City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 27, 2023 1. CALL TO ORDER. Vice President of Council Sisak called the Council meeting of Thursday, April 27, 2023, to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Opening Prayer & Pledge of Allegiance: Prayer: Rev. Daniel Doty, Tallmadge First Congregational Church, Tallmadge. Pledge of Allegiance: Olivia Bollas, First Grade Student, Tallmadge Elementary. 3. Roll Call: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Sisak – present. Mr. Loughry was excused. 4. Correcting and Adopting the Previous Meeting Minutes: 4-13-23 Council Meeting Minutes. Mrs. Kilway: I would like to make a motion to approve the 4-13-23 minutes. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman - unanimous. The 4-13-23 Council meeting minutes are adopted by a vote of 6-0. 5. Financial Reports: None. 6. Public Hearings: None. 7. Community Input: Pres. of Council: The public is invited at the beginning of the meeting to discuss an item that is not on the agenda. If that item is on the agenda or set for a public hearing, public input is invited at the appropriate time on the agenda as recognized by the Clerk or committee chair. Please wait until you are recognized and state your name and address so your comments may be properly recorded and limit your remarks to 2 minutes or less. Anyone wishing to address Council is encouraged to register with the Clerk of Council or through the on-line form by 3:00 p.m. the day of the meeting. Is there anyone here that would like to speak before Tallmadge City Council this evening? Hearing none, we will move on to Item 8. 8. Agenda Additions: • Presentation of Certificate of Appreciation given to Dimitrios E. Fortseras by Jonathon Bollas. Jonathon Bollas: Gave a short heartfelt speech remembering the life of his Father-in-Law, Dimitrios Fortseras. He then presented his mother-in-law with the Certificate of Appreciation. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Director of Economic Development Thank you. • The Little League Parade is this Sunday. We are guaranteed the weather is going to be on our side unlike what the weatherman said. It starts at 5:00 p.m. from Our Lady of Victory down around the Circle and then down to Mack Burleson Field where they will do a little tribute to Tom Headrick. • Don’t forget this Tuesday is election day and make sure you get out to vote. • Our E-Waste Recycling Program is back. It is May 6th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Tallmadge Rec Center Parking lot. It is a very popular event. We are doing it twice a year now so it is not as crazy as it usually is. • Tallmadge Senior High School Give Back Day is Wednesday, May 10th. That is when the Tallmadge Seniors that are graduating meet down at Mack Burleson Field and then they have their donuts and beverage and then they split off and go to separate parks and do a lot of good work for the City of Tallmadge. • Our Employee Service Awards is coming up and it is June 15th and I’m sure you will hear more about it. We are recognizing 28 of our employees and some of you may see your name on that list. • The Joint Dispatch Center is continuing to move along extremely well. We did have a COG Board meeting. Any Councilperson who would like to go see it at this stage just let me know. The goal is to have it turned over to the final equipment folks by the middle to end of July. 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 27, 2023 • There are a lot of communities that are taking interest in joining as a contract to that. I think you will see more interest. • Dr. Cooper did send out an e-mail talking about the personnel study. Thank you. Got a lot of good comments through that. Jill was able to talk to the vendor yesterday and today and we should have something to Council with that legislation sometime in June. End of report. b. Director of Administration/Director of Safety: I said in my report how busy it has been that there are a number of things that happened even in the last couple of days that I want to fill you in on. • With regard to the Police Chief search, we currently have 5 applicants although the report said 4, we got one additionally today. Actually, we scheduled a screening committee for Friday, the 5th of May here at City Hall. • The Fire Department hired a new firefighter who will be sworn in formally at Council on the 25th of May. • Tallmadge Fire Department assisted Mogadore Police in locating a suspect that was fleeing a building. A number of agencies assisted, and the Tallmadge Fire Department was able to use its’ drones to get eyes on the person and direct the Police Department to take him into custody which they did without incident. That is one of the early examples of the combined police and fire; our own program that we started with ARPA funds that is just getting off the ground. • Also, training is ongoing to identify trained efficient pilots to enhance that program. That is a City-wide program that has fire and police officers participating in that. • The Police Department will be initiating what he calls a Safety Initiative. They will be using more focused resources on certain areas of the City for enhanced traffic enforcement. This is in response not only to public feedback and requests from residents, but also just our observation where issues have arisen. The Chief is going to be posting something on social media announcing it to the public and I will share that with Council prior to it being posted so you can see the specific areas that will be focused on this initiative. That is the end of my report. Mr. Sisak: Are there any questions for the Dir. of Administration/Safety? Mrs. Gutman: Not a question, but I want to say thank you for the detailed e-mails and updates. I appreciated that. Mr. Bozic: When we have the active shooter training, I believe you were getting a report from a third-party group or somebody that was grading it. Did we get that assessment yet? Dir. of Administration/Safety: So, we had a third party, AMADA, help us with organizing and coordinating. They didn’t do a report but they did collect the information and there is an after-action report with identified after action items in it that I will be happy to share. c. Director of Public Service: Good evening. • I want to start with the cemetery. I misspoke at the last meeting. In Section 700 which is the area circled there, that has side-by-side spaces together. The rest of the cemetery does not. • Starting May 8th, the annual fire hydrant flushing starts. Keep in mind we do this annually for three reasons. The big thing is to make sure all the hydrants work. Second thing is for the ISO, the insurance service that the Fire gets ranked on. It is a high score for them to know that the hydrants are being operated annually like that. The last reason is, believe it or not, it keeps that water circulating. It is not quite stale water, but it does flush those lines because honestly there is nothing like the hydrant flushing as opposed to your sink. It does get all the water circulating through the whole system. You get 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 27, 2023 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) discolored water; that is the main complaint. There is nothing wrong with the water. • Memorial Day as you can see there its Monday, May 29th. The speaker is Steve Demetriou who is the State Rep for District 35. • 89 East Howe Rd., the DD building, there is an ADA playground, and it is the red square. It is still in great shape, and I am probably going to come to the next meeting for a re-appropriation of about $20,000 to remove that playground and secure it to use at another location. Where I am thinking is up near the Challenger Field to get it closer. The reason why I want to remove it; I don’t think it will withstand the demo. It is that close to the building. No fencing in the world is going to protect that thing, so let’s secure it. It is still in great shape. It is probably big enough that we could probably split it and use it in a couple different parks, but I would like to keep it up by that Challenger ball field. • We have a problem with parking up there. So, the ADA baseball diamond is there, and we are changing the name on that complex from the North Avenue Soccer Complex to the North Avenue Sports Complex because it is now more than soccer fields. The problem is is that the folks needing the Challenger Field can’t get to it, so we put up handicapped parking signs all along the front of that building so there are 16 designated spaces for that ball diamond. You can’t have an ADA ball diamond and not have parking for the folks who need it. Just in case you hear any grumblings or anything of that nature and we will try to adjust this as we get moving, but right now, both sports are under use, and it is packed up there. • We finished the auction this past week. We did pretty well. We grossed $159,000 with a net of $131,000. The problem is that it didn’t deplete everything that is in there. So, we have to figure how we can get that stuff out before we demo it. • Then lastly, at the last meeting we were pleading for help with the hiring of the seasonal summertime folks in the parks and I was asked to look at wage increases and right now fortunately we have filled every summer camp spot we have. So, we don’t need to increase rates. That would be great, but there is no need. We have hired 21 seasonal workers for that and last year the camp had 95 individuals with hiring the full amount of folks, we have opened it to 110. The number of employees is high however they are all new and they don’t have the experience. We are in good shape. Still looking for 3 lifeguards. We have made offers to 3 of them but have not heard back. • There is a new concept, too which we are kicking around; you asked how do we improve the Summer Camp lines? One thing that I think would really improve it is offer the first two weeks to residents for folks that would need the camp for the whole time. After that gets done, then you do the ala cart. So, I think that would really streamline it and avoid a lot of . . . because let’s be honest, after looking at the people picking the individual days where it was slowing it down, so let’s get the folks that need it first, that are going to do every week and that will streamline that and then we can slow it down for the other folks. Just a thought. That’s it. Are there any questions? Vice-President of Council: We will start down at the end and work our way back. Mrs. Kilway: Thank you. I will circle back to the Challenger playground; I know those soccer fields very well. It is very wet over there. Will we be able to move that playground over to that location without any problem? Dir. of Pub. Service: I am hoping so. My first thing is to salvage the equipment. Then if we don’t come back for another year to put it up, that is fine. I don’t want to have that equipment get damaged. Mrs. Kilway: So, we are not going to move it immediately. 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 27, 2023 Dir. of Pub. Service: The total package for taking it down, relocating it and putting the rubberized surfaces will be about $210,000 for everything. Mrs. Kilway: How much difficulty do they have getting the kids to the Challenger field. There are not a lot of sidewalks or very hard surfaces. Is that something that we need to look into to be more acceptable? Maybe put that on next year’s budget? Dir. of Pub. Service: It needs it. Now that we are the owners of it, it changes up the game. Mr. Bozic: I spend a lot of time up there as well and so that grassy area; that’s always used for parking on the days that there are multiple games going on and the north lot as well is used as parking; that’s the paved lot. So we are going to have issues with parking if we utilize that space or block it off somehow. Just something to keep in mind. The other thing is the signs you had put up; where are those located? Is that the straight part that is facing the field? Dir. of Pub. Service: It’s all right there. Right at the building. Mr. Bozic: So, directly where that sidewalk is across . . . are the signs located across there because if they are then that could potentially be the additional parking. Dir. of Pub. Service: No, down here. There are signs that say additional parking. Mr. Bozic: I would agree with Ms. Kilway saying that we need to do something probably with that entire lot and/or maybe change the entry point to that field and do it off of Howe Road instead of North Avenue. Dir. of Pub. Service: There are a lot of possibilities right now with the 89 Howe Road building coming down. Vice President: Does anybody else have anything for the Service Director? I had one thing. Have you spoken to the leadership of the Challengers about the potential location? Dir. of Pub. Service: So, no. The parking stalls; no. The moving of the playground I don’t believe they knew that. Like I said the main thing is protecting that equipment. Vice President: It will be interesting to hear their feedback on that. I don’t know if they will think it will be a distraction or a benefit to having that adjacent to the ball field. d. Director of Finance: I have nothing specific to report this evening, but if you have any questions, I will be glad to answer those. e. Director of Law: Thank you. I am pleased to report that we collected about 150 lbs. of drugs; prescriptions and unused over the counter medications. Thank you to the Police Department for doing an excellent job with the collection and sorting and all of the work that goes into that as well as the Street Department who helps with all the signage and the setup of the cones and the directional information, so it is greatly appreciated. I also want to remind everyone that there is the Ohio Ethics Commission training. That will be tomorrow and if you are unable to attend, there was a link to an on-line version, but the in- person training is very good. 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. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2023-51 – Exhibit A – Tracked Exhibit A – Amending and supplementing, Section 1108, Signs, and Appendix A3, Sign Specific Definitions of the Tallmadge Codified Ordinances. Sponsor: Councilperson Kilway Mrs. Kilway: I call the Planning & Zoning Committee to order. We do have Ord. 2023- 51. The ordinance was read into the record. These are the changes to the Sign Code 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 27, 2023 Mrs. Kilway (Cont’d.) and Planning & Zoning has not discussed it yet. Mayor Kline, do you have something? Mayor: You have a tracked version. Since we adopted the new Zoning Code not too long ago, things came up and we had to tweak it a little bit. Review the tracked version. Planning & Zoning will review it at their meeting. Dir. of Law: You can set a public hearing on that. It is not in here and I will amend that at your next meeting to include that, but you can set the public hearing for that on May; the second meeting in May. That would be May 25th. Mrs. Kilway: OK, so I’ll set a public hearing for Ord. 2023-51 on May 25th at 7:01 p.m. B. Ord. 2023-52 – Imposing a six-month moratorium on acceptance of any zoning application for a car wash and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Councilperson Kilway Mrs. Kilway: Next we have Ord. 2023-52. The ordinance was read into the record. This is something that I have been talking with Helene about and we did have a meeting this last week to discuss it. We don’t have very many places within the City where you could have car washes. So, I just kind of want to put a moratorium on them to make sure they are in the best possible spot for the car wash and for the City. Right now, car washes are traditionally permitted in C-3; they are permitted in C-4 and as an accessory use in C-5. So, we just want to review that for the next couple of months and see what the best fit is for the City. Are there any questions on this? Mr. Bollas: Yes, in reviewing the analysis, do you have a rough idea of how many spots that we are talking about? Mrs. Kilway: If you look at the zoning map, there are really not a lot of those spots available within the City. We need to be smart about this. We don’t have any applications in-house right now, so it is a good time to take a look at it. Are there any other questions? Dir. of Law: Mrs. Kilway, there is also a public hearing required for that matter so you can set a public hearing on that. On that one, if you want to set it for May 25 th at 7:05 p.m. Mrs. Kilway: A public hearing will be set for Ord. 2023-52 on May 25th at 7:05 p.m. Is there anything else to come before Planning & Zoning at this time? If not, I will close the committee. ii. 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. Third Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2023-39 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids and the Mayor to enter into a contract for the replacement of the culvert and deteriorating storm sewer on Elton Dr. and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar. Vice President: I will go ahead and recognize Mr. Bollas tonight to run the committee. Mr. Bollas: No problem. I call the Finance Committee to order. We have Ord. 2023- 39 at 3rd Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Does the Service Director have any comments on this? Dir. of Pub. Service: No, we started this project last year. Mrs. Kilway: I move for the adoption of Ord. 2023-39. Seconded Mr. Sisak. 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 27, 2023 Mr. Bozic: You said that we have been working on this project; it’s a continuation. Where are we at with the project? Like how many linear feet are we talking about? Dir. of Pub. Service: This is about 120. That should finish it up. Mr. Bozic: How much have we done so far? Dir. of Pub. Service: About 120. It is about $80,000 each time we do it. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. Ord. 2023-39 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. B. Ord. 2023-41 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids and the Mayor to enter into a contract for demolition of 89 East Howe Road, appropriating necessary sums and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar. Mr. Bollas: Next up we have Ord. 2023-41 which is also at 3rd Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Does the Service Director have any comments on this? Mayor: I will just say that it is at 3rd Reading and it is ready to go. I was actually in a meeting today with Summit DD and they were happy to see that the grant came through for us. They said they would have applied but they weren’t allowed to apply for that type of grant. So, knowing the building, knowing the transformer that is in there, knowing the roof requirements, knowing the HVAC equipment that is obsolete; they were very happy to hear that we did receive a grant that will pay just about 100% of the demolition. So, we are pretty excited about this. Mr. Bollas: Alright, can I get a motion? Vice President: So moved. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Mr. Bozic: So, as you know I have always been a big fan of that building and I have walked through it with Mr. Rorar and when you walk through it and you look at it; it doesn’t look that bad and obviously the big expense items are like you said are the roof and the HVAC and still a big part of me is very reluctant to vote yes on this because I have talked to several different community members and heads of different organizations like Tallmadge Dynamics and things like that where they are limited on their space that they currently have now especially at the GTF and so I think moving forward if we looked at this project or that site for a potential future project for something, I think that is going to be crucial to make sure that we get all of those heads of those different groups because right now they are being underserved and we are not able to provide them with the resources that they really need. Mayor: Keep in mind the Dynamics were in the Tallmadge Schools and that is where it really started at. We were able to give them some space down at the old Y which . . . that building there it would be cheaper for Council to authorize me to build a new structure for that type of group and maintain the $10,000 a month electric bill. It is ludicrous what that building . . . and we are not in that building and Mollie will contest and they come to me every . . . it is very cost prohibitive to keep that building. We will come back with a plan. I think Service Director Rorar has a great plan that I just saw today for the first time down at the Ritchie Center area down there. It will handle a lot of those needs. Mr. Bollas: What is the current limitation for Zoning without going to application to get it rezoned. Is it just either schooling or what is the second option? Because I don’t believe it was residential. Dir. of Law: I believe it is conditionally zoned right now for governmental use. That is the current conditional zoning but otherwise it would be residential. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. Ord. 2023-41 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. ii. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 27, 2023 A. Ord. 2023-45 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids and the Mayor to enter into a contract for the Lions Park Shelter Project and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar. Mr. Bollas: Now on to Second Readings; we have Ord. 2023-45. The ordinance was read into the record. Does the Service Director, Administration or Council have any questions on this? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, if you don’t mind letting this go one more reading that would be great. Mr. Bollas: We can certainly do that. Any other questions or comments? Mrs. Kilway: Just to reiterate that these are ARPA Funds. Mr. Bollas: Alright. We will keep Ord. 2023-45 at 2nd Reading. B. Ord. 2023-46 Exhibit A – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding between the County of Summit and City of Tallmadge for Summit County Special Operations Response Team (“SORT”) vehicles and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline. Mr. Bollas: Moving on, Ord. 2023-46. The ordinance was read into the record. Does the Mayor have any comments on this one? Mayor: Just to let you know that we are currently storing that unit at the new Fire Station No. 2. It is a vehicle that we have the direct access to and we could take it if we have any hazardous or any time that we need a vehicle like that to go out, we have the keys to it, we run it and we operate it and we take it out, but also anyone in Summit County who has a hazardous issue and needs a special response team, they have to call the Tallmadge Fire Department to get into the building and they will get into the building and take that vehicle out and then bring it back at the end of the day. So, the agreement was to . . . we have access to it at no cost to the City of Tallmadge. We don’t have to buy the vehicle because we have one. One is housed down in Green. This one was housed out in the Cuyahoga Falls Station and Chief Passarelli at the time agreed to bring it back over to Tallmadge, so we have closer access to it. Mrs. Kilway: I would say since the vehicle is already in our possession and being used, I would move that we adopt Ord. 2023-46 at 2nd Reading. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Mayor: We do not pay to have it there. We don’t have to pay the insurance for it or the gas for it. All costs are through Summit County. Mr. Bozic: So, with this vehicle you said that we could utilize it. Are there any special training requirements that our firefighters have to have? Mayor: We have current members on our fire department that are part of this SORT Team. The rapid response team. So, they do have that training for it. Mr. Bozic: I think at the previous meeting you had mentioned that we can drive the vehicle to where it would need to be. So, are we looking at . . . you said there is only one currently with personnel that are trained on the SORT Team? Mayor: If we need to have this vehicle go out, we would probably activate the SORT Team. All it is is like a heavy rescue that we have in our own possession. All of the guys who trained on the equipment are on there. Mr. Bollas: Is there any reimbursement to the City for that storage? Mayor: No. Mr. Bollas: Alright, any other questions or comments on this? Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Ord. 2023-46 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 27, 2023 iii. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2023-49 – Allowing the Director of Public Service to apply for and accept the Trench Safety Grant from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, appropriating the necessary funds and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar Mr. Bollas: Next we have Ord. 2023-49 at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Does the Service Director or the Administration or Council have any comments? Dir. of Pub. Service: This is a grant to allow the City to purchase a trench box which is used in excavation for the Utility Department as well as the Street Department and it also comes with training. Mrs. Kilway (microphone off) Dir. of Law: Mrs. Kilway, I don’t know if your mike is on. Mrs. Kilway: This is a 4:1 match up to $12,000 and I am just trying to read through the WHEREAS, so it is a grand total that we would get would be $9,160.50; is that correct? Dir. of Finance: No, the grant is $7,328.40. The total cost of all the equipment is the $9,160.50. So, the difference would be the City’s actual cost. Mrs. Kilway: Which would be about $1,770 some dollars? Dir. of Finance: Correct. Mrs. Kilway: So, our out of pocket would be a little over $1,700 for that trench equipment and training? Dir. of Pub. Service: Correct. Mr. Bollas: Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments? Council; do you want to make a motion? Vice President: I will move to approve. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 2023- 49 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. B. Ord. 2023-50 – Appropriating additional amounts due to increased investment returns and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Finance Gilbride Mr. Bollas: Next we have Ord. 2023-50. The ordinance was read into the record. Any comments or input on this one Finance Director? ` Dir. of Finance: Just to let Council know that I really messed up when I did the revenue estimate this year and appropriating the funds. I neglected to go back after a couple of increases by the Feds and revisit that prior to the passage of the budget and interest rates have skyrocketed and we have already received more this year by the end of March than I anticipated for the whole entire year so because Council does appropriate the distribution of interest out of the holding fund where we place it, initially into the Operating Fund, I do need to request an appropriation and I am also going to look, due to just the fact that interest has been volatile lately and when we do do this ordinance we kind of just say that the Finance Director can put the interest in the funds according to the ordinance however much we get, so I am going to actually look into incorporating that language directly into our annual appropriation ordinance so that I can just have the authority to follow our current ordinance that dictates how I distribute interest each month without having to come back to Council every time we exceed the revenue estimate. I will be glad to answer any other questions. Mr. Bollas: Just as a follow-up on that, are you requesting 1st Reading adoption? Dir. of Finance: If Council would like to adopt it at 1st Reading that’s fine. I will just wait to distribute it until next month if you don’t. So, it is up to Council. 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 27, 2023 Mrs. Kilway: I move to adopt Ord. 2023-50. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Roll Call: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. Ord. 2023-50 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Bollas: Alright. Are there any other questions or comments for the Finance Committee? Hearing none, I will close committee. iv. Additional Items: None. c. Personnel Jonathon Bollas, Chair Adam Bozic, Vice Chair The Personnel Committee deals with personnel, labor relations, insurance claims, Rules of Council and State Statutes. Mr. Bollas: I call the Personnel Committee to order. We have no legislation before us at this time. I will open it up to the Administration or Council with any questions or comments regarding personnel. Vice President: I did have one question for the Service Director. I know that Mr. Stineman has resigned. Any luck with any applications or postings of that job or internal applicants? Dir. of Pub. Service: We have had interviews with 3 internal applicants today. The interviews went quite well. Probably by Monday, I will have a decision. With that being noted, Mr. Stineman had asked for an Assistant last year in the budget, and I was the one making the mistake of not agreeing with that concept, but within the last few weeks since Mr. Stineman has put in his resignation, I think that Assistant was probably more needed than ever. We were audited by the EPA for our water. In January it was storm water and Tuesday we were audited by the EPA for our drinking water. An Assistant is probably much needed. So, I will probably be coming to Council and asking for a change in that grid sooner than later. Mr. Bollas: On the subject of the audit, has that information been presented to Council at this time? Dir. of Pub. Service: It was just done on Tuesday so you might see something within 30 days. We believe it was a good report. Mr. Bollas: So, we did have a meeting on the compensation study and that went well. I also had a question for the Safety Director about the PD panels, so the panels for the Police Chief applicants for the public and technical panel; is there any selection progress on that or where is that at this time? Dir. of Admin./Safety: We have identified some people that we want to invite to participate, but we are going to wait until the end of the posting period. So it will be Monday or Tuesday probably when I will send those invitations to get confirmation from those who are invited and then I will report to Council who is actually on the panel. Mr. Bollas: Alright and then May 5th we have slated as the screening of, the initial screening of the applications. Right now, there are five. Any other comments for Personnel? Hearing none, I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. d. Community Issues Mary Gutman, Chair Carol Kilway, Vice Chair The Community Issues Committee deals with Parks and Recreation, civic affairs, and liaison between Council and the Recreation Board and intergovernmental affairs. 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 27, 2023 i. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2023-48 – Amending Section 5 of Ordinance 96-1974, repealing. Ordinance 36-2004 and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Councilman Loughry Mrs. Gutman: I call Community Issues to order and we have before us at 2nd Reading Ord. 2023-48. The ordinance was read into the record. I think we just kept this at 2 nd Reading because we wanted to see the text of Ord. 36-2004 which was provided and looks like it is fairly straight forward. Are any comments or questions about that from anyone at this time. Seeing none, can I have a motion? Mrs. Kilway: I move to adopt Ord. 2023-48 at 2nd Reading. Seconded Mr. Bollas. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman – unanimous. Ord. 2023-48 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mrs. Gutman: Does anyone have any comments or questions for the committee. Hearing none, 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. Mr. Bozic: I call the Safety Committee to order. We have no legislation in front of us this evening. I will open it up to Council and the Administration for any comments or discussion. Alright, hearing none, I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. f. Public Service Rebecca Allman, Chair Mary Gutman, Vice Chair The Public Service Committee deals with streets, highways, sidewalks, buildings, and improvements: water, sewer, electricity, gas, energy resources, recycling, waste, and trash. Mrs. Allman: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Does Council or the Administration have anything for Public Service? Mr. Rorar: Yes, so we talked about the North Munroe sidewalks going in. We sent out letters to the property owners. That is part of the funds from the ARPA Project. The right-of-ways are being surveyed right now so we know where to put the sidewalks. The big thing though is we were talking about where to cross because it is going to go from the east side to the west side. We are looking at Clark Drive, however, somebody brought up a great point that if you cross at Barnes, it is within the school zone. So, I think we are going to keep it down at Barnes because the traffic speed should be slower, and it makes sense. I don’t think we want to extend that school zone any further than what it is. Vice President: I was going to say that I have had a number of questions since the buildings have been torn down why the school zones still extend north on North Munroe at the ball fields at the church there and I have had to explain the same thing that it is still part of the school. Dir. of Pub. Service: That was brought to my attention, and I thought that was a great point to keep the crossing at Barnes and it keeps it at the school zone. i. Additional Items: None. 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 27, 2023 Mr. Bozic: On average, if you were going to kind of ballpark a number, what is the amount that the City spends on sidewalk repair or installation throughout a year? Dir. of Pub. Service: Good question, but I can’t say off the top of my head, but it is well over $100,000. I think it is closer to $200,000. Mr. Bozic: That was going to be I guess my next point was that if we kind of had a figure in mind as to the total dollar amount per year roughly. I think that we, as a City, could potentially revise how we pay for those so that we were not putting a burden back on the homeowners. I know that was a big shock to some of the homeowners that were going to be getting a new sidewalks that maybe they didn’t ask for or want, but obviously it is in the best interest of the public. There are some communities out there that have developed basically a sidewalk fund that is utilized throughout the year. It is no different than budgeting for you know, the paving of the roads. So, I think that is something that we could probably work on in the future. Something to keep in mind if you maybe want to start some back-end investigating on average amounts that you spend. Dir. of Pub. Service: Let me do a five-year average and see what we spend on it. The problem is that the cost of the material has gone through the roof right now. Mr. Bollas: Based on the letters that went out on North Munroe. Are you getting any feedback? Dir. of Pub. Service: Right now, we have a lot of people call in and say yes, they received them, but nothing negative. Mr. Bollas: While we are on that side of town, any update on the cell tower? Dir. of Pub. Service: No. Mr. Bollas: Next up is service. Mayor: They are getting the lines out to Munroe and getting it hooked up. They are still saying by August. We should have cell service there. Mr. Bollas: Does each provider have to essentially sign up for servicing that . . . Mayor: I think I am saying it correctly, Verizon is the only one to initially put theirs on but then there will be co-locations from other providers. Mr. Bollas: Do we have to do anything in terms of like marketing or getting the word out that that is available for services. Mayor: No. It is just the matter of the tower owner and what deals he can make to allow people to come on. Mrs. Allman: Anything else for the Public Service Committee? Hearing none, I will close committee. 11. Reports of Special Committees: Vice President: I know that Mr. Bollas sent us an e-mail. Would you like to share that sir? Mr. Bollas: Real quick, I just sent out some updated viewership averages and we are averaging about 180 views. Now keep in mind that could be the same viewer clicking back into the site but I think on average that is a really good number. The viewership for the primary forum as well was over 771 viewers and so again thank you to Dove for all their services at the meetings. a. Council Operations Committee i. Additional Items: Mr. Sisak: Are there any additional items or announcements to come before Council this evening. Mayor: I would just like to wish Mr. Loughry a Happy 45th Anniversary. 12. Announcements: None. 11  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 27, 2023 13. Adjournment: Mrs. Kilway moved to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. The Council meeting of 4-27-23 adjourned at 8:05 p.m. sb Adopted: _______________ _______________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Craig B. Sisak – Vice President of Council 12