City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 1. CALL TO ORDER. President of Council Loughry called the Council meeting of Thursday, February 9, 2023, to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Opening Prayer & Pledge of Allegiance: Prayer: Fr. Mike Matusz, Our Lady of Victory Church, Tallmadge. Pledge of Allegiance: Brother and sister, Cadence and Emory Robinson. Cadence is in 5 th grade and Emory is in 1st grade at Cornerstone Community School. 3. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – present. Mrs. Allman is excused. 4. Correcting and Adopting the Previous Meeting Minutes: 1-26-23 Council Meeting Minutes. Mrs. Kilway: I would like to make a motion to approve the 1-26-23 minutes. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. The 1-26-23 Council meeting minutes are adopted by a vote of 6-0. 5. Financial Reports: • Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $175,000, Street Maintenance & Repair Fund Transfer in the amount of $200,000, and Police Pension in the amount of $75,000 to Council on 2-1-23. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report and Revenue Report for the period ending 1-31-23 to Council on 2-3-23. • January Financial Reports to Council on 2-3-23. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 1-31-23 to Council on 2-3-23. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 1-31-23 to Council on 2-3-23. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 1-31-23 to Council on 2-3-23. • Income Tax by Source Report for the month of January to Council on 2-3-23. • Revenue Comparisons for Major Funds for the period ending 1-31-23 to Council on 2-3- 23. Mr. Bozic moved for the acceptance of the Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. The Financial Reports are accepted by a vote of 6-0. 6. Public Hearings: None. 7. Community Input: Pres. of Council: For those in the audience, this is the time in our meeting that if you would like to speak to Council on anything that is not on the agenda, you can do so at this time. You can speak for 2 minutes and address your comments to the Chair. Is there anybody that would like to speak this evening? Seeing none, Item 8. Agenda Additions. 8. Agenda Additions: None. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Director of Economic Development: Thank you. To the students, welcome. • We had a ribbon cutting last Friday at ModWash. That is the new car wash down on West Avenue. It was I think 10º and we were standing while the spray of the car wash was going on. We still have some issues that we are working out with them on some landscaping and some noise issues that we are working on. • Apollo Heating, if you remember they came through Planning & Zoning. It is a heating contractor that is moving onto Crystal Parkway into the annexed portion. They did break ground. • Dayton Freight is also in the annexed portion. We did a business retention meeting there this week. They are looking at expanding further and they do have some property to the north of them that they are able to move into so we will be working with them shortly for that expansion. 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 • Rubbermaid; the 25 acres that is on Crystal Parkway, inSite which are the developers. for Rubbermaid is looking to put that building in. We thought they would be in front of Planning & Zoning by now, but they are a couple of months off and so I think sometime this summer you will see a pretty large facility going in on Crystal Parkway. • Employee Wellness; the Go365, we did have a biometric screening this week and quite a few of our full-time employees took advantage of that and what that did was allow you to tell what your girth is and your body weight. • We also hired 3 part-time firefighters. • The Summit DD building; let’s start off with all 3 buildings up there. The joint dispatch center. It is really moving along extremely well. I think the goal is to have most of it completed by July or August with some move-in of equipment by the end of the year with possibly dispatching by the end of the fourth quarter of this year. • The old bus garage which is owned by Summit County still; the Summit County Sheriffs are taking over some of that building. The management team for the joint dispatch center has moved into the old bus garage and so they are up there doing all of the preliminary stuff so when the dispatch center is completed, they can move from the bus garage side over into their new office area and be ahead of the game on that. • Last week the Governor’s office did announce the grants. 600 blighted buildings in Ohio which included 735 Eastwood, which is Fire Station No. 2, so we did get the grant for that demo and also 89 East Howe Rd. Still waiting on the official details of that, but that is what we have been waiting for. It took a little over a year I think is when we applied for these grants and finally the Governor’s office came out with that. • Fire Station No. 2 you can see that is at 6:10 p.m. tonight. We are going to have an Executive Session to talk about pending litigation that is relevant to some of the garage door issues. Inside the building, the living quarters are complete and we did get notice that some temporary doors will be installed next week and so then we can probably move into that station within the next 3 to 4 weeks. Once we get the guys moved over, then the demo of Station 2 will happen. The detention pond: we decided we are going to keep that detention pond in that location. This has been working for a year and I said let’s leave it there and we will modify it a little bit and then flip the parking lot right underneath the old station. • I am sure everyone is aware that Mr. Bagnoli passed away. Calling hours are tomorrow from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Donovan Funeral Home with the funeral service this Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at the Congregational Church. My condolences to the Allman family. Becky Allman’s brother passed away. • I did watch the last Council meeting remotely and I saw there were a bunch of questions asked about a warming center and some Police stuff, so I asked Dr. Cooper to prepare a report tonight to go over some of the EOC operations and so he does have that . . . since we have a lighter agenda tonight, I thought he would be able to share some of that information with you. Outside of that, that’s the end of my report. Mr. Bozic: My question is related to the area; the bay area of Fire Station 2. Is that currently being heated or not heated? Mayor: Yes, it is currently being heated. Well, the plastic is insulated with an R30 insulation so it is probably a little stronger than what the garage doors insulation value would be. Theinsulation is up on the doors. It is a slab heat. The boiler is only set at 62º in there. That boiler doesn’t run that often. Mr. Bozic: So, there is no overhead heating system? Mayor: Not in there. It is all slab heat. Mr. Sisak: On the demolition grants; are those at 100% from the State or is it like a matching? 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 Mayor: We applied for $1 million for the DD and that is what we have an estimate cost at. The estimate for the original demo was about $600,000 to $700,000 plus asbestos and we did do an asbestos abatement, or a sample and the building came out really clean. Station 2 we had it priced, and we applied for the full amount for both of them. Mr. Sisak: And that is what you believe has been awarded to us? Mayor: We think. Mr. Sisak: And then the detention pond and parking lot; the parking lot would be for like visitors or for employees? Mayor: Visitors or someone going in to visit the fire station; the training room. There is a lot of parking in the back of the building, but I think there are 10 parking spots in the front to meet the parking requirement code. They have handicapped out there too. Mr. Sisak: Out front? OK. Is that going to go back before Planning & Zoning? Mayor: No, it doesn’t require it. Before you leave tonight, I do have a rendering of some mock up drawings from the engineers. Mr. Sisak: Just looking at it handicapped parking that far away from the building might not be that friendly necessarily. Mayor: It does meet all the requirements. Mr. Sisak: I don’t know where the public entrance is going to be. Is it in the front or the rear? Mayor: This walkway, that was from the original so now the sidewalk is going to come around right there and the handicapped is going to be right here. Mr. Bozic: I believe the original plan had it with a cul-de-sac on Treat. Is that still happening. Mayor: No, that was talked about a long time ago probably 4 or 5 years ago. In lieu of that we decided to purchase the house to the east side and so it is wide enough there in the future if we were ever to get the roundabout, we could cul-de-sac Treat and take the driveway underneath and put that detention pond on that side on the north side underground, but we are not putting a cul-de-sac on Treat unless there would be a roundabout in the future. Mr. Bozic: Was there any thought of maybe making that front side just green space? Mayor: It is required to have enough parking stalls in the front for the training room in there. Mr. Bozic: They can’t use the rear entrance or would it . . . Mayor: When they do the training, you can’t really have the cars parked in the back there. You will be able to park in the employee parking closer to Munroe but the other parking when they have guys there training in the training room and then go back and do elevations and jumping out of the window in the tower and sliding down and repelling down. b. Director of Admin./ Safety: Good evening everyone. I will just start with . . . I have a number of things to cover with you, a number of questions. There has been some interest shown generally in keeping past Council videos available to the public. In response to this, the policy has been adjusted by the Administration to maintain the videos on YouTube and add links to the videos on our website under the Agenda Center. Starting January, 2023, we are going to add a link so that everybody can go there and access the YouTube Council meeting or of course, go directly to YouTube on our page to do that. The City is obligated to retain copies of the videos for one year, but they may remain on YouTube for longer. You may know that on February 3rd 200 rail cars derailed in East Palestine, Ohio between Pittsburgh and Youngstown on the Ohio/Pennsylvania border. 50 rail cars were carrying various cargos; 5 were carrying vinyl chloride which is a flammable 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 Dir. of Admin./Safety (Cont’d.) colorless very toxic carcinogenic gas. Local public safety officials chose to let the fire burn continuously and evacuated a 1-mile radius but recommended that all residents leave. Vinyl chloride is used to make polyvinyl chloride hard plastic resin in plastic products such as credit cards, furniture, car parts, etc. It is also notably used on PVC plumbing pipes. There is a thing called the Ohio Intrastate Mutual Aid Compact or IMAC as we refer to it. It provides for any political subdivision in the state to request and receive assistance with certain restrictions from any other jurisdiction in the state. On February 5th East Palestine did just that and requested Chief Fire Officers from Summit County to help with operational management. Our Deputy Chief, Ben Stasik, who is here I believe tonight, was activated at 6:00 a.m. on February 6th and served as Division A Supervisor south of the tracks and Task Force A Team Leader until 9:00 p.m. that night. On February 6 th the rail experts determined that the only way to prevent a catastrophic explosion orBLEVE, boiling liquid evaporating vapor explosion. They determined that one way to prevent it was to ignite all 5 vinyl chloride cars simultaneously. You can see the results. They are rather dramatic. I believe Ben procured these photographs and video for us. Thank you, Ben. Ben reports that he learned a great deal from this and he is very grateful for the opportunity to attend this particular incident which is ongoing as we speak by the way and by all accounts he represented Tallmadge very well so please congratulate him when you see him. You may recall that we had quite a cold snap over the Christmas weekend this past December. At our last meeting, Council asked about the number of emergency calls the Police and Fire Departments responded to during a period between December 23rd and 25th that were related to the cold. From December 23rd to December 27th, the Fire Department responded to 7 calls; 5 were for broken sprinkler pipes, 2 for burst residential waterlines and all were handled with normal Fire Department resources. There were no EMS calls related to the cold. From December 23rd to December 29th the Police Department responded to 4 calls that they considered somewhat related to the cold. One was for an accident on I-76 without injuries and one for intermittent power outages at 100 North Avenue next door for a concerned resident that the Police handled it well in less than 30 minutes. One was for a welfare check at 100 North which was solved with the help of family members in about 21 minutes and one from a resident who was without water which was referred to and handled expertly by the Water Department. The Mayor received no calls for assistance secondary to the cold although he did call Mr. Testa after he was made aware of an e-mail on December 23rd sent to residents at 100 North describing how to reset the furnace when the power goes out which it did on and off for some period of time. The Administration received no calls from the public requesting assistance during this time period, but the office was closed from Friday to Monday, the 23 rd through the 26th but the office being closed has never stopped anyone from contacting the Mayor directly which did not happen during this particular weekend. On a related topic, the Administration was asked at the last Council meeting why it did not open a warming center over the Christmas weekend when it was so cold. The question was not how the system works or how the system responds should a warming center be needed, but why one was not open suggesting that one should have been but was not. Although the way the question was worded could easily be taken as offensive, I will just respond by building on the facts already presented because they relate to the issue. In fact, the emergency assistance provided in our Police and Fire Departments 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 Dir. of Admin./Safety (Cont’d.) are second to none in the state. I have been around the state and so I can say that honestly. Our Emergency Operations Plan or EOP is used by others as a model for how to prevent, prepare for and respond to and recover from both manmade and natural disasters. I just wanted to make sure that everyone receives an accurate portrayal of our City’s capabilities before I address the question specifically. Warming centers are mentioned in the City’s EOP, Emergency Operations Plan. The overall purpose of our City’s EOP is to explain “how the City will engage its collective resources to respond to a major incident or disaster. The EOP does not address how a City responds to daily emergencies because these are addressed in operation plans and practices of our various departments through the use of traditional resources that address the situations that confront us every day. According to our EOP, a warming center can be established under two principle conditions. During a disaster or during a small-scale event and so I thought I would describe what those two situations are. Disaster is defined as an event that involves the occurrence or threat of significant casualties and over wide-spread property damage that is beyond the capability of the City, which is key, to manage with its traditional resources. So it is beyond the capabilities of the City to manage with its normal resources. A disaster shelter would provide overnight sleeping accommodations, mass feeding, restrooms commensurate with the population served, first aid and other services for many people, etc. In contrast, a small-scale event according to our EOP is a situation that can be handled by the City with no outside resources. A small-scale shelter event would not provide overnight sleeping accommodations, mass feeding, first aid, and other services for many people, etc., although feeding could certainly be arranged. Any City facility could be used for this purpose; the small-scale purpose, including the Community Center, Ritchie Center, Rec Center, City Hall or even the Police and Fire Stations. Each of these would clearly have some limitations and restrictions. According to the Summit County Emergency Management Agency, or EMA, a high percentage; they say 80% or more across Summit County of evacuees that will seek shelter with friends or relatives or shelter in-place rather than go to established shelters. This 80% figure considers the effects of poverty, homelessness, food insecurities, health disparities and similar situations across the county, so I would expect that the percentage of these . . . those who would not need shelter in Tallmadge to be much higher. According to both our City EOP and the Summit County EOP, the greater Akron and Mahoning Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross is the lead agency for establishing of shelters and will decide how many shelters will be needed during a disaster. In a disaster in Summit County, the Red Cross decides about shelters. According to our County EOP during evacuation, shelter and mass care operations will be designated by the County EOC using facilities identified by the American Red Cross liaison within the County EOC. The City has an agreement with the Red Cross to use the Rec Center as a shelter with limited capabilities should they ever want to request its use. That is currently. According to the City’s EOP, Emergency Operations Plan, shelter activities within the City are coordinated by the Parks and Recreation Department because they manage most of the Tallmadge facilities that would be used. There was further discussion regarding small-scale shelter needs. 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 Dir. of Admin./Safety (Cont’d.) According to Summit County Emergency Management Agency, Akron opened two warming centers over this past Christmas weekend. Both were on the southwest side of the City where the need is the greatest. Also according to Summit County EMA, Barberton opened one shelter due to local power outages at a cost of thousands but no residents utilized it; not one. According to our EOP, the Mayor or designee may give the order for small-scale sheltering in any City facility, but the Police or Fire Chief are most likely to recognize the need and should contact the Mayor. No such contact was made over this cold weekend in December because none was needed. So, which brings me to the specific answer to the original question; why did the Administration not open a warming center? Because one was not needed. There was another question about Police testing. In the last Council meeting another question was asked regarding the success of Police hiring practices since we use the National Testing Network over the past couple of years, which is an excellent question. Here is a slide listing all the Police Officer tests since 2003. The words, lateral hire, you see there toward the bottom right, indicates tests where we tried to draw candidates from other departments who already have the appropriate certifications so they could get to work quicker. We also used an abbreviated application and testing procedure in hopes that we could further speed up the process for qualified candidates. In this approach we advertised in our usual way through newspaper, social media, word of mouth, etc., but added the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police which made posting available to all of its members all over Ohio. We hoped that our competitive salaries and excellent working environment would attract individuals from across the State. Applications for this lateral hire were accepted through our standard means, but only from Ohio Certified Police Officers that were already working in law enforcement in Ohio. Scoring was based almost exclusively on seniority before candidates were put through some other conventional testing like physical agility testing. We have pretty high standards with background checks, panel interviews and an interview with the Chief. We were among the first in the area to try this approach which quickly caught on in our surrounding communities which made it even more difficult in terms of the competition. As an incentive we used, an amended hire date so new hires would not lose any vacation earned from a previous employer. We hired 7 excellent officers over the course of 3 or 4 years in this way. In the beginning it was fruitful, but eventually we found those applying tended to be individuals who wanted to move away from their current department for a number of reasons and we saw the quality of applicants decrease. As you can see here the number of applicants was not near what we had hoped for. So, we first used the National Testing Network for a Police Officer in 2021. It uses an entirely on-line approach to accepting applications and testing. This is the first time our testing had been done on-line through this organization. The limited number of applicants was likely due to our high standards and a requirement that applicants be certified in Ohio when they apply. Our last 4 hires have been from NTN and are frankly excellent officers. These numbers of our applicants reflect the scarcity of applicants across the country for law enforcement jobs. There is intense local competition with nearby departments experiencing similar challenges. I can’t overestimate the challenge of competition between local agencies in Summit County for one. We are only evaluating people on 4 different categories that I will mention of whether they are a veteran, physical agility, education and certification and experience in law 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 Dir. of Admin./Safety (Cont’d.) enforcement and that is it to get on our list and then we are scoring them based on the extent to which they meet each of those criteria. There was discussion regarding different tactics used in recruiting police officers. Pres. of Council: Thank you. Any questions for Dr. Cooper? Mr. Bozic: Yes, I have a few. So, thank you for the report. I guess going back to the warming shelter, the reason the question was asked was not meant to be offensive; it was meant to be why we didn’t open one because in January of 2019, we did open one and we did post it on social media and it got great feedback from the community. Over 97 likes or hearts, 19 different comments, 273 shares which is phenomenal for a municipal website or a Facebook page to get that many. People’s comments were, thank you Tallmadge, this is a great idea. You know, I love my city. The temperature during those 3 days that we had that warming center open, the low on the 29th was 10º and on the 30th and 31st was -2º. So, I believe if you could pull that back up, I believe we were actually colder on those two days over this past holiday. Why didn’t we do it now. It is not meant to be . . . as a tax payer and as a person on City Council, I don’t care if nobody uses it, the fact that we have it there and we have it available for our citizens; that is what is important, not the Public Safety Director’s ego on whether or not he felt it was offensive. That means no value to me; no value to the citizens in this City. They could care less about that. They want to know that their City is taking care of them period. Dir. of Admin./Safety: Did I answer that question for you about whether they are taken care of? I hope I did. Thank you. Mr. Sisak: I guess, we maybe need to open up the emergency ops plan because it sounds like to me that we have created obstacles rather than avenues that lead to facilitating whether it is a warming center, or whether it is a reverse 911 sending a mass message out to our residents about a water break or whatever the case may be. It sounds like, and again, unfortunately I am here from the government and I am here to help and we have created ourselves more challenges and more problems because if it doesn’t fit in this small square down on the lower right corner which is maybe 1% of the time, the other 99% of the time you are on your own. So, I think what we need to do is maybe review that and be less restrictive. I can appreciate the data and I can appreciate you know what other communities do, but again, kind of to Adam’s point, it is not Tallmadge; it is not our expectations and I think that is where the question came from is we haven’t managed the expectations of not only Council but of the entire community and so you know if a couple of years ago we did one with comparable weather and a couple years later, I think the expectation is we would do the similar thing and again that would be barring any EOP education to the community which I don’t know if we have done any . . . we did about an hour to City Council and it is a several hundred page document. So, obviously we kind of missed on that. As far as the Police Officers, I happen to be at the Rec Center the last time they were doing a physical assessment and a couple of guys that were there conducting the assessment; they said only one guy made it out of those 17 applicants and then 11 qualified. One guy made it to the final stages. So, you know, I understand the challenges that we’re against in the public with Police Departments and law enforcement and hiring, but one person just to get to the final step and potentially not pass, those aren’t real good odds of securing an additional officer. People are being very creative with selling stuff because the market has kind of swung back and so I would say that we have to be just as creative as our communities neighboring us to secure high quality applicants and actually get a return on our investment on whether it is the National Testing or if there was a private company up 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 Mr. Sisak (Cont’d.) there, either way we do it I think we definitely have to have a better yield than what we have been offered thus far. So, thanks. Pres. of Council: Thank you. Anything else. Mr. Bollas. Mr. Bollas: I just want to say thank you for opening up the livestreaming videos on YouTube. That is something that many of us have been asked for from the public, so I appreciate that. Is there, just for awareness, I know the retention is 12 months, but based on the YouTube viewership or usage, is there an associated cost with that or is it essentially just flipping a switch? Dir. of Admin./Safety: So, there is no cost for storing additional meeting videos on YouTube. Mr. Bollas: OK. Thank you. Then regarding the Emergency Plan, I think the answer is yes, but is that accessible by all residents on the website. Dir. of Admin./Safety: No, I don’t believe it is. I would consider that sensitive subject matter. Mr. Bollas: OK. There were two occurrences in my time in my first term where I was asked, you know, what do we do in case of a disaster, not necessarily weather related, but you know when we had bad flooding and there was various damage done around the City; power outages and things like that and so I have been asked about that sort of information and just wanted to know if it was accessible to everybody or if we could provide maybe a summarized version of it for the public. Dir. of Admin./Safety: I don’t think the Emergency Operations Plan which kind of directs and guides the City’s activities during a disaster; I don’t know that that would be all that helpful to a resident. However, there are lots of, I will call them fact sheets, because I believe that is what FEMA calls them and weather.com and others refer to those about what should be done in storms and different types of weather. Can we consider giving access to that through maybe our website or maybe another means; yeah, sure we could do that. Mr. Bollas: Thank you. Pres. of Council: Anything else for Dr. Cooper? Mrs. Gutman: I just had a brief comment in regard to the warming centers. Thank you for all of that information. It is really helpful I think for everyone to know that there are plans in place and then the rationale for what we are doing and I appreciate Mr. Bozic’s point that the citizens like to know that we are taking care of things and the social media feedback that we got. I think that they also like to know that we are being fiscally responsible with our decisions and the point you made about the money that it costs to open these centers is very valid and it needs to be taken into account in the fact that we didn’t have calls for service related to the cold weather means that very likely we would have opened the center and spent that money and no matter how many likes we got on social media, the City would have wasted tax payers dollars at that point and so I would say that I would like us to error on the side of being conservative with our budget when it comes to that rather than going for social media likes. Thank you. Pres. of Council: Anything else for Dr. Cooper? Mr. Bozic: If I could just make a comment in relation to that. During that last opening, the Rec Center was utilized I believe as our warming center. It may have been the Community Center, but it was literally minimal cost because there was a full-time person on-site the entire time so that the cost for an employee was minimal if any and the building is already being heated 24/7 so there really is no additional cost. There is some but it is minimal compared to the flip side of not having a warming center and having something tragic happen. Dir. of Finance: Actually that was a holiday weekend and so the cost actually would have been significant because the Rec Center was not open during those periods. 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 Mr. Bozic: The Rec Center was open from the 29th to the 31st. Mayor: Let me talk about the Rec Center for a second. Dir. of Finance: Christmas Eve and Christmas. Mr. Bozic: I’m speaking about the previous time. Dir. of Finance: No, but I am just saying that in this situation there were . . . being over a holiday weekend, there were actually additional costs that would have been considered. Mr. Bozic: Was it ever brought up or talked about within the Administration about . . . Mayor: Yes. Mr. Bozic: A factor of cost to open a warming center or not open a warming center. Mayor: Nope. It is more of the fact that the Rec Center does not have an emergency generator that . . . if we lose electric at the Rec Center, or at any of our facilities, except the Fire Station and the Police Station, if we had people in there we would have to call Red Cross which we are required to anyways because Red Cross, if you remember, is the one that has the contract and they will not do a contract at the Rec Center because of the fact that we do not have an emergency generator at the Rec Center and so if we lose electric, which it does happen out there; we all know that that we would lose heat and we would have to deal with the folks at that point. So, when we opened it back when you were talking about, which I ordered it, the Rec Center is open for operations and if you are cold, come in and we are open, and you are welcome to sit in the lobby. Mr. Bozic: And it was 24 hours at that time. Mayor: But we did not have anybody in there. Thank you. Sorry Dennis. Pres. of Council: That’s alright. It’s all good; good discussion. Dir. of Pub. Service: Good evening. • For the month of January, you can see we had 23 total permits issued; 12 of which were street openings. • Code Violations currently there are 35 and 16 of them are for property disrepair. In the cemetery we had 5 total burials. Three full and 2 cremains. • Moving on to the Rec Center, the membership at the Rec Center you can see was 7,426 and that is almost 700 more than last year at this time which is good. We are moving in the right direction. Then the visits at the Rec Center. That 25,000 there is about 39% increase from last year. • One of the big projects we have been working on is replacing the lockers in the men’s locker room. The lady’s locker room was done about 3 years ago. This is a 2021 project due to Covid. We couldn’t get the lockers and last year we couldn’t get around to installing them. The night shift from the Street Department is actually doing this. • The Winter Wonderland Dance is scheduled for this Saturday, February 11th and this is the second year for that. Parent Night is February 11 th. They kind of go hand in hand. Then the Family Fun Night is back for the first time since 2020. The tickets are on sale on-line. • The Community Center is still closed due to the broken pipe that occurred. We are actually getting the material for the repairs and all the drywall is up, the mud has been installed and now it is just the ceiling coming out and they are going to start with the new material and I hope to have some swatches here at the next meeting to show you guys. • Tennis courts, pickle ball court resurfacing bids were open. The bids came in a little higher than anticipated, but not bad. I will have that for the next meeting. • Memberships go on sale at Maca on February 15th for residents and March 15th for non-residents. We are going to limit the passes to 2,000 and then the 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) members . . . we are thinking about doing a members day only which would be on Tuesdays during the summer months. Then we were also planning on doing that throughout the week; 10:45 a.m. until noon for members only. A couple of perks for being a member. • The Street Department you can see there that they had 1,000 total hours on snow and ice control. 5 mailboxes were repaired and keep in mind that we have a policy that we will repair or replace your mailbox if it is damaged up to $60.00. So, it is a nice mailbox for $60 but if you want something more, we will reimburse you $60.00 and the rest is on you. • We did 300 feet of ditching, and you can see the picture there. That is on North Munroe. • The streetlight inventory was completed. That is the second shift that goes around and marks all of the streetlights so that is an important thing to do. It is best to do it at night. We pay that bill whether that electric bill whether that light is working or not. There are no meters on streetlights, so it is a good thing to go around and make sure the streetlights . . . if we do have a streetlight out, please call the Service Department. • The Utility Department; 2 water breaks. You can see the one here on Clark Drive. The guys did a great job. In the old days they just started ripping up the road and tried to chase the leak with the sounding equipment they have now, they narrowed it down; you can see the X right there and that is exactly where it was. So they only cut out a certain portion of that road and when we get a chance, we will put that concrete right back so it was a great job by the Utility Department to use the tools that are available. • One thing that I do want to mention is the Metro Meter Reading System is going on 2 years and there have been several accounts with difficulty reading and we figured that we have it narrowed down; they can do it now after making those corrections and if the weather is nice, because there are some sent by radio signal, we can do the whole City in a day and a half. This is the start to start doing it by antennas. So, a lot of those meters are underwater and we are just having problems. The Utility Department went through and made a lot of corrections. A couple of things. We have Ord. 2023-29 and I would like to request that it be passed at 1st Reading. That should have been in housekeeping. The DD furniture auction. Kiko’s is doing that. It starts to get marketed on February 22 nd. The bidding will start on March 8th for 5 days. Then the paving bids and the factory bids came in and I am drafting a letter for the Munroe residents that will get the new sidewalk that way they are well versed and know and are warned that that sidewalk is coming and that is part of those ARPA funds and I will shoot you guys a copy of that letter when I get it done. That’s it for my report. Pres. of Council: Regarding the DD building and if we decide to demo it; will we also auction off or just sell off interior components of that building before it gets demoed; metal, doors and that kind of thing? Or will we just have it be demoed as is? Dir. of Pub. Service: I don’t believe we have talked about that as of yet. Mayor: The metal portion of it is part of the demo most likely. That is how the demo contractors come in because they can scrap value it out and so if you take all the valuable and just leave the concrete the price from the $600,000 will clearly go up higher because that is how they make their money on the metal scraps. Pres. of Council: OK. Thanks. Mr. Sisak: Any updates on the upgrades at the Community Center? Have there been any decisions made on that? 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, so we are doing pretty well. The big cost is peeling off all of the wallpaper. Remember that was wallpaper in the main room. That was a big cost. We are probably under $24,000 right now on the upgrades and I hope to bring in the swatches so that is a different tile flooring and then since the carpet went up to the chair rail, we are going to do a beadboard on there now to bring that up to a better . . . Mr. Sisak: Any like new lighting or lighting fixtures? Dir. of Pub. Service: Well, the ceiling is a better drop ceiling and we are also looking at upgrading the audio in there but I don’t have that yet. Mr. Bollas: Thank you. I had inquired recently with Mr. Delaney in IT about the public Wi-fi installation at Maca Pool and he had said that the initial order that was delayed say 12-18 months ago has been cancelled and they reinitiated the order, but then he mentioned they are waiting on FCC approval and I was just curious if anyone knew what that was about specifically for public Wi-fi access? Mayor: That is the first I have ever heard of it. Mr. Bollas: OK. No problem. Dir. of Finance: Good evening. Everyone received the January financial reports. One month of financial information is not very exciting and doesn’t tell much, but overall January was a good month. Just to let Council know, the auditors are probably going to be coming in the next couple of weeks, so you may start to see some communications from them reaching out to you initially. They usually reach out to Council for contact and let you know everything that is going on. So, just so you are aware and I will be glad to answer any questions if anybody has anything specific on the financial reports. Pres. of Council: Not on the reports that you provided for this, but briefly could you just give a real quick recap on 2022 on how you think . . . how we did based on how you thought we would do. Dir. of Finance: We did exceptional based on how I thought we would do. Everyone is surprised based on Covid and the economy and everything with inflation that we are still continuing to see income tax growth and job growth within our cities and within those environments and so really in terms of our income tax which is our major source of revenue, I really guessed bad I guess is how I would put it, but you know we did really well and you know we are starting in January; we did see a big drop off on those net profit taxes so the last couple years had really been soaring, but we are also still seeing businesses giving large bonuses out to their employees so I am happy with the way last year ended. It helped us create a surplus that I think is going to help us do some additional projects this year that we don’t have to kind of be as worried about since we budgeted some deficit spending and so I am pleased with that. Dir. of Law: Thank you. I will be brief, but I wanted to start by thanking Summit County Public Health Department and those that came out last night for the Project DAWN presentation on behalf of myself and Summit County Councilperson Christine Higham. It was very informative. A lot of great information and they are available to come to other organizations in the community and so if you are interested, I would encourage folks to reach out to Summit County Public Health for more information. I also wanted to announce that the date that I had mentioned previously at other Council meetings for the Women’s Self Defense Class has been moved at their request. So, Summit County Councilperson Christine Higham and I will welcome certified instructor Chad Cunningham for a free Women’s Self Defense Class now on Thursday, March 16th; that date has been confirmed from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Tallmadge Recreation Center and that is sponsored by Summit County Prosecutor Sherry Bevin Walsh and no registration is required. Pres. of Council: The Mayor made reference to, and I failed to earlier say that we will have an Executive Session prior to adjournment of our meeting this evening. 11  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 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 before us at this time. Is there anything to come before the committee? Mr. Bollas: Is there any update from the Planning & Zoning perspective on what is going to be developed as you are entering the City on East Avenue from Brimfield? I noticed the foundations have basically been almost finished. There is essentially a cul- de-sac being paved and a traffic light being installed. Is there any update on what is going in there. I know it has kind of been the talk of social media, but I am just trying to understand because it is one of our busiest corridors of the City. Mayor: It is in the JEDD, and they are not disclosing what building is going to go in there at this point. Mr. Bollas: OK. Mayor: I can’t disclose that. It is not Tallmadge; it’s the JEDD but I will say on the Planning & Zoning aspect, we did meet with McDonald’s yesterday. They are very close to coming in to submit their plans to Planning & Zoning to build a brand new McDonald’s in front of the old McDonald’s. We thought they were able to keep the old one open while the new one was being built, but they are going to make the decision to not do that because it is just too difficult. So, I would think that their goal is to break ground by July or August at the very latest. If they can’t make August, then it will be in the spring. Mr. Bozic: I have a question. Are we able to get a map of what areas . . . Mayor: Are in the JEDD? Mr. Bozic: Yeah, Tallmadge and Brimfield qualifies the JEDD and what areas were the annexation portion or is all of that included in the JEDD? Mayor: The annexation portion and on the Zoning map up there you can see the annexed portion, but the JEDD, in simple terms, but I can get you a map that goes from Tallmadge border at Brimfield all the way to 43 and up to I-76; almost up to I-76 this side of it and over to Sunnybrook Road. Pres. of Council: The Kent Brimfield JEDD Mr. Bozic comes down 43 basically and then our Tallmadge Brimfield JEDD goes up 18. They meet there at 43 basically. Mrs. Kilway: Anything else to come before Planning & Zoning at this time? Hearing nothing, close committee. i. Additional Items: None. b. Finance Craig Sisak, Chair Jonathon Bollas, Vice Chair The Finance Committee deals with budget, appropriations, reappropriations, bonds, franchises, investments, and expenditures. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2023-29 – Authorizing the Mayor to join the Community University Education Purchasing Council of Governments and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Sisak: I call the Finance Committee to order. We currently have Ord. 2023-29 at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. I think Mr. Rorar said that this was housekeeping typically, and we are going to get this opportunity to purchase salt. 12  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 Dir. of Pub. Service: Salt and fuel. Mr. Loughry: I moved for the adoption of Ord. 2023-29. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Mayor: This is a contract that we have had going back probably 40 years. Dir. of Finance: Just for clarification, they had to reconfigure their COG and create new governing documents for this year which is what is precipitating the need for this so that is why it wasn’t on the housekeeping before moving forward so it really wasn’t a pre-existing housekeeping matter until they changed that. Mrs. Kilway: Is there any reason why you would not have a copy of the agreement before voting on this? Dir. of Law: No, for this type of thing usually I don’t attach that, but I will be happy to provide it for you. It is just not incorporated by reference, but I can give you a copy. It is very straight forward that we are joining this CUE and that is the extent of it. We are following the model resolution that they or the model ordinance that they send out that they are asking members to adopt. So that is also part of that too. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. Ord. 2023-29 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Sisak: Is there anything else to come before Finance 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. Mr. Bollas: I call Personnel Committee to order. We are all present this evening. We have no legislation before us. Is there anything to come before the Personnel Committee this evening. Pres. of Council: Just to let Council know that both the City of Aurora and the City of Solon within the last week or so have adopted updated personnel compensation guidelines. Mr. Bollas: That leads into one question that I had in terms of the progress on the comp study; has a follow-up date been set for that review? I believe I saw something, but to reconfirm. Dir. of Law: It is tomorrow, and you are invited. Mr. Bollas: Alright. Anything else for Personnel? We did have a Civil Service meeting on Wednesday just for everyone’s awareness. We did discuss qualifications and got into more definition of the lateral movement in the P.D. It was a good meeting, and they are working through that with the Chief and the department. Thank you. I close committee. i. Additional Items: None. d. Community Issues Mary Gutman, Chair Carol Kilway, Vice Chair The Community Issues Committee deals with Parks and Recreation, civic affairs, and liaison between Council and the Recreation Board and intergovernmental affairs. Mrs. Gutman: I call Community Issues to order. We have no legislation before us tonight. Does anybody have anything for Community Issues? Mrs. Kilway: Do we have a date for the Circle Fest? 13  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 Dir. of Admin./Safety: I believe it is Saturday the 19th. Mrs. Gutman: I did want to say thank you Don for the presentation. I did learn quite a bit actually and I would encourage anyone that is watching at home or here to go on the Summit County Public Health website and check out the locations that you can get the Narcan kits if that is something that interests you because they are very helpful to have if you need that. If there is nothing else? Hearing none, then I will close Community Issues. i. 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. Mr. Bozic: I call the Safety Committee to order. We currently have no legislation in front of us. I will open it up to anyone on Council or the Administration. Hearing none, I will close the Safety Committee. i. Additional Items: None. f. Public Service Rebecca Allman, Chair Mary Gutman, Vice Chair The Public Service Committee deals with streets, highways, sidewalks, buildings, and improvements: water, sewer, electricity, gas, energy resources, recycle, waste, and trash. Mrs. Gutman: I call Public Service to order. We also have nothing before us this evening. Does anyone have anything for Public Service? Mr. Bollas: Just a quick question for Mr. Rorar. Do we have the pricing for the cement slabs. I know that last year you had sent out a summary of kind of what we could tell residents if they do have a complaint and they do contact Council. Do we have that pricing figures out yet? Dir. of Pub. Service: Not yet. Mr. Bollas: OK. Thank you. Mrs. Gutman: OK, if there is nothing further then I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: Mr. Bollas: Just stating the new displays are installed and they look great, and we can all read them. a. Council Operations Committee i. Additional Items 12. Announcements: Pres. of Council: This is the point where I will entertain a motion to go into Executive Session for the purpose of discussing pending litigation. Mr. Sisak: So moved. Seconded Mr. Bollas. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Pres. of Council: It is 8:15 p.m. and we will be going into Executive Session. So, for the audience and for anybody that is watching us via live stream, we will go into Executive Session and we will come back to adjourn, but we will not take any action as a result of the Executive Session. It is 8:16 p.m. Pres. of Council: It is now 8:47 p.m. and we are back on the floor. 14  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 9, 2023 13. Adjournment: Mr. Sisak moved to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Roll Call: Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. The Council meeting of 2-9-23 adjourned at 8:48 p.m. sb Adopted: _______________________________ ___________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Dennis K. Loughry, President of Council 15