City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 8, 2022 1. CALL TO ORDER. President of Council Loughry called the Council meeting of Thursday, September 8, 2022, to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Opening Prayer & Pledge of Allegiance: Prayer: Father Mike Matusz, Our Lady of Victory Church. Pledge of Allegiance: Brooklyn Young, 5th Grade student at Cornerstone Community School. 3. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – present. Mrs. Allman was excused. 4. Correcting and Adopting the Previous Meeting Minutes: 8-25-22 Council Meeting Minutes Mr. Sisak: I move for the adoption of the 8-25-22 Council meeting minutes. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. The Council meeting minutes of 8-25-22 were adopted by a vote of 6-0. 5. Financial Reports: • Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $135,000, Street Maintenance & Repair in the amount of $150,000, and Police Pension in the amount of $50,000 to Council on 8-30-22. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report and Revenue Report for the period ending 8- 31-22 to Council on 9-2-22. • August Financial Reports to Council on 9-2-22. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 8-31- 22 to Council on 9-2-22. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 8-31-22 to Council on 9-2-22. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 8-31-22 to Council on 9-2-22. • Income Tax by Source Report for the month of August to Council on 9-2-22. • Revenue Comparisons for Major Funds for the period ending 8-31-22 to Council on 9-2-22. Mr. Sisak moved to accept the Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. The Financial Reports were accepted by a vote of 6-0. 6. Public Hearings: None. 7. Community Input: Pres. of Council: This is the point of the meeting where if anyone in the audience would like to address Council on anything that is not on the agenda now is the time that we provide you to do that. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to speak tonight? Hearing none, we will move on. 8. Agenda Additions: There will be a presentation by Darrell Stineman from the Water Department regarding sanitary sewers. Dir. of Pub. Service: Darrell has been with us since 2018. He has a Backflow Prevention license, a Class 2 Water Distribution license and a Class 1 Wastewater Collection license. Darrell Stineman, Water Superintendent, City of Tallmadge: The slide that Mike has up there tonight is kind of a high-level view of the sanitary sewer system and how it relates to the flow as to what is going through our master meters. I will start over here with the billing rate per million gallons in 2012. They charge us by every million gallons of flow into one of these master meters. So, for 2012 they charged us $1,968. So, in comparison in 2022 and you look at where we are at now and they are charging us $4,602. That is for every million gallons that go through one of these meters. We have two meters; we have two master meters. One of them is at Eastwood and Alaho and the other one is at Brittain Road. So that column over there where you see it says total yearly million gallons. That is more of the good news. The good news was that in 2012 there were 838 million 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 8, 2022 Darrell Stineman (Cont’d.) gallons of sewage total; that is combined. So, you have Eastwood and Brittain Road. You can see on there that obviously we have cut that down substantially. We are down in the 400 and 500’s. Even last year we were down to 380 million gallons. So, what that equates to is that the middle column there equates to $1.5 million. Five years after that; 2018- 2022, we are still in that same ballpark. We are in that $1.6 million range. So, in my mind, we are holding even. If you take the first 5 years of millions of gallons, the average was 774 million gallons for those first 5 years. Where we are at now the average is 498. So, what I did in this lower box here is if we were to stay where we were those first 5 years and we are still flowing 770 million gallons we could potentially be looking at a $3.5 million sewer bill per year. I guess the next obvious question is how did we get there? They have obviously been quite lower these last 5 years. It starts with Mayor Kline and this Administration and City Council. You give us the tools and the equipment and the support we need to go do our jobs, but as Mike mentioned, it is Shane Knicely, Rob Neihieser, Kyle Klein, Steve Clark, John Davis, Bryan Chapman, Heidi Grimm, and Tara Ripple. They genuinely desire to make this a successful utility department. It doesn’t happen without them being willing to do that. When they see an issue not only do they want to find issues, but they want to fix those issues immediately. Whether they admit it or not, they buy into the maintenance programs that I put in place. They want to do those things to make that stuff work. The biggest one and it is not a stat that is up there. In 2012 there were 9,044 linear feet of sewer televised. We literally put a camera down in the sewer pipe and we are able to inspect the inside of that pipe. Last year we did 60,000 linear feet. So that is a huge tool for us to use to identify where these issues are. We identify inflow and infiltration issues, we are finding parking lots that are illegally tied into the sanitary sewer system, broken pipes, etc. So, we are talking about storm sewer or groundwater. That is what I&I is if you are not familiar with that. So, we are finding where the sanitary is illegally tied into to the storm sewer and vice-versa. They found 35 manhole lids that had been covered over and we couldn’t get to them. A lot of sanitary sewers in this city run through wetlands and low-lying areas and so they are next to creeks, they are next to streams. We started a process where we were cleaning and calibrating the Eastwood and Brittain Road meters that I was talking about earlier. We started that in 2018 and we calibrated that about every 6 months, and we clean it about every month and then in 2019 we started doing the same thing to the Eastwood meter. It just keeps it so that we know that that meter is reading accurately, and we know that is spot on as far as we are not being charged too much. The reason that we clean it is because those meters build up debris in the bottom of them. They charge us on depth and so if there is 2” of silt on the bottom of that meter, that is an additional 2” that we are going to get charged for the height of the water for that. So, moving forward; what do we have to do. I think we have done a great job about inflow and infiltration. I think just the fact that we have been able to inspect more lines gives the opportunity to go out and fix a lot of these issues. We need to keep growing on that and we need to keep doing programs; lining programs and some newer programs that we haven’t gotten into yet. The smoking tests where you essentially fill the sewer with smoke, and you see where it comes out. Sometimes it just comes out from cracks in the road. So, it shows you where your weak spots are. A similar process is with dye testing. You dump dye in there and hope to see it in the sanitary sewer. A fats, oil and grease program. Heidi and I actually just the other week went to a FAG Conference and learned a lot about what that program is like. The City of Akron is instituting the FOG Program is what they call it. What it is is your restaurants, your commercial buildings; you are trapping that grease and trapping those solids which when they get out into the sanitary sewer system and then the business if responsible to get rid of that grease and make sure that that does not get into our sanitary system. That grease is clogging lines. 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 8, 2022 Darrell Stineman (Cont’d.) We are doing other programs that we need to continue like a root control program. What that does is basically . . . you treat the inside of the pipe and that makes it so the roots that are growing in from the trees that are putting holes in the lines; those are eliminated and so the water can get through those areas, and I think that is about it. Thank you. Mr. Bozic: I do have one question and thank you for the presentation. What would make your job easier or your guys’ jobs easier out there on the street? What do you guys need to help save the City money or just to make your job easier? Darrell Stineman: I think we have been fortunate that we have been able to get some new equipment. We have a new closed circuit TV trailer. Employees are helpful. I mean the more . . . I guess to be honest with you, the fact of the matter is the more people you have the more you can institute programs like this. You can have a FOG Program; you can have the smoke testing program. You can do all of those things. So, I think that is what it is is people and equipment. We are trying to get these programs going; we just need to build on that. Mayor: Great job to your crew out there, but don’t sell yourself short. It is the leadership that you put forth in your department. I have seen multiple different Superintendents down there at the Utility Department going back 30+ years and by far between you and Service Director Rorar you are doing a great job. On that chart, the light green is when Darrell Stineman came to work for the City of Tallmadge and that is when you started to see a drastic change in how the City was functioning in that department. We thank you for everything that you do and your department. Darrell Stineman: Thank you. I appreciate that. Mr. Sisak: You said you did about 60,000 linear feet of camera of the sewers. How many linear feet do we actually have. Do we have a guesstimate? Darrell Stineman: It is 88 lane miles roughly. Mr. Sisak: So, again, it is a small piece to the puzzle. Darrell Stineman: It is, and Mike and I have talked before probably when I first started, I made the assumption that maybe we would get 5 years down the road, and we could get through the whole City. It didn’t happen. Mr. Sisak: My other comment is I can see why the City of Akron raised their rates because they weren’t making as much money off of us as in the past. Mayor: Just one more thing. I think it is so important that you talk about this column right here; the Tallmadge Billed Million of Gallons. Darrell Stineman: What that is is water so what that is is the water distribution side. Our total billing that we send out to Tallmadge residents, that is the million gallons. So, what we send out in bills; what we actually bill for water is there so in 2012 you have 384 million gallons that we billed for the water consumption. 838 million gallons actually went down our sewers. So, there is about 400 some gallons that did not come from anybody’s tap. We are water consumers in Tallmadge, and it has been the same every year. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Director of Economic Development: • The COG, the Council of Governments; we have been meeting. That is the dispatch center at the corner of Howe Rd. and 91 with the communities of Stow, Cuyahoga Falls, Fairlawn, Summit County Sheriff’s Department and the City of Tallmadge. The building is being built out as we speak. I was in there again this week and it looks like the timeframe to complete the build-out is right around the end of May or June and then it will take the rest of the year to be able to move the equipment into that building so the goal for the COG is to have the first dispatch by December of next year. They will be staggered in. • Happy to announce today that we completed the process for the Lieutenants today. We had 7 great candidates for the six positions, and it was very hard to 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 8, 2022 Mayor (Cont’d.) make that choice, but I would like to congratulate Jeff Turbak, Nick Sansom, Joe Kline, Carl Syx, Todd Beatty, and Carl Morrow. A little bit of an update on the fire station. The concrete out front . . . They will put the iron in on that and hopefully pour on Monday. The walkways on the back of the building and the curbing was poured today and so the exterior is moving along very well. The issue is we can’t get concrete. We will get it poured. • In the living quarters the flooring is just about complete. The ceiling grids are all in and they will put the pads in after the inspection next Wednesday. The garage bay area which is now the holding room because everything is being pushed from one side of the building to the other. All 6 doors are scheduled to be here on the 8th. Now it is the 19th of September and with the installation at the end. • The move-in date is the middle of October. That will be called a temporary occupancy. All of the safety forces and safety items, sprinkler systems and all of that must be completed and they will be completed by that date. So, things are really moving along. We are still looking good on the budget. • We do have a couple of ordinances that are in Finance. Ord. 2022-69 and Ord. 2022-70; I would ask for your consideration. End of report. Mr. Bozic: I have a question for the Mayor. What is our intention with like a grand opening of the new fire station. Mayor: Oh yeah. We will have something. We are also planning at the request of some of old timers who want to make a tour of the old Station No. 2. Some of those guys actually built some of that and they want to go in and take a hammer and bust down a wall or something. We will have that ceremony closing down the station and we will keep Council up to date on all of that. Mr. Bozic: Then my other question was on the Summit DD building. Do we have any initial plans, or I guess what is our next step for that building? Mayor: So, in talking to Summit DD we are still not owners of that building. We should be able to get it turned over to us sometime in October. We have been searching for someone to move into it. We also applied for a state grant for the demo of the entire site. We were supposed to have the results of that 4 months ago. We still don’t have those resolved. We were supposed to have, in that same application, Station 2 demo. So, we are still going after the demo. The demo of the building is roughly $1 million. The upgrades: the roofing, the HVAC and different things inside of that building will be closer to the $2.5 to $3 million. If I can get a tenant for it, I would rebuild that thing in a heartbeat. Do we tear down some of it and keep the gymnasium side? I would gladly entertain if you have a company that wants to move in. b. Director of Safety/Administration: Good evening, everyone. First, I handed out a document about the Citizen’s Police Academy. This is a program that is done regionally. I also wanted to mention to that a couple of weeks ago, a resident captured a burglary in their garage on their home security camera. A female made several trips into the victim’s open garage while the family was home and walked away with two loads of items that were later recovered in a male suspect’s garage and vehicle. The male suspect was out on bond on multiple prior felony cases and wore a GPS ankle bracelet which is a bit of a give-a-way. With that knowledge, Sgt. Heatwall of our Police Department was able to locate that male in the City of Akron with property from the victim’s garage still in his car. The ability to quickly locate the wearer of that ankle bracelet ties directly to our Police Department’s affiliation with the U.S. Marshall’s Service Violent Fugitive Task Force which gives us access to contacts and resources that wouldn’t otherwise be available to the TPD. In addition to advanced methods of tracking for wanted individuals the task force 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 8, 2022 Dir. of Safety/Administration (Cont’d.) specializes in safely apprehending violent criminals which enables Tallmadge officers to do their job more safely while reducing liability to the City. Sgt. Heatwall and Officers Miller and Hefner did an outstanding job in quickly locating and apprehending the burglars. Here is an example where it took minutes that otherwise might have taken literally hours to achieve. This is one reason, and it is just another reminder that we really do have good officers on our Police Department. On Thursday, September 1st Mayor Kline administered the Oath of Office to the first full-time Lieutenant in the history of the Tallmadge Fire Department. You can see there Sansom and Turbak and we named the additional 4 that will be sworn in very soon. This we believe is a necessary evolution of the department as we continue to see growth and service requests. A total of 6 will be promoted this month at a larger public ceremony that we will plan a little later as the Mayor mentioned. Not related whatsoever, but the Circus is in town or was in town. They offered some challenges for our inspectors that . . . we have not had a circus in town for quite some time and I hope you can imagine the challenges of making sure that it was safe for hundreds of people to be inside on a hot day. The Fire Department is giving a test for full-time Firefighters to establish a current list although there are no current full-time openings at this time and the deadline for applications was today and there were 19 applicants which was a good number. We are happy about that. We are also actively seeking applications for part-time Firefighter/Paramedics. Due to some recent resignations of part-time Firefighters, we currently have openings for 3 immediately and so please pass the word to any of your friends. As a follow-up to some of our previous discussions, the 5 top scoring Fire Chief applicants were passed to our assessors, Pradco Company, last week and we are currently in the process of testing the candidates. From these 5, the top 3 scorers as determined by Pradco will be passed to Civil Service and go on to complete background checks. They will be asked to provide written answers to a few questions and then for those who make it past these, and test successfully, will be interviewed likely some time in late October. Shortly thereafter we expect the appointment to be made either maybe in October or early November. Just a bit of a warning, the background checks alone can take a month and the following steps: we just don’t know how long they will take. I will give you dates when we know them as soon as we do. That’s the end of my report unless you have any questions. Mr. Bozic: You made mention of a lot of new hires for part-time and full-time for the Fire Department. We are looking at getting a new Chief and we just got new Lieutenants; I think a total of 7; is that correct? Dir. of Safety/Administration: 6 Lieutenants. Mr. Bozic: A total of 6. I guess sitting back and looking at this and hearing all of this about new fire, fire, fire; what about police, police, police? I know we have a new Captain and there is a slot available for a Lieutenant at the PD. Will that spot be filled? Dir. of Safety/Administration: No. The Captain is going to be filled in lieu of the Lieutenant. Mayor: In the budget for next year there is a new spot for a Captain’s position so then you will have 2 Captains and a Chief. So, you will have 3 management. You are again, welcome to come in and talk about it and I failed to talk about one of the biggest things we have been doing for the last month is the budget. We are close on the budget. Mr. Bozic: Right. I guess my only thought would be with this is that we are currently waiting for a staffing report for the PD correct? Dir. of Safety/Administration: Correct. The staffing study has yet to be received. Well 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 8, 2022 Dir. of Safety/Administration: it is not a staffing study; it is a department analysis or evaluation. Mr. Bozic: But that is a big part of it though. It sounds like we are already going down the path of deciding we need to have 2 Captains under a Chief and no Lieutenants before we ever have a study in our hands. I guess what is the point of doing the study if we are going to make decisions outside of the study ahead of time. It doesn’t make any sense to me. Dir. of Safety/Administration: Well, I’m sorry about that, but we have to make progress and move forward with the department. We haven’t received the study yet and we look forward to seeing it. Mr. Bozic: I think the quickest way to make progress would be to fill the Lieutenant position that you currently have on the books rather than put it through Council in a new budget and in a new staffing grid or what not for Council to have to approve. Dir. of Safety/Administration: Well, the Lieutenant position is not budgeted either. So, it would have to be . . if we chose that path, we would still have to include it in the budget for next year. Mr. Bozic: What do you need from Council to approve to have the Lieutenant position filled this year? A re-appropriation of funds? Mayor: The Administration chooses to pick the employees. That is an administrative function and Council is legislative and I have not asked for legislation to go forward with that. Even if Council puts legislation out there requesting me to hire, it is an administrative function and it is not a legislative function to hire that position. Administration at this time are going forward is choosing not to hire the Lieutenant. Mr. Bozic: I look forward to hearing about the study then. Mayor: Very good. Mr. Bozic: I look forward to seeing that information. Mayor: Great. Mr. Sisak: Who is the company that is doing this for us? Dir. of Safety/Administration: It is Zashin and Rich. Mr. Sisak: And they are out of where? Dir. of Safety/Administration: Columbus, Cleveland. Mr. Sisak: And how many times have they been here? Dir. of Safety/Administration: Don’t know. Mayor: Multiple. Multiple times. Dir. of Safety/Administration: Visits you mean? Mr. Sisak: Yeah, how many times have they been in the City of Tallmadge? Mayor: They have interviewed every one of the officers, they interviewed the Chief, they interviewed . . . Mr. Sisak: I guess I am going to what is the hang-up; is it them or is it us. Dir. of Safety/Administration: Well, we are waiting for their study, so it’s not us. Mr. Sisak: OK, so it is not us on the record. Thank you. Pres. of Council: I know a little bit about government, but I know more about business and if I entered into a contractual relationship for a vendor to do something for me and in the initial communication they said they would have it to me by a certain time, even with some grace built in, if they didn’t perform within a reasonable period of time, I would find a way to hold them accountable. I think that we are letting them escape unless there is just some real financial issue because we don’t want to hold their feet to the fire. Mr. Bollas: I just wanted to circle back on the Fire Chief testing process regarding the top three scores. Is there a target date for when that would be provided to Civil Service to meet and confirm? Dir. of Safety/Administration: There is no target date. I believe it could be as soon as next week. 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 8, 2022 Mr. Bollas: OK and then is there, based on the hiring confirmation in the late October/November timeframe; is there a plan in place for the interim Chief to start and finish with that being said? Dir. of Safety/Administration: Well, Chief Passarelli plans are to depart the beginning of October and unless that changes, at that time when he retires there will be an interim Chief until the position is filled permanently. Mr. Bollas: OK. Thank you. c. Director of Public Service: • So, just an FYI, this Saturday, the Howe Road Park entrance starts its tree clearing. Keep in mind that we moved the entrance to the east at the top of that knob there. The contractor feels pretty confident that they will be able to meet the 60-day window. • The ARPA Funds which there was $100,000 set aside for the repaving of the tennis courts. We are going to install underdrains as part of that project. We are going to do that in-house. We are possibly going to close those tennis courts as early as Monday. Getting the water off from underneath those courts is important and so I think those need to be done and we will attempt to bid this and complete it before winter. That is pushing it, but we will attempt to do it. • The Tallmadge Fall Festival will be on Saturday, October 8th from 1:00 – 6:00 p.m. at the Tallmadge Recreation Center parking lot. We did this last year on a Sunday and so we are going to try it on a Saturday this year. Food trucks, live music, hayrides, pie eating contest and what is different is that we are actually doing a beer garden so we will see how that works. The all-day wristbands for the kids’ activities are $5. • With fall season, let’s talk about leaf season. This is all subject to change. Those are the pickup dates that we are shooting for. Those sections overlap multiple wards, so most of those leaf sections overlap at least two wards. One thing that I would like to push is residents may bag their leaves and put them out with their trash. So, next week when leaves start falling try to bag them. We are not coming by until the end of October. So, try to help us out and it will make it a lot easier if those people would bag them. Just keep in mind to not put grass clippings in there, branches, don’t block fire hydrants and mailboxes and watch covering up the culverts and catch basins. That is the end of my report unless there are any questions. Pres. of Council: I do have one question or clarification. I had a conversation with Mrs. Simons regarding Lion’s Park and the pickleball courts. She had indicated that the intent was to make Lion’s Park only pickleball courts and then the tennis players would go and play tennis at the courts at the Rec Center as opposed to when we redo that at Lion’s Park there would still be tennis courts and pickleball courts. Dir. of Pub. Service: Mr. Loughry, let me get back with you on that. I have not heard that. My belief is that the tennis courts as well as pickleball courts are going to be in there together. Pres. of Council: So, it would be like it is now; tennis courts with pickleball courts overlay? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, and I do see tennis players over there in the evening hours. So, the tennis part of it is used. 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 8, 2022 Mr. Sisak: I have to ask; how is our salt supply? Dir. of Pub. Service: Our salt supply is actually; our barns are full from last winter so we are in good shape. d. Director of Finance: Good evening. Everybody received my financial reports. I do just want to point out a couple of items from a report. Our income tax is doing well, but I am seeing a shift in employers due to the work at home. So, I do think this year is still a transition year for a lot of employers and so I do think we will still continue to see some of that shifting of where we are receiving that withholding tax moving forward. I did also indicate in my report that we have seen a substantial increase in refunds which I had expected. If there is nothing else, or if anybody has any questions, I would be happy to answer them. Mr. Bozic: I have a question in relation to the withholdings. Does the Finance Department and/or a representative from the City have an open discussion with them about how many people have returned to work and how many people are still working from home. Dir. of Finance: I mean, I have not asked them numbers, but I can see the numbers and I know what employers have transitioned their work. Some of those employers even reached out to us prior to it changing it over to let us know that they were not bringing those, so that is why I am saying that we are seeing a transition into who our largest . . . well they may have a lot of the employees and those employees are no longer attached to the City of Tallmadge and so there is a transition happening between who our employers are just like we are also seeing . . . First Energy is paying the City of Tallmadge taxes because they have a large amount of employees that they have not brought back to those locations. Mr. Bozic: Forgive me for not knowing this, but I knew the State was talking about trying to come up with a way to kind of give everyone their fair share of income tax. Did they come up with a solution for that? Dir. of Finance: There is currently at the State level no further discussion about municipal income tax at this time. I always try to keep my ear to the ground on those kinds of things, but at this time there is kind of nothing out there. Mr. Bozic: Alright. Thank you. Dir. of Finance: Correct. Large cities . . we are fortunate that we have employers, but we also have a good group obviously of people that were coming back home and working from their homes due to the fact that we are a first ring suburb to Akron and we have a lot of those employees that are not going back to Akron to work in those big, tall office buildings and they are working at their home. So, we are fortunate that it appears for now that those are kind of balancing out. Keep in mind though the DD is just finally getting to where we have about a half year of them with employees on the books and those kinds of things and so we are experiencing some things. We are also seeing some other businesses come into the community. Mr. Bollas: I had asked about this right when we first started going remote, including myself, and just looking through the sources of analytics and the data that we have available to us I know you mentioned relying on RITA for a lot of the analysis. Do we have anything else as sources of data to really look through that transition period of who went remote; who is staying remote; which companies they are and what is the percentage . . . just kind of getting essentially more information other than RITA. Is there another way to do it? Dir. of Finance: I mean the only other reporting that those businesses would do without voluntarily providing that through our own data collection would probably be some census data that they might have to annually report to the census bureau. To me, the numbers are speaking for what the amount of revenue that those businesses are bringing into me is telling me you know this much of their work force has left. 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 8, 2022 Mayor: If I may answer Adam’s question; yes, we do go out and talk to economic development. We still go out. Not only to the big businesses but also to the smaller businesses too to find out . . . I have a group that we go out to Portage County in the annexed portion all the time. We have been in every building out at the annex. The problem with the employers is that they can’t find employees to work. So, if you know of anybody that is willing to work and come to work drug-free, I can get anybody a job. But we do go out and talk to the businesses and see where that is. During the pandemic a lot of Tallmadge businesses were considered essential and so we fared well during that plus now, as Mollie said, a lot of the businesses in downtown Akron, a lot of the banks; people are working at home in Tallmadge. It is working in our benefit. e. Director of Law: Thank you. I will keep it real brief tonight. I just wanted to let everyone know that we are working on some anti-drug programming. We have received some funds as part of our opioid settlement and so as we are working on the budget, I am looking at what type of programming we can bring and also what we can do this year. We do have some monies that came in for that that we can use. I have been trying to coordinate with the School Resource Officers who have kind of a plug into the school district with regard to that and then I will be reaching out to the school district and bringing things also to the community at-large to kind of just raise awareness. That was a huge issue and concern kind of a front burner issue when Covid hit and it kind of got pushed to the back burner, but it is still definitely a problem and we do need to make sure that we stay vigilant about awareness with regard to that. 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, and public property. Mrs. Kilway: I would like to open Planning & Zoning Committee. We are all in attendance this evening. We have no legislation in front of us. I do just want to say that at the Planning & Zoning meeting last week they did pass Phase 5 of the project over there on . . . what is the Pulte project over . . . Tallmadge Reserve; yes, they did pass that. Other than that, we did have a focus group meeting for signs in Zoning and there was a lot of good discussion that happened with that. I like to hear all the business leaders that were there on their opinions on signs, and I think we are going to have a good discussion and revision to our sign policy. Other than that, is there anything from Administration? Anything from Council? Mr. Bozic: Yeah, I have a question related to that development. Obviously, we don’t have a building inspection department in the City; we rely on the County. Have we heard of any kind of ongoing issues or anything that have been coming across from those new homes they are building? Dir. of Pub. Service: Not really. Mayor: Have you? Mr. Bozic: I heard of one kind of like horror story in relation to one of the bathrooms in kind of how they were finishing it and maybe not using the proper materials that they should have been, but that is just one story out of I’m sure . . . Mayor: 200 . . Mr. Bozic: 200 houses, so I just didn’t know if that was a widespread issue. Mayor: I have heard from people that live in there that they love it. Mr. Bozic: Yes, and I have heard the same. Mrs. Kilway: Are there any further questions? Hearing none, I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 8, 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. Third Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-63 – Appropriating funds from the American Rescue Plan Act and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsors: Mayor Kline Dir. of Finance Gilbride Councilperson Sisak Mr. Sisak: I call the Finance Committee to order. We have Ord. 2022-63 before us at 3rd Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Is there any discussion at this time or questions? Mrs. Kilway: I would move for the adoption of Ord. 2022-63. Seconded Mr. Loughry. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. Ord. 2022-63 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. ii. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-69 – Appropriating additional amounts for repairs to Engine I and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Finance Gilbride Mr. Sisak: Next we have Ord. 2022-69. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor: I would ask for consideration of this tonight and Chief Passarelli is here. This is Engine 1. This is one of our older engines. There is a transfer switch that transfers the motor and the pump to work together. That gear had to be replaced and also the generator, it is a built-in generator to run the light and electric cords off of that and that has failed and so we have to replace the transfer switch which was done because it was an emergency and they found a couple other items and so tonight the ordinance is in front of you. It is for $25,000 for those two items. Pres. of Council: I guess Mayor my question is with a budget as large as theirs is; why they need to come to Council for $25,000. Why don’t they just fix the truck? Mayor: Because it is not appropriated yet. Mr. Sisak: It’s not in the budget? Dir. of Finance: Yeah. That is not a typical amount of a repair that we would put in a budget. I mean, when we do the budget for vehicle maintenance we are talking about minor repairs. We don’t put cushion in the budget for major operational items and so we typically, if something like that happens, especially because we budget on bottom line; we don’t want to overexaggerate the budget and then leave all this extra money and so when we have major items like that, the typical response would be to bring it back to Council for the additional money instead of just holding up those funds in the budget. Pres. of Council: Well then, if we would have had a recess or if this would have been a 3-week break in between meetings and that fire truck is down; that means that it would just sit there until we had a Council meeting? Dir. of Finance: No, no. They have enough room in their budget right now to proceed with the fix. We are asking you to replace the money. Pres. of Council: You want reimbursed. Got it. I understand. Mrs. Kilway: I would move for the adoption of Ord. 2022-69 at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Loughry. Mr. Bozic: You mentioned a two-year timeline to get a new truck, so I would think being that the one truck is 18 years old and the other one is 22 that we will be seeing something in the next budget cycle I would assume. 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 8, 2022 Mayor: Good assumption. Chief Passarelli: That is exactly right. We have asked for a replacement of that in this coming budget. Mr. Bozic: What is the expected life span on something like that? Chief Passarelli: 20 years is what ISO tells you you should be replacing them at. Unless you do a major refurb, and the major refurb is rebuilding pumps and a lot of other stuff. You can put a lot of money into a rebuild and get 5 more years out of it. I just don’t think it is a good idea. Mayor: Chief, if I could ask one question. How is the body of the 22-year-old? Chief Passarelli: It is pretty good except for . . . Mayor: Never mind. Thank you! Chief Passarelli: Except for the paint. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Ord. 2022-69 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. B. Ord. 2022-70 – Authorizing the Mayor to apply for Summit County Land Bank Discretionary Grant Funds for the demolition of the structure located at 735 Eastwood Avenue and enter into an agreement with the Summit County Land Reutilization Corporation to demolish this structure and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Sisak: Next we have Ord. 2022-70. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor: If you look at the ordinance up there, it is a $10,000 grant. The cost to demo Station 2 is $18,000 and so this will pay up to 50% but we are applying for the full $10,000. The other state grant that I applied for from Summit DD and this building; we don’t know if it is coming in or not. So, this grant is available, and they have a meeting next Wednesday to approve it and they said it should get approved, but the legislation needs to be adopted so we can at least try to apply for it. Mr. Sisak: We have received these in the past too for other structures. Mayor: Quite often. Mrs. Kilway: I move for the adoption of Ord. 2022-70. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Roll Call: Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 2022-70 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. C. Ord. 2022-71 – Appropriating funds for conduit installation to Phase 5 of the Tallmadge Reserve for future fiber optic service and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Sisak: Last but not least we have Ord. 2022-71. The ordinance was read into the record. I don’t believe this was one that you requested. Mayor: No, we don’t need it. Mr. Loughry moved for the adoption of Ord. 2022-71. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry – unanimous. Ord. 2022-71 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Sisak: Is there anything further to come before Finance this evening? Hearing none, I close committee. iii. 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. 11  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 8, 2022 Mr. Bollas: I call the Personnel Committee to order. We have no ordinances or legislation this evening. Is there anything to come before the Personnel Committee from Council or the Administration? My questions were answered during report. So, I will 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 Community Issues to order. We have nothing before us tonight. Does anyone have anything for Community Issues? Pres. of Council: Tomorrow night is going to be a big football game and the stadium is going to be full and the game is going to be on the radio and so when you go to an event like that it really makes you understand what is somewhat unique about our community. Dir. of Safety/Administration: You may already be aware of it, but Sunday is 911 and we are going to have a ceremony at noon and I think around a little bit before 1:00 p.m. we will probably have some words said by some local clergy and City leaders so we definitely invite all of Council to join us on the Circle on Sunday around noon and 1:00 p.m. Mayor: Then on Monday morning, to tear it all down. Mrs. Gutman: Is there anything else? If not, 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. Mr. Bozic: Thank you Mr. Loughry. I will open the Safety Committee. We currently have no ordinances in front of us. Does the Administration or Council have anything to come before the Safety Committee? No one responded. Mr. Bozic: I just have one question relating to the safety notification stuff; Red Alert I think is what it is called. Did we figure out all of the bugs on that? Did we work all of the bugs out of that issue? Dir. of Safety/Administration: All of the bugs? Mr. Bozic: Some of them? Dir. of Safety/Administration: Some of them yes. It is a work in progress. It is very complicated and Civic Plus is what I think we use now and yes; we are aware of them, and we have been working on them for some time and we look forward to it improving. Mr. Bozic: I know I got the notification for trash pickup which I have signed for e-mail, text and a phone call and so I got all three. I am signed up for all of them but that was the first time that I got one. Mayor: You can change that setup. Mr. Sisak: I have something along those lines. The Civic Ready is new to us, I think what a couple years. How long is our contract with them? Mayor: Five years, I think. Mr. Sisak: We had another service, and it wasn’t as robust if you will, but it seemed to provide a better service, you know, just kind of weigh our options and see if there is something better out there. 12  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 8, 2022 Mayor: I think before Civic Ready did their upgrades most of those bugs were worked out and then they did some tweaking and all of a sudden there were problems. Mr. Bozic: Any other discussion for the Safety Committee? Hearing none, I close 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. Gutman: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have no legislation before us tonight. Does anyone have anything for Public Service? Pres. of Council: I would just reiterate what a phenomenal job the Water Department is doing. Two things I will leave here with tonight. Number one, how tight we budget and how closely Mrs. Gilbride monitors that. And number two the impact that Darrell and his department is having on our bottom line. I mean, when you look at that graph; that was phenomenal. Mrs. Gutman: I would echo that. It was really eye opening to see those numbers. I had no idea. I mean I know you guys work hard but I had no idea that it had that much of an impact and what our bills could be if you hadn’t been doing that. So, thank you for that for sure. Dir. of Pub. Service: You are welcome, and I concur with both you guys’ statements. They do a great job. Mrs. Gutman: Is there anything else? Hearing none, I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: a. Council Operations Committee i. Additional Items: None. 12. Announcements: Mrs. Stalnaker was a wonderful lady and many of us knew her for years and years and years and she passed yesterday morning, but it is very, very sad and . . . Mayor: She was 92 years old and lived a great life and had a great family and she along with her husband Gene . . . so sad for the family. Mr. Sisak: So, services . . . just to continue where Dennis left off, calling hours and visitation will be Tuesday, September 13th from 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. at Donovan Funeral Home and the following day, September 14th at 11:00 a.m. will be a funeral at First Congregational Church of Tallmadge. 13. Adjournment: Mrs. Kilway moved to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. The Council meeting of 9-8-22 adjourned at 8:24 p.m. sb Adopted: ___________________________________ ______________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Dennis K. Loughry, President of Council 13