City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 27, 21 1. CALL TO ORDER. President of Council Kilway called the Regular Council meeting of Wednesday, October 27, 2021, to order at 7:00 p.m. Public input is invited at the beginning of the meeting to discuss an item that is not on the agenda. So please wait until you are recognized by the Chair and state your name and address so that your comments may be properly recorded and limit your remarks to a period of two (2) minutes or less. It is appreciated that anyone wishing to address Council register with the Clerk of Council or through the on-line form by 3:00 p.m. the day of the meeting. This is not necessary; it is just appreciated. 2. OPENING PRAYER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. 3. ROLL CALL: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Donovan, Mr. Grimm, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Sisak – present. Also, present were Mayor Kline, Dir. of Public Service Rorar, Dir. of Administration Cooper, Dir. of Economic Development Springer, Dir. of Law Raber, Dir. of Finance Gilbride and Deputy Clerk of Council Conti. Mr. Loughry was absent. 4. Correcting and Adopting the Previous Meeting Minutes 10-14-21 Regular Council Meeting minutes. Mr. Sisak moved to adopt the minutes of 10-14-21. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Roll Call: Mr. Grimm, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Donovan – unanimous. The 10-14-21 Council meeting minutes have been adopted by a vote of 6-0. 5. Financial Reports: None. 6. Public Hearings: None. 7. Community Input: This is the time when anyone who is here who would like to address anything that is not on the agenda. If you want to come to the podium and state your name and address. 8. Agenda Additions:  Budget Work Session to be held on Monday, November 8th at 6:00 p.m. in Council Chambers. Pres. of Council: So, I did poll everyone individually to see if they were available to have a Budget Work Session on Monday, November 8th at 6:00 p.m. Is everybody still available to have that? Mr. Grimm: What is the length about 2 hours? Pres. of Council: Probably as long as we need it. If we need to make it earlier and start at 5:00 p.m. I think we can do that. Mr. Bollas: I can make myself available just because I work from home. Pres. of Council: Does 6:00 p.m. work for everybody else? Can I get a motion on that? Mr. Sisak: So, moved. Seconded Mr. Grimm. Roll Call: Mr. Donovan, Mr. Grimm, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. The date of the Budget Work Session was approved by a vote of 6-0. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Director of Safety Pres. of Council: Mayor Kline was not able to be here due to a previous commitment. b. Director of Administration: I just wanted to remind everyone that the Mayor did send his report via e-mail and so if you have any questions you can respond to him directly through that and I have no report this evening. c. Director of Public Service: Good evening. No real report, but I have a couple highlights I want to bring up. Veteran’s Day ceremony is Thursday, November 11th from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Tallmadge Historic Church. The American Legion Kneil Lawrence Post 265 is hosting a tribute to Veterans Joe Grieco, First Class Petty Officer. East Avenue Update – We went through the no turn on Washburn yesterday and we have another fun one coming up on Monday, November 1st from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Washburn Road will be closed to traffic. Watermain break today in the 1000 block of East Avenue, and it had nothing to do with the construction project. Then in two weeks, and I will get you the date, we are going to put out to stay away from East Avenue. They are milling those lanes down there and so you will never get through it. Pres. of Council: For those of us that are not really up on what milling the road means; can you explain it. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yeah, so that’s when they get on with the mill machine and take off the existing pavement in anticipation of putting down  new pavement. They will be paving at the same time. COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 27, 21 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) I had a question last time about our salt and how we are doing in the City. The bins or the barns are full and traditionally we order about 26 tons on average, and we have ordered 2,000 and the question was; how is the price and in 2020 we were on two salt purchasing programs and then in 2020 we paid $77.25 through the ODOT Program and this year we are paying $55.91. So, there is a little savings there. The CUE Program we paid $71.89 a ton and we are paying the same this year. The reason why we are on two separate purchasing programs is that I’m sure everybody remembers a few years ago we couldn’t get salt and it was just the ODOT Program was able to get it and the CUE was not able to get it so that is why we split it and we cut it 1,500 towards ODOT and 500 towards CUE. Mr. Grimm: Leaf pickup. You started picking up already I take it? Dir. of Pub. Service: Not advertising, but yes. There was discussion regarding leaf pickup. d. Director of Economic Development: I have no official report, but I would be glad to answer any questions somebody might have. Mr. Sisak: We have a couple vacant properties that we tore down on Southwest Avenue. Do we have any plans for those properties, or have we talked to a real estate person? Dir. of Econ. Development: Yeah, we really haven’t, to my knowledge, discussed any plans for those properties. It would probably be a good idea. Mr. Grimm: What is going on with Rocco’s Plaza? Dir. of Econ. Development: I will follow up on that. Obviously, it is under new ownership. We are at the point where it is not necessarily new ownership; they have had it for long enough. There has been at least one serious end user for the property, but until they sign something and really dedicate themselves to this site, I think the property owner is reluctant to tear it down until he knows that he has them secured. If they were to walk away then I think there is an appetite for him to reinvest back into the façade, in fact the property owner purchased all new windows and façade material to put on it after he pulled everything off, but again, once this potential end user came forward, he became reluctant to put that money into the façade. I will have a conversation tomorrow with him and try to get a status update. Mr. Bollas: Have you had any updates on any of the developments that are going on on East Avenue past Pulte Homes? Dir. of Econ. Development: Not really. Not since we met last. Obviously Hammer Packaging continues to move forward and that is located behind Meijer, and I think we reported last time that Kenda Tire had officially made their announcement to relocate to the 30 acres. Alde’s is still in process to be constructed right across the street to where the new Waves Car Wash is under construction so it would be an out-lot in front of Menards. The Jiffy Lube, as you go back into the Cascades, that is still moving forward. That is the extent of the official site plan applications that have been submitted to my knowledge at this point. e. Director of Finance: Thank you. I have no official report this evening, but if anyone has any questions, I will be glad to answer them. Pres. of Council: I have one quick question. In the Portage County portion of Tallmadge; the residents there; now Tallmadge annexed that portion so it should be City of Tallmadge residing in Portage County; correct? Dir. of Finance: Correct. Pres. of Council: So, they are stating, and I looked up on tax maps and they are getting charged Brimfield Township taxes as well and they are getting the insurance rating for Brimfield Township and not the City of Tallmadge. So, I’m not sure exactly what is going on. Dir. of Finance: I would recommend that they contact the County and have their bills verified. Pres. of Council: I went onto the Portage County website. Is there something that we can do as a City to say listen, you have this wrong because I know that Portage County just updated their whole website and so 2  they have them listed as City of Tallmadge, Brimfield Township, Portage County. COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 27, 21 Dir. of Finance: So, the City is in Brimfield Township. So, you don’t . . . it is going to list . . . just because you are listed with the City doesn’t mean you don’t have a Township affiliation with that, but I suppose I could look up and see what is going on and I will look at it and look at the Auditor’s website tomorrow and contact them. Pres. of Council: They are stating that they have to pay taxes to Brimfield Township, and they are not getting the City of Tallmadge Fire rating. Dir. of Finance: That is with their personal insurance. They need to contact their insurance. I can identify with why they would have some kind of Brimfield Township charge on their tax bill. f. Director of Law: So, this week, we kicked off the week with our Drug Take Back Day which was in conjunction with the DEA on Saturday, and we did receive almost 200 lbs. of prescription or unused or unwanted over the counter drugs as well as well as 117 lbs. of trash. We also have been very involved with Red Ribbon Week and so we appreciate those of you who contributed to videos or posted on social media to wear red on this last Monday. We have made an effort to put red ribbons around City properties and so you probably saw that around the Circle as well as City Hall and the Rec Center and the Police Department. We are trying to get awareness out there that there is still a problem, and it has not gone away and will not probably anytime soon. We want to raise awareness to that. End of report. 10. Reports of Standing Committees of Council of the Whole: a. Planning and Zoning James Donovan, Chair Craig Sisak, Vice Chair Mr. Donovan: I call the Planning & Zoning Committee to order. We have no legislation this evening. Are there any questions or comments for the committee? No one responded. I close committee. i. Additional items: None. b. Finance Craig Sisak, Chair James Donovan, Vice Chair i. Third Readings of Resolutions and Ordinances A. Ord. 103-2021 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a lease with Southeast Avenue Company, LLC, for 731 Dunbar Road and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak: I call the Finance Committee to order. We have Ord. 103-2021 at 3rd Reading. Ord. 103-2021 was read into the record. Dir. of Finance: We are just asking for another reading. Dir. of Law: We made some changes to this and highlighted that in blue. I don’t know if Mr. Rorar wants to validate that. Second Readings of Resolutions and Ordinances A. Ord. 109-2021 – Exhibit A – Exhibit A Tracked – Amending Ord. 66-2013 rates, charges, and fees for the Zoning Department and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak: Next, we have Ord. 109. Ord. 109-2021 was read into the record. Dir. of Law: We are just asking for another reading, but we did make some additional changes to this, and we made those changes and highlighted that in blue. Dir. of Pub. Service: Right, there is the long-term maintenance agreement. What that is is a storm water management plan. There was discussion on the fees. Mr. Sisak: We will give this a 2nd Reading if that is OK with everyone. ii. First Readings of Resolutions and Ordinances 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 27, 21 A. Ord. 110-2021 – Adopting a budget from various funds of the City of Tallmadge, Ohio, for current expenses and other expenditures during fiscal year ending December 31, 2022, appropriating the necessary funds for the administration thereof, authorizing transfers between funds, and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak: We have Ord. 110-2021. Ord. 110-2021 was read into the record. We have set the date for November 8th at 6:00 p.m. for our budget workshop. Any further discussion on this? Hearing none we will move on. B. Ord. 113-2021 – Authorizing the appropriation of funds for purposes of funding the City’s health insurance reserves and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak: Moving on, we have Ord. 113-2021. Ord. 113-2021 was read into the record. Pres. of Council: Mr. Cooper, do you have any updates on this, well not updates, but could you shed some light on this? Dir. of Administration: It is basically that the City had an opportunity to pay a fee to reduce health care costs, premium costs to all employees. That is what this ordinance is about. Dir. of Finance: This is to fund our reserve balances in our health care account. This is not a fee necessarily that we are giving to an insurer or anything. This is actually adding City funds to our Health Care Reserve Account to maintain the minimum balance. Mr. Sisak: What is the dollar amount? Dir. of Finance: It is $155,750. There was additional discussion regarding this issue. iii. Additional Items: None. C. Ord. 114-2021 – Appropriating additional amounts and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak: Next is Ord. 114-2021. Ord. 114-2021 was read into the record. We will give that a 1st Reading as well. Mr. Grimm: I’ve noticed in the past 3 months that you use the same title on these things. The title should reflect what the ordinance is about. This generic title: I guess I am going to encourage not to use this but actually when they draw up the ordinances that you use something that reflects what it is rather than . . . Dir. of Finance: I try to do that if it is an individual thing, but sometimes when we are appropriating for various items; I mean it is an appropriation, but I will, I will try to be more specific on some of the bigger items. I do not need this ordinance at 1st Reading but I will need it at 2nd Reading. We are at 100% of revenue, I am at 100% of expenses so I need to make sure that I can pay that retainer for the remainder of the year. Mr. Bollas: Is the retainer on an annual commitment or is it subject to change whenever they want? Dir. of Finance: No, we are under contract for the 3% retainer and then for the rest of the year, after they have completed, because RITA is a government entity, and they don’t work for profit. At the end of their fiscal year, they then do a reconciliation and then in June of every year we actually get a refund back for a large portion of that. We have been running annually between 1.5 and 1.7% cost of collection after the reconciliation. Mr. Sisak: I know you were kind of concerned about some of the larger payments having to be reimbursed potentially; is that still a concern? Dir. of Finance: That remains a concern because we just don’t know. I have not received any requests. Those returns would have been due October 15th so they would have been just received and started looking into . . . RITA does any business returns; they do audit that return thoroughly before they would issue a refund and to make sure that the refund request was legitimate. 4  D. Ord. 115-2021 – Appropriating additional amounts received from the FEMA Public Assistance Grant Program and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak: Next, we have Ord. 115-2021. Ord. 115-2021 was read into the record. COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 27, 21 Dir. of Finance: Last year we had applied for a FEMA grant to reimburse us for some of the different Covid expenses that we had; the PPE, the modifications we had to make at the Rec Center for the desks and a lot of the cleaning and that kind of thing. So, Dr. Cooper worked diligently submitting that stuff so we were able to secure a refund from FEMA for the $61,000 almost $62,000 and so this is to appropriate the funds and these funds will just then reimburse all of the other expenses back into the funds that paid them initially. Mr. Grimm: I will make a motion to adopt Ord. 115-2021. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Donovan, Mr. Grimm – unanimous. Ord. 115-2021 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Sisak: Anything else to come before Finance? I will close committee. iv. Additional Items: None. c. Personnel Christopher Grimm, Chair Rebecca Allman, Vice Chair i. First Readings of Resolutions and Ordinances. A. Ord. 112-2021 – Exhibit A – Exhibit A Tracked – Clarifying and defining personnel benefits and policies for non-collective bargaining employees and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Grimm: I call the Personnel Committee to order. We have Ord. 112- 2021. Ord. 112-2021 was read into the record. This is a rather lengthy document and I believe we just received it today or yesterday so let’s go ahead and give this a 1st Reading. B. Res. 15-2021 – Appointing City of Tallmadge representative to the Summit County Combined General Health District Board and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Grimm: The second piece of legislation before us this evening is Res. 15-2021. Res. 15-2021 was read into the record. This is the re-appointment of Trisha Billow and I do believe she has served on this board for quite a while. Typically, it was a Mayoral appointment and now I guess it is a Mayoral and Council approval. I think she has been there quite some time. I don’t see a problem with adopting this this evening unless Council does. Pres. of Council: I move for the adoption of Res. 15-2021. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Donovan, Mr. Grimm, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Res. 15-2021 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Other than that, I think we are good for the evening. I close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. d. Community Issues Dennis Loughry, Chair Jonathon Boll, Vice Chair Mr. Bollas: I call the Community Issues Committee to order. We have no legislation this evening. Does anyone have anything for Community Issues? Pres. of Council: I was going down Lawndale and I am just hearing noise from the highway like you cannot believe and it is specifically on the back street that is closest to the highway there. I was talking to a resident, and he brought this up and I said, yeah, I don’t know how you can stand it because it is very noisy out there. I don’t know if there has ever been talk about a wall or anything to go up along that area. Is that something that the City can ask ODOT to do? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, we can ask, but their answer will be only if there 5  is a new project other than paving and the answer is really no. They would have to widen that, and they would have to add something; an exit or something there to do that. COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 27, 21 Pres. of Council: The other request that this resident made and I’m not sure if this is something that you can do, but I am asking on his behalf; for no jake brake. Maybe just during the evenings. I know a jake brake for those semis is needed to stop those big trucks, but he said at 3:00 a.m. when they slam their jake brakes on it wakes up everybody in the neighborhood. Is that something that we can request from ODOT like maybe no jake brake between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. Dir. of Pub. Service: We can ask ODOT, and that answer will be no as well. It is a safety issue, and those truckers are stopping for a reason; it could be a deer, it could be a car that is swerving in front of them, and they will not stop with regular brakes. That is purely a safety issue, but we can ask. Mr. Sisak: A follow-up comment to the sound barrier issue is once you put it up, you may address Lawndale but then there are different parts of the City and all of the sudden they hear this noise because it just reflects the noise to maybe Dunbar or another part of town that has never heard the expressway before and suddenly now, they are hearing all this loud noise. Mr. Bollas: On the devil strip trees; can a resident . . . do they have the right to cut one down and I guess what is their responsibility thereafter in terms of the stump or do you have to grind it and is there any responsibility for the City to replant a tree there or is it just baron because the aesthetics can change rapidly. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yeah, so the devil strip tree is the resident’s responsibility and so they have the right to cut it down. They should probably remove that stump, but we have nothing in our ordinances now that says they have to. Then the responsibility to plant a tree back right now we do have a moratorium on it. We do have tree selections based on the different topography of the devil strips themselves which will dictate what type of tree you have to put in. We will not make it mandatory if a resident wants a tree, we can give them the spec and they can put the tree in. Mr. Bollas: Anything else for Community Issues? I close committee. i. Additional Items e. Safety Jonathon Bollas, Chair Christopher Grimm, Vice Chair Mr. Bollas: I call the Safety Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Does anyone have anything for the Safety Committee? I close committee. i. Additional Items: None. f. Public Service Rebecca Allman, Chair Dennis Loughry, Vice Chair i. First Readings of Resolutions and Ordinances A. Ord. 111-2021 – Accepting the dedication of streets within the Tallmadge Reserve Phase IV Subdivision for public purposes; setting performance and maintenance guarantees therefore and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Allman: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have Ord. 111-2021 at 1st Reading. Ord. 111-2021 was read into the record. I believe the Mayor wanted this passed. Pres. of Council: Yes, I would move to adopt Ord. 111-2021 at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Donovan, Mr. Grimm, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 111-2021 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 6  B. Ord. 116-2021 – Exhibit A – Exhibit A Tracked – Repealing Tallmadge Codified Ordinance Chapter 1327.13 Unsafe Structures/Demolition of Buildings and Chapter 1327.14 Maintenance Responsibility of Vacant Structures and Establishing Chapter 1328 Dangerous Buildings in Part Thirteen- Building Code and providing for immediate enactment. COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 27, 21 Mrs. Allman: Next, we have Ord. 116-2021. Ord. 116-2021 was read into the record. Pres. of Council: I would say we should just give this a 1st Reading and since we just received this yesterday. Mrs. Allman: So, Ord. 116-2021 will remain before the Public Service Committee. Is there anything else to come before the Public Service Committee? I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: None. 12. Announcements: Just remember the Work Session a week from Monday. There is Trick or Treat tomorrow. 13. Adjournment: Mr. Grimm moved to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Roll Call: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Donovan, Mr. Grimm, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. The Council meeting of 10-27-21 adjourned at 7:47 p.m. Adopted: ____________________________ _______________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Carol A. Kilway, President of Council 7