City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 23, 2022 1. CALL TO ORDER. President of Council Loughry called the Council meeting of Thursday, June 23, 2022, to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Opening Prayer & Pledge of Allegiance: Prayer: Fr. Mike Matusz, Our Lady of Victory Church, Tallmadge. Pledge of Allegiance: Brynn Eberhart, 5th grader at Tallmadge Elementary. 3. Roll Call: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – present. 4. Correcting and Adopting the Previous Meeting Minutes: 6-9-22 Council Meeting Minutes. Mrs. Kilway moved for the adoption of the 6-9-22 Council meeting minutes. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman – unanimous. The 6-9-22 Council meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 7-0. 5. Financial Reports: None. Pres. of Council: Just a reminder that the draft that you received from the Auditor is confidential until formally adopted. 6. Public Hearings: None. 7. Community Input: Pres. of Council: If there is anybody in the audience who would like to speak to something that is not on our agenda this evening, this is the time to do that. Would anyone like to speak to Council this evening? No one responded. 8. Agenda Additions: Pres. of Council: We are very happy this evening to have our newly appointed Summit County District 6 Council member, Christine Higham, Tallmadge resident, to speak to us and we are extremely pleased that we have someone that lives in Tallmadge representing us, so Christine thank you for coming. Christine Higham, Summit County Council Member, District 6: Thank you very much Council President Loughry, members of Council, Administration, Law Director Raber and Mayor Kline. I am very excited to stand before you today representing the City of Tallmadge as your County Councilperson on Summit County Council, District 6. As you may all be aware represents all of the City of Tallmadge, as well as portions of southeast Akron. I served the last nine years as a Commissioner for the Tallmadge Civil Service Commission. I am a graduate of Tallmadge High School. I graduated from Kent State University as well as received my master’s in business from Tiffin. I am currently the Director of Human Resources and Administration for Mustard Seed Market and Café. I am looking forward to working with all of you to make sure that the City of Tallmadge and my portion of Akron are well represented on Council and have a voice. So, again I am excited to work with all of you and I am excited to represent this district and if you have any questions, I would be happy to answer any. Mayor: I just personally want to thank you for your years of service on the Tallmadge Civil Service Commission. She was an excellent member, and it will be very hard to replace you, but thank you for your service with the City of Tallmadge. Ms. Higham: Thank you. It was my pleasure. I loved doing that. I still get to serve this community, so I am very excited about it. City Department Presentations: Michael Rorar, Public Service. Dir. of Pub. Service: Good evening. I just wanted to make mention of a group of young ladies that are in the audience today, Girl Scout Troop 90669 who planted a riparian area at the Washburn Park. Miss Lillian Shear reached out to me in March, and they said they wanted to do this planting job and I said that I have an idea that is part of our Master Plan for that park and I just want to acknowledge these ladies. The planting is 800 square feet and they planted 26 shrubs and a 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 23, 2022 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) variety of viburnum, sumac, a red-choke cherry and also sweet shrub and then they planted 100 plugs of switch grass and Indian grass in this area, and they ended up mulching with leaf humas, about 5 yards of it and so does everybody know what a riparian zone is? So that is the buffer that is next to your stream and what the planting does is it helps keep sediment and nutrients in there and it protects the banks and it also cools the water and so it is a cool water habitat which is what we are supposed to have and not warm water and so if you are mowing down to your creek, you are not supposed to be doing that, you are supposed to give a 20 foot or 50 foot buffer on the side of it. This area right here next to the restroom there on Washburn Park and that is what these ladies did and so I wanted to introduce them. Come on up. • Ava Dolezal • Thea Miktarian • Alissa Waddell • Zoey Rowh • Cadence Ickes • Lily Scherer • Chloe Moore Troop Leaders: • Melissa Scherer • Holly Miktarian Dir. of Pub. Service: The cool thing is is that it took them an hour to plant the shrubs and it took them 3 hours to do the whole job. I was impressed. I was actually really shocked. Great job. Do you have anything you want to add? Thea Miktarian: I am here with some of my Girl Scout Troop to talk about a recent project we did. Thea read a letter to Council and the Administration regarding this project. Thea Miktarian: We would first like to thank Mr. Rorar for helping us with this project and the City of Tallmadge Street Department for helping on the planting day and for helping us get the new plants watered and the following businesses, who donated to this project: HHC Lawn Care and Plowing, Harmonize Studios, Tallmadge FOP, Classic Shine, Mat Dress, Cross Country Mortgage, Snyder Excavating and Sherry Peters Company, LPA. We would also like to present you with this check of $900. Dir. of Pub. Service: Awesome. Great job. Thank you. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Director of Safety/ Director of Economic Development: • Architectural Review Board meeting; we have switched those meetings to 1:00 p.m. on June 28th. • The Firehouse at the Circle, that back patio they would like to put a lean-too over that patio. • Cell tower that is designed to go off of N. Munroe. There will be a public hearing on July 7th. • Derma Med on Progress Blvd. is adding a third building to that complex. • Apollo Heating is moving to Crystal Parkway, and they are also on the agenda • Ribbon cutting at Dr. Bachtel’s old office, so Ohio Driver’s Training moved in there. The neat thing about this building is that they are a pilot program for the State of Ohio to be the only one in Northeast Ohio to be able to do the driver’s test on their site because the BMV is getting away from doing it. 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 23, 2022 Mayor (Cont’d.) • We authorized the expenditure to finish the siding on Old Town Hall and so they have to complete the upper boards and then a few more on the other side and then the painting will come probably in the next three weeks. The goal is to have it done before Circle Fest. • Tallmadge Fire Department: If you have not been by there lately, this is the bay area and this is the heating system, and they are getting ready to pour concrete which will be next Wednesday. • One last picture of the fire station. That is the furnace that is above the ceiling. The drywall was all delivered today and so they will start drywalling. • Civil Service appointment to replace Christine Higham and that is Lisa Carano. I did send you her little bio sheet on her. She has had 27 total years in public service. She works at the court system under Judge Stormer. So, I am asking Council for your confirmation on that position. Mr. Loughry: I move that that we accept the Mayor’s appointment of Lisa Carano to the Civil Service Commission. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Are there any questions? There was discussion on the process of replacing a commission member. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. Lisa Carano has been appointed to the Civil Service Commission by a vote of 7-0. • The Joint Dispatch Center up on North Avenue, the contract was awarded to Tamarius as the construction manager. b. Dir. of Administration: Absent. c. Dir. of Pub. Service: Good evening. A couple of things. • The summer paving program is underway. • Maca – Stopped selling memberships. So, there were 2,624 memberships. That was the highest ever. Daily admissions starting Saturday will not start until noon so that will give the members and their guests an hour to get through the gates and get in there before they allow the daily admissions to start. • Ord. 2022-56 – We are asking to sell the tub grinder. We no longer tub grind any of our material. The next one is the excavator. It is in pretty good shape, but the problem with that excavator is that it is too big for what we do. • Next Ord. is for the Howe Rd. Park entrance. We talked about this, and it has been budgeted for. We are moving the entrance from pretty much where it now up the grade. That turn brings you down to the existing parking lot and that is going to get 2” of asphalt on top of it and then there is grading going on so you can see where the old entrance was, and you can see the mound up there and so everything is getting regraded. Included in that is the Howe Rd. Park sign. That is Ord. 2022-57. End of report. Pres. of Council: Maca is called Rotary Park. Could someone get naming rights for a donation or something for Howe Road Park or do we not want to maybe do that? Mayor: It used to be JC Park, but that function . . . then you have Lions Park which is Lions Hall. Could something be done up there; I’m sure we can investigate it. That would have to be legislatively You know, we talk about Washburn Field, which is still Washburn Field, but it is Stein Field naming on it, but if you ask anybody in the City it is Washburn Park or Indian Hills Park. Maca Park is still Maca Park. Rotary, I don’t know if we did legislation for Rotary back in the day. 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 23, 2022 Pres. of Council: OK. Thank you. On the asphalt program, and I’m sure you understand this, but the Mayor and I got approached by a resident that thinks that it is taking longer than it has in the past in their neighborhood because they did it differently, maybe not differently from last year, but differently from what this resident remembered in that we ground a much larger area and many more streets and it stayed like that for a long time before they started to pave. Dir. of Pub. Service: I think it has been within a week. So, they had to make the repairs and then they came back in after repairs and I think within a week they started paving. Now you have to take into account the rain days. d. Dir. of Finance: Absent. e. Dir. of Law: Thank you. I have no report this evening. 10. Reports of Standing Committees of Council of the Whole: a. Planning and Zoning Carol Kilway, Chair Rebecca Allman, Vice Chair The Planning & Zoning Committee deals with land use, zoning, conditional uses, planning, economic and community development, public property. i. Third Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-54 – Amended - P&Z Rec. approval 3-0 - Approving and granting a conditional zoning certificate to applicant, Individual Outcomes LLC, on behalf of owner, SNP Management LLC, for an adult day care/vocational habilitation facility that serves individuals with developmental disabilities at 143 Northwest Avenue. Sponsor: Councilperson Carol Kilway. Mrs. Kilway: I will call the Planning & Zoning Committee. We do have Ord. 2022-54 in front of us. The ordinance was read into the record. We have already amended it and its ready to go. Is there anyone who has a motion? Mr. Loughry: I would move to adopt. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Mayor: The applicants are here in the audience. We thank you for moving your business from South Avenue down to there. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. Ord. 2022-54 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. ii. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-55 – Approving and granting a conditional zoning certificate to Applicant, David Hockey, Towerco 2013, LLC, and property owner the Tallmadge City School District Board of Education, for construction and operation of a wireless telecommunication and antennae on 2,800 square feet of 9.881 acres on PN 6000312, (250) N Munroe Road Sponsor: Councilperson Carol Kilway Mrs. Kilway: The next one is Ord. 2022-55. The ordinance was read into the record. We just received this today. Planning & Zoning will have a public hearing on July 7 th. If anyone wants to look at any of the plans, I have them right here. Is there any discussion? Pres. of Council: Just a technicality; this is Ord. 55 not 54. Mrs. Kilway: I’m sorry if I said 54. Is there any discussion on this? I know we kind of already touched on it. We will just give this another reading and wait for Planning & Zoning’s recommendation as well. Is there anything else to come in front of Planning & Zoning this evening? Hearing none, I close committee. iii. Additional Items: None. 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 23, 2022 b. Finance Craig Sisak, Chair Jonathon Bollas, Vice Chair The Finance Committee deals with budget, appropriations, and reappropriations, bonds, franchises, investments, and expenditures. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-56 – Expressing intent to sell unneeded, obsolete, or unfit con- struction equipment no longer needed for municipal purposes and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Public Service Michael Rorar Mr. Sisak: I call the Finance Committee to order. We have Ord. 2022-56 before us. The ordinance was read into the record. I will take a motion on this. Mrs. Kilway: I move for the adoption of Ord. 2022-56 at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Bollas. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Ord. 2022-56 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. B. Ord. 2022-57 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids and the Mayor to enter into a contract for the Howe Road Park drive entrance, grading, park sign, paving, and pavement markings and pro- viding for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Sisak: We also have Ord. 2022-57. The ordinance was read into the record. Mrs. Kilway: I think since we are just advertising for bids that this is kind of a time sensitive item if we want to get this done this summer. I would like to make a motion for the adoption of Ord. 2022-57 at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Roll Call: Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 2022-57 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. C. Ord. 2022-58 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into an Intergovernmental Agreement between the County of Summit and cities of Akron, Barberton, Cuyahoga Falls and Stow for the Matrix Case Management System and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Law Megan Raber and Mayor Kline Mr. Sisak: We also have Ord. 2022-58. The ordinance was read into the record. Madame Law Director, do you have any comments, or would you like to fill us in on the Matrix Case Management system? Dir. of Law: Sure. So, we have been using this since 2017 which was when we originally got this system. The Police Department onboarded first and then the Law Department has been using this since 2020. We just need to renew the contract. We will have everything digitally stored instead of paper files and we will be able to transition away from most of the paper files. Mr. Sisak: Great. So, we will go ahead and just give it a 1st Reading this evening. Is there anything else to come before the Finance Committee? Hearing none, I will close committee. I will go ahead and close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. c. Personnel Jonathon Bollas, Chair Adam Bozic, Vice Chair The Personnel Committee deals with personnel, labor relations, insurance claims, Rules of Council and State Statutes. Mr. Bollas: I call the Personnel Committee to order. We have no ordinances. Does anyone have anything to come before the Personnel Committee? 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 23, 2022 Mayor: Two things. Geri Blon from the Police Department tenured her resignation and so she is going to retire. She is the Police Chief’s Administrative Assistant. He did go out for applications and received 11 of them. So, he is in the process of doing the interviews. And the other thing, Jonathon, you will ask me where am I with the Dir. of Administration and I’m sure that I will beat you to the punch line and so I am still working on that process. Mr. Cooper is still doing both functions. He is unable to be here. Mr. Bozic: I know there was a study being done in the Police Department and part of that was going to be kind of like some personnel studies to review that within the department. Do we have a . . . Mayor: We do not have an end report yet. I received the comments from Dr. Cooper through that company that they are working on the final documents to send to us which then I will share with Council as soon as I get those. Mr. Bollas: Anything else for Personnel this evening? Hearing none, I close committee. i. Additional Items: None. d. Community Issues Mary Gutman, Chair Carol Kilway, Vice Chair The Community Issues Committee deals with Parks and Recreation, civic affairs, and liaison between Council and the Recreation Board and intergovernmental affairs. Mrs. Gutman: I call the Community Issues Committee to order. We have no legislation. Does anyone have anything for the committee? Mr. Sisak: I have a question. The Concerts on the Circle; I saw a sign that they were cancelled or delayed. Are they back on? Dir. of Pub. Service: They are back on. Just last weeks was cancelled. Mrs. Allman: Yes, the concert on August 11th; we also have Council that night and I wondered if there was any way we could start Council early so we can go to the concert. Mayor: The August 11th was the one that was supposed . . . it is a Neal Diamond band, and they start at 6:00 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. Pres. of Council: I’m open to doing that unless it causes an inconvenience for any other Council members or the Administration. Can we go ahead and do that at this time? Dir. of Law: Sure, you can take a vote and then set it and it is in plenty of time to publish it. Pres. of Council: I would entertain a motion to move the August 11th meeting from 7:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mrs. Allman: Or 5:00 p.m. Pres. of Council: Is 5:00 p.m. OK? Mrs. Gutman: OK, so we have a motion to move our August 11th meeting from 7:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry – unanimous. The August 11th Council meeting will start at 5:00 p.m. Is there anything else for Community Issues? Hearing none, I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. e. Safety Adam Bozic, Chair Craig Sisak, Vice Chair The Safety Committee deals with disaster services, communications, fire, and para- medics, police, and health. 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 23, 2022 Mr. Bozic: I call the Safety Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. I will open it up to the floor. Do we have any discussion? No one responded. I only have one question and it relates to the ordinance that we passed at the last Council meeting in regard to fireworks. I didn’t know if there was any change in how the Police Department will be handling calls in regard to fireworks. Mayor: We did meet with the Police Department and the Fire Department. It will be complaint driven. They will go out to the residents, and we are doing a campaign saying what the laws are and they will go out and warn the person and do the citations per Council’s request. Pres. of Council: Let me just follow up on that because I did have a discussion with a resident and then a follow-up discussion with Chief Williams and he didn’t have it in front of him Mrs. Raber, but he felt that it was like a 4th degree or a 5th degree misdemeanor and that it is really, really low and that the fine is not very much. Are you familiar with that? Dir. of Law: I believe it is actually a misdemeanor in the 1st degree and we follow the State Law on that. Mr. Bozic: Alright. Is there any other discussion? Hearing none, I will close the Safety Committee. i. Additional Items: None. f. Public Service Rebecca Allman, Chair Mary Gutman, Vice Chair The Public Service Committee deals with streets, highways, sidewalks, buildings, and improvements: water, sewer, electricity, gas, energy resources, recycle, waste, and trash. Mrs. Allman: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have nothing before us this evening. Does anyone have anything? Mayor: On the gas aggregation. Make sure that you look at your gas bills. It did switch off of the variable down to the $3.73 per mcf. If you are not on the City’s, you need to sign up for it because it is the lowest rate out there at this given time. Mrs. Allman: Anything else for the Public Service Committee. If not, I close committee. i. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: a. Council Operations Committee: Mr. Bollas: Just a brief update. I sent you all an updated report on viewership and I just wanted to state right now that the average is looking like 112 and that could be repeat views and so we are still working with IT and Dove Audio to see how far we can drill down, but I just wanted to give you an update that it was north of 100. Mayor: We did review some of those statistics today and it is about 35 customers, but they keep coming back. So, every time you log in, it is a new click on the site, but he called it a special word, an original or unique visit. Mr. Bollas: Yeah, we were looking at live stream versus you know next day and I was discussing it with IT this week actually about the various avenues that we can pull that report. Mr. Bozic: I have one question since it is kind of IT related. Within Council Chambers could we get different outlets that have USB ports in them for charging purposes. Pres. of Council: In next year’s budget for sure, remind me if you would, and we will make sure that we will do that. Mayor: You have electric plugs there, don’t you? 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 23, 2022 Mr. Bozic: Yes. Mayor: So, he could provide some adapters in the meantime. Mr. Bollas: I have one question. About two meetings ago, it was stated that there was work being explored for wi-fi at Maca Park. Any update on that? Mayor: I know they have been out there looking at it. They had to put a booster in somewhere . . . I think it was out at Maca because the Verizon cell service in the area has fallen off and we have complaints into Verizon and they did some work about a year ago and ever since they have done that work, it has been going downhill. He has been working with the area rep to figure out what is going on. Mr. Bollas: Being more involved with the swimming programs out there in the mornings I can personally vouch for a lot of adults working on laptops from personal hotspots, but then dropping out, but I do see adults taking conference calls and working remotely while the kids are practicing. Mayor: They installed a booster today out there or an amplifier. Mr. Bollas: Thank you. i. Additional Items: None. 12. Announcements: None. 13. Adjournment: Mrs. Kilway moved to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. The 6-23-22 Council meeting adjourned at 7:55 p.m. sb Adopted: ___________________________________ ______________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Dennis K. Loughry, President of Council 8