City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 1. Call to Order: President of Council Loughry called the Council meeting of Wednesday, October 25, 2023, to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Opening Prayer & Pledge of Allegiance: Prayer: Elder Kurran Bishop, Shepherd’s Pasture for All Nations Church, Tallmadge. Pledge of Allegiance: Tanner Bickley, 5th Grade Student at Tallmadge Elementary School. 3. Roll Call: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – present. 4. Correcting and Adopting the Previous Meeting Minutes: 10-12-23 Council Meeting Minutes. Mrs. Kilway moved to adopt the 10-12-23 Council minutes. Seconded Mrs. Allman. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman – unanimous. The 10-12-23 Council meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 7-0. 5. Financial Reports: None. 6. Public Hearings: PLANNNING & ZONING Third Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. P.H. ON 10-25-23 @ 7:01 p.m. Ord. 2023-82~Exhibit A – Tracked Exhibit A Amending and supplementing Section 1104.05D – P&Z Rec. adoption 5-0 “Commercial Uses Table” and Section 1104.07E(8) “Use Regulations; Automotive-Car Wash” of the Tallmadge Codified Ordinances. Sponsor: Councilperson Kilway Pres. of Council: Next we have a public hearing on Ord. 2023-82. I will turn this over to Mrs. Kilway who is the Planning & Zoning Committee Chair. Mrs. Kilway: Thank you. It is 7:01 p.m. and I would like to open the public hearing for Ord. 2023- 82~Exhibit A – Tracked Exhibit A. The ordinance was read into the record. At this time, I would like to ask if there is anyone in the audience that would like to speak in favor of Ord. 2023-82. No one responded. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak against Ord. 2023- 82? No one responded. Second time, is there anyone who would like to speak in favor of Ord. 2023-82? No one responded. Is there anyone who would like to speak against Ord. 2023-82? No one responded. Third and final time, is there anyone in the audience who would like to speak in favor of or against Ord. 2023-82? No one responded. It is now 7:04 and I close the public hearing for Ord. 2023-82. At this time, I will open the Planning & Zoning Committee. Is there any discussion on this ordinance? Mr. Bozic: Probably a question for the Administration. I know at the last Council meeting I had brought up the question in regard to the distance for the car washes and that being I believe moved to 500’ if I’m not mistaken and what that would do for, I guess the likelihood or eligibility of a car wash being placed within those set districts or the correct zoning whether they were eligible to even move into a set location. Was there any further I guess, investigation put into that and the likelihood of that happening. Zoning Manager: So, in response to your question and you had received this presentation on paper and so I wasn’t going to go through it all again. It would take a lot of time. But what I did was that first map that you just saw that had the whole map of Tallmadge. It kind of gives you kind of an idea of the economical development areas in our City. It gives you a perspective of how much land is available and to answer your question, I could have spent a lot of time trying to find every possible space that is available but my time is limited as well but I did find it started on South Avenue so future planning years ahead that is the parcel where U-Haul is located but if they were to, for example, parcel out the front parcel there you see the 500’ perimeter circle there and that shows that there is no impact on any residential or consumer business. The next one is where the former Donato’s Pizza building was and so notice that the bright red area at the top of the graphic there that will be impacted, however, the beauty of this Code now is that we have changed the permitted use to conditionally permitted use which allows the Planning Commission to add extra conditions for allowances if they put into place noise nuisance, abatements or remediation items around their development they could offer with the noise study that we could request them to submit that 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Zoning Manager (Cont’d.) that would be permitted. The next two slides are the Rocco Plaza and actually a couple years ago a car wash was interested in being right there and again you see the 500’ perimeter and again no impact on residential or the consumer uses and that is . . . I just randomly selected a corner of Carmen and West Avenue and again, no impact. To remind you as well, the existing car washes; this Code doesn’t really affect them. They are grandfathered as being conforming unless they make more than 60% changes. So, hopefully that answers your question. Dir. of Law: That was just on West Avenue in particular. That is just a sample of what it could be, and we didn’t take the time to do every single potential . . . Zoning Manager: There are multiple ones. Mr. Bozic: Yeah, sure. I appreciate you looking into that and giving more details to it. I understand that you have limited time and you definitely put in the work with this ordinance, and I appreciate your time. Mrs. Kilway: This is at 3rd Reading. Is there a motion on this at this time? Pres. of Council: I move to adopt. Seconded Mrs. Allman. Pres. of Council: Mrs. Kilway, I would just say that during the moratorium and then during these readings that I have heard nothing negative about this from anybody. Mrs. Kilway: The same here. I think this is just a very nice tool to have. It’s a good way to just regulate a little bit and make sure we have all of our “i’s” dotted and “t’s” crossed. Mayor: I would just like to publicly thank Mrs. Hussing for the work that not only Helene but also Mrs. Raber that was put into this ordinance. She has done her homework, and she has gone far and above what we were expecting, so thank you Helene. Mrs. Kilway: We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. Ord. 2023-82 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. Mrs. Kilway: At this time, I am going to close Planning & Zoning so we can get on with the rest of our agenda. 7. Community Input: Pres. of Council: This is the time of our meeting where if someone in the audience would like to address Council about something that is not on our agenda this evening, now is the time to do that. Is there anybody that would like to speak to Council tonight. Seeing none, let’s move on to Item 8. 8. Agenda Additions: Pres. of Council: This evening we have a presentation for a Certificate of Appreciation by Council- man Bozic. • Presentation of Certificate of Appreciation to Ryan Miller by Councilperson Bozic. Mr. Bozic: This evening I have the honor of recognizing somebody that I feel has really contributed a lot to the City, a lot to our youth, our Parks Department and his name is Ryan Miller and he is currently the Tallmadge Marlins Head Coach and on his professional side he is the Membership Director at the Shaw JCC and he has been previously an Aquatics Director at Riverfront YMCA and the Shaw JCC’s. Adam went on to discuss Ryan’s prior coaching responsibilities with regard to swimming. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Director of Economic Development: Good evening. • The Joint Dispatch Center is going extremely well. Today Cuyahoga Falls moved in and so we have everyone except one community that is in there. Working out some radio things but all in all it is really proving to be going extremely well. So, I am very proud of what all of Summit County has done. • Fire Station No. 2. I can happily say that the doors are done and functioning and painted, cleaned up and everything is working well. We have our Grand Opening on November 11th at 10:00 a.m., which you are all invited to. It is an Open House for the Fire Department. 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 • Mayor (Cont’d.) Also, happy to announce that we were able to make an offer for the very last position available and that person did accept but we are going through a couple of final things. So, we will be fully staffed at the Police Department. I am really happy with Chief Bohon • The Budget: I don’t want to take Jill’s thunder away. She will talk about it in a minute. Again, Jill and Mollie and all of the Department Heads put together and worked back and forth on the budget. It has been a while since we started this, but it is, I feel, a great budget for Council to consider. Councilman Sisak and Councilman Bollas came in and we talked about it this past week and then Councilperson Kilway was in last Friday and so thank you all for coming in. Everybody is welcome to come in. We do have a budget hearing on November 1st at 6:00 p.m. • Tomorrow night is Beggar’s Night in Tallmadge starting at 5:30 p.m. and then the Friday Night Movie Night at the Rec Center. “Hocus Pocus” is the movie. • I would like your consideration of Ord. 2023-83 that is the Northwest Avenue ordinance and that is at 3rd Reading and I am asking for that and then the companion to that is allowing us to apply for the Land Bank to receive funds for the demo of that and that is Ord. 2023- 91. b. Dir. of Administration: • The Health Care Cost Containment Committee met and we discussed the 2024 Health Care Renewal with Jefferson Health Plan who we are currently with and we are happy to announce that our increase for the renewal for 2024 is 6.83% which is really a favorable rate for insurance. The committee did approve that today unanimously so we can move forward with our health insurance for 2024. We will still be looking at vision and dental, but this is the healthcare. • You have this evening the appropriation ordinance for the 2024 Budget: Ord. 2023-87. I also placed in your mailbox yesterday late afternoon a working copy which is the large legal document that is the 2024 Appropriation proposed with the current year budget and then the prior two years as well and just some little notes on the side to assist if you wonder why maybe there are some variances of different types of changes. • You should also have a booklet; the 2024 Appropriation Workbook and I give you that just to briefly highlight some items in the 2024 budget because if you go through the whole thing it gets kind of . . . it’s a lot so I try to briefly just highlight some of the items in the budget. It also has the anticipated Fund Balances for 2024 and it also has some of the capital project item sheets that can help you get started on that too. As the Mayor said, we have a Work Session scheduled for November 1 st at 6:00 p.m. We are following along our timeline so that is great. • Also, you have on your agenda tonight Ord. 2023-89 for negotiations with the Part-Time Firefighters. Their contract ends December 31st of this year and in accordance with SERB, which is the State Employment Relations Board, you have to give notice to negotiate within 60 days prior to the end of a contract. So, this is just a procedural placing of this legislation on the agenda. We have not talked to the Part-Time Firefighters yet. We hope to soon so we can get started on that, but that way you only have 3 readings left this year and so hopefully we can meet with them and talk with them, and it would be fantastic if we could adopt that this year. That’s all I have right now. If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them. c. Director of Public Service: Good evening. I would like to request Ord. 2023-88 be passed this evening at 1st Reading. • The Leaf Season got me a little nervous about 2 weeks ago thinking we might start early; we are not starting early; we are starting on time. We have had a few vacs out in some sections, not in Section 1 but in Sections 2, 3, and 4 over the last 2 weeks picking up some miscellaneous piles, but we are right on schedule to start. 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 • Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) At the last meeting I asked for possible legislation be passed at 1st Reading for AMATS Grant opportunities, funding opportunities and I did get the numbers this time that I didn’t have last time and so I am going to be coming to the next meeting and ask that this be passed. The Service Transportation Block Group Funding: this is for East Avenue, Phase I and the total project is $12,855,000 and that is for right-of-way and construction. The 20% would be $4,686,000. You can see their application No. 2 and that is the STBG and that is for the resurfacing of Munroe Avenue between East and the south corporation line and that is $1 million, and our portion is going to be $220,000. Application No. 3 is the resurfacing one and it’s on Eastwood Avenue between Munroe Avenue to the east corporation limits and it is $646,000 and our portion would be $149,360; that is our 20%. The last time I had up there an application for a round-a-bout engineering and it turns out that that CPR will not fund engineering and so I pulled it and we were approached this week from Munroe Falls who asked us to partner up on doing the signal and pedestrian equipment upgrade at the intersection of 91 and North Moreland which is by the Metro Parks so we actually . . . part of that road is ours . . . a few years ago we did an emergency crossover and we asked them to partner up with us and do half of it and they did half of it at that time. I think it would be appropriate to join them in this one as well and our half is $350,000 for the upgrade for the signal and that would be the radar ones that we have now and not the activators. Our portion is $60,000 and I think it would be worthwhile to jump in with them on that as well. So, I am looking for some sort of head nod from Council to say ok . . . Mr. Sisak: I have a question about North Moreland pedestrian equipment. I don’t know if there are any sidewalks that go into that intersection and if they do, I don’t know if they go anywhere. Dir. of Pub. Service: I know that they have crosswalks from that corner to the Metro Parks. I think that is the pedestrian beacon that they are talking about. Mr. Sisak: There is a market there, but it is not a heavily pedestrian traveled area. Dir. of Pub. Service: I think it is just replacing what is there now. Mr. Sisak: OK. The signal probably needs upgraded. • 89 East Howe Road. The building portion is down completely. They finished it in less than a month. There is a lot of cleanup that remains. They are optimistic that they can still make the Thanksgiving deadline, however, it becomes the tricky part because as they start moving pavement now it starts getting muddy. We know the rain is coming. Still, they have been doing a great job up there. No complaints. • This slide shows the asphalt condition rating. Remember I said that the good, that green is not good because all of that is very low there; it was like 73-75% so fast forward we just had our pavement condition rating redone in 2023 and you can see in 2018 that is the side that you just saw and the pavement on the right was the new one and you can see our roads are getting worse. The plus to it though is that we have gained ground on the concrete. Concrete is different to maintain than asphalt. It doesn’t take as much to maintain. It should last longer as long as you maintain it. The red section is actually Howe Road, and we know we have not done anything to Howe Road because we are engineering that to do a road diet and put that in asphalt. The problem with asphalt though is that it doesn’t last as long. So, we are not even getting 10 years out of this pavement. We should be getting better life on our paving. They don’t make it like they used to. The maintenance is different. We do crack seal and then you can get into micro fill and chip seal, and I know that is a funny thing, but we have to do something else because we bill, and we fill. We need to figure something out because we are not getting our life out of it. 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) The reason I am bringing this up is because I asked for $2 million this year in the budget, and I think you guys will see the numbers. So that is something that you just have to keep in mind. The charging stations. I need to get an answer back to Serpentini. Are we interested in doing this or do we want to do this? They threw in $40,000 for the chargers and it is going to cost us probably $60,000 to put all these in. Do you want to put one in; do you want to put 2 in; I am trying to get a feel. There again, I don’t think you will see any real revenue out of this thing for 10 years. Mr. Sisak: Are these like super chargers or are they just regular chargers. Dir. of Pub. Service: About 20 minutes to half an hour. They have a swipe card on them and that is how the person will have to swipe. Mr. Bollas: Just a follow-up question on that. One of my hesitations on this is the technology; right. It is still early on in the technology phase and everything is changing in terms of hybrids and superchargers and what not. So, my hesitation lies on do we want to invest in technology that might change at a rapid pace over the next couple years. Mayor: If I may, we are receiving the electronic portion, the technology portion free of charge. Our portion is providing electricity to it. So, at Community Drive, down by the Bierce hut there is an electric panel there that needs to be upgraded so part of our portion is just to upgrade that. Serpentini is providing the device. We are not buying that device and so if the electronics change then they (Serpentini or Chevy or whoever) will provide us with the new technology. The one at Fire Station No. 2 we have one out in the parking lot right now that we installed through the project. I have asked Speelman Electric if I can take one of these Serpentini ones and change it out because the one that we installed does not have the credit card machine in it. So, we have it shut off right now. There was no real way, and it was probably bad on our behalf. So, they are looking at upgrading the one out at Station 2 so someone could park in that outer parking lot and do a fast charge. Dir. of Pub. Service: There again, I like Serpentini; they are great sponsors of the parks and the City and there again we owe them an answer and I mean we didn’t budget for it but . . . Mrs. Kilway: I just think that we owe it to our residents to do something to help provide some place for them to charge their cars and since as you explained we don’t own the electronic portion of it and those could be upgraded through whoever is donating them. I think we should do some of them. I just don’t know if we should do all of them or not. Mayor: Let me correct myself after you saying back what I said. They are donating the equipment to us. We are not buying it, so it is being donated and so if it is obsolete in the future, either we remove it totally if we don’t want to upgrade to a new style or we get another grant or someone else wants to donate one of those items to us. They are a money maker for the City. Mrs. Kilway: So, I think we should at least have some of them. Mrs. Gutman: I think this has potential to bring business into the City too. It is a marketing tool to say that we have them. There are people that if you have an electric car, the apps show you where these chargers are and people plan their stops on their trips based on that and so maybe right now that utilization isn’t as high, but it is going to be higher with the bills that have been passed on the federal level. So, I think being forward thinking that I agree that we should do some of them and gear them more towards where we think the commercial use would be. Mrs. Kilway: Where they could maybe stop and get a cup of coffee while they are waiting the 20 minutes for it to charge. Mr. Bozic: I have a couple things. I would think that if this is a money maker that the public sector would not be leading the charge in this. The private sector would be the area where they would be leading the charge. So, I don’t think it is a money maker; I think there 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Mr. Bozic (Cont’d.) is a reason for that we are not seeing these pop up. It probably isn’t beneficial, or it isn’t a big enough revenue generator for them. The other thing is in the State of Ohio there are about 34,000 registered electric vehicles. So, that is only basically 1% of the population of vehicles in the entire state so there are some kind of misconceptions about how many vehicles there truly are and I understand that that percentage is increasing but we have to remember that that percentage is increasing when we hear about electric vehicles it is because of states that are leading the way like California and Hawaii and states that have very, very strict EPA regulations when it comes to vehicles. So, I am hesitant to favor these because I don’t see them being utilized like we think they would be utilized because I don’t see the need for it as much as we think there might be. The other thing I was going to say was I don’t think we necessarily owe anything to our citizens to put these stations in because typically when you buy these vehicles you will get a charging port of some kind in order to charge from your home or a lot of times, they install kind of an upgraded one that will super charge your vehicles at their homes. So, for the most part, they are already being charged at their place or their home. I don’t necessarily see a need for it to be charged out in public when they are commuting to and from work and vice versa. So, that is basically like saying we owe it to all of the citizens that buy gas cars to put in a gas pump at City Hall to allow them to buy the City gas. That is basically what we are saying. We are saying we are providing EV charging stations; well, why don’t we provide a gas station for the other 98% of the drivers in the State of Ohio. I don’t see necessarily a need. I don’t see any need for it, but I can certainly see if the numbers did grow as we think they would, maybe, but at this current time I don’t see any need. Mrs. Gutman: I think Serpentini isn’t a government business the last time I checked. That is the private sector. They are increasing the number of companies putting these in regularly. If you watch and follow along with what is happening which just on a personal level, I have because my husband has quite a long commute. They are increasing and private businesses are doing it so from that perspective I think like I said, I think we need to be forward thinking with it and you are right, maybe it isn’t residents that would use it, but people we want to come into this City and bring into the City and market that we are offering that to potential people who are shopping in our businesses that ability or maybe driving on the highway, we want them to get off the highway and stop and see us instead of going 20 more miles down the road to the next charger. So, would it be profitable right this minute; maybe not, but it has huge potential and I think it is something that we can lead the way on. Pres. of Council: Based on one of the things Mrs. Gutman said, I think our investment would be $60,000 Mr. Rorar? Dir. of Pub. Service: If we did all of the locations it would be. Pres. of Council: I have been around a long time, and we spent a lot of money on a lot of things. I remember how much money we gave Mr. Barber to make his pop shop go away. So, to invest in something that has some potential far down the road, that looks like it is a trend for sure; electric vehicles are here to stay; I would support putting maybe two each; two at the Rec Center and then two at the City’s parking lot on the Circle and probably two at Lions Park at the Hike and Bike Trail so that people that would tend to be residents and/or users of Tallmadge facilities would have the opportunity to charge their car while they are doing something else. Dir. of Finance: Can I just give some background information. Back in 2022 when we were first approached by this, I did do some inquiry through my Government Finance Officers Association to determine what other communities who had these stations; were they charging for their use; what did that look like; what third-party vendor were they using 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Dir. of Finance (Cont’d.) because we would require a third-party vendor, so obviously they are going to take part of that also. So, I only got about 10 responses; half charged, and half did not. The closest to us was Hudson and they charged $1 per hour. They make $6.95 a month on people charging their vehicles. So, while I do believe there could be economic drivers to that, the return on investment is not going to be high. You have to think about it as another City service that is being offered. There is not going to be a large return on our investment. One of the bigger cities that has had more success with it is the City of Westerville which is down in central Ohio. They have a lot more electric vehicles than we have up here and the way they actually make their money on it is not the actual charging, it is if people stay parked in a spot after they are done charging the car, so they park in the spot, the car charges and they get a notification on the phone that your car is fully charged and if you do not move it in 10 minutes we are going to start charging you $25 for every half an hour that you are parked in the spot. So, the electricity in and of itself, if you are just charging for the electricity, it is not going to be something that is going to be sustaining the cost of the equipment or the electricity that we put into that. It is going to have to be thought of as a City service, an economic development tool and you have to think about it in that realm because I don’t see, based on what I inquired with other communities, and that is why a lot of them don’t even charge because it is more work to charge and do all of that collection than they are actually going to get in revenue. Mr. Sisak: I guess my two cents would be its location, location, location. I think we have looked at the demographics of who is purchasing electric vehicles and I think a partnership with the Metroparks would be ideal, North Avenue, Munroe Falls Meadows, Northwest going out towards Kent at the Bike and Hike Trail, something at the Rec, maybe something out East Avenue towards the JEDD and then something here at the Circle, but I think that is what you have to look at is who are the people who are using or have electric cars that will be using it and you look demographically at people who are on the Bike and Hike Trails and things like that. So, I think four within a quarter mile isn’t probably ideal, but to Mary’s point and Dennis’ point, people are coming to the Rec Center for basketball tournaments and they are going to come from Jackson maybe or wherever Canton, Stark County and they come up, park and charge their car and go watch the game and leave. I think that is where we are going to provide that public service and again the parks and the bike and hike trails that is what people are using and I think that demographic would be beneficial. Mr. Bozic: If I can just make another comment about this. I won’t put words in Jessica’s mouth or the Parks and Rec Superintendent because she may or may not feel this way, but if you were to offer her $60,000 right now for an improvement within a park, I bet she would take it as opposed to an electric charging station. Mayor: That is sort of unfair Adam. That is really an unfair statement because if I offer Mike Rorar $60,000 to fit into asphalt, he will absolutely say yes. Mr. Bozic: When you look at it you are providing a service which is what City government is designed for; providing a service to as many people as possible and electric charging stations are not providing a service to as many people as possible in your City. It just isn’t. So, when you consider the location of these, nobody is going to go charge a vehicle in the center of our City in Lions Park and you might get a random one or two. The majority of these charging stations in the State of Ohio are one of three things or four things. In a commercial business like a large corporate business where they have a large number of employees, hotels, car dealerships right off the highway. Those four are the four biggest locations of charging stations. Well, and a fifth one; universities. We have a highway; do we have land near there that we would utilize and try to do stations because if we are going to do this, that would be the most beneficial place to put one because when you look at a map, there is nothing on the 76 corridors from basically Kent all the way down until you get to Akron. So, and actually it is even worse than that. There is nothing at all from Youngs- 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Mr. Bozic (Cont’d.) town or Austintown to Akron. Dir. of Pub. Service: The reason why we chose those locations was because we own the electric at those spots. So, we don’t have electricity anywhere else. Mayor: And it is a destination place; the Tallmadge Rec Center. Mr. Bozic: I understand that they are destinations. Mayor: The library, the Northwest, West Avenue parking lot because they could walk to Dunkin Donuts; they could walk to the restaurants and have a half hour lunch and they come back, and their car is done. Those are all strategically located for the purpose of that. That is why Mike brought it to you. Can someone say yes or no so we can just move on from it. I think in this environment of trying to be good stewards of our energy and everything else, and they said Dave, would you like to have free chargers if you could help us install those and that’s what it was. Mr. Bozic: I understand that aspect of it. I just think that we may be trying to do something that the public really shouldn’t be involved in at this point because the majority of what is out there is not owned by the public sector; it is owned through private corporations, the businesses that own them or the car dealerships. I am not in favor of it. I think we could better utilize $60,000 on our residents that would have a bigger impact. Pres. of Council: Well, let’s, if Mrs. Raber will allow this, let’s poll so that we can give Mr. Rorar an answer. Mr. Sisak: Are you dead set on those locations? Dir. of Pub. Service: No, I’m not dead set on the $60,000. I mean, I would go for $25,000. I owe Serpentini an answer. Mr. Sisak: I agree, so it doesn’t sound like the Metroparks is an opportunity because we don’t own the electric there; is that what I am hearing? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yup. Mr. Sisak: OK. Mayor: These are all locations that we looked at; our electric panels, what could we do to upgrade; how easy would it be to get out and what is the purpose for someone going to that location. That is why we picked these. Pres. of Council: Mrs. Kilway, you can start, and we will go down the row. Mrs. Gutman – yes. Mrs. Kilway – yes, Mr. Bollas – no, Mr. Bozic – no, Mrs. Allman – yes, Mr. Sisak – yes, Mr. Loughry – no. Pres. of Council: So, I think it is 4-3 no. Mayor: 4-3 yes. Pres. of Council: I’m sorry. 4-3 yes. Thank you. Mr. Sisak: I had a question for Mr. Rorar before we get too far along. Back to the asphalt and the slippage and the bubbling or whatever; issues that we are having. Is it beneficial to increase the depth of what we are grinding down like instead of going 2” should we go 4”? Is it just a material issue; is it an installation issue? Dir. of Pub. Service: It is material and installation. So, going deeper is not really going to really make the difference. So, you need a better product, and we are changing our specs. Like I said, our top surface; we will not allow any recyclable product in there at all. Then we have inspectors out there now that we didn’t have before every day. So, we always had inspectors, but they weren’t out there religiously. We have them out there now all the time so there is always somebody out there and so that is making a difference so if we could change some of the liquid in the asphalt and maybe enrich that a little bit and put more of that in there because that is what holds it all together. If we could put more of that in there. We sample every so many truckloads, so we see that what we asked for in our bid is what we are getting. So, there shouldn’t be much difference. Mr. Sisak: Last question, there are probably no guarantees or anything like that to say, hey this should last 5 years, or this has a 7-year warranty type of thing. That is probably 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Mr. Sisak (Cont’d.) not heard of in the asphalt paving. Dir. of Pub. Service: We used to get about 20 years out of it and now you are getting like 10 years, but then again, they are not allowed to heat the plants up like they used to and like I said they put that wrap in which is a recycled product. That just makes no sense to me. At the end of the day that is already an inferior product, putting in something new. Mr. Bollas: Just a follow-up question on that. What are the criteria for a winning bid in that case. Is it just the low bid in terms of cost; is it the quality in the specs. What would make up . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: The lowest and best bidder. They have to follow that spec that we put out. Every bidder that bids on it has to follow that spec. Like I said, we test the asphalt, and we have an inspector out there to make sure that we are putting down 2” or 4” whatever it is that we put in the specs. Pres. of Council: Anything else for Mr. Rorar this evening? d. Director of Finance: Good evening. I was absent at the last Council meeting where Council did receive my Financial Reports, so I will be glad to answer any questions. I did want to bring to Council’s attention to let you know that the State Budget Bill did include an increase in the municipal bidding threshold and that has now been increased to $75,000 so Council will now need to authorize any purchases and bidding of contracts over $75,000. The legislation did provide for a 3% annual increase to that number beginning in 2025. So, we do not need to change our ordinance because our ordinance states that we follow the general law. Or the Charter says that, not our ordinance. Mr. Bozic: Since you brought that up, you had stated that it is in our Charter $50,000 is that . . . Mayor: No, whatever State statute is. Mr. Bozic: Whatever the State, OK. So, we do have an ordinance basically then that says that we follow the State guidelines, and so would it be beneficial, or would Council even be able to institute an ordinance that would either say we follow it to this specific number, or we follow it to a number that is less than that? Mr. Sisak: We raised it a few years ago from like $25,000 to $50,000 to follow the ORC. Mayor: When I started on Council it was $5,000. Dir. of Law: I am going to have to look at it more because I think that there is something in the Charter that says general law and so we would have to change the Charter. So, I think there is a Charter and an ordinance so I will take a look at it. I didn’t think this issue was going to come up today. Pres. of Council: So, Mrs. Gilbride, thank you for doing the research on the EV chargers. That was nice of you to do something on your own for us. I appreciate it. This is a financial question, but it is actually going to probably you and Mrs. Stritch. I have been reading and hearing that the amount that municipalities have to pay into OPERS is going to increase our share. Is that . . . Dir. of Finance: Well, that has to be approved by the State legislature. Mayor: It is in front of them now. Pres. of Council: So, it will not be part of this budget? Dir. of Finance: Correct and it will be phased in. So, the Police and Fire Pension is requesting to increase. Currently the employer portion for Police is less than the employer portion for Fire and so they are requesting to increase the Police to the same percentage as the Fire which is 24% and so right now, we pay 19.5% for Police and that would increase to 24%. I am not sure on the exact number of years they want to phase that in, but it is a phase-in. This had actually been in the legislature last year also because they actually wanted to increase all of them including the Fire to 26% and so they have kind of dialed that back a little bit because that went nowhere. So, they have changed to 24% for the Police to match. OPERS would like to increase the employer portion from 14% to 18%. 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Dir. of Finance (Cont’d.) So, and again I’m not sure, I have not seen anything yet with what that phase-in looks like, but those were just recently introduced to the legislature. Pres. of Council: So, in your mind, it is nothing that we need to prepare for for next year? Dir. of Finance: No, I don’t think you are going to see anything that would probably, being where we are at right now, I would hope that the legislature would respect the fact that municipalities are passing their budgets right now and would not have that available. I would hope that they would take that into consideration and at least give us the 2025 budget year to make those adjustments. Mayor: So, this past Tuesday we had our monthly Mayor’s Association meeting, and we had a little update from Columbus and they are having public hearings right now on the Fire and Police down in Columbus. There are concerns of the small municipalities and suburbs and townships that if they have to go to 24% for the Police, they will not be able to fund their departments and therefore they would have to cut patrols and so there are a lot of hearings going on as we speak. We have a rep down there speaking on behalf of the Summit County Mayors. Pres. of Council: Anything for Mrs. Gilbride? e. Director of Law: Thank you. Thank you to everyone who wore red on Monday to kick off Red Ribbon Week. It was greatly appreciated. We have the signage out on the Circle to bring awareness to this national campaign for alcohol, tobacco, and drug prevention abuse. So, we also have our Drug Take Back on Saturday. We would again welcome people to come to the Police Department to get rid of any of your unused or unwanted prescriptions or over the counter drugs. It is a great way to dispose of it. We take care of making sure it is disposed of in an appropriate manner and you don’t have to get out of your car. You just drive to the back of the Police Department, and they will take that. If you are not able to make it on that day, which is Saturday, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. we do have a drop box location in the lobby of the Police Department, so you are always welcome to get rid of it there as well. Thank you very much. 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. 1st Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2023-86~Exhibit A – Tracked Exhibit A – P.H. ON 12-14-23 @ 7:01 P.M. Amending and supplementing Section 1110.02 “Minor Subdivision” and Appendix A of the Tallmadge Codified Ordinances. Sponsor: Councilperson Kilway Mrs. Kilway: Thank you. I will open the Planning & Zoning Committee. We are all present this evening. We have one ordinance in front of us; 2023-86~Exhibit A – Tracked Exhibit A and we do have a public hearing on this matter on 12-14-23 @ 7:01 p.m. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor: Just to give Council a brief update on this. This is not a substantive change in the Code. This is a clarification to make it easier for the contractors and the surveyors to come in to be able to read it. Dir. of Law: If she could present today since she is here so that she doesn’t have to return to Council another night that might be nice. Zoning Manager: So, this is an ordinance in the Subdivision section of our previous Zoning Code as well as this Zoning Code. Re-platting of lots was really not addressed to the best benefit of surveyors and so we had quite a few comments from other surveyors that said, what are the procedures for a replat and so together with them, our City Engineer, 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Zoning Manager (Cont’d.) the ORC and this rewrite section is just really one section in the Minor Subdivision Chapter that is addressed that will address the replat in a subdivision which just clarifies it more. So, it is a substantive change, but it is more procedural. It is not going to affect the end result. The reason Appendix A is in there is because we added a definition for replat which was really a requirement. We needed to redefine the replat. Mrs. Kilway: Are there any questions while we have Ms. Hussing here. Like I had indicated we do have a public hearing on 12-14-23. Anything else from Council on this. Anything from Council on any other item on Planning & Zoning at this time? Hearing none, 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. 2023-83 Amended – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into an agreement to purchase 892 Northwest Avenue (Parcels 6006239 and 6753251) from the Summit County Land Reutilization Corporation and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Sisak: I call the Finance Committee to order. Ordinance 2023-83 Amended. The ordinance was read into the record. This will go into the CIC. Mayor: No, this will stay with the City. This is going to be, once we demo the building, it will be green space and just make a flower bed, or welcome to the City of Tallmadge and get rid of the blighted building that is there. There is no intent to sell this property at this time. Mr. Sisak: That is the old muffler repair shop? Mayor: Yes. I know there has always been talk of the intersection to upgrade Barney’s Busy Corners; the Bucholzer loop if you have been around long enough you have heard of all of those terms. This could go to help that intersection upgrade in the future. Mr. Sisak: The side that it is on you would be leaving Tallmadge right versus coming in? Mayor: Glass half full or a glass half empty. Mr. Sisak: Cuyahoga Falls or something. Dir. of Finance: Cuyahoga Falls does have a sign. They have it between Baily and Tallmadge Road. Mrs. Kilway: A quick question on this. Are we concerned about any environmental issues since that was an automotive place? Mayor: We do have a company that is looking at doing Phase I on it but as long as you don’t . . . you can tear down, you can green space it, but if you go to sell it in the future, then you have to worry about the environmental, but there is a grant that is coming up next and that is Ord. 91. We did do our cursory around the building and knowing the history of that as the muffler shop, it would have to have a Phase I and possibly II. Mr. Sisak: Can I have a motion please. Pres. of Council: I move to adopt. Seconded Mrs. Allman. Mr. Bozic: The parcel number is incorrect on the agenda but is correct in the ordinance. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. Ord. 2023-83 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. ii. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. 11  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 A. 2023-84 – Exhibit A Amended Tracked Exhibit A – Amending and supplementing Ord. 2022-81 to amend rates, charges, and fees for all recreational facilities and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Sisak: Next we have Ord. 2023-84. The ordinance was read into the record. Does anyone have anything on this? Dir. of Pub. Service: What was amended was when you rented the church you had the option not to rent the restroom and that is ludicrous and so now you are going to have to rent the restroom when you rent the church. Mr. Sisak: Is the restroom in the church? Dir. of Pub. Service: No, it is in the Old Town Hall and so it was always an additional $25 fee so no. Mrs. Kilway: I would move to adopt Ord. 2023-84 at 2nd Reading. Seconded Mrs. Allman. Mr. Bozic: There are several other changes it looks like in that pricing grid and not just about the restroom for the church. Dir. of Pub. Service: So, this was presented last time so I am hoping nothing changed other than the church. So, yes there are other price changes; correct. Mr. Bozic: I just wanted to discuss some of the other price changes that were in there. So, in relation to Maca, it looks like we are increasing daily admissions fees for ages 3-12 and for ages 13-59; $5 each. Taking them to $15 and $20 and I guess I can understand the reasoning and maybe some thought process behind why we would increase that due to the attendance and the popularity of the pool. My only concern would be that if we continue to put a cap on the total number of memberships which I believe we have in the last several years; I think at 2,000 if I’m not mistaken, do we anticipate reaching that cap and if we do my concern would be if you were a resident, because it is regardless of residency, and again I understand why we did that as well because if we don’t get a line out the door and then asking that are in their swimsuits; do you have your ID so I can confirm residency and that process is very lengthy. So, I get why we made it that way, but for example, a family of 5 that wants to go to Maca would be charged for 2 adults and for me I would have by next summer, it would be a total of $95 to get my family into Maca for one day. So, that sounds like a lot, and I get it; I understand especially if I am going to pay to get passes; I could just pay $210 plus an additional $30 which would then put me at $240 for my family. So, can you kind of walk me through the logic. What kind of justification do we put in behind this. Dir. of Pub. Service: Sure. So, there again, the price of everything has gone up; chlorine has gone up, all the chemicals that are going into the pool are going up. That is one thing, and the second thing is trying to stay relevant; Clearwater Pool in Hartville for adults is $22 and for children it is $15. Waterworks in Cuyahoga Falls is $25 for adults and for children it is $20. Kim-Tam, which is in Springfield, is $20 for adults and $15 for children and then Bailer Beach, and there again, the pools don’t exist anymore, so $17 for adults and $17 for children. So, we are just trying to stay relevant with those cost increases but mostly because of the price for the chemicals. Mr. Bozic: So, of those facilities you listed, do the majority or how many of them offer like an annual pass or a membership? Dir. of Pub. Service: I believe the two for sure do and I’m not sure about the . . . so Waterworks does and Clearwater and that is where you are getting your benefit as a resident is to get the pass. Like you said, it is $220 and one day could be $90. Mr. Bozic: Right. Exactly. So that would be my concern is we are pricing it in a way to draw people towards membership essentially, but my concern would be what is that cap number and do we continue to have that cap number? 12  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Dir. of Pub. Service: So, we are increasing the memberships again this year. There again, we are going back to the 2021 numbers and not the 2022 numbers so we are going to increase the membership. Mr. Bozic: Do we know what that cap is? Dir. of Pub. Service: Off the top of my head; I don’t. Mollie, do you know what that was? Dir. of Finance: I don’t off the top of my head, but I can get that for you. Dir. of Pub. Service: We reduced that last year because remember people were concerned about the crowds that were getting in there. So, we reduced it and seeing what we saw this past year, we are going to increase the membership again to the previous numbers. Mr. Sisak: Do you anticipate the membership prices staying the same for 2024? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. Pres. of Council: I’m guessing if you keep membership prices the same and you increase the daily rate that is because we want to encourage membership sales. Dir. of Pub. Service: Correct. Dir. of Finance: So, members can bring guests, but this would be strictly for someone coming knowing no one else, members or anything there. Mr. Bollas: Regarding the section on page 2 about the Tallmadge Marline, first of all I want to say thank you to the two gentlemen who were here tonight; they make the Tallmadge Marlins Program possible. It is my understanding that there is a use agreement that was proposed to the Marlins for operating at Maca. The language in the grid states that the Marlin’s Swim Team is permitted customary use as approved by the Superintendent, but won’t that be changed to state based on the use agreement that has not yet been executed. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, and at that time we will come back and make that change. So, there again they would sign the use agreement. Mr. Bollas: I wasn’t going to bring this up until I was looking at this and realizing that I have not seen that. I wanted to bring it up here if there are any implications to membership rates because if you are a member of the Marlins, you are required to get a pass. Then as a part of that use agreement there are going to be a couple of challenges presented around restrictions on practice times and things like that. Dir. of Pub. Service: It is just in writing now. Mr. Bollas: Right and I’m just trying to make sure that there are no tentative changes that will impact any of the ratings here. Dir. of Pub. Service: No. Not for the Marlins. It is still being worked out and still being discussed. I think the Marlins came back with some revisions and I think Jessica and Megan are reviewing that. Mr. Bollas: OK. Thank you. Mr. Bozic: Also, within this grid on page 3, Softball and Baseball Fields; we have crossed off Lions Park and Howe Road and then in brackets is says, “all City owned ball fields.” My question there with that is because this has certainly been something that when I was at the Rec Center I questioned or asked about does this mean that we are opening up rentals of all of our City owned ball fields? So that could be Maca . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: So, there was a use agreement with Little League and when they have their schedule, obviously they have first rights to those fields outside of their schedule, based on the use agreement, we could run our own tournament if we wanted to. Mr. Bozic: Sure. So, looking at what I know about baseball and softball, does that mean that teams that are not technically Tallmadge Little League teams that are privately run even if they are coaches of Tallmadge Little League; are they paying for rentals of those fields? Dir. of Pub. Service: It is a public park as you know, so anybody can show up and use 13  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) the ballfield. You and your family can do that. However, if you are an organized group and you show up to use the ballfield and a team shows up that rented that field, then you would have to leave. Mr. Bozic: Would that technically be the same then for any tournaments that they run? Dir. of Pub. Service: Correct. They would have to . . . we have tournament fees now and so we set those in place about 4 years ago. Mr. Bozic: Are these teams aware of this change? Dir. of Pub. Service: Tallmadge Little League? Mr. Bozic: Tallmadge Little League and/or these travel teams? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. Tallmadge Little League: that is a use agreement with them, so they don’t bother with that. Mr. Bozic: Because in the past, it has been basically a use agreement with a sublet basically, a sublease of these fields so are you saying that that will still continue as it is or are we saying we only have a use agreement with Tallmadge Little League? Dir. of Pub. Service: So, if Adam Bozic wants to have a tournament on our fields and use all 7 fields, you can set that up, but you have to go through the City. Mrs. Kilway: Just one more thing as Mr. Bozic drew my eye to this section where it says Softball and Baseball Fields on page 3; there is just a minor little . . . I see the one change where it has TUSC and SUSA are and “are” crossed out and it says Tallmadge Soccer is permitted because those two have combined. If you go up a little bit farther underneath where it says Tournament Maintenance Fee, then there is a star tournament maintenance fee applies to all City fields including those used by Little League then we have TUSC and SUSA and so we do need to just make that quick change. Mr. Bozic: Since we are talking about that, I see here it says per lease agreement for Tallmadge Little League. Do we currently have a lease agreement for Tallmadge soccer? Dir. of Pub. Service: So maybe we should add that wording in there. I believe, at least in years past, they have been charged a certain amount for fertilizing or something like that. It might be beneficial to have that wording in there. Dir. of Pub. Service: Sure. Pres. of Council: Regarding our lease agreements on outdoor fields, are they consistently written so that we are treating all of our youth leagues the same? Dir. of Pub. Service: Pretty much. They are pretty close. Mr. Sisak: So, this is at 3rd Reading and we have a motion on the floor and a second. Do we want to vote on this? Mrs. Kilway: It’s at 2nd Reading. It wasn’t to amend it was to adopt. If you would like me to remove that motion . . . Dir. of Law: You need to amend it first and then if there are any other amendments like cleaning up this language that you want to include, you would like to state that tonight and it would stay at 2nd Reading. Mrs. Kilway: So, I will remove my motion. Pres. of Council: We amend just for a change in a word? Dir. of Law: You don’t have to but since you are making an amendment anyway, you might as well just state to delete the TUSC and SUSA. Dir. of Pub. Service: It was for a dollar amount is why it was being amended. Mr. Bozic: So, the original was the $25 increase that started the conversation. I would defer to Mrs. Raber if we can amend it as stated or should we make those corrections? Dir. of Law: Since there were other corrections that were mentioned and you have time on this before December, because even if you amend it in November, it will stay at 2 nd Reading, and you can still adopt it in December for implementation in January. So, why don’t we just come back with all the changes that were discussed and we will get that ready for you and have them ready for you at the next meeting and you can contemplate different 14  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Dir. of Law (Cont’d.) amendments and just not take any action on the amendment tonight. Mr. Sisak: So, we have a motion and a second so those need to be withdrawn. Mr. Kilway: I did withdraw my motion. Mrs. Allman: I withdraw my second. iii. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2023-85 – Exhibit A – Amending Section 182.03 “Imposition of Tax”, Section 182.05 “Annual Return; Filing”, and Section 182.18 “Interest and Penalties” of Chapter 182 of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Tallmadge regarding municipal income tax and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Finance Gilbride Mr. Sisak: We have Ord. 2023-85 – Exhibit A. The ordinance was read into the record. Dir. of Finance: Yes, so I did provide Council with a summary of kind of what was changing and why. These changes were included in the State’s Biennial Budget. They were kind of corrections and some hot button issues that the State had been dealing with with the State Tax Ordinance that governs how we as municipalities can impose our local income tax. The major points are that they are allowing businesses, due to the remote work environment, to make a decision if they want to apportion their net profits for their location of business or if they want to apportion them to where all their workers are working. So, I can guess how most businesses are going to elect to do that, but they do have the ability to make that election due to the new remote work environment. There were some municipalities that still have taxed individuals under the age of 18. We did not do that here in Tallmadge, however there were a few language modifications that were required in our ordinance to kind of eliminate the idea that they were taxed. It gave net profit filers an additional month of an extension to file their taxes. I’m not sure why they just picked them, so the net profit tax returns get 11 months after their fiscal year ends of an extension whereas most federal returns are 10 months. They also, I’m not sure who is doing this, but they also felt that they did not want the City’s contacting taxpayers who are on extension to ask them why they have not filed their return because cities are not allowed to require a taxpayer to notify them that they are on a federal extension, but we have to give them credit for federal extension. So probably what was happening after the tax filing deadline, some municipalities, if they were not informed by the taxpayer, they probably sent them letters and the State said you are not allowed to send them letters anymore. You just have to wait until October when the tax returns are due and then if they haven’t filed, you can send them a letter. R.I.T.A. already waited for that so again, not a big impact on our tax ordinance, however, we are changing the wording so that it is very clear we are not doing that and then finally, they changed the penalty back to what most municipalities were doing before they changed it when they made the big overhaul in 2017 so when the State did the big municipal overhaul they changed the filing penalty for a non-filer to $25 per month up to $150. Well, ours was a flat $25 fee and so now it has changed back to a flat $25 fee, and we are required that the first time somebody misses their filing deadline to waive the fee which was standard practice also. Just making sure that that language is incorporated into our ordinances, so I have given you a summary obviously take time to digest it. I am not asking for 1 st Reading adoption; we just have to have this adopted prior to January 1st. I will be glad to answer anybody’s questions. Mr. Bozic: House Bill 33; does that encompass all of the Tax Code or is this just . . Dir. of Finance: These are specifically taken out. So, House Bill 33 is actually the State’s Biennial Budget so they incorporated these language changes because it is a tax revenue thing that can incorporate that into the budget, so it is just these items. It is not a redo of the whole Tax Code. Mr. Bozic: OK, so, and again, just kind of digesting this, but does it reference if I really wanted to get into this Tax Code section; does it reference that specifically? 15  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Dir. of Finance: The Ohio Revised Code section of the Tax Code or . . . Mr. Bozic: Yes. Dir. of Finance: I’m sure our ordinance references that but I will send you the exact Ohio Revised Code Tax Code section that governs our Tax Code. Mr. Bozic: OK. That would be great. Mr. Sisak: We will leave that at 1st Reading for this evening. B. Ord. 2023-87 – Exhibit A – P.H. on 12-14-23 @ 7:03 P.M. – Adopting a budget for various funds of the City of Tallmadge, Ohio, for current expenses and other expenditures during fiscal year ending December 31, 2024, appropriating the necessary funds for the administration thereof, authorizing transfers between funds, and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Sisak: Next we have Ord. 2023-87 – Exhibit A – P.H. on 12-14-23 @ 7:03 P.M. The ordinance was read into the record. We will have our Budget Work Session next Wednesday, November 1st at 6:00 p.m. Pres. of Council: I believe and if you disagree, but I believe there was consensus from Council that they would like to have that Work Session live-streamed. Is there anybody that disagrees with that? Mr. Bollas: I just had a follow-up and discussion with Mr. Davis and Justin that that was indeed live streamed last year. Pres. of Council: Just to let you know that that Work Session will be live streamed as well. C. Ord. 2023-88 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a contract for the purchase of a HVAC system chiller through Sourcewell Cooperative Purchasing Program; appropriating necessary funds and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar Mr. Sisak: Moving on, we have Ord. 2023-88 at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Dir. of Pub. Service: So, as everybody knows from the last time, our chiller which is at the Rec Center went out and there is no way of repairing it. It needs to be replaced. I am asking for 1st Reading adoption because the price of this chiller goes up on November 1st. The main reason though is the importance of timing here. We need that chiller up and running and operational by March and it is on a delivery of 15 to 20 weeks time. So, this Sourcewell was a cooperative purchasing program so the bidding has been done for us. The price of $124,000 is within reason. Mr. Sisak: Thank you. Can I have a motion please. Mrs. Kilway: I move to adopt. Seconded Mr. Loughry. Mr. Sisak: There is a motion and a second to adopt Ord. 2023-88 at 1st Reading. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Ord. 2023-88 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. Mr. Sisak: Is there anything else to come before the Finance Committee. Dir. of Finance: I want to correct myself from earlier, I should have known that I didn’t mention this for a reason; I was incorrect as I should have conferred with the Law Director. Our ordinance does actually specify $50,000. So, we are still at $50,000 and then we will be looking at that ordinance to determine if we want to move forward with that threshold increase and do that. So, I apologize for my misspeaking. I should have checked with the Law Director as I would advise other people to do before they speak. Pres. of Council: So, we have an ordinance that says $50,000. Dir. of Finance: Our ordinance says $50,000 but the Charter says as the General Law. 16  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Pres. of Council: So, the Charter would supersede the ordinance? Mr. Sisak: No. Dir. of Law: Well, it is more restrictive so you can pass legislation that is more restrictive than a Charter. You just can’t have it be more or less restrictive. Pres. of Council: So, then Council may take up whether they want to keep it at $50,000 or raise it to the $75,000. Dir. of Finance: Correct. Mr. Sisak: Hearing nothing else, I will go ahead and 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. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2023-89 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into an agreement with the Tallmadge Part-Time Firefighters Association consisting of Tallmadge Part- Time Firefighters and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Bollas: I call the Personnel Committee to order. We have Ord. 2023-89 before us at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Point or order, I want to ask a question; this goes 3 Readings; correct? Mayor: It could go 1 or it could go all 3, but I am asking you just to give it a reading tonight. Mr. Bollas: OK. Any discussion on the ordinance at 1st Reading. Mrs. Kilway: Due to my familiar relationship with my husband being on the Part-Time Firefighters I will not be engaging in any conversation on this ordinance. Mr. Bozic: Mr. Mayor, if you can remind me about roughly how long, and I know every agreement is different and is negotiated differently . . . how long did it take the last agreement to come to fruition. Mayor: I don’t know. The last three years; how long did it take to come up with an agreement with them. Mr. Bozic: I understand that things are retro and there are obviously a lot of changes that can be made in 3 years. I was just, from looking at it as a whole, the agreement is coming up; correct at the end of the year; is that my understanding? Mayor: There is a 3-year contract. Mr. Bozic: I guess my question would be is it customary or is it required by law or some ordinance that we wait until the end of the three-year term or the three-year agreement to then introduce the ordinance that gives you the right to start the negotiations or . . . Mayor: Typically, we start about 6 months ahead. Next year it is going to be all three major contracts which will take at least 7 months to get to a final. Under this case, I am not sure where we are at. We can talk in Executive Session about the points of the contract, but I am not going to do that on the floor. Mr. Bozic: No, and I wouldn’t ask that. I am just trying to go back through my memory I guess of . . . Dir. of Finance: Also, just understand what the Part-Time Firefighter contract is a much simpler contract than per se the Full-Time just because we are not dealing with leave and those kinds of issues. Mr. Bozic: My second question is do we have a current number of how many Part-Time Firemen we have? Mayor: 28. 27 or 28. 17  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Mr. Bollas: Alright, we will keep Ord. 2023-89 at 1st Reading. B. Ord. 2023-94 – Tracked – P.H. ON 12-14-23 @ 7:06 P.M. – Establishing the number of non-collective bargaining employees by department and position pursuant to R.C. 731.08 and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Bollas: Moving on, we have Ord. 2023-94 – Tracked. There is a public hearing on 12-14-23 @ 7:06 p.m. The ordinance was read into the record. Seeing that there is a public hearing on this on December 14th is there any discussion on Ord. 2023-94? Dir. of Administration: This ordinance may look familiar to you, but this is the ordinance that will go along with the 2024 Budget so we do have a current personnel grid so this goes with the 2024 Budget so if there is any position in the 2024 Budget that is being presented, it would go with this legislation. So, if the budget is changed, this will change. They should mirror each other. So, this is not ready for adoption. This is just going along with the budget. It needs to be adopted when the budget is adopted. Dir. of Law: I just wanted to state that we know that there is going to be an amendment to this coming to you at the next meeting. We still need to have the Comp Board meet to be able to go through the newly adopted Point Factor discussion and looking at the analysis to place some of these in bands and so that is why some of them are blank and so because it is companion to the budget, we wanted to make sure we were adopting it so they are traveling along at the same time. So, there will be an amendment to this presented to you at the next meeting. Mr. Bollas: Alright. Thank you very much. Is there any other discussion on Ord. 94? Pres. of Council: I would just say that I had a conversation with Mrs. Stritch, and I imagine Mrs. Kilway has as well because we both have different personnel desires I guess, which ever one of us wins the election, and Mrs. Stritch suggested that we go ahead and handle this personnel issue as it is written and then either Mrs. Kilway or I would bring something back to Council in January. Mr. Bollas: Thanks very much. With that said, I will go ahead and close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. d. Safety Adam Bozic, Chair Craig Sisak, Vice Chair The Safety Committee deals with disaster services, communications, fire, and paramedics, police and health. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2023-92 – Appropriating additional funds for dispatch services from the Summit Area Regional Council of Governments (SARCOG) and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Finance Gilbride Mr. Bozic: I call the Safety Committee to order. We are all present this evening. We have a 1st Reading Ordinance 2023-92. The ordinance was read into the record. I will turn this over to it looks like Finance Director Gilbride. Dir. of Finance: So, as we had stated when we were putting together last year’s budget now knowing when the Dispatch Center was going to open, we did not include any funds for 2023 into the budget. We have gotten to the point obviously as the Mayor reported that they are moved over and operational, so we are going to be expected to place some . . make a payment. So, we are being billed for actual costs from 2022 when they hired the Director. Summit County has been fronting those costs for all of the agencies while we have kind of gotten to this place, so we have been billed actual costs from the 4th quarter 18  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Dir. of Finance (Cont’d.) of 2022 through the 3rd quarter of 2023 and so that is September. So, basically a year worth of costs. Those too, during the preliminary stage, were about $25,000 and then we are going to be billed based on estimated budget for the fourth quarter of this year and that is an additional $143,000 so that is how I have arrived at the request. Then what will happen is that we . . . the COG will adopt their 2024 Budget here by December and we will be billed quarterly and then there is an annual reconciliation to determine actual versus budget and that gets carried into the next budget year. Mr. Bozic: I have a lot of questions circling around that. Can you just walk us through since this is going to be kind of a new process for all of us; how does that process work or how does it look; what role does the City play in helping to determine that 2024 COG budget? Do we have any involvement I guess in what that looks like. Dir. of Finance: So, obviously we have a board member who votes on that but then there are also committees, so I also sit on a Finance Committee where we meet with the Director, and we look at those figures and we assess those budget things and ask those questions. So there . . . it is still a new process because obviously we haven’t gotten to the point where they are not going to be in full operation until next year. So that is the process. There is a Finance Committee which I sit on that evaluates the spending and looks at those budget figures and then that committee recommends to the board that budget for adoption. So, there is kind of a working group and then the Board which we are also a voting member. Mayor: There are 5 members on the board. Mr. Bozic: Can we get a list of the Board members just for reference. Mayor: The City of Tallmadge, Cuyahoga Falls, City of Stow, City of Fairlawn and Summit County Executive. So, all the Mayors of those 4 plus the County Executive or their designee. Mr. Bozic: And then what we on Council will be given I guess probably won’t need a monthly update, but maybe quarterly or semi-annual update of here is kind of what we talked about. It doesn’t even have to be . . . you can just shoot us an e-mail of the agenda or whatever. Dir. of Finance: Are you speaking just for specifically the budget or are you speaking . . . Mr. Bozic: Both. I am saying because I am assuming . . . how often does the board meet? Dir. of Finance: There is actually a monthly public meeting scheduled for the board and that agenda comes out and I know that they are doing a newsletter so I mean, I guess it would be up to the Administration’s prerogative within an agreement with Council as to how often or what they are looking to have reported back to them. Mr. Bozic: I would assume for the Finance Committee that you guys are meeting on a regular basis. Dir. of Finance: Yes, so we actually meet every month a week before the board meeting. Mr. Bozic: Anyone else on Council or the Administration have any comments. Mr. Sisak: What would we have paid the City of Stow dispatch for say like half of October, November and December because I’m sure there is going to be . . . Dir. of Finance: Yes, I am working with the City of Stow right now so we paid them semi- annually and so we are actually . . . I am working with Stow right now to get a refund of what they are owed. When we pay that in July there wasn’t . . . it wasn’t clear when we were actually going to be starting and so we did pay the whole year and so I have notified the Stow Finance Director that we are looking to receive a refund for any fees that were not incurred. Mr. Bozic: Any other questions in relation to Ord. 2023-92? Pres. of Council: Well, the Mayor referenced this, but I am extremely happy that we are going to be at full force on our Police Department for actually the first time in 10 years. So, this is good news. Mr. Bozic: Hearing none, I will close committee. 19  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 i. Additional Items: None. e. Community Issues Mary Gutman, Chair Carol Kilway, Vice Chair The Community Issues Committee deals with Parks and Recreation, civic affairs, and liaison between Council and the Recreation Board and intergovernmental affairs. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2023-93 – Expressing intent to sell unneeded, obsolete, or unfit real property known as Parcel #60-02371, located on Shanafelt Avenue, not needed for Municipal purposes and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar Mrs. Gutman: I will open Community Issues. We are all present this evening. We have before us at 1st Reading Ord. 2023-93. The ordinance was read into the record. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, so we brought this to Council probably in January or February. This is the piece that is behind Osceola behind the Freedom Trail. The City purchased it at one time for possible easement reasons and did not need it. So, we have been maintaining it and it is pretty much a useless piece of property for the City and we did put it out for bid for someone to purchase and we never got a single bid on it. We did go to the 2 adjacent neighbors of it and asked them both if they would be interested and the one neighbor did come back and said yes. Mrs. Gutman: Do we want to keep this at 1st Reading. Does anyone have any questions or comments. Mr. Bozic: How would we conduct the sale of this property; would that be through the Summit County . . . Dir. of Law: No, it is directly from us. This authorizes us to enter into any agreements to sell the property to that particular landowner who is the only one who has made an offer on it. It is unusual to do that but again, we have already exhausted the means of trying to sell it through auction and we got no bids. It is not a buildable parcel so again it is not very desirable and the only real people that probably would have an interest are the two neighboring persons, so it is really a matter of getting it off of the City’s books to keep us from having to maintain it and continuing to lose money on it at this point. Mrs. Kilway: This is a piece of property that we spend money doing an appraisal on it, putting it up for auction and we have to maintain it and so I think this is a good way to dispose of it and get it off our books. I think this is a good ordinance. Mrs. Gutman: Thank you. I would agree with that. Anyone else. OK then we will keep Ord. 2023-93 at 1st Reading, and I will just say for Trick or Treat tomorrow to remind everyone that even if it isn’t quite dark yet that you are still not as visible at dusk and to wear reflective gear and put it on your children, please and have fun. Is there anything else for Community Issues. Seeing nothing, I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. f. Public Service Rebecca Allman, Chair Mary Gutman, Vice Chair The Public Service Committee deals with streets, highways, sidewalks, buildings, and improvements: water, sewer, electricity, gas, energy resources, recycle, waste, and trash. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. 20  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 A. Ord. 2023-90 – Authorizing the Mayor to apply to the Summit County Land Bank for grant funds for the Ohio Department of Development Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program for the demolition of the structure located at 1128½ Woods Drive and enter into an agreement with the Summit County Land Reutilization Corporation to demolish this structure and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mrs. Allman: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have Ord. 2023-90 before us at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Dir. of Law: This particular property is a property that was subject to a fire and there is an arson charge associated with it as well as other additional charges associated with the homeowner. We have an opportunity to apply for this grant and the deadline is unfortunately coming up very quickly, so we are asking for 1st Reading adoption of this. We are not yet sure whether we will qualify for all the preconditions of this grant, but it is worthwhile for us to pursue it to see if we can get the monies and it is definitely a blight in the neighborhood. It is not in repairable condition; the building has been condemned by the Summit County Building Department and it is a blight that needs to be abated. Pres. of Council: So, if we get the grant and we demo this, who owns the property. Dir. of Law: The ownership doesn’t change, but the demolition occurs. Pres. of Council: So, we are getting a grant to make . . . Dir. of Law: To make a blight go away. Pres. of Council: A blight goes away but a felon’s property is worth more. Dir. of Law: It has a lien on it so there is a lien holder so there is a process for them, and they get notified as well so they may exercise whatever they wish to on that as well. Mayor: And to benefit all the neighbors in the neighborhood that have to look at this thing. This is terrible out there. Pres. of Council: I know the person who lives next door. It just frustrates me. Dir. of Law: We will be assessing; we can assess the cost of our cost at least to the property. So that will also be on there so there is a lien and there will be an assessment and I don’t know how much actual value would be after that. Pres. of Council: When it is all said and done, someone will buy a nice buildable lot and improve that site. Mrs. Allman: Could I have a motion? Mr. Sisak: So moved. Seconded Mr. Loughry. Roll Call: Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 2023-90 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. B. Ord. 2023-91 – Authorizing the Mayor to apply to the Summit County Land Bank for grant funds for the Ohio Department of Development Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program for the demolition of the structure located at 892 Northwest Avenue and enter into an agreement with the Summit County Land Reutilization Corporation to demolish these structures and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mrs. Allman: Next we have Ord. 2023-91. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor: This too is a property that is out at the old muffler shop. It is a grant that we are applying for. It is 75/25 meaning the grant would pay for 75% and the City would have to pay 25%. It is just the application. This authorizes us to apply. Pres. of Council: I would move to adopt. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Mr. Bozic: I know Councilperson Kilway had asked about any of the land testing and what 21  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 25, 2023 Mr. Bozic (Cont’d.) not due to it being an oil change/muffler and all that kind of stuff, so if there are any future improvements made to that site for example, a new roadway or something goes in; will they then whether it be a City of Tallmadge or ODOT or whomever be required to conduct those soil sample tests? Mayor: The subsoils; yes, but for a demo, you have to do an environmental for the demo. This house that burnt down on Woods Drive; we have to do an environmental. Is there asbestos still there or if it is beyond the burn of that and so the company that we utilize are specialists are going out to Woods Drive to evaluate and to see if they can get samples or is it beyond the burn factor. This building has to have samples. Asbestos shingles on the roof and then that is part of the grant. Mr. Bozic: They take soil samples. I just want to clarify. Mayor: Not subsoil. They do construction of the physical building. So, if there were to be tanks in the ground or whatever which could be, but we don’t think so, there are a lot of grants out there that we could apply for. Mr. Bozic: I was just looking at down the line would we somehow be stuck with a large bill for cleanup of an environmental issue that . . . Mayor: I don’t think so. I mean the worst scenario is that you put a Welcome to the City of Tallmadge sign or goodbye you are leaving the City of Tallmadge or put a flower bed out there. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry – unanimous. Ord. 2023-91 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. Mrs. Allman: Is there anything else for the Public Service Committee? Hearing none, I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: None a. Council Operations Committee i. Additional Items: 12. Announcements: None. 13. Adjournment: Mr. Sisak moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. The Council meeting of 10-25-23 adjourned at 9:00 p.m. sb Adopted: _______________ _______________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Dennis K. Loughry – President of Council 22