionist will call the appropriate person and they will come up and handle the business here and if they need to take them to another location within the building, that will be done. So, Mr. Cooper is working on those plans and we will give you those as they come out. Our goal is July 1st for unlimited access to City Hall. That’s it. End of report unless you have any questions. Pres. of Council: Just a point of order; Mr. Loughry has joined the meeting. He joined shortly after the meeting was called to order. Is there anything for the Mayor at this time? No one responded. Dir. of Pub. Service: Good evening. First, before I do the PowerPoint, I wanted to bring up the last week’s events. Last Friday, June 5th at 6:00 p.m. we had a terrific rain event where we had about four inches of rain in an hour. A lot of flooding going on, but the real bad areas between 91 and Brittain Road in that direction and we had a lot of trees damaged and we had a crew in from 6:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. in the morning. We had another crew come in on Saturday morning to do a lot of sweeping and cleaning of catch basins and so that was our first event. Then on Monday, June 8th we had a water break right there at Nottingham there by the new Leppo. It was a 6” hole and an 8” line and we lost hundreds of thousands of gallons at that time. I would like to thank First Energy; they had to come out and hold a utility pole for us so we could fix the line. Then last night, we had a storm come in and it knocked out power in the northwest area of the City between Alandale and Ridgecliff and from Minwood and up through Fox Chase. So, the last week has been pretty much a trip. I would like to ask that Ord. 45-2020 is passed at 1st Reading. Then we can go into the PowerPoint. For the Zoning Department we had 46 total permits; 40 of which were zoning certificates. The Code update continues; making some good progress on that. Cemetery: we had four total burials. We have 449 grave spaces and 36 columbarium niches available. Once again, the spring installation for the monuments has been postponed and that was due to the Covid and we weren’t fully staffed, and we apologize for that and any inconvenience. We will get everybody done in the fall. Moving on to the Parks and Rec; the Recreation Center, as Dave mentioned, has reopened. They opened June 1st with modified days and hours and we have new hours starting June 15th, which is next Monday, so Monday through Thursday we are open from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and then again from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Then Friday we are open from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and Saturday we are open from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and we are closed on Sunday. 2  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 20 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.): Dave brought up the Rec Center staff, and they have done a great job during all of this. They did some virtual reality games; they did a Tallmadge Clue, which was a huge success; and “Believe It or Not,” the Mayor was the culprit behind putting an end to Dr. Covid. Virtual art classes are still continuing. We have three of them; June 13, June 18, and July 2. The Parks: the hall shelters are still closed, and reservations have been cancelled through June 30th. The ballfields and some restroom facilities in the parks were opened June 1 st. The restrictions and the guidelines on that are kind of interesting. You have to clean the restrooms every two hours and that makes it tough and so we close at 8:00 p.m. because the staff leaves at 6:00. The Playgrounds opened up today. The Mayor is now showing a photo of March 18 th what it looked like then and what it looks like now. So, the orange fence is gone, and you are kind of playing at your own risk, but the facilities; the playgrounds are all open except for Maca. That is getting the new rubber surface put down and hopefully that is open by early July. That was planned anyways. That wasn’t due to Covid or anything; that was just planned this year as part of the budget. Maca Pool is closed for the season; however, we are doing an overall total maintenance on that. The painting of the pool surface should be complete this week. In the Street Department, 50 tons of debris have been swept up using the street sweeper. One culvert was replaced. Eight catch basins were installed. Over 1,500 feet of lineal ditch work was done. All of the annual flowers have been planted and that was done by the Road crew without the help from the Seniors. Keep in mind that schools were closed and so we didn’t have any Seniors for Senior Day this year which kind of stunk, but we were able to get it in. The concrete street repair has been completed. The pavement marking should be completed tonight. They are doing it around Tallmadge Circle at around 2:00 a.m. and so hopefully that will be finished. In the Utility Department, knock on wood, and I always hate saying this, but we had another good month with no water breaks, no sewer backups; we set three meters; one at Cherry Ridge; one at Eastwood and one at Jennifer Trail; those are all new. A waterline was inspected on Eastwood. The first quarter sewer cleaning list was completed. Those are the areas that are prone to have backups. The big one is the recalibration of Campbrook meter; this is very important; this is how we get billed from Akron for our sanitary sewer going to them and so that has been recalibrated and hopefully we see some changes in the bills coming up in the next few months. That’s it for my report unless there are any questions. Mrs. Allman: I just have a comment; I just wanted to thank you and your crew for doing such a great job of keeping our cemetery looking so nice. I went to another cemetery this morning and it looked horrible. It was so unkept and ours always looks so nice and I just wanted to thank you and your crew. Dir. of Pub. Service: Thank you. This year it has not been as easy as you guys know with the rain being non-stop, but I appreciate it. Thank you. Pres. of Council: We will go onto Dr. Cooper, but it doesn’t look like he has joined us this evening, so we will go on to the Director of Economic Development. Dir. of Econ. Development: Thank you. I’m sure many of you have seen this sight, but the former Herman Machine Company has been undergoing some renovations; in fact, it has been in demolition for about the past two weeks. That the site is being cleaned up and we are actively speaking with the property owner about getting this property back on to the market. So once it is demolished and cleaned up you are going to have almost another five acres for an industrial site directly across the street from Waltco that will be develop and shovel ready; all the utilities are there and so we are going to be working with that property owner in a couple of weeks. Just down the road, if you go to the next slide, despite the major water break, Leppo was able to pump and pour almost 320 yards of concrete associated with their new expansion. So, there is one additional floor. They were slated to do that tomorrow. After last evening’s rain, I’m not certain if that is going to take place or not, but that is actively ongoing and they do plan on having a soft opening here in the next couple months with a ribbon cutting grand opening for late August or early September, so we are coordinating schedules right now and once we learn some new information on that, we will be sure to share it with you. 3  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 20 Dir. of Econ. Development (Cont’d.) The next slide, we had the opportunity earlier this week to meet with Henry Bierce representatives and so going around town, you may have started to hear some discussion about a recent merger that has taken place and that is true. We met with the Bierce family along with some of the new business partners and with this new business merger, the Henry Bierce Company is going to construct a new 3,500 square foot showroom located along South Avenue just adjacent to the Freedom Trail and so this new 3,500 square foot showroom will display some really high-end hardscape designs. It will be a wonderful addition. With this merger, it gives them additional buying power and they are going to be able to serve to a higher end clientele and this will be a great addition for that area. This is slated to go before the Planning & Zoning Commission on July 2 nd for review and then hopefully approval as well. While it is unofficial at this point, we did receive some preliminary stats associated with Round 2 of the Summit County Small Business Grant Program and we are fortunate in that 54 additional Tallmadge businesses are likely to receive funding as part of Phase 2. This accounts for over $200,000 of additional money coming to help these small businesses and you can kind of see a breakdown in terms of there were 31 businesses within our community that had two or more employees while another 23 were self-employed; self-proprietor. So between Round 1 and Round 2 over $300,000 came back to benefit 76 Tallmadge businesses and so this is quite positive and just good for the community and I appreciate the Finance Director, Mollie Gilbride’s assistance, in going through all of those different applications and taking a look at the different businesses. As we kind of reported at our last meeting, there are additional businesses that are opening up and so it was part of our business retention outreach efforts. Here is a list of some of the businesses that we had an opportunity to engage with just last month between Summa Health, Cosar Mold, the Rubbermaid located in our JEDD, Miller Beer which is also within our JEDD, Bierce Supplies . . . and so this is kind of an ongoing discussion leading up to what I just announced a few minutes ago. Obviously Leppo rents Kendra Tires, Goodyear Industries and Ritchie Sporting Goods. And so, we continue to reach out to our business community and find out what their needs might be, and we try to find solutions to help any challenges they may be encountering. We continue to plan to do that going forward and into the future. So that concludes my report, but I would be happy to answer any questions you might have. Mayor: Not a question, but just a comment. Matt has done an excellent job going up to get these 54 businesses and talking to them and helping them get through this application and between him and Mrs. Allman, through the Chamber office, they have one a phenomenal job. Our community is going to receive $300,000 back to our businesses and if you look at the charts you can see what every community gets. Tallmadge has done extremely well and so thank you Matt and Tallmadge Chamber. Dir. of Finance: Good evening. Thank you. To start off, I have given you our monthly financial reports. Our income tax in the General Fund is down about 5% which is really not too bad. The majority of that decrease is really the result, it appears at this point in time, of the extended filing deadline. Our General Fund withholding is only down about ½% and so the majority of the decrease we are seeing right now is due to that extended filing deadline. So hopefully by July we will see that come back for this year. I don’t think that means that we will not have income tax and economic things to consider in our income tax for next year’s budget, due to the long-term effects of the individuals and those businesses not being able to operate for an amount of time that is going to have an impact on our 2021 budget moving forward. We are monitoring that and hopefully we will be able to get some firm numbers where we think we are going to end the year here by the end of really August likely since it takes us a month to recoup the returns from R.I.T.A. so we should be able to see that. My office will begin; we put up the Facebook post today that we will begin offering scheduled tax help for residents on Tuesdays and Wednesdays beginning June 16th. Residents can call our payment center or tax office to schedule a time for us to help them or they can call us over the phone, and we will be glad to try to walk them through anything they need. R.I.T.A. also offers a number of online resources for our residents to e-file and do that contact list and we will work with the residents to make sure that they can meet that July 15th filing deadline. Also just to update Council; today the legislature passed what turned into House Bill 481; it is no longer House Bill 301; and this will allow the State to distribute some of their CARES Act funds down to the local governments that have less than 500,000 4  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 20 Dir. of Finance (Cont’d.) residents and did not receive the direct funding from the Federal Government. That is going to be based on our local government distribution and so Tallmadge should expect to receive around $600,000 from that distribution. At your next Council meeting you will likely see a resolution that you will need to pass to make us eligible for those funds. In addition, the County is also looking to match that distribution from the State so that would be a total of $1.2 million that we will receive. I will have more information on exactly how the County program is going to work. I do have a meeting tomorrow with the County’s Finance Office; County Executive’s Office to learn about those funds and their expectations for those also. Other than that; I can answer any questions. Mr. Stasik: I have a question for Mrs. Gilbride; I see where you sent out the . . . it looked like the report from the State Auditors. Do you want to give us a brief synopsis? I did read it all and it was all very positive and good but go ahead and share please. Dir. of Finance: You should have all received the draft audit report. The audit went well this year. We did not have any issues. That is in the process of being issued by the State Auditor’s Office and until that time the information that you did receive in that e-mail is not a public record and I would expect you would see that released here by the end of the month, but you will receive another . . . I will send you a confirmation e- mail once that is released from the Auditor’s Office so that you will be made aware that it is a public record. Luckily, the audit went smoothly. We didn’t have any issues. Right there at the end it was a little, you know, difficult working remotely and scanning and sending documents electronically, but there were no issues to report in the audit and it all went well. Thank you. Mr. Sisak: Thank you. Pres. of Council: It’s not luckily that everything went well Mollie; it went well because of you. Thank you very much. We appreciate all your hard work. Mr. Carano: Here. Here. Dir. of Law: Thank you. Just to keep it brief tonight, our office has remained very busy during the everchanging times that we are experiencing and we have kept up with our normal case load as well and so beyond that, I have nothing to report this evening. Thank you. 12. REPORTS OF STANDING COMMITTEES OF COUNCIL OF THE WHOLE: a. PERSONNEL Michael Carano, Chair Rebecca Allman, Vice Chair Jonathon Bollas • Ord. 42-2020 (1st Reading) – Extending the training period for Utility Billing Technician position to 120 days and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Carano: I would like to open the Personnel Committee; along with me are Rebecca Allman and Jonathon Bollas. Before us we have Ord. 42-2020 at 1st Reading which is extending the training period for Utility Billing Technician position to 120 days and providing for immediate enactment. Any comments on that Administration? Dir. of Finance: Yes, I have my Utility Billing Technician who is planning on retiring next February. Due to the nature of her job and how we process utility bills; that is a quarterly process and each quarter provides a different set of complications or information that needs to be gathered. In addition, she is actually not retiring until February 1st of 2021, however, she is also a long-standing employee and so she intends to actually quit working in December of this year and not work in the month of January. So, it is imperative that I have this 120 days to make sure we have adequate time to train the new person. This employee is charged to the Water and Sewer Fund and so it does not require General Fund dollars and so that would be charged to the Water and Sewer Utility Billing Department. I don’t need it passed at 1st Reading tonight. So, if you would just like to give it a 1st Reading; that is fine. Mr. Carano: Anybody on the committee have any thoughts? We will leave it at 1st Reading then. Mr. Loughry: Mr. Carano, could I ask a question? Mr. Carano: Please. 5  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 20 12. REPORTS OF STANDING COMMITTEES OF COUNCIL OF THE WHOLE (Cont’d.) Mr. Loughry: It is just that when we have an employee that is in training; do they work at a lower rate than when they like go full-time? When you are on probation, I guess is the way I should have phrased it. When you are learning a job or are working in probation; do you make less money than when you are no longer a probationary employee? Dir. of Finance: We do not have a structure like that for non-bargaining employees. Mr. Loughry: OK. Thank you. Mayor: But we do in some of the union contracts; there are different scales and until they achieve certain parameters they are in the probationary period. • Ord. 43-2020 (1st Reading) – Establishing the number of non- collective bargaining employees by department and position pursuant to R.C. 731.08 and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Carano: We also have Ord. 43-2020 at 1st Reading establishing the number of non-collective bargaining employees by department and position pursuant to R. C. 731.08 and providing for immediate enactment. Are there any comments from anyone on the committee on that? No one responded. Administration: any thoughts to share about this. Dir. of Finance: This also has to do with the Utility Billing Technician. That position was previously classified under Civil Service as it was a position that was under the Service Director and now that it has become a Finance Department position and we are requesting that that be changed to an unclassified position. Dir. of Law: Mr. Carano, if I can add that Civil Service will not be able to meet on this until actually next Wednesday. They are meeting to review this and so if we need to change that verbiage in the WHEREAS clauses, but they have not had an opportunity to review this ordinance yet and will do so before you probably meet again. They are planning on reviewing it next week. Mr. Carano: So better to leave it to the next reading then? Dir. of Law: Yes. This will need to be set for a public hearing when we get to 1st Reading tonight. We are asking for that first hearing because the other thing that we are doing; the other change is the Utility Billing Technician is we are just reiterating that the classification status that is in that ordinance is going to remain and we are exercising our home rule right pursuant to the Charter to differ from any civil service rules if that is necessary and so we are just re-establishing that and reaffirming that and cleaning that up as well. Mr. Carano: Mrs. Raber, I was a little confused for a second. Does that mean that we have to wait on this because the language may change, and we should go to 2nd Reading? Dir. of Law: This ordinance, because we are establishing rules that may differ from Civil Service rules, we actually need to have three readings and a public hearing and so we are asking for you to just give it a 1st Reading tonight and then we would ask that you give it all three readings and at the third reading, there would be the public hearing established which would be in July for this particular ordinance. Mr. Carano: Alright. Thank you very much. Any other comments? Mr. Loughry: Mr. Carano, just one additional question and I’m sure this is alright because we are doing it and we only do things that are alright, but in the past this employee fell under the Administration and was funded with those monies and now the employee falls under Mrs. Gilbride, which is a different elected official, but I am assuming this is obviously OK for us to fund that position from monies that fall under Mr. Rorar? Dir. of Finance: Yes, so the employee working for me is providing a service to the Water and Sewer Department to bill for it so therefore we have the ability to bill the Water and Sewer Department for any administrative function that we perform in other departments. Mr. Carano: Thank you Dennis for the question. Anything else? No one responded. If there is nothing else before us, I close committee. Thank you. 6  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 20 b. PLANNING & ZONING James Donovan, Chair Craig Sisak, Vice Chair Dennis Loughry No legislation at this time. No legislation at this time. Mr. Sisak: I call the Planning & Zoning Committee to order; myself and Mr. Loughry are present. We have no legislation at this time. Mr. Loughry; do you have anything? Mr. Loughry: Well, other than just to thank Mrs. Hussing for the update that she provided us. My, not concern, but my question was, I just wanted to make sure I would understand the process of the public hearings and community input and everything that will be part of this Planning & Zoning update because it is so big and she explained to me that you know it is not going to be your typical 15 minute public hearing and then you have handled your Planning & Zoning Code. So, she provided us with a lot of information, and I thought it was very good. Mr. Sisak: I would agree. I appreciate that report from her as well. I do have a question for the Mayor and I noticed that it looks like the schools are moving some dirt behind Munroe and I saw on the last June 4th Planning & Zoning meeting that they did have, it looked like a plan, in front of the committee and I just wondered what is going on back there and how Planning & Zoning ruled on it. I haven’t heard. Mayor: OK. Thank you for asking that question. When Phase I went in, it was the football field. They had provisions to do the softball field and the baseball field, but part of what Planning & Zoning required in Phase I was that they must come back to Planning & Zoning for Phase II. So they just came back for a second plan review for the softball field and the dugout area around that and that is called Phase IIA and there will be a Phase IIB which then would include the baseball field after Munroe School is gone. So, they were approved to start doing their grading work and prepping the field. Their goal is to plant grass so the grass has time to establish and their first softball game would be in 2021. So that is what that was approved for and some of the storm drainage around that facility. Mr. Sisak: Well, that was my question; obviously, we are replacing lots of asphalt and building with grass which tends to be helpful, but what is the plan as far as . . . I haven’t seen any of the plans for the softball field, in particular; what is the plan for that drainage and where is that going to go? Mayor: Well, when they did Phase I, the original detention pond back along Whittlesey back behind those homes there; east of the football field; all of that storm water goes into that facility and it was designed to handle that so all of that storm water runoff, even for the baseball field, when that is completed, will go in that direction. There is a pretty large pipe coming off the field in the corner directing it down around the football field. Mr. Sisak: OK. Great. Thank you. Is there anything else to come before Planning & Zoning this evening? Mayor: I will say that the next Planning & Zoning meeting, which is I think July 2nd; there are a lot of items on the agenda, so things are picking up which is good. There is some new construction coming out and about and I’m pretty excited about that and absolutely you are correct; Helene has done a phenomenal job putting this stuff together and the staff reports and organizing these meetings and so great job. Mr. Sisak: I don’t know about everyone, but I look like I am frozen in time. Mayor: Turn your camera off and turn it back on. Mr. Sisak: With that being said, I will go ahead and close committee. c. COMMUNITY ISSUES Dennis Loughry, Chair Jonathon Bollas, Vice Chair Rebecca Allman No legislation at this time. Mr. Loughry: I would like to call the committee to order; myself, Mr. Bollas and Mrs. Allman are all here. We have no legislation. Does anybody in the 7  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 20 Mr. Loughry (Cont’d.) committee have anything for us? Mr. Bollas: I just want to say thank you again to the Service Director and just echoing the concerns around flooding. I fielded quite a few complaints around flooding and just the overall topic. We are going to be following up with one resident tomorrow and so again, I just wanted to echo thank you for all your efforts there and it has been a really tough month with the weather. Dir. of Pub. Service: Thanks. Mr. Loughry: Anybody on the remainder of Council have anything? Mr. Carano: I don’t know if this is under the purview of this community or not, but you are probably aware of the young man that was hit be a vehicle protesting in Akron. His name is Sam Borough. I gave him a call the other day to see how he was doing and he said he is doing fine and he, I think, was responsible for organizing about 20 people at Tallmadge Circle and frankly I commended him for taking his first amendment rights and he is a young man and being passionate and I thought that was pretty good for a young man. He said he is going to major in Urban Planning. He is going to Cleveland State and so I wish him all of the success. I also said, hey, if you want to come to Council it would be nice to get him involved with all of the political things. We will see. So, alright. That’s it. Thank you. Mayor: Yes, Mr. Loughry. To follow up on Mr. Carano’s comment. Chief Williams and I were in the middle of the Circle with the group. They were very well-organized young adults that were there, and some parents of the kids were there, and I saw on Facebook today that it is going to be tentatively every Friday from 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. I’m not sure if I am going to be there tomorrow night or not, but we will keep an eye on that and it was very safe and a lot of honks; people honking their horns and some not so nice, but mostly nice, but the young adults were excellent. Mr. Carano: I have gone to two of the things in Akron and so maybe I will join them. Thank you. Mr. Loughry: Anything else? No one responded. I will close committee. d. 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 at this time. I want to open it up to the committee and the administration. Does anybody have anything? Mr. Sisak: I have a question. This is probably for the Mayor. I see we are starting to accrue some money in the ¼% income tax; what are the current plans for that money for the remainder of 2020 for the Safety services? Mayor: Well, as you know, the fire truck was purchased and so we have some of those funds going towards that or the debt payment and Mollie can probably explain more of that. My goal was to do a re-appropriation . . . you know we never appropriated that money and so to appropriate that money to hire an architect for the design of Fire Station No. 2; the land was already purchased, so that was completed, but get an architect on board in 2020 to design and break ground in 2021, but we are also looking at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarter and the 4th quarter to see where we are at financially within the budgets. Mr. Sisak: Great. Thank you. Mr. Bollas: Are there any other questions? No one responded. I will close committee. Thank you. e. PUBLIC SERVICE Rebecca Allman, Chair Dennis Loughry, Vice Chair James Donovan • Ord. 45-2020 (1st Reading) – Amending Chapter 351.24 of the Tallmadge Codified Ordinance regarding Tallmadge Circle and City- owned buildings and lands parking and providing for immediate enactment. 8  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 20 Mrs. Allman: I call the Public Service Committee to order; myself and Mr. Loughry are present. Mr. Donovan is excused. We have before us Ord. 45-2020 at 1st Reading amending Chapter 351.24 of the Tallmadge Codified Ordinance regarding Tallmadge Circle and City-owned buildings and lands parking and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Loughry; do you have anything? Mr. Loughry: We are not going to vote on this now; we are just in committee; correct? Mayor: That is correct. Mr. Loughry: So, should we discuss this ordinance now? So, can I have an explanation of what this ordinance is about? Dir. of Pub. Service: Councilman Loughry, during the Code update, we came across that ordinance that was written in 1983 and it was not broad enough. It only covered three buildings. It covered City Hall, the Circle and the Safety Building. As you know, we have several properties, or several buildings now and that really needs to be broader coverage of that parking issue that we could end up having in our park, or the Community Center or the Rec Center, or Ritchie Hall . . . I mean there are more than just those three buildings. Mr. Loughry: Is there any reason not to adopt this tonight? Mrs. Allman: We were going to; weren’t we? Mayor: I think, Mr. Rorar; didn’t you ask for it? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, I did. Mayor: With that being said, . . . it does just clean up public parking in our lots and putting time frames on them. It is a good ordinance. We looked at it quite a bit. Mr. Loughry: And if someone violates the ordinance; there are penalties; right? Mayor: That is correct. Dir. of Law: The penalties are a parking ticket. Mr. Loughry: OK. So, you are not going to show up and find your car gone? Dir. of Law: No, however in the future we could contemplate that if it continues, if there are issues. Mr. Loughry: OK. Thanks. Mrs. Allman, I would recommend that we adopt this. Mrs. Allman: OK. Does anyone else have anything to add? Pres. of Council: I just had a quick question, not question, but clarification, so this is . . . I don’t want to say primarily, but a good chunk of this is for people that are parking their commercial vehicles that have their advertising on their vehicle in a City parking lot to get free advertisement; is that what this will address; correct? Dir. of Law: It can address that, but it can also address anyone who would just leave their car overnight or if they are not using the facility that is attached to the parking lot. That is really what it is about. You are welcome to come and park your car in a City parking lot provided you are using the land or in the buildings that are attached to that parking lot. So, what we are looking for is for people to not just come and park their car and leave whether it is to their home or to a business or wherever they are headed. Mr. Loughry: But Mrs. Kilway, just so you know, for years and years we have had people that live very close to some of our parks and they use the park parking lot for their third car almost as if it is their driveway. Pres. of Council: So, this will also prohibit that as well? Mr. Loughry: Correct. Pres. of Council: Thank you. Mrs. Allman: I recommend adoption of Ord. 45-2020 and I close committee. 9  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 20 f. FINANCE Craig Sisak, Chair James Donovan, Vice Chair Michael Carano • Ord. 44-2020 (1st Reading) - Authorizing the Mayor to accept and execute all necessary documents to transfer property to the City and accept any grant funds awarded through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program for the property located at 1520 Northeast Avenue as part of its hazard mitigation and declaring an emergency. Mr. Sisak: I call the Finance Committee to order myself and Mr. Carano are present. We currently have Ord. 44-2020 authorizing the Mayor to accept and execute all necessary documents to transfer property to the City and accept any grant funds awarded through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program for the property located at 1520 Northeast Avenue. Mr. Carano; do you have any thoughts or questions? Mayor: Mr. Sisak, again I will give you a brief explanation. This is the property out there on Northeast Avenue that has been flooding for multiple years; multiple owners and the last time it flooded or maybe two times ago, the State came out with the State of Emergency and the FEMA funds available for that event and so we took to Council to modify our Storm Water Management Plan through the County to add a section in there to allow us to go to individual properties and add that to it. If it meets the FEMA requirement. There is a property . . . so we put in a preliminary application thinking that we would not get it, but it looks like things are coming together for this application and the City of Tallmadge cost to do this is $27,000, and again the State would be taking in $27,000 and then the FEMA Federal Funds would pay the remain- der and I think the total grant is about $245,000. We will purchase the property, raise the house and make it a permanent detention area in that region. Mr. Sisak: So, my question is the money that we are receiving and putting in towards this project; is it strictly just for the property or is it for the raising and redoing the retention center there? Mayor: Yes. That is correct. Mr. Sisak: So, it is all encompassing? Mayor: All encompassing. Mr. Sisak: A question for the Law Director; I don’t know if she is allowed to comment, but do we have, or have we had, any litigation with this residence? Dir. of Law: No. Mr. Sisak: OK and it is not part of a settlement or anything like that? Dir. of Law: That is correct. Mr. Sisak: Good. Thank you. Mr. Carano: It sounds like somewhat of a bargain for being $27,000 with all of the other funds coming in from FEMA and that and I think it is the best scenario and I think you did a good job of securing the funds. I personally would recommend going forward. Mr. Sisak: I have a friend of mine in another community who lost part of her house because it was flooded multiple times and the same thing happened in that community where the City got some funds and went together and pur- chased it and made it a detention area and so yeah, I would recommend adoption of Ord. 44-2020 and that will be a 2-0 vote. Is there anything else to come before Finance tonight? Seeing none; I will go ahead and close committee. 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. 42-2020 (Personnel) – 1st Reading. Extending the training period for Utility Billing Technician position to 120 days and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 42-2020 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Personnel Committee. 10  VIRTUAL REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 20 b. Ord. 43-2020 (Personnel) – 1st Reading. Public Hearing on 7-9-2020 @ 7:03 p.m. Establishing the number of non-collective bargaining employees by department and position pursuant to R.C. 731.08 and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 43-2020 is at 1st Reading and we are going to set a public hearing for July 9, 2020 @ 7:03 p.m. and it is assigned to the Personnel Committee. c. Ord. 44-2020 (Finance) – 1st Reading. Authorizing the Mayor to accept and execute all necessary documents to transfer property to the City and accept any grant funds awarded through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program for the property located at 1520 Northeast Avenue as part of its hazard mitigation and declaring an emergency. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Ord. 44-2020. Seconded Mr. Carano. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Carano, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman – unanimous. Ord. 44-2020 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. d. Ord. 45-2020 (Public Service) – 1st Reading. Amending Chapter 351.24 of the Tallmadge Codified Ordinance regarding Tallmadge Circle and City-owned buildings and lands parking and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Allman moved for the adoption of Ord. 45-2020. Seconded Mr. Loughry. Roll Call: Mr. Carano, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. Ord. 45-2020 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 17. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Sisak moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Allman. Voice vote 6-0. The Virtual Regular Council meeting adjourned at 7:59 p.m. sb Adopted: ________________________________ _________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Carol A. Kilway, President of Council 11