City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 1. CALL TO ORDER. President of Council Loughry called the Council meeting of Wednesday, October 26, 2022, to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Opening Prayer & Pledge of Allegiance: Prayer: Silent prayer. Pledge of Allegiance: Audrey Mervine, 5th Grade student at Tallmadge Elementary School. She will lead us in the pledge and then please remain standing and she is going to sing the National Anthem for us, 2. 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: 10-13-22 Council Meeting Minutes Mr. Sisak moved to approve the 10-13-22 Council meeting minutes. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman – unanimous. The 10-13-22 Council meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 7-0. 5. Financial Reports: None. 6. Public Hearings: None. 7. Community Input: Pres. of Council: This is the point in the meeting where if there is anyone who would like to speak to Council about anything that is not on the agenda, now is the time you can do that. Would anyone like to speak this evening? Seeing none, we will move on to agenda additions. 8. Agenda Additions: None. • City Department Presentations: None. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Dir. of Administration: Pres. of Council: The Mayor is out of town. b. Dir. of Public Safety: Good evening. I sent an e-mail to the members of Council regarding the Fire Chief’s interviews and the panelists. I hope that everyone received that so you can see that the two panels that we have and that we have three highly qualified candidates all of whom are employees of the City of Tallmadge. They are Joe Natko, Ben Stasik and John Underwood. Those interviews will take place as indicated in an e-mail on November 9th and 10th and I would be happy to answer any questions you would have regarding that. Otherwise, that will be the end of my report. Pres. of Council: Dr. Cooper, the candidates took an assessment; there was an assessment done and they were ranked, and we were all made aware of those rankings. Now there are going to be two panels, not assessments I guess, but to some degree I guess . . . Dir of Pub. Safety: Interviews. Pres. of Council: So, will each of those panels do the same thing so that there will be basically three public rankings that everyone will know that is how your decision is based? Dir. of Pub. Safety: No, there won’t be rankings after the interviews. The interviews are for feedback from representatives from the community and that is extraordinarily valuable but there won’t be a ranking. Pres. of Council: I wish there were but it’s not my job. Anything else for Dr. Cooper? Mr. Bozic: With the individuals that you have on the committees specifically the technical committee, and I know you say there are no rankings and so it kind of gives a little more not as objective of a committee when we have quite a few individuals on that committee that either work for the City or have worked for the City. Can you kind of tell us how that particular panel can be I guess unbiased in their decision making? 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Dir. of Pub. Safety: First, there is no decision making. They will be giving advice to the appointing authority, so they won’t be making a decision. Second, how we chose them we just looked around for those who knew the City and all of them are employees of the City or were employees of the City and have a technical background in the fire service and that is why they were selected. Pres. of Council: Can you describe how the selection process happened for the individuals on the public panel? Dir. of Pub. Safety: The same way. We tried to use a diverse approach trying to gather representatives who work and live in the City and all of those on the stakeholder panel live in the City and work in the City. Actually, that may not be true. They may not all live in the City, but they all either own or work in businesses within the City. We tried to be as diverse as possible and there were people that we invited that were not able to participate and there were others that replaced someone within their organizations. We just tried to be as diverse as possible and also keep it a manageable size. So, there are nine I believe, and we thought that would be about as big as we wanted to get. Mr. Bozic: So, the individuals that are currently listed as City employees; are they there in the capacity in their role of being a City employee or role of being a public panelist? Dir. of Pub. Safety: I don’t know . . . Mr. Bozic: Are they wearing their City hat during the meetings or are they wearing their I am a citizen of the City hat? Dir. of Pub. Safety: I would say both. Mr. Bozic: OK. c. Dir. of Public Service: Good evening. • First off, I would like to mention that there was a cardiac arrest incident on August 29th at the Rec Center and I would like to recognize the staff that saved this member’s life. First off, Mark Fasone was another member that was with the gentleman and stayed with him during the whole scenario that occurred. Then the Rec Staff Team of Dan Enos, Kelly Davis, Jeff Simons, Joanne Boyd, Joanne Jones, Nate Canavan, Randy Keen, and Cheryl Collier. You can see what they all did there and I would just like to point out that the gentleman walked out of the hospital 6 days later. Great job to the staff. There are two of them here so nice work. I just wanted to make sure that was recognized. • Leaf Season Program – This has nothing to do with wards, so no one is benefitting; these leaf zones overlap two or three wards at the same time. We did have crews with vacs go out last Thursday and Friday. That pretty ends my report unless you have any questions. Pres. of Council: So, the only thing I would have for you is that we have an ordinance this evening on the new Rec Grid and I have had at least three in-depth conversations with Mrs. Simons on this and we discussed a lot and I will tell you that she is very thorough and there is a reason behind every decision that is made and everything you are going to look at and so I always appreciate people being candid with me even if we disagree at times. So, I always appreciate that. d. Dir. of Finance: Thank you. I have no report this evening. e. Dir. of Law: Thank you. Just want to thank everyone who participated in Red Ribbon Week and those who sent in videos. If you have not done that yet, get them in a.s.a.p. like today to Officer Quillen. A huge thanks to him. He has been great. He has put together I think three videos now for this week and really captured the spirit of the week for the student and the community and so I am really pleased with that. 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Dir. of Law (Cont’d.) I also want to thank the Street Department who helped with some new signs that kind of coordinate a little bit more with the Red Ribbon Week and tie in that to the Drug Take Back Day which is again on Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. to dispose of any unwanted or unused medications at the Police Department. I want to thank Dustin for those signs and putting them out. End of report. Mr. Bozic: I have a few questions for Ms. Raber. At the last Council meeting, not the Finance one, but the one prior, you had mentioned something about marijuana being legalized and I was wondering if you could explain that in a little more detail because I think based on the current law there is some very specifics about what was legalized, so could you elaborate on that? Dir. of Law: Sure, so there is medical marijuana that has been legalized and then hemp has been legalized which is a derivative of the marijuana product and so those are the two things that have been legalized by the State legislature. Mr. Bozic: Thank you. I just wanted to make sure that that was clarified because your statement was that marijuana is legalized in the State of Ohio which isn’t entirely accurate in and of itself. Dir. of Law: No, it’s medical marijuana and hemp. There was additional discussion. Dir. of Law: As I indicated at the last meeting that I would be happy to have a discussion with you. It really has to do with more of the testing abilities and capabilities that are available through the State. 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 call the Planning & Zoning Committee to order. We have no legislation at this time Does the Administration have anything at this time? No one responded. Council? Pres. of Council: The only thing I have is that, and this is something new to us in the Planning & Zoning meetings is that developers that want to do something can present early concepts so before they spend a whole lot of time and money to kind of get a pulse or a feel and so we will have one of those at the next Planning & Zoning meeting. Mrs. Kilway: Anything else for Planning & Zoning at this time? Mr. Bozic: What time and date is the meeting? Mrs. Kilway: It is the first Thursday of the month at 7:00 p.m. Is there anything else? Hearing none, I close committee. Thank you. i. Additional Items: None. 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. 2022-78 – Adopting a budget for various funds of the City of Tallmadge, Ohio, for current expenses and other expenditures during fiscal year ending December 31, 2023, appropriating the necessary funds for the administration thereof, authorizing transfers between funds, and providing for immediate enactment. 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Sisak: I would like to call Finance to order. We have Ord. 2022-78. The ordinance was read into the record. This will go three readings and we will go ahead and set a public hearing for December 8th at 7:01 p.m. Mrs. Kilway: Could I have a little bit of discussion on this? Mr. Sisak: Do we need a roll call or anything on the pubic hearing. I think you just have to state it on the record. Does anyone have anything they would like to discuss on the budget this evening. Mrs. Kilway: Yes, I had asked Mr. Rorar for some information on the concrete street plan and he gave me a lot of information and I know we had a discussion about the cement curbs in a lot of the neighborhoods that need replaced and as part of our storm water management and he forwarded us a lot of information and what I find is quite interesting is that in order to do all of the curbs in the City that are bad right now is only like $115,000 more; is that correct Mr. Rorar? Dir. of Pub. Service: That is for three allotments. There is more, but those are the worst three allotment that we have with curb and gutter issues. Mrs. Kilway: It was $113,365 to replace all of the really bad curbs in the City. That is also going to, I believe, help a lot of the storm management issues that we have, and it will help keep the flow of the water going and you took some wonderful pictures for us; thank you. I would just like to make a motion to add $100,000 to the concrete budget. Mr. Sisak: I don’t know that we need a motion necessarily. Mr. Bollas: I just have a quick question for clarification. In asking for the funding for that, is it taking out of the General Fund or is it moving funds from one budget to the other. Dir. of Finance: I believe what Mrs. Kilway was asking for was to add an additional $100,000 into the budget so that would be from the fund balance in the General Fund. Mr. Bozic: I talked with Ms. Kilway briefly after the last Council meeting and I agree with her that there are significant issues, while I shouldn’t say significant issues, there are some issues with the curbs and so I guess when Mr. Rorar, you have it listed here as 3 allotments at 3,239 lineal feet. If you were to put a number on the remaining lineal feet that remain in the City that you feel would need to be on the 3,200+ feet? Dir of Pub. Service: Just so there is clarification, normally the way the curbs and gutters were done is they were done on the streets that were getting paved and we never looked at streets that don’t need paved and so last year was actually the first year we did that when we started that I would probably say three times, so probably around $9,000 but there are a lot of bad curbs in unpaved allotments and so . . . Mr. Bozic: So, of those allotments because you said you prefer to do the curbs when you do the streets which makes sense of those three allotments would that be . . . are those streets scheduled for repair, so we are doing those curbs separate from the street repair. Dir. of Pub. Service: Those allotments are probably 7 to 10 years from getting paved again. If we don’t fix the curbs, it will just get worse. Pres. of Council: So, procedurally, I have a question, so Mrs. Kilway wants to add $100,000 so do we need to vote on that as a Council or do we just kind of nod our heads and say we are going to add $100,000? 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Dir. of Law: You would probably want to vote to make sure that you actually have the necessary votes and then I don’t know if we do it now at 1 st Reading or do we wait until 2nd Reading. Pres. of Council: Well, basically it becomes an amendment right; I would like to get amendments done early if we could. Mrs. Kilway: That is why I initiated this at this time. Mr. Bollas: I have one procedural question too to go along with that. Do you wait until . . . is it better to wait until all amendments are collected and then vote on those amendments wholistically in summary? Pres. of Council: I think it is better to do them as they come up. I think it is much more transparent. It would make this committee run a little longer, but the budget is an important thing. Mr. Sisak: It would change the amendment so that’s why I kind of wanted to bring it up. The engineering and the study for the underground walkways to the Circle, I guess I question the need for it. Hear me out. We are putting a lot of money into the other parks in the community, and I just don’t know if a tunnel . . . I would rather see it in street repairs and the curb stuff. I see like kids hanging out in the tunnels and spray-painting graffiti. That was my thought and I am open to everyone’s feedback. Pres. of Council: So, Mr. Sisak, my perspective is a little bit different because I was the Economic Developer that wanted to buy the 10 Minute Lube and tear it down and so it was always my intent to have a community parking lot which we now have and to find a way to let events happen in the Circle without having police and auxiliary there all the time or at no time and I just think that a tunnel allows us to do that and enhances or would enhance the character of the park. But, again, we can disagree on those things. Mrs. Kilway: That is why we need to have this discussion. I appreciate your thought on that too, but I also would agree with Mr. Loughry on this that I think we do need access to the Circle. It is one of the City’s public parks and unless you actually have a police officer or auxiliary officer there to do traffic control, it is extremely hard to get to that Circle. Mr. Bozic: I am kind of on both sides here because of the example you use if you want to do a photo shoot with your family, there is parking within that Circle so you can easily park on the south side of the Circle and have access to the Circle and not have to cross a road at all. Mrs. Kilway: It is hard to get out of there too. Mr. Bozic: So, I definitely see it from both sides, and I guess my only thought with this is we just did a parks master plan not too long ago and the Circle is a park and so I guess I would have like to have seen that discussed during that timeframe of a tunnel or a bridge or something. I know that this has been kicked around for a long time Mr. Rorar, so I am not discrediting anything that you have done or you are wanting to do, I’m just saying that I think there are some studies; one being economic development and two being within the parks within the Rec Department as to whether or not those two kind of go hand in hand and whether or not we spend additional monies for an engineering study. I don’t know that I have than answer. I am on both sides of the fence. Mr. Sisak: Again, we don’t have to decide tonight. We can go forward with what we are calling an amendment I think on the dollars for the curbs, but I appreciate everyone’s feedback. Mr. Bollas: I was just going to add a few thoughts I had on the tunnel was around public safety and potential traffic accidents depending on the design and 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Mr. Bollas: you know various crime; drug activity and then what would be the long-term cost in terms of surveillance and would we need an officer to do patrol and have extra patrol and add visibility at all hours of the night. Would it be gated off at night with someone who would have to be checking on that or would it be open any day all day. So, those are just some of the thoughts I had. I am open to the idea, but I think it needs to be vetted out a little bit more. Mrs. Gutman: I agree with you on just moving forward with the amendment for the curbs and gutter, but I just want to say one thing that I don’t think has been mentioned about the tunnel is the safety issue of stopping traffic for pedestrians to cross and this is every weekend when we have wedding season. I see so many near misses with cars not prepared for the Circle traffic to stop and people crossing the street when they shouldn’t be crossing like at points where the officer isn’t and I feel like we at least owe it to the community to study the issue if we have the funds to do it and I just wanted to put that thought in your minds as we are considering it moving forward, but I do agree with the issues that we have to think about safety as far as are we going to create a problem with loitering and all of that as well. Dir. of Pub. Service: Thank you. So, several things. I was involved in a tunnel project in 2003 out in Bath Township and it has been spray painted one time and as far as loitering goes, it doesn’t happen because it is used and that is why it doesn’t happen. That tunnel has people going in and out of it all day long to get to the other side. As far as why I am proposing that; it was part of our master plan; not so much a tunnel but access to the Circle. Then it was also part of our Comprehensive Plan was access to the Circle. If you know anything about it is an F- as far as intersections go. No matter what we do it can only get to an F. As far as roadways go, but as far as pedestrian crossings, we could improve that greatly, so I reached out to AMATS, and I don’t know if that e-mail was in there. AMATS is drooling over this simply because it meets so many different things. It gets access to our iconic landmark, and it promotes the safety of that crossing and it eliminates so many things that we have issues now with. So, at the end of the day, I understand the concerns, but like I said I could take . . and that tunnel looks brand new out in Bath Township. It is the way you design it and the way you construct it. The $75,000 would be for full engineering and so let’s say they get in $10,000 and they find out that it can’t work then it stops right there. So, $75,000 would be for the full set of engineering drawings to move forward and get grants and solicit additional funds, but they might get into it and find out they can’t make the drainage work and that could be the single downfall to the whole thing. That is what we need, we need somebody better than me to figure that out and look at that to see if they could get it to go down or not and then the parking, I believe one of the big reasons for the parking lot that exists there now was I believe the business was tired of allowing all of the parking and they asked the City to come with additional parking. So there again, as many points that you want to hit on, I think the tunnel hits on a lot of those as well. Mr. Sisak: I appreciate everyone’s feedback. Mrs. Gutman: Just for the public, could you just briefly describe what AMATS is? Dir. of Pub. Service: The acronym is Akron Metropolitan Area Transit, and they go around and secure funds through ODOT and the other grant agencies and there are a lot of different grants that are available because that serves as a trail as well and there are all sorts of funds there and ODOT or the County might even 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) throw in because that would help their state routes and so at the end of the day there are several thigs that could occur. Mr. Sisak: Does someone want to make the motion to add some money to the budget for the Service Director? Mrs. Kilway: I had already had a motion to add $100,000 to the curbs added to the concrete portion of the Service Director’s budget. Mr. Sisak: Was $100,000 enough though; I heard $130,000. Mrs. Kilway: It was $113,000. Mr. Sisak: Do we want to go with $100,000 or $113,000? Mrs. Kilway: We will just go for the whole $113,365. Seconded Mr. Loughry. Mr. Sisak: We have a motion and a second to add $113,000 to the budget. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. The motion passed by a vote of 7-0. Mr. Sisak: Is there anything else to discuss about the budget? I did have a couple of things, I noticed in the Capital Budget for Safety Services, I had heard that there is a possibility of some new firearms for the department and since you are here sir, and I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but is that something that was in the budget that you are planning on or is that just hearsay at this point. Dir. of Finance: That would not be a Capital expenditure. So, each of the guns individually do not qualify as capital purchases. They would be part of an equipment budget is where you would find that. Mr. Sisak: I guess I am asking if new sidearms are in the budget. Chief Williams: They are not in the budget. It was part of my original request. We had meetings prior to what is submitted to you, and I had asked for a lot of things this time and that didn’t make the cut that got to you this time. Mr. Sisak: I remember probably 5 or 7 years ago you came, and I think talked or someone from the Police Department came and talked about new firearms. It wasn’t budget time it was like mid-year. Is that about how long you guys have had the current service weapons? Chief Williams: I apologize I don’t know the exact number; I want to say 7 or 8 years. There was additional discussion. Mr. Sisak: Is that something that you would like. Less than lethal weapons in the department; what currently do you guys have? Chief Williams: We recently added pepper ball rounds. They are less invasive than something like a bean bag which contains pellets which can . . . Mr. Sisak: How many of those do you have? Chief Williams: Every car has the beanbag rounds. It is not something that we use commonly. We have one pepper ball gun. It is something that we recently implemented. Some people use pepper spray. Probably our main less lethal is our taser which everyone carries on their belt. Mr. Sisak: Sure, and then lastly, how about do we have any type of ballistic shields say for clearing buildings or anything like that. Chief Williams: We have some. I am not happy with them. It is something that could stand to be upgraded; yes. Mr. Sisak: Can you get me a price for all three of those total and then we can discuss about putting those into the budget as well? Chief Williams: Yeah, I can. Pres. of Council: Just regarding the budget process Chief, so you prepare a budget, and you submit it, and you prioritize what you want in the budget and then cuts need to be made. Do you then prioritize those cuts and make those 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Pres. of Council (Cont’d.) decisions on what gets cut? So, let’s say the administration says hey you have to remove $300,000 from here; do you do that or does the administration just remove $300,000? Chief Williams: I don’t believe there is a hard and fast rule. That has never happened where it has been, or in recent memory, it hasn’t happened to where it was $300,000. Usually, and I am not in most of the meetings that they have after I present what I have to talk about. The way it seems to me is that certain things are acceptable, and others are not. Pres. of Council: And again, not to put you on the spot, but what I have noticed is that it just seems like and maybe it is just because of the cost of the items that the Fire Department budget in general is much more structured in the way it is presented than some of the other departments. Chief Williams: Sir, I only deal with my budget, and I can’t tell you what is in the Fire Department’s budget. Chief Williams: I have my hands full with my own budget sir, I can’t tell you what they do. Pres. of Council: Alright. Thank you very much. Mr. Bozic: I think what Dennis is trying to say and he is trying to eloquently put it is that we spend a lot of money on Fire but we don’t spend a lot of money on our Police and I know that we have Fire and Police here and I have no problems spending money on either one of them, but I think there are a lot of other things behind the scenes that are going on right now whether it be the Police study, within the budget, but it seems to me that we are not very supportive of our Police Department but we are of our Fire Department. Pres. of Council: Wow, you misunderstood what I was saying. Mr. Bozic: That is where it seemed like you were going. Pres. of Council: No, what I was saying was that I just wanted to know if we are allowing Chiefs and Deputy Chiefs and Department Heads, or whatever their titles have a lot of control over their budget both in the preparation of it and in the cutting of it when needed. That’s what I was trying to find out. Dir. of Finance: Can I speak to that as the Finance Director. Mr. Bozic: Before you do, I think there is one other thing too that we should discuss openly is that our Finance Chair has yet to even have a meeting with the Administration about the budget before this was brought to us. So, I think that meeting in and of itself should be rescheduled and should be made so some of the conversations and discussions can happen in that setting rather than on Council floor. I know that is what the Administration prefers. Dir. of Finance: Just to give everybody an understanding of how the budget process works and what we do. There was discussion regarding the budget process. Mr. Sisak: I’m not . . . I understand there are long and hard discussions, but the point is is you know, we are going to spend $80,000 on an engineering study and we can’t arm our safety forces with the proper equipment to do their job properly. Mrs. Kilway: I just wanted to bring to everyone’s attention because you had just brought it up when you said we are spending $2 million in the hole. If you go to 2022’s anticipated fund balance report when we did the budget, the anticipated ending balance in the General Fund was $6,240,215.65 and the estimated beginning balance is $10,260,000 so we estimated that we are going to end with $6 million but actually we are beginning with $10 million so we actually had increased revenue, so it is not really spending money in the hole. It is spending the increased revenue from the year before. 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Mr. Sisak: It’s deficit spending however you want to slice it. If we didn’t have the General Fund, we would not be spending an extra $2 million in 2023 proposed. Mrs. Gutman: Frankly Mr. Sisak, we can’t just hold our citizen’s money. Mr. Sisak: I didn’t say that. I never said that and that is why I am asking the Police Chief if there are some extra things that he needs in his budget so we can spend some more money. Mrs. Gutman: I’m not against that at all. I agree with you that if we have safety issues that they should absolutely be addressed, but I do disagree when you say it is a deficit it makes it sound like we are mismanaging our money. Mr. Sisak: No, we are deficit spending. That is what it is called. Mrs. Gutman: We are taking the opportunity to return taxpayers dollars to our taxpayers. I absolutely would not advocate for spending extra money if we were in the hole, but what I think we are doing holding all of this extra money at some point you are going to have to explain to people why you are doing that and there is being conservative and then there is just holding money, . . . Mr. Sisak: The State of Ohio has a rainy-day fund, and it is like $3 billion. Mrs. Gutman: Right. Mr. Sisak: We need to have our own deficit rainy day fund as well. Mrs. Gutman: And we sure do. We have a very healthy one, I am not disagreeing with you at all about the Police and as the wife of a Fire Fighter who is also an EMS provider, we say Fire Department and Police like that is two things, but really we have Fire and EMS and so that is two separate things so we are really looking at three departments and EMS itself is expensive and so I guess when we are considering the expenses, we have to look at it like we are funding three not just two when we are looking at their budgets. Mr. Sisak: Is there anything else to come before Finance on this ordinance 2022- 78? Mr. Loughry: Mine goes to Mrs. Gilbride’s comment and number one it was very refreshing to hear that. I guess I can be guilty at times of having old reference points and so all I can tell you is that when I was a Service Director and then when I was the Economic Developer for a total of 5 years, the budget was not done; there was not as much communication then as there is now and so with Mrs. Gilbride’s experience and Mrs. Stritch’s experience, what she brings to the table, things are done in a much better way. Old reference point. Sometimes it is hard to forget that. Mr. Bollas: Just one question; circling back to the compensation study that is currently ongoing is that targeted to be completed this calendar year and if not, what is the date of that study completion target? Dir. of Pub. Safety: We don’t have a date target for it. It is our expectation that we would get a recommendation from the vendor by the end of the year. Mr. Bollas: Are we putting any numbers in the budget to actually implement anything from the study in 2023? Dir. of Finance: No. No, we did not because we felt that the study, if there are changes to that, all of that is going to have go through Council for approval and so we left all of that out of the budget. Mr. Bollas: OK. Thank you and then the last question on that, in looking at getting a compensation board request or having approval; is there money in the 2023 budget specifically for personnel for compensation or merit increases? 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Dir. of Finance: The only increases in the budget are the increases that are already provided for through ordinance. There were no raises or any additional monies granted due to the compensation study, so we are allowing the compensation study to come back to us before we would give any current employees any additional increases other than what they have coming to them under the current band proposals that we have. Mr. Bozic: I do have a question related to the budget. I believe I asked this at the last meeting but, and I don’t recall that we necessarily got a clear answer, but the safety improvements at Ritchie Hall; are they within 2023’s budget or are they being spent this year? Dir. of Pub. Service: We felt that they were within operating so we believe we can cover those costs in the Operating Budget. Mr. Bozic: And what were those improvements? Dir. of Pub. Service: Adding the camera and the lighting down there. Mr. Bozic: Any key fob access or anything like that? Dir. of Pub. Service: Not at this time. Mr. Bozic: Because of the fiber issue correct. So, the fiber in the key fob; is that in the 2023 budget? Dir. of Pub. Service: No. Mr. Bozic: I think I will reserve some of my questions when we get to the Rec Grid then. Mr. Sisak: Does anyone else have anything on this ordinance. We have a meeting in two weeks and one day so please come again with more comments and questions. Thank you. B. Ord. 2022-80 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a contract without competitive bidding and through the State Purchasing Program, or as authorized by R.C. 125.04 (C), with MNJ Technologies for the purchase of computer equipment, software licenses, and related equipment and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Sisak: Moving on, Ord. 2022-80 is at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. We will just give this a 1st Reading at this time. Is there anything else to come before the Finance Committee this evening? Hearing none, I will 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. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-79 – Establishing the number of non-collective bargaining employees by department and position pursuant to R.C. 731.08 and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Bollas: I call the Personnel Committee to order. We have Ord. 2022-79 before us at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. At this time, I would like to set a public hearing for December 8th @ 7:03 p.m. Is there any 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Mr. Bollas (Cont’d.) discussion on the ordinance? Hearing none, this will remain with the Personnel Committee. Are there any questions for Personnel this evening? Mr. Bozic: Yes, Mr. Bollas I do have a question. I guess this is more a question about the procedure of this but the information that is in this whether it be the total number of personnel for you know whatever department it is; is it Council’s prerogative to make changes or additions to this or does that strictly come from the Administration and we simply stamp it for approval? Pres. of Council: Mrs. Raber, I think Council can create a position but the Administration may choose never to either fund or fill it? Dir. of Law: That would bY correct. Pres. of Council: And then Council, on the flip side, can choose whether or not they are going to fund a position. Dir. of Law: Correct to the extent that it is within the budgetary constraints which is by sub-category and not be individual. Mr. Bozic: I’m sorry, can you explain that again? Dir. of Law: Well, each department’s budget is by . . . like it has a line item of salaries and personnel and so that is the amount in there and so that department has to operate within that and then they have to operate within the number that is set, but there is flexibility within that to not spend as much money on personnel as what would be allocated or . . . if you were to create a new position I would recommend that just as a practical manner that you would also provide for the appropriation for that position. Yes. On two separate things or you could even create legislation that created that separately as well. Pres. of Council: But it would still be the Administration’s prerogative whether or not they were going to fill it. Mr. Bozic: So, then I would like to toss out the idea of . . . I do have a question; why is the Lieutenant position not listed within the grid? Dir. of Law: So, the grid is only for non-collective bargaining positions, so no collective bargaining unit positions are outlined in the grid. Dir. of Law: They are in the collective bargaining agreements. Mr. Bozic: Right and so the particular position I am talking about is the Lieutenant position. So, we currently have two Captains listed here in the grid and I assume there is funding in the budget for that to happen for next year. Dir. of Finance: Because we are not going to employ that person so if we were to budget to spend that money then we don’t have that money to spend on other things because it is being held aside. So, the budget reflects what the Administration actually intends to spend money on so if we don’t intend to have a position or a job, we don’t put it in as a placeholder just because the position exists. Mr. Bozic: So, I guess my next question would be then at what point do we decide well, we eliminate that position, or we fill that position. Dir. of Finance: I think the decision has been made by the budget request to add an additional Captain and not budget for a Lieutenant and so I think that is where you are seeing the decision is that Administratively they have decided that they feel that the organizational structure that needs to exist is two Captains instead of a Captain and a Lieutenant and so that is why that request is being presented in the budget in that manner. 11  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Mr. Bozic: I guess to put it as plainly as I can, we currently have a Lieutenant contract ready to go. All we need to do is fill it; that’s it. The Captain position, you are asking to change the grid and then add the funds to the budget. My question is why are we not just filling that Lieutenant position and in addition, why have we gone since our Captain had resigned from that point which I believe was August roughly of 2021 to where we just filled the Captain position I think in May. That was a pretty extended period of time. So, there are multiple things here that I see wrong with this situation. Mr. Cooper, I believe you want to make a comment; is that . . . Dir. of Pub. Safety: Yes, I believe you are confusing your lack of understanding with wrong is how you used it. So, I am absolutely happy to meet with you and discuss even with the Police Chief, the history of the senior staff at the Police Department if you like. Mr. Bozic: I tend to disagree with you sir. I think you over complicate it on purpose and so I think that your lack of understanding is overcomplicated the situation where if you simply look at this as a need within a department, and we can dive into the details on the floor if you want about the Police Study but I choose not to and we have a Police Department that needs a high ranked structure and the Administration has chosen not to fulfil that for what reason? Dir. of Pub. Safety: So, that statement is incorrect. We have chosen to fill with two Captains, which by the way, all of the stakeholder’s support; all of them from the union to the senior staff at the Police Department to the Administration and so that is why we are choosing the path we have chosen. Mr. Bozic: When you say all of the stakeholders, I guess what was the conversation like when this was proposed as two Captains. Was it two Captains and no Lieutenant; was it . . . can you elaborate on what their options were? Dir. of Pub. Safety: I am happy to meet with you to discuss the details. I don’t think this is the right place to do that. Mr. Bozic: Well, I will tell you what the options were; the options were two Captains or nothing. Dir. of Pub. Safety: That is incorrect. But I am happy to discuss it further. Come on in and visit and we will talk about it. Mr. Bollas: Alright, any other items for Personnel? We have set the public hearing and I will go ahead and close committee. Thank you. ii. 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. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-81 – Amending and supplementing Ord. 2021-117 to amend rates, charges, and fees for all recreational facilities and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mrs. Gutman: I call the Community Issues Committee to order. We have Ord. 2022-81 at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Would anyone from the Administration like to speak on this? 12  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Dir. of Pub. Service: So, we looked at the rate structure of our rental facilities and we are submitting an increase across the board at the Ritchie Shelter. It is a 2:1 increase. According to the grant rules we can increase non-resident by twice as much as we are charging residents and so that is what we opted to do. Before we looked at it there was no differential between resident and non-resident at any facility that we had. So, we submitted this as is and I would be happy to answer any questions. Mrs. Gutman: I do have one. Actually, you said that we are allowed to double the non-resident rate. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. Mrs. Gutman: It looks like they are one and a half times. Dir. of Pub. Service: Which one? Mrs. Gutman: On the facility rates. Pres. of Council: I think Mr. Rorar she may be looking at Maca and the Rec. Dir. of Pub. Service: So, the Community Center as I stated we doubled the rates at the outdoor shelters and the Ritchie Center. The Community Center, we increased it because there again there was no differential, but we increased it by 50% because at that location you have to have an officer on duty there especially when there is alcohol involved. Mrs. Gutman: OK, so that is how we decided that one was doubled, and the other ones are one and a half times. Dir. of Pub. Service: And at the other ones, the outdoor shelters and the Ritchie Center there is no alcohol permitted at those locations. Mrs. Gutman: I think it makes sense. Our taxpayers are already made to shoulder the burden of non-residents. It makes sense to me that we have a difference in the rates. Does anyone else have any discussion? Mr. Bollas: So, nothing for this schedule Mrs. Kilway: I am fine with raising the non-resident rates. I do know that we have like your deposit is like $100 which if something happens like we had happen it doesn’t even touch any of the damage that was done to it. Have we looked into instead of doing like a security deposit do some of like what the vacation rental places do and you actually purchase an insurance policy, and it is approximately the same amount as what a security deposit would be, but it is actually attached to an actual insurance policy so if something happens then that insurance policy would cover any of the damage done at the facility. Have we looked at anything like that? Dir. of Pub. Service: No, but I would be happy to take a look at that. Mrs. Gutman: Any other comments; Mr. Bollas. Mr. Bollas: With the ARPA Project for the dog park. What is the timeline of that because it is going to lead into my next question. Dir of Pub. Service: The engineer was hired to engineer and design that as well as the restroom unit and adding a shelter to that park and so he just was awarded that maybe about a month ago. So, hopefully by February or March we will have something to put out to bid. Mrs. Gutman: Any further discussion the ordinance? Pres. of Council: Mrs. Gutman, a couple things. One is that we placed this in your committee because basically everything can always go in Finance because it is all tied to money. I think that this discussion is much more about a community issue and value to the residents and all sorts of things. So, also in 13  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Pres. of Council (Cont’d.) my many discussions with Mrs. Simons over many years, there is not one department in this City that is under more pressure to feel like they have to break even or turn a profit if you will than our Recreation Department. To me, that has always baffled me. That is not why we exist. I can’t tell you the number of conversations that I have had where they feel pressured to turn a profit. Well, I am going to tell you that we are never going to turn a profit, never ever, ever until we pay off that debt and I don’t think we pay off the debt Ms. Gilbride till 2031; right? My hope is that we don’t have a whole bunch of other projects lined up by 2031 to go in debt again. People need to understand what we did. We built a Rec Center; we renovated a Rec Center, and we built a swimming pool with unvoted money. Then we started to run out of money and so then we had to go to the taxpayers and say we gave you recreation, but now we can’t provide you safety so now you have to pay an additional income tax to get your safety. Well, I have never lived my whole life that way. I have never taken a vacation before I took care of my other responsibilities and I recreate a lot as you guys know. But this is the boat we are in and to complain about the boat you are in, if you can’t jump out and swim to shore, is foolish. So, we have recreation debt, and it handcuffs us to some degree. But it is what it is, and we should concentrate on doing the best we can and offering the best programming we can for our residents just like it is another part of the Service Department. Recreation falls under Service for a reason and Mr. Rorar is never going to have enough money. So, I’m done for the night. Thank you. Mrs. Gutman: Thank you Mr. Loughry and you know you bring up something I meant to address and that is the question of why aren’t these facilities exclusively for Tallmadge residents because we do run into issues if they get booked up and they are not always available when our residents might want to use them. So, I think for the community’s sake that might be listening if you could just explain briefly about the grant and why we are required to open up facilities to non- residents. Dir. of Pub. Service: First of all, forget the grant. They are public facilities and public grounds, so they are open to the public and so that is in the Ohio Revised Code and that is just what you have to do. If you have the grant on it, it doesn’t tighten it any stricter because it is open to the public still, but they do set some guidelines as far as setting fees and so if you have a football field that is in a park and you get a grant, it has to be open to the public and whatever we charge residents to use it, we can double that. Mrs. Gutman: So, you have educated me too so it is simply in the Ohio Revised Code, and it would be illegal to say that we only rent to Tallmadge residents. Mr. Bollas: Yes, on the theme of public safety, in the 2023 fee structure is it incorporating mandatory security at any of the rentals or is that still only the Community Center as that is where alcohol is permitted; is that correct? Dir of Pub. Service: Correct and we did change the hours at Ritchie Hall; it closes at 9:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and at 10:00 on the weekends and holidays. Mr. Bollas: OK, but right now there are no changes to the policy itself on when a security guard will be required . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: We looked at that and between the hours of 5:00 and closing. But then again, that is $35.00 an hour that you would have to hire a Police Officer and it cannot be an Auxiliary; it has to be a true Police Officer because the Auxiliary’s are not trained in security and so you have to have a true 14  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) Police Officer there and if you do it at the Ritchie House you can do it for a baby shower, you can do it for a wedding or you could do it for a 1st Birthday. Mr. Bozic: I guess what is disappointing to see is that you mentioned that it is $35 an hour for the officer. The City is not burdening that cost; the renter is burdening that cost. So, I guess for the sake of safety, I don’t see any issue with having that added to a rental at any of our facilities if it helps improve our safety and helps improve peace of mind within our community because I can tell you right now if Tallmadge Little League has a game going on down there by Ritchie and there is a rental in the hall; there are going to be some uneasy citizens. It doesn’t matter what the rental is. Dir. of Pub. Service: Councilman, so I don’t disagree with you. This is the first phase of those changes. The first thing was making those changes to rentals. The Chief and I have been talking about different things to do for security, so we are not there to put the security on there yet. We can implement that later if that comes up. We are trying to figure out a way to have Police Officers do foot patrol through there a couple times. We are not sold on that yet. The other thing is having our janitor show up at 9:00 p.m. We are not quite there yet, so there are a couple things we are still working on that. So, there are probably three phases to this, the first phase was to get the non-resident rate installed so we can start moving forward with that and the safety issue; the cameras and lighting and is there a way of getting a patrol going through there more regularly or something else. We will circle back to that. So, this isn’t the ending point of this conversation. This is just the first part of the conversation. Mr. Bozic: I don’t think that the conversation should end at this, but I also feel that you mentioned that the janitor might show up at 9:00 p.m. He is not trained in security either. Dir. of Pub. Service: No. Mr. Bozic: And neither are your Auxiliaries and so to me the simplest of answers is having them required to have security presence there by our Police Officers and if it is a lack of staffing or manpower, it is no different than what we would do at the Rec Center is whoever is in charge of those additional duties, then kicks it out to surrounding community departments and they fulfill it from other departments and so I don’t think that is a valid reason of lack of manpower. I think the only thing you would be looking at is that it is a significant increase in price, but I think safety is a price that we could easily pay at this point. Dir. of Pub. Service: I don’t disagree with you at all, and like I said, we are still looking at that and so we might come back and tell you we need to hire an officer to it. We are just not quite there yet. Mrs. Gutman: I do think it is something for thoughtful consideration because it would in essence double the rate again for our residents as well. Dir. of Pub. Service: There lies my problem. So, you have a baby shower there and who am I to say . . . and you have to get the cop as well and so there is another $175 on top of the baby shower for a resident. I want to cautiously go into that and I agree with the safety aspect of it and that is why we are talking to the Police Department, but I don’t want to make that, so it is not attractive right now. Mrs. Gutman: Is there anything else? We will leave this at 1st Reading. Is there anything else for Community Issues that we would like to talk about tonight? 15  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 Pres. of Council: Trick or Treat. 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and the football game on Friday night. Mrs. Gutman: OK. Then I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. e. Safety Adam Bozic, Chair Craig Sisak, Vice Chair The Safety Committee deals with disaster services, communications, fire, and paramedics, police, and health. i. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-77–Exhibit – Exhibit Tracked Amending Part Fifteen-Fire Prevention Code and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Public Safety Cooper Mr. Bozic: I call the Safety Committee to order. We have Ord. 2022-77. The ordinance was read into the record. I know we had talked about this is a very in- depth corrections probably beyond the scope of any of our comprehension because it is all related to Fire Prevention and the Fire Code so Mr. Cooper if you would like to elaborate. Dir. of Pub. Safety: So basically, this is multiple sections of our Codified Ordinances that haven’t been updated for a long period of time. It varies greatly from one section to another. He went on to discuss some of the changes. Mr. Bozic: Any other further discussion? Mr. Bollas: We didn’t get any update on the Fire Station. Is there any update on the glass or with the challenges they were facing with the various supplies? Dir. of Pub. Safety: I am not aware of any updates. Mr. Bozic: Is there anything else to come before the committee? Hearing none, I will close committee. ii. 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. i. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-76 – Exhibit – Exhibit Tracked - Amending Chapter 927 Storm- water Management Utility and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Public Service Rorar Mrs. Allman: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have Ord. 2022- 76 before us at 2nd Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Do we have any comments on this? Pres. of Council: Do you just need a 2nd on this Mr. Rorar? Dir. of Pub. Service: It should go to three readings. Mrs. Allman: Is there anything else for the Public Service Committee? Dir. of Pub. Service: (Inaudible – microphone turned off) Mrs. Allman: Hearing none, I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. 16  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 26, 2022 11. Reports of Special Committees: Mr. Bollas: Just a small update, so with the monies that were unencumbered that were not spent on the desk for the streaming service, we are using a portion of that for a wireless mic to replace the handheld microphone that often has battery issues, so that should resolve that, and it is within the existing budget. a. Council Operations Committee i. Additional Items: None. 12. Announcements: Mr. Bollas: Yes, I just wanted to thank the Administration because there was a lot of discussion on the Police Study this evening and there is a meeting that will be on Monday and so when you come back into session the following week, I think there will be some better understanding from all sides, and I appreciate the meeting being scheduled. 13. Adjournment: Mrs. Kilway: I move to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. The 10-26-22 Council meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m. sb Adopted: ______________________________________ ______________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Dennis K. Loughry, President of Council 17