City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 22, 2023 1. Call to Order: President of Council Loughry called the Council meeting of Thursday, June 22, 2023, to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Opening Prayer & Pledge of Allegiance: Prayer: Pastor James Case, Tallmadge Lutheran Church, Tallmadge. Pledge of Allegiance: 3. Roll Call: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, – present. Mr. Bollas was excused. 4. Correcting and Adopting the Previous Meeting Minutes: 6-8-23 Council Meeting Minutes. Mrs. Kilway: I would like to make a motion to approve the 6-8-23 minutes. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, – unanimous. The 6-8-23 minutes are approved by a vote of 6-0. 5. Financial Reports: None. 6. Public Hearings: None. 7. Community Input: Pres. of Council: This is the point in our agenda that if there is anyone in the audience that would like to talk about anything that is not a piece of legislation this evening, you can come and address Council. Would anyone like to do that this evening? No one responded. 8. Agenda Additions: • Swearing-in of the new Tallmadge Police Chief, Douglas Bohon. Mayor: It is truly an honor and privilege to swear-in, I’m not sure if it is the 11th or 12th Police Chief. It started back in 1941 with a Town Marshal and so was that Town Marshal really considered a Chief; there are some historians in here that would probably correct me, but that was Haskell Jones. Then it went all the way through until today and we do have some former Police Chiefs here in the audience; Chief Duvall, Chief Gale Gault and then we have some old Fire chiefs. We went through a long search to be able to get here today and it is really my privilege and honor to be able to swear in Doug as the new Police Chief. We went nationwide and whittled it down to 3 people and Bo really came up to the top of the list. We want to thank you for stepping back up to represent all of the men and women who you now are going to be in charge of. Chief Williams is also here. He will be retiring at the end of this month, actually in a couple of weeks. Thank you for your outstanding work which started in May of 2015. We are greatly appreciative of all your hard work and taking this department to where it’s at. So, Chief, thank you. Chief Williams: I didn’t really prepare a speech, but this is an easy one. This is the best news I have had in a long time, not for myself, but for Captain Bohon. He has had a great career and it seems like we have been talking about his career quite a bit lately. He has been piling on some awards, but he is a great person and no doubt in my mind that he was the best candidate on that list. This is great news for the community, for the department; we have a very bright future; we have a great young command staff and a great bunch of guys as officers; everybody who works over there does a great job. Thank you. Thanks for making my job easy and congratulations Bo. Mayor Kline swore in Doug Bohon. Doug Bohon: No big speeches guys; I am just feeling pretty grateful tonight. You don’t always have an opportunity to come back somewhere where you felt you belonged and left for reasons that you thought were satisfactory at the time and so to be back amongst people who have been my family for over two decades is incredibly fulfilling. I want to thank you Mr. Mayor and Safety Director for having the confidence to select me for this. I know it is an incredibly important position for the City, for our citizens and our safety forces. I look forward to working with all of you and look forward to being back. I can’t tell you what it feels like right now just to have the weight of that shield over my heart again. It is incredible. So, I would like to thank my wife real 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 22, 2023 Chief Bohon (Cont’d.) quick. I have never publicly thanked her and you know she shared me with the City for two decades. Kind of like all of our spouses do and I think the first year that Dave and I were detectives together, we got called out on every major holiday; Christmas, New Year’s and so she shared me and often it has been an unequal sharing with the City getting the vast majority of it, but that is what we do though; we sacrifice. So, thank you; I love you. Pres. of Council: We have another nice event this evening. Mary, we will turn it over to you. • Presentation of Certificate of Appreciation to Wes Fair, President of Shelter Care Mrs. Gutman: I am honored tonight to present this Tallmadge City Council Certificate of Appreciation to Wes Fair and Shelter Care for their tireless work to bring the children and families to our community. Shelter Care has been providing services to children in crisis for over 50 years. Wes’ dad, Dave Fair, founded Shelter Care in 1972. Mrs. Gutman gave a brief overview of Shelter Care. Wes Fair: I just want to thank the Council and the City of Tallmadge. This is an honor that I want to share with all of the staff and all of the families and the children and the youth that we care for. You know they are impacted on a daily basis on what we do. Shelter Care has been around for 51 years now, but for 23 of those years we have been here in Tallmadge. Our central office is the old library. My dad, who started Shelter Care grew up in Tallmadge, graduated from Tallmadge High School and so he always wanted to be back in Tallmadge, and I think that is why we came back. It has been a great place for our hub. It is just an honor to get this award and I appreciate it and want to thank you. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Director of Economic Development: • Fire Department – As you can see in the photo, this is the new parking lot and the detention pond. The landscapers have been there the past couple weeks finalizing the irrigation system and they should have that completed by most likely Monday and then Davey Tree, who the irrigation guys are from Davey Tree, and then the new grass and seeding will start. • As you can see in the back of the parking lot, those are our garage doors. • Today, you probably saw, or on social media, that there was a fire on Howe Rd. and 91. This was a truck that was carrying bails of straw and it caught on fire right here by the exhaust pipe which also caught some of the cab on fire. Hats off to the Street Department and the Fire Department for getting this thing knocked out. So, the Street Department actually had to use equipment to lift the bails of straw off the truck and get them on the ground so the Fire Department could use water. Those things burn internally, and you can’t just get them out by throwing water on the truck and as you can see in this photo, the back half of the trailer was in good shape, but the front part of the trailer was not. • I would request adoption of 2023-51 which is the sign ordinance. This has had multiple readings and it is ready to go and it was amended at the last Council meeting. End of report. b. Director of Administration/Director of Safety Mayor: I do not have anything for Mr. Cooper at this time. He is out on vacation today and tomorrow. He talked to Bo earlier today and congratulated him and actually he is the appointing authority. I am just the ceremonial guy swearing him in. So, thank you, Mr. Cooper, if you are watching tonight for your service. c. Director of Public Service Good evening. First off, I would like to request that Ord. 2023-58 as well as 2023-57 be passed this evening. I really don’t have a report, but I do have a quick review. • The pickleball/tennis courts at Lions Park have been completed and there is some fence work that needs to be done but they are open for play. 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 22, 2023 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) • The concrete work is continuing. They are starting the concrete panels in the streets. However, they are probably going to jump over to South Avenue and do some sidewalk repair over there in front of the Firehouse as well as the Jubilee Donut place so that way they can get that moving and make sure it is done by the proper time. • Asphalt paving should also start on Monday. That ends my review for tonight. Pres. of Council: So, obviously I received a lot of thanks on the pickeball courts. They opened on Tuesday and Tuesday night there were 23 people playing and that is a big turnout for the first night. Mr. Rorar pretty much took me along every foot of Kelsey’s Creek today and I got a real training on water flow. Then a resident that has lived all over the country stopped me yesterday and said that I just want you to know Dennis that your Service Department is by far the best of any community I have ever lived in and he said not just in what they do, but in the way they communicate with us. So, I thought that was a big compliment. Dir. of Pub. Service: Thank you. I will pass that on. d. Director of Finance: Excused. e. Director of Law: Good evening. I have no report this evening. 10. Reports of Standing Committees of Council of the Whole: a. Planning and Zoning Carol Kilway, Chair Rebecca Allman, Vice Chair The Planning & Zoning Committee deals with land use, zoning, conditional uses, planning, economic and community development, and public property. i. Third Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2023-51 Amended-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 have before us Ord. 2023-51 and it is again at 3rd Reading. Last time we were given a proposed additional amendment based on some information I had asked for to allow for the marquis signs and I was not really happy with the way that was written in and so I really don’t even want to think about allowing the marquis signs because the way that it was written into the Code you could have them up indefinitely and that is not something that I think we would want. So, I would entertain discussion on Ord. 2023-51 as it was amended on 5-11-23. Pres. of Council: I would move to adopt. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. Ord. 2023-51 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. ii. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2023-58 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a contract without competitive bidding as authorized by TCO 143.03(8) with OpenGov for the purchase of Planning and Zoning Department permitting licensing and code enforcement software and Street Department asset manage- ment software, appropriating necessary funds and providing for imme- diate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mrs. Kilway: We do have Ord. 2023-58. The ordinance was read into the record. We did receive some additional information over the course of the last two weeks. Is there 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 22, 2023 Mrs. Kilway (Cont’d.) anything else the Administration wants to add? Mayor: The only thing I would add is hats off to Mrs. Hussing for all the hard work she put into this and also Justin. Those two worked hand-in-hand with Service Director Rorar to get this software. Actually, the reason we are requesting 2nd Reading adoption is because we can get a $13,000 savings by adopting it at 2nd Reading versus 3rd Reading. You would think we would be able to convince the vendor of that. I think Mr. Bozic asked last time what about the Rec Center? It is expandable. They could add it to the modules, but it is not part of this module, but it is a module that is able to be added during the budget process. I’m sure that conversation will be talked about. Mrs. Kilway: Is there any further discussion? Mr. Bozic: Just got done looking over the additional information that was sent out and thank you for that information. When looking at the price breakdown for this software; I mean I have had some experience looking at software such as this, but I mean some of these numbers just really jump off the page. Maybe you could walk us through, not in great detail, but some details as to what each area for the software fees, the professional fees for both Street and Planning & Zoning. What does that essentially include because those are some pretty big numbers there. Dir. of Pub. Service: So, the software fees are obviously paying for the software. The service fees: they are working with us to set up the workflow in our web program and so that is what they are giving us and if you note in the second year, it diminishes and then in the third year there are no such service fees. So, by the end of the second year we should be up and running and so it is taking everything we have and putting that out there, so it is workable. What I would like to point out is we have interviewed 5 different software companies and this was the third price. They were not the highest. This is pretty much a common price going on out there. We did a trial run with Smart Gov, and it didn’t fit. We did a trial run with this group, and it fit and also Hudson and Twinsburg came highly recommended. So, it seems to fit what we wanted to do, and it integrates the departments. At the end of the day, it should be one-stop shop. Mr. Bozic: I guess my other question is obviously the data or the information that we put into the software . . . how do we archive this for public records or things such as that for requests and should we decide that in 3 to 4 years from now that we move onto a different software; how does that integration of data switch over to the new software and/or can we pull this information. Dir. of Pub. Service: So, it should be able to move there again, we are guessing 5 years from now, but it is our data. It comes with us. So, if we decide to leave, we get all of that data. Mrs. Kilway: Any more discussion? Any motions? Pres. Of Council: I would move to adopt. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Ord. 2023- 58 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. iii. 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. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 22, 2023 A. Ord. 2023-59~Exhibit A – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a second amendment to the lease agreement with Summa Health System for space at the Tallmadge Recreation Center and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Sisak: I call the Finance Committee to order. We have Ord. 2023-59 before us at 2nd Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor: (Inaudible – microphone turned off) So, this is our contract with Summa Health Care to have physical therapy inside the Rec Center which has been very beneficial to the Rec Center having their members going there for their services to be able to walk around the track and use our facility. Again, the current contract rate is $3,888 and there will be a 5% increase at every renewal period. This time it is $194.40. Mr. Sisak: How long is the contract for? Mayor: It will end on July 31, 2026. Mr. Sisak: How many square feet do they use? Dir. of Law: The answer is approximately 1,908 usable square feet. Mrs. Kilway: I would move to adopt Ord. 2023-59. Seconded Mr. Loughry. Roll Call: Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 2023-59 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Is there anything to come before Finance this evening? Hearing none, I 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. Bozic: I call the Personnel Committee to order. We have no legislation in front of us. I will open it up to Council and the Administration. I know that we had a couple of pieces of legislation on the agenda earlier but they were removed. Mayor: Yes, and I apologize for submitting that I feel prematurely. I think we still have to do some work on it internally. We will be meeting with some department heads to go over some of the items and that was my fault that I did not get than handled up front and so we need to pull it so I can work that out. My goal is to get it back to you as soon as possible. Mr. Bozic: I know at one point I believe we were told that we were going to be getting a presentation of some kind, I think from the comp study. Mayor: That was scheduled and is still scheduled for the 13th of July. It depends on where we are at. Yes, we definitely have the author of the study presenting to Council. Mr. Bozic: Anything else for the Personnel Committee? 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. Mrs. Gutman: I call the Community Issues Committee to order. We have no legislation before us tonight. Does anyone have anything for Community Issues? 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 22, 2023 Pres. of Council: We do have a second golf cart for Circle Fest. Mrs. Allman has one and then I was able to secure another one. Mayor: Just to remind Council that the Summit County Fair this year is July 25 th through the weekend. Pres. of Council: I would say one other thing. Chief Passarelli was in and you know he has been involved from the beginning with our 911 ceremony and the candles on the Circle and he let me know tonight that they need new white candles and so he is going to get a firm price and find out what the latest date he can order those to make sure they are here on time and then he is looking for financial help to help pay for them. He would like the City to start thinking if we are allowed to help in any way and if we can, what fund those monies would come from and then obviously he is going to ask the Chamber and businesses to help and anybody else who would like to help offset that cost. So, just be thinking about that if you would. Mrs. Gutman: Yes, worthwhile project. Anything else for Community Issues? Hearing none, I close committee. i. Additional Items: None. e. Safety Adam Bozic, Chair Craig Sisak, Vice Chair The Safety Committee deals with disaster services, communications, fire, and paramedics, police, and health. Mr. Bozic: I call the Safety Committee to order. We have no legislation in front of us. I will open it up to Council and the Administration for any input. Mayor: The Joint Dispatch Center is continuing to be moving along very well. The asphalt parking lot was completed this week but the striping is not done. Anybody who wants to go through that please let me know and I will gladly take you on a tour through that so you can see it before . . . it is ready to be turned over to the folks to start installing the desks for the dispatchers and so it is pretty much done for the contractor. Mr. Bozic: Anyone else? We had our swearing-in ceremony for Police Chief Bohon and I do want to put out a thank you to Ron Williams for being our Police Chief for the last 8 years or so, so thank you sir for your service and an excellent choice for our Police Chief. With that 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, recycle, waste, and trash. i. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2023-56~Exhibit A – An ordinance to approve, adopt and enact the 2023 replacement pages to the codified ordinances; to repeal ordinances in conflict therewith; to publish the enactment of new matter; and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Law Raber Mrs. Allman: I open the Public Service Committee. We have at 2nd Reading Ord. 2023-56-Exhibit A. The ordinance was read into the record. Is this something that you need passed tonight? 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 22, 2023 Dir. of Law: You are welcome to pass it tonight, but you can hold it over to 3rd Reading. It is basically housekeeping. This is the annual codification. A codifier will review any Ohio State law and make sure that our local code has any changes in it and updates our code. Mrs. Kilway: I would move to adopt Ord. 2023-56-Exhibit A. Seconded Mr. Loughry. Mr. Bozic: Ms. Raber, if you could just quickly kind of give an overview in the ordinance there is Section 300 – Traffic Code and Section 500 – General Offenses and there are some listed there. If you could just explain quickly. You know, they say amended and added . . . Dir of Law: Correct. That is the portion that is being tied to the State Code, so it is just basically having us mirror whatever changes that the State Legislature has made in the last year to the State Codes that we typically have local codes and state codes that mirror one another and that is what this is doing. A lot of those are changes to definitions or things like that and we are just . . . when it says it is added, it is new and when it says amended, they are making a change to it. Mr. Bozic: Is it a change that we have made locally? Dir. of Law: No, so these are all code sections that basically mirror the Ohio laws. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry – unanimous. Ord. 2023-56 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. B. Ord. 2023-57 – Authorizing the Mayor to contract with Equix Integrity Inc. for CCTV Inspection and Cleaning Consulting Services related to City sewers and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar Mrs. Allman: Next, we have Ord. 2023-57. The ordinance was read into the record. Mrs. Kilway: I would move to adopt Ord. 2023-57. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, this is the third year that we have done this. It is a specialty service of cleaning and a camera event. Not everybody does this and that is why we are doing it this way. We went out and solicited 5 quotes from companies and Equifax came in with the best and lowest number and we used them last year and they did a nice job for us. Because of the high rates of the sewer, this is helping out keeping that clean and in better shape. It is a budgeted item. Mayor: Also remember that the City of Tallmadge has two sewer districts. The Summit County District: we don’t camera and televise. Only the Akron side of that so really the e-mark is S. Munroe Road and N. Munroe Road, and west is the Tallmadge portion. Mr. Loughry: So, Mayor, based upon what you just said, does that mean our rate doesn’t change with Summit County with infiltration? Dir. of Pub. Service: It does. Mr. Loughry: Then why do we not have access? Dir. of Pub. Service: That is theirs to manage. Mr. Loughry: But if they don’t manage it, we still . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: They manage it. Mr. Loughry: So, you are confident that they are just not letting it go and are just charging us? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. Roll Call: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. Ord. 2023-57 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2023-60 – Declaring certain City-owned equipment to be excess/obsolete and authorizing the Director of Public Service to sell such equipment at public sale or auction and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 22, 2023 Mrs. Allman: Next, we have Ord. 2023-60 at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Is this housekeeping? Dir. of Pub. Service: It can go 3 readings. Mr. Bozic: I move for the adoption of Ord. 2023-60. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Mr. Loughry: Do you intend to use that same company that you have been using? Dir. of Pub. Service: We went to an auction site, Gov Deals, and we have great success with that, so we plan on doing that with this; yes. Mrs. Allman: Please call the roll. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman – unanimous. Ord. 2023-60 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Is there anything else for the Public Service Committee? Hearing none, I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: Pres. Of Council: The only item I have is that Mrs. Burton is working on Records Retention and she and Mrs. Conti are continuing to work on cross-training, and it is almost completed. a. Council Operations Committee i. Additional Items: 12. Announcements: I have one regarding Spectrum. Pam and I were dropping internet daily and so Spectrum came out a couple different times and they thought they had it fixed and then the next day it was out again, so it wasn’t until a supervisor came out for the third time in like 2 weeks and this guy had been around for a long time and so everyone knew who came out that we had an old Time Warner account and if many of you may remember, you were not allowed to switch. You became a Spectrum account, but you had to keep your Time Warner equipment. Well, we had what was called a whole house system and it wasn’t until the third gentleman came out and said if you have a whole house system with the changes that Spectrum has recently made, they have to eliminate what they call filters that were in your system. We get asked about all sorts of things. We get asked about fiber; we get asked about the tower on the school property and we get asked about our internet, but for those of you that are watching, if you are having trouble with your internet and Spectrum and you have whole house, make sure you let the technician know because as soon as they fix those filters we have not gone down one time. Public announcement. Do we have anything else for Council? I will entertain a motion to adjourn. 13. Adjournment: Mrs. Kilway moved to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. The Council meeting of 6-22-23 adjourned at 7:51 p.m. sb Adopted: _______________ _______________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Dennis K. Loughry – President of Council 8