City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 10, 2024 1. Call to Order: President of Council Bozic called the Council meeting of Wednesday, January 10, 2024, to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Opening Prayer: Pastor Zach Reeves, Tallmadge Alliance Church Pledge of Allegiance: 3. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy – present. Mr. Loughry left the meeting because of illness. 4. Correcting and Adopting the Previous Meeting Minutes: 12-14-23 Minutes – To be provided. 5. Financial Reports: • Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $137,500 and Street Maintenance & Repair Fund Transfer in the amount of $161,500 from the General Fund to Council on 12-27-23. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report and Revenue Report for the period ending 12-31-23 to Council on 01-04-2024. • December Financial Reports to Council on 01-04-2024. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 12-31-23 to Council on 01-04-2024. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 12-31-23 to Council on 01-04-2024. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 12-31-23 to Council on 01-04-2024. • Income Tax by Source Report for the month of December to Council on 01-04-2024. • Revenue Comparisons for Major Funds for the period ending 12-31-23 to Council on 01-04-2024. Mr. Bollas: I move for the acceptance of the Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. The Financial Reports were accepted by a vote of 6-0. 6. Public Hearings: None. 7. Community Input: Pres. of Council: At this point in the meeting, I will open it up to anyone in the community that is present. They will get 2 minutes to speak. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak? No one responded. 8. Agenda Additions: We have none. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Director of Economic Development Mayor Kilway: • It’s been a nice couple of weeks. This is my second week, and it has been very busy. I am getting a nice tour of the City with Mike Rorar. I got to visit a lot of the departments. Went to the Police Department and City Hall, Fire Station and Rec Center. I have not yet made it down to the Garage. I am actively hiring my staff. I do have a Dir. of Administration who will be coming in in May. Jill Stritch has been very gracious to stay and help me a little bit. We do have a Dir. of Human Resources that is going to be starting I believe on the 22nd and so please welcome Allie Schwartz when she comes in. She will do a fantastic job. I am looking at some of the other positions and reimagining them, so we get the best quality people for each of the positions. So, I will keep you informed when we get those hires in. • I do have my weekly meetings with the Police and Fire Chiefs. They have asked for reports to Council if there is anything that you would like in addition to what you have gotten the past, please let us know so we can get something to you in a format you would like to have. • We did have a nice meet and greet with the Mayor to find out who I was, and I got to meet some of the people down at 210 Osceola. It was really nice to be able to talk to them because those are the people that I don’t have a day-to-day relationship with. 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 10, 2024 • Tomorrow I am going to be speaking at the Civic Engagement Class at the High School. I guess it is something that Mayor Kline had done in the past. • We do have some openings on the Boards and Commissions. Obviously Ted is one of our Council members and we need to replace him, but I would just like to ask anyone who is watching the Council meetings that if you are interested in being on a Board or Commission, please let my office know. You can call or send in an e-mail. Let us know that you are interested because that is how we find people interested in serving. I would like to have all of those filled by the end of this month. • A nice little surprise that we had was Isabelle Lawrence from Channel 3 News contacted City Hall and is going to be doing a very upbeat and positive story on the City and so I will let you know some information on that. They were here at City Hall doing some filming so as soon as we find out when it is going to air, we will let everybody know. • There was a ribbon cutting at Chase Bank in the JEDD last week. • I would like to welcome the new Council members, Jessica, Ted and Don. We thank you for what you do. We cannot have a great City without a great Council. End of report. Mr. Bollas: I have a quick question. The Boards and Commissions; what spots are currently available? Mayor: We do have to replace Mr. Roy on the Board of Zoning Appeals and it looks like on the Architectural Review Board and a position on the CIC Board. Mr. Pavlik: Does a Council member sit on each of those Boards? Mayor: No. b. Director of Administration/Director of Safety Pres. of Council: We will skip over item b. c. Director of Public Service: Mr. Rorar: Welcome to the new year. I have one slide for Council. It is snow season. We are on our shifts now. If you note the map to the left, there it gives you the layout of the City streets. The blue are the mains and so those are where the snow drivers start and then the secondary routes are pretty much the residentials and then the black are mostly cul-de-sacs and the roads that are residentials and those are last; they are the allotment roads, and they are the last ones to be hit. At times we may not even get off of the mains depending on the snow. So, it depends on when the snow hits so the other morning that snow started dropping at 5:30 a.m. right at rush hour and we could barely get the mains started and so it depends. Just so Council has an idea we were out spot salting and that is where we salt the intersections, hills and grades and that is it until the snow event is over. We don’t want to waste the salt. There again, you throw the salt down and it gets plowed right off again. If you get calls from people saying their road is not done yet, that’s because it probably has not been done yet. Unless there are any other questions, that is all I have for this evening. Pres. of Council: I have one question. I know you and I have spoken before about having a second salt barn somewhere else strategically placed in the City to help kind of help with that timeframe to go to West Avenue. Is that something that we are still looking at? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. I would love to get one somewhere else. d. Director of Finance: We have closed out 2023. Overall we had a pretty good year financially. The income tax rebounded in the last couple of months last year, especially in the area of net profit returns. Those had been down pretty substantially between 30 and 40%. That picked up at the end of the year with the filings on the extensions and estimates for the next year picking those up so hopefully that is a good sign. Those are, as I have stated to Council before that the net profit portion of our income tax which is the portion that businesses pay on their net profit income that is the most volatile piece of the income tax that there is and it is hard to predict based on the businesses making investments in capital and all sorts of other things. But I was very happy with where we ended up. 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 10, 2024 Dir. of Finance (Cont’d.) Another highlight for the year is the benefit that we have been able to receive at the City from inflation, while costs are up also, we received over $915,000 in investment income this year. Mr. Pavlik: A question about the losses at the Rec Center; are the losses funded by the General Fund? Dir. of Finance: Right. So the Rec Center is a department within the General Fund and any losses are picked up by any overages in the General Fund. Mr. Bollas: In prior years, like 2 or 3 years into Covid, remote work kicked in and I know we were looking at the R.I.T.A. data and things like that, is there anything year after year trend-wise a benefit of those who went to remote work? Dir. of Finance: Our withholding was actually pretty strong this year and so were the individual tax payments, which would be the two categories which we would receive. I think what the remote work has done for us has actually helped to diversify our withholding income and now our top employer is First Energy because we are an immediate suburb because all of those people who were working in Akron are now working at home and big banks downtown part of their time is spent at home and actually for a community like us, it helped to diversify our withholding tax. We are not as dependent only on the businesses that are in our City limits, we also have an outreach for all those people who maybe work for businesses that are not in our City but were receiving the benefit because now they are allowed to work at home. The refunds evened out this year. I think we are kind of entering into what I would call an expected normal. Mr. Bollas: Thank you. e. Director of Law: Thank you. I just want to take, I guess, a little bit of time in my report tonight to kind of explain to everyone what to expect with the ordinances this evening. So, what we have tonight is a multitude of what we call housekeeping ordinances. These are our ordinances that get adopted year after year after year. A lot of them are going to be authorizing us to, through the bid process, things that we need for public services relative to roads, paving and things like that that are commonplace every year or contracts that we enter into with engineers or firms that we have used as consultants for years and years and years. As we go through these, typically we will have 1st Reading adoptions. You don’t have to do that, but if you want to get them off your docket, it will allow for us to proceed with the business that we need to for the year. That’s the majority of what you have in front of you this evening. What we have done in past experiences you will have some of these this evening and then some of them for you at the end of January. So, you will have some of those “housekeeping” ordinances. Then occasionally through the year you will have some that we will say, oh this is a housekeeping ordinance but the timing of it just is appropriate at a different time in the calendar year instead of the beginning. So, I just kind of wanted to make that clear and run that by everybody. I know we have a lot of new Council members and to the public as well. Mr. Bollas: As a refresher for myself and for the Council members, 1st Reading adoption; is that a simple majority or does it need to be . . . Dir. of Law: So, you only need a majority ever to adopt an ordinance but if you want to go into effect immediately, you need to have 6 members of Council for adoption of something if it is at 1st Reading. So, we have typically had an immediate enactment provision on these ordinances especially so for those ordinances that have immediate enactment, you need to have 6 votes. If they didn’t have the 6 votes, let’s say there were only 4 for example, it would still be enacted but it would take 30 days before it went into effect. That is the difference. Once an ordinance is at 3rd Reading, then if it has a clause in it that says it is for immediate enactment, it is at 3 rd Reading then you only need a simple majority for it to have immediate enactment. So hopefully that makes sense. There are also going to be a few ordinances where we are going to set a public hearing. There is one this evening that we will need to set a public hearing on and that particular one. There are a few called out in Council Rules that specify they must have a public hearing and have to have 3 Readings before they can change and that has to do with the 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 10, 2024 Dir. of Law (Cont’d.) Civil Service provision and so that is a way to make sure that we are taking the necessary steps and zoning ordinances are the same way where if you are changing a zoning provision it does have to have 3 readings and a public hearing. Typically, a public hearing is just 3 readings and sometimes the public hearing is actually at Planning & Zoning. So, again we will kind of walk through those. Mr. Pavlik: Ms. Raber, a lot of these ordinances have already been budgeted for? Dir. of Law: Yes, correct. I think most of them have some kind of line in there that references that it is in the budget and I think some of the contractual ones obviously if we were to exceed what was budgeted, or if we need a re-appropriation then obviously we would have to come back to Council. 10. Reports of Standing Committees of Council of the Whole: a. PLANNING AND ZONING Mary Gutman, Chair Janet Epstein, Vice Chair The Planning & Zoning Committee deals with land use, zoning, conditional uses, planning, economic and community development, and public property. Mrs. Gutman: I call the Planning & Zoning Committee to order. We have no legislation before us tonight. I will highlight from the December activity report that was sent to Council that the final plat for Phases 6 and 7 of the Tallmadge Reserve were approved so that was exciting. Also, a Certificate of Appropriateness was granted for the new build at the Village at Towne Center and I believe those are the senior apartments that we voted on last year. Is there anything for Planning & Zoning? Hearing none, I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. b. FINANCE Donald Pavlik, Chair Jonathon Bollas, Vice Chair The Finance Committee deals with budget, appropriations, reappropriations, bonds, franchises, investments, and expenditures. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2024-9 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to negotiate and the Mayor to contract for various policies of insurance for the City and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Public Service Rorar Mr. Pavlik: I call the Finance Committee to order. We have 1st Reading of Ord. 2024-9. The ordinance was read into the record. Does the Service Director have any comment on this? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, so it was not too bad. It was an 11% increase from last year to this year. Most of that was in property. It was almost a $20,000 increase in the property. That was due to the new fire station. Then the other jump was $6,000 which wasn’t crazy and that was because of the accidents that happen with the City vehicles. Mr. Pavlik: Do any of the Council members have any questions? No one responded. Is there a motion? Mrs. Gutman: I will make a motion to pass this at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Bollas. Roll Call: Jessica Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Ted Roy, Jonathon Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. Ord. 2024-9 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. B. Ord. 2024-10 - Authorizing the Mayor to enter into the necessary contract or resolution for the purchase of salt and salt brine through the ODOT cooperative purchasing program and other inter-governmental purchasing program and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Public Service Rorar 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 10, 2024 Mr. Pavlik: Next we have Ord. 2024-10. The ordinance was read into record. Does the Service Director have any comments on this? Dir. of Pub. Service: As the Law Director has said this is housekeeping. We will probably order the salt in March for next year. This year’s prices through ODOT contract was $49.98 per ton and through the CUE Program it was $56.80 a ton and then the brine through ODOT was 59¢ a gallon. Mr. Pavlik: Is there any further discussion? No one responded. Is there a motion? Mr. Bollas: So moved. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Jonathon Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein – unanimous. Ord. 2024-10 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. C. Ord. 2024-11 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into the necessary contract or resolution for the City’s participation in the ODOT Cooperative Purchasing Program and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Public Service Rorar] Mr. Pavlik: Next we have Ord. 2024-11. The ordinance was read into the record. Does the Service Director have any comments on this? Dir. of Pub. Service: So, this is for equipment such as trucks that is offered through the ODOT Purchasing Program so throughout the year if we have to purchase something it just gives the opportunity to do so. Mr. Pavlik: Do any Council members have any comments? Mr. Bozic: Just a question for the Service Director. You had mentioned through ODOT’s Cooperative Purchase Program, and correct me if I am mistaken, but you said that that was for machinery, equipment and things of that nature, does that give you the authority to like present a contract for like a dump truck or a snow plow giving you the authority to . . . Dir. of Finance: This just gives us the authority to participate in the program to use the pricing for anything would be over the Council threshold and still have to come back to Council to make that purchase. Mr. Pavlik: Any further discussion on this ordinance? Mr. Bollas: I move to adopt. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Roll Call: Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Ord. 2024-11 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. D. Ord. 2024-12 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into the necessary contract or resolution for the city’s participation through the Sourcewell cooperative purchasing program and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Public Service Rorar Mr. Pavlik: Next we have Ord. 2024-12. The ordinance was read into the record. Does the Service Director have any comments on this? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, this is for HVAC equipment or playground equipment or something of that nature if we need to purchase it. Mr. Pavlik: Do any Council members have any comments? No one responded. Can I get a motion. Mrs. Gutman: So moved. Seconded Mr. Bollas. Roll Call: Mr. Roy, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik – unanimous. Ord. 20224-12 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. E. Ord. 2024-13 – Authorizing the Mayor to contract with Kastner Westman & Wilkins, LLC for legal services and consulting services and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway, Director of Law Raber Mr. Pavlik: Next we have Ord. 2024-13. The ordinance was read into the record. Does the Mayor or Law Director have any comments? Dir. of Law: Sure, I can just say that we have used Kastner, Westman and Wilkins for 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 10, 2024 Dir. of Law (Cont’d.) quite some time for specifically labor relations and personnel issues. It is kind of like you going to your general physician and they are kind of like the general physician in this example and then there are specialists and we have to use specialists occasionally and they fulfill that role and we do have to use some outside counseling occasionally and it has been budgeted for. Mr. Pavlik: Do any Council members have any comments? Mr. Bozic: Do we have a set amount that we use, an annual budget amount? Dir. of Law: We have an annual amount but that encompasses not just this, but it is any other legal services that we may have so it fluctuates every year. Mr. Bozic: Do we have, as we look at these, do we anticipate using legal services more during contract negotiations and things like that? Dir. of Law: Sure. So, this year we know we have all of the contracts that are up for negotiations and so it is going to be more likely to use them more and we try to adjust the budget but we also have legal issues that we are also budgeting for also. Mr. Bozic: Alright. Thank you. Mr. Pavlik: Mrs. Raber to follow up on that question, so we have a general budget for contractual services, so if one contract uses the bulk of that budget, and this puts it over, what happens then. You would have to come back to Council and explain . . . Dir. of Finance: So, the legal services are in a department called General Administration. The way Council approves the budget is they do not approve it by line item, they approve it by totality of the budget. So, if we did have a legal issue that would take that legal line over, we don’t necessarily need a re-appropriation because there may be savings in other areas in that department that will allow us to kind of what I will call “borrow” that line item to pay for the other line item. So, if something like that were to occur, our typical stance would be that we would let you know, but we would also watch it so we wouldn’t necessarily come back immediately for a re-appropriation if we thought it was something that the budget had enough leeway to withstand that. Dir. of Law: But if I could also add though that there is also the threshold of the $50,000 and if it is over $50,000 there is an ordinance that comes before Council that authorizes that contract. Mr. Pavlik: When you say a threshold of $50,000; what do you mean? Dir. of Law: Of expenditures. Mr. Pavlik: Is there any other discussion? There was no response. Can I get a motion? Mr. Bollas: I move to adopt. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy – unanimous. Ord. 2024-13 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. F. Ord. 2024-14 – Authorizing the Director of Finance to advertise for proposals and the Mayor to enter into one or more contracts for major medical, dental, eye, and/or group life insurance for various officials and employees of the city and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Finance Gilbride Mr. Pavlik: Next we have Ord. 2024-14. The ordinance was read into the record. Does the Finance Director have any comments on this. Dir. of Finance: Just that this allows us each year to go out and accept proposals for all of our employee benefits based on the increases we are seeing on our medical coverage. Mr. Pavlik: Does Council have any other comments? Mr. Bozic: The current health care provider we are utilizing; have we reupped that recently? . . . Dir. of Finance: So, we are on an annual contract and so that would have begun at the beginning of this year typically we made a decision, but I think the ordinances and the union 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 10, 2024 Dir. of Finance (Cont’d.) contracts call out for the decision, at least the Cost Containment Committee needs to make a recommendation to the Mayor by November 1st. Usually at the end of September or the beginning of October is when we are looking at that information. Mrs. Gutman moved for the adoption of Ord. 2024-13. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. Ord. 2024-13 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. G. Res. 2024-1 – Authorizing the Portage County Auditor to advance payment of local taxes collected for the 2023 tax year, payable in 2024 and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Finance Gilbride Mr. Pavlik: Next we have Res. 2024-1. The resolution was read into the record. Does the Finance Director have any comments? Dir. of Finance: This resolution and the next one both; one is for Summit County, and one is for Portage County. This is a resolution we need to pass so that the County Auditor and Fiscal Office can send us property tax funds as they collect them. So, as they collect them, about every other week they will send us the collections starting in February and then finalize that at the end of April. Mr. Pavlik: Do the Council members have any comments? Mr. Roy: What kind of money are you talking that we are going to get in? Dir. of Finance: So, the property taxes that we receive in the General Fund; there is a General Levy of 2.1 mills and typically we get around $1 million in the General Fund with that and now that levy we may see a little increase due to the increased property valuations on that because that is inside millage. The second levy that we receive is the Fire and EMS Levy. That is the main levy that funds Fire and EMS. That is the property tax levy and that is 3.75 mills and that brings in about $1.5 million. Then we also have a small levy that helps to fund the Police Pension and that brings in about $95,000 to $100,000 a year. Mr. Pavlik: Any other questions? Can I get a motion. Mrs. Gutman: So moved. Seconded Mr. Roy. Roll Call: Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. Res. 2024-1 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. H. Res 2024-2 – Authorizing the Summit County Fiscal Officer to advance payment of local taxes collected for the 2023 tax year, payable in 2024 and authorizing the Mayor to solicit proposals and award a 5-year contract for towing services for the City Safety forces and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mr. Pavlik: Next we have Res. 2024-2. The resolution was read into the record. Council members do you have any questions? No one responded. Can I get a motion. Mr. Bollas: I would move for the adoption of Res. 2024-2. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein – unanimous. Res. 2024-2 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Pavlik: Is there anything else to come before the Finance Committee this evening? Hearing none, I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. e. PERSONNEL Jonathon Bollas, Chair Don Pavlik – Vice Chair The Personnel Committee deals with personnel, labor relations, insurance claims, Rules of Council and State Statutes. 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 10, 2024 i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2024-15 – Tracked – P.H. 2-8-24 @ 7:05 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 Kilway Mr. Bollas: We have Ord. 2024-15 at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Any questions on this ordinance? Mayor: So, this ordinance has a potential to change the position of Administrative Assistant from classified to unclassified. All of the Administrative Assistants in the City are unclassified and this has been held by a classified person and she has recently retired so you can’t change their classification while they are employed so it is now an opportunity to have all of the Administrative Assistants at the same classification. Dir. of Law: Madame Mayor, I just want to clarify that I don’t know if all of them are or if just in that department, but definitely in that department when they become open, I think that is what we are moving towards. Mr. Bollas: For all of those on Council as well, we are referring to the Appendix Item when you are looking at the table on the far right the Civil Service Status, if you look at the line item for Administrative Assistant for Roads, which is moving from classified to unclassified. Any other discussion? Dir. of Law: Mr. Bollas, if I could just add that Civil Service did already meet and made a recommendation to go ahead and adopt. Mr. Bollas: With that are there any additional items for the Personnel Committee this evening? Hearing none, I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. d. SAFETY Dennis Loughry, Chair Ted Roy, Vice Chair The Safety Committee deals with disaster services, communications, fire, and para- medics, police, and health. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2024-16 – Authorizing the Mayor to solicit proposals and award a five- year contract for towing services for the City’s safety forces and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mr. Roy: I call the Safety Committee to order. We have Ord. 2024-16 at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Dir. of Law: This is actually kind of a little bit unique in that it is not a request for a bid; it is not going out to bid because we are not actually the ones that pay the money. So, what this is our Police Department or potentially our Street Department would use these services for towing and then it is what the rate is of what they are charging the person whose vehicle is being towed and so at times if a person doesn’t reclaim that towing company can actually make money by forfeiting the title. We are not expending anything on this. Mr. Pavlik: So, we won’t have to revisit this for five years? Dir. of Law: Yup. It is a timing thing and it is kind of housekeeping. Mr. Pavlik: I will make a motion to adopt. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy – unanimous. Ord. 2024-16 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Roy: If there is nothing further, I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 10, 2024 f. COMMUNITY ISSUES Ted Roy, Chair Mary Gutman, 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. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2023-103 – P.H. on 1-25-24 @ 7:05 P.M. – Imposing a six-month moratorium on acceptance of any Zoning application for an adult use cannabis operator and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway (was originally sponsored by Mayor Kline) Mr. Roy: I call the Community Issues Committee to order. We have Ord. 2023-103 at 2nd Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. There is a public hearing on 1-25-24 @ 7:05 p.m. Mayor: This is at 2nd Reading. It is just basically putting a hold on accepting any zoning applications for an adult use cannabis use operator. Dir. of Law: I just wanted to say that for the record, actually this was sponsored by Mayor Kline. Mr. Pavlik: Ms. Raber and Mayor Kilway, this would be essentially what the State has put out in terms of like licensing. Dir. of Law: The issue was passed by the public in November, and it provides for municipalities to make decisions about zoning to permit or not permit zoning operators, etc. before we take an application which shouldn’t be happening anyway because they are not up and running with the State. We have prohibited medical marijuana. This will just put a hold on it. We can’t process their zoning application. I would also like to reiterate that it does not affect people being able to comply with the law. It is just about the operator. Mr. Bozic: Mr. Chair, I have a question for the Law Director. Since everything is being checked out at the State House do you have a timeframe for how long they have to discuss the changes and to implement them? Dir. of Law: No, I think after passage the Senate moved pretty quickly and then it was thought that the House might do something by the end of the year, but they didn’t, so I don’t know what the timeframe is. I can’t predict what the State legislature is going to do. Pres. of Council: We have opened it up for discussion, so if you want to come to the podium and state your name and address and you will be given 2 minutes to speak. Lee Gidden, 1602 Timbertop Drive, Tallmadge. My question is when will the citizens of Tallmadge have the opportunity to speak to Council on this item. Dir. of Law: Well, you are allowed to speak on it now. This is just about the moratorium so this is just about the pause but in the meantime I think you should know that people should let their Council people know what their thoughts are whether or not . . . and this is limited to zoning and whether or not you know how the City should act on the zoning on this matter and I think that while the moratorium is in place that is the perfect time for people to send in communications to their Council people and reach out. Mr. Gidden: OK Mr. Pavlik: There is a public hearing at the next meeting. Dir. of Law: Yes, there is a public hearing on this moratorium, but I think he is asking about after the moratorium and what you want to see as an end result. Is that what you are talking about? Mr. Gidden: Correct. There is a lot in that area that I would like to see go on. I know we already have the blockage for medical. I do not believe, and this is through research, that it is good for the City. The whole law isn’t good for the State. You can look at the states that have passed it and it is just not good. I do believe we need to give some serious thought on what we need to do to keep it out of the public areas. 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 10, 2024 Mr. Gidden (Cont’d.) What people do in their own homes, no, I’m not into governing people in their own homes. But in our public areas there are some that are medically challenged already anytime you get into smoke it blows us into an asthmatic attack. I mean we are trying to block smoking, just general smoking. America has been smoking since we have been America. Now they are allowing this to go on. I think we need to put some serious thought into this. Thank you. Dir. of Law: And yes, to reiterate what Mr. Pavlik said, we do have a public hearing on the moratorium which will be at our next Council meeting. Mrs. Epstein: So, in the section there could be an appeal due to an economic hardship and Council would have to make that determination. Is there any precedent or guideline that Council could use? I think that would be an unlikely or rare event but just to be prepared. Dir. of Law: That would be rare. That type of language would be more of a due process for an applicant who would be denied that and would have to have some kind of vested interest already in the process. I don’t think we are going to have that kind of situation in this case. We have no one that has indicated that they would be for that and right now they haven’t even set up the mechanism for the State regulations and so forth so its not like we are expecting to get an application tomorrow but again, we are at a point where this is going to come in place. If that were to happen and we got to that point, then I certainly would be giving advice on that. Mrs. Epstein: Just a brief follow-up having just taken office recently has there ever been any reach out from the public to the administration? Dir. of Law: I think we had a few people come to a meeting after that was adopted expressing some concerns. ii. First Readings of Resolutions and Ordinances A. Ord. 2024-7 – Authorizing the Mayor to contract with Brandstetter Carroll Inc. for engineering and consulting services relating to parks and recreation design and engineering and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Public Service Rorar Mr. Roy: Next we have Ord. 2024-7. The ordinance was read into the record. This is sponsored by Mike Rorar. Dir. of Pub. Service: This is our main engineer for Parks and Rec, and they were the ones that did our Park Master Plan so throughout the year if we need engineering done, we solicit them. Mr. Pavlik: I will make a motion to adopt. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Ord. 2024-7 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Roy: If there is nothing else, I will close committee. iii. Additional Items: None. f. PUBLIC SERVICE Jessica Epstein, Chair Vice chair - Vacant 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 Resolutions and Ordinances A. Ord. 2024-1 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids and the Mayor to enter into contract for pavement maintenance and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Public Service Rorar 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 10, 2024 Mrs. Epstein: We have many pieces of legislation at 1st Reading. The first one is Ord. 2024-1. The ordinance was read into the record. The sponsor is Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, the next three are going out to bid for road work. So that is what these three are. Mrs. Epstein: Is there any discussion on this? Mrs. Gutman: I would move for adoption. Seconded Mr. Pavlik. Roll Call: Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. Ord. 2024-1 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. B. Ord. 2024-2 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids and the Mayor to enter into a contract for pavement marking and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Public Service Rorar Mrs. Epstein: Next we have Ord. 2024-2. The ordinance was read into the record. Mrs. Gutman: I would move for adoption. Seconded Mr. Pavlik. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein – unanimous. Ord. 2024-2 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. C. Ord. 2024-3 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise and solicit bids and the Mayor to enter into a contract for concrete projects on public property and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Public Service Rorar Mrs. Epstein: Next we have Ord. 2024-3. The ordinance was read into the record. Mr. Pavlik: I will make an adoption to adopt. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Roll Call: Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Ord. 2024-3 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. D. Ord. 2024-4 – Authorizing the Mayor to contract with CT Consultants for engineering and consulting services relating to water system development, and other general engineering services and providing for immediate enact- ment. Sponsor: Director of Public Service Rorar Mrs. Epstein: Next we have Ord. 2024-4. The ordinance was read into the record. Dir. of Pub. Service: This is one of the engineers we use. They specialize in water and sanitary sewer. If we need anything we will solicit them. Mr. Pavlik: How often are they used? Dir. of Pub. Service: CT; I think we maybe used them a year ago. Mr. Pavlik: I will make a motion to adopt. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Pres. of Council: Point of order, just for reference, we need to open it up for discussion before placing it for a vote. Mrs. Epstein: Is there any discussion? Pres. of Council: I do have one question. In going through a lot of these pieces of legislation I noticed one of the first few lines it says we have contracted with so and so company since and then there is a year there and I was just wondering if that is something that we should take a look at a deeper dive and perhaps opening that for an RFP or something like that. Perhaps there are other companies out there with competitive prices. Dir. of Pub. Service: We do solicit the RFP’s. Roll Call: Mr. Roy, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mr. Pavlik – unanimous. Ord. 2024-4 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 11  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 10, 2024 E. Ord. 2024-5 – Authorizing the Mayor to contract with Burgess and Niple, Inc. for engineering and consulting services relating to water system development, general engineering services, and planning and zoning consulting and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Public Service Rorar Mrs. Epstein: Next we have Ord. 2024-5. The ordinance was read into the record. Dir. of Pub. Service: So, this is probably our engineer of record for zoning, water and just general engineering. Mrs. Epstein: Is there any other discussion. Mr. Pavlik: I will make a motion to adopt. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Roll Call: Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy – unanimous. Ord. 2024-5 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. F. Ord. 2024-6 – Authorizing the Mayor to contract with GPD Group for general. engineering and consulting services and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Public Service Rorar Mrs. Epstein: We have Ord. 2024-5. The ordinance was read into the record. Dir. of Pub. Service: This is a firm that we use for general engineering and our roads. Mr. Pavlik: I am going to abstain from any discussion and voting due to a business conflict. Mrs. Gutman: I will make a motion to adopt. Seconded Mr. Roy. Pres. of Council: I have an observation. I think there is a typo in the legislation. Dir. of Law: For Council and the public’s information if it is not substantive, we can make that correction. I think it said GDP instead of GPD so we will add that before the final version, and we can do that without a formal amendment. Mrs. Epstein: Can you tell us again the minimum to pass? Dir. of Law: You would need 4 votes. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mr. Roy, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. Mr. Pavlik: Abstain. Ord. 2024-6 is adopted by a vote of 5-0-1. G. Ord. 2024-8 – Authorizing the Mayor to contract with DMS Water Solutions Co., LLC for engineering and consulting services relating to water system development and other general engineering services and providing for Immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Public Service Rorar Mrs. Epstein: Next we have Ord. 2024-8. The ordinance was read into the record. Mr. Rorar, do you have anything on this? Dir. of Pub. Service: So, this is an engineering firm that we use mostly for sanitary sewer. With the cost of sanitary sewers we keep looking for cheaper ways to improve that system. Mrs. Epstein: Is there anything else to add? Mrs. Gutman: I would move to adopt. Seconded Mr. Pavlik. Roll Call: Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. Ord. 2024-8 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mrs. Epstein: Are there any additional items to discuss? Hearing none, I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: a. Council Operations Committee Mr. Bollas: Just a quick update. I will be scheduling a meeting hopefully next week with Dove and our IT Department and the Mayor to just coordinate the various AV updates that were in the budget and were approved to submit the official orders and with the various technologies there are some backorders and lead time that is needed so, I will be coordinating that meeting and then hopefully we will get that on the calendar and we will be seeing some upgrades with our 12  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 10, 2024 Jonathon Bollas (Cont’d) microphones and our main display and some other items. Thank you. Mayor: Since this comes under Council Operations as everyone is aware I am doing the computer this evening but since this is Council’s meeting, I would expect that going forward that Council would either have the Clerk or the President or somebody from Council running the computer so you can manage your meeting a little better that way. OK. And we are making that change in moving on with all of the committees that use this room. President of Council: Thank you and the Mayor and I discussed this as well and that will give Council the opportunity that if you have additional materials that you would like to have up on the screen or even for the public to see at home that gives us the opportunity to have that material on there. So that will be something that we will work with getting that information to Gina and Susan ahead of time obviously so that way the information can be pulled up whenever that information is needed. Mr. Pavlik: So, it won’t be from our computers it will just be . . . President of Council: It will be on the one central computer and if we have a wireless mouse, we may be able to pass that down the line. President of Council: I think it is really going to enrich our meetings because we will be able to bring that forward. If you are out there speaking to a constituent and you want to bring some pictures of their yard or their driveway or something that you might want to address you can bring that in. I think that is a good use of our technology. It is good use of our livestreaming. It is going to be a good addition for us. Anything else. i. Additional Items: None. 12. Announcements: President of Council: We had 19 ordinances and resolutions, and we did that in a little over an hour. So, well done. Some of you were questioning if we would stay on time and we have done well. There are three other things that I would like to bring up. Mrs. Gilbride had said in an e-mail that there is a seminar coming up that is put on by the Ohio Municipal League for Council members and I would strongly suggest that we attend one of those meetings to learn more. The other two items are something that I overlooked in the Organizational meeting. There were two more committees that are part of the City and I think we should put them out there to say that these are the individuals that are on them. One is the Moral Claims Commission which is the Finance Chair and one Council member, and I don’t know how often we use that commission. So, just for the record, our Finance Chair plus I will be on that commission as well and then Mr. Rorar; do you expect to hold the Veteran’s Committee meetings, and do you need Council representation? Dir. of Public Service: I think that is already set. There is a member from Council on that and I believe that is you. Pres. of Council: That’s me. Dir. of Law: So that one the term didn’t end. There are some boards and commissions that their turnover hasn’t happened and so there wasn’t a vacancy. Pres. of Council: I believe that is all of the commissions and boards that we are on other than the Board of Control which I will be sitting on for Board of Control. Dir. of Law: Then the Personnel Chair sits in on the Comp Board. Mr. Bollas: A question regarding the seminar. In terms of the Council training budget, for the past four years we really haven’t really utilized it and I would like for all of us to utilize it this year. I would like to put our heads together and what I the best way to utilize that. I 13  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 10, 2024 Mr. Bollas (Cont’d.) know there are various discounts for group training like if we are talking about grants for legislation. I know that when I first got on Council there was actually a first time Councilperson training that was in Columbus that was cancelled because of Covid. So, just thinking through as a wholistic Council we haven’t utilized that but it’s there. I know it is not a lot, but I think we can all take advantage of that this year. Mayor: As training becomes available that the City is using, we will inform Council. Pres. of Council: That’s it for announcements. I will take a motion for adjournment. 13. Adjournment: Mr. Roy: So moved. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy – unanimous. The Council meeting of 1-10- 24 adjourned at 8:13 p.m. sb Adopted: _______________ _______________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Adam M. Bozic – President of Council 14