City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 8, 2024 1. Call to Order: President of Council Bozic called the Council meeting of Thursday, February 8, 2024, to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Opening Prayer: Andy Alberts, Tallmadge Lutheran Church. Pledge of Allegiance: Karsyn Adkins, Tallmadge Elementary School Student. 3. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino – present. Pres. of Council: For those of you watching at home, we do have a new Council member, Mr. Nick Rubino. He was appointed as our new At-Large Council person. There are a lot of new faces this year and we are looking forward to a good year. 4. Correcting and Adopting Previous Meeting Minutes: Regular Meeting 01-10-24: Regular Meeting 01-25-24: Mr. Pavlik: So moved. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Mr. Bollas: Point of order, are we making a motion and a second for both? Dir. of Law: You can do that as long as there isn’t an issue. Pres. of Council: So, we have a motion and a second to adopt the meeting minutes. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. The meeting minutes for the 1-10-24 and 1-25-24 Council meetings were adopted by a vote of 7-0. 5. Financial Reports: • Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $255,000, Street Maintenance & Repair Fund Transfer in the amount of $255,000 and Police Pension Fund Transfer in the amount of $87,500 from the General Fund to Council on 01-31-24. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report and Revenue Report for the period ending 01-31-24 to Council on 02-06-2024. • January Financial Reports to Council on 02-06-2024. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 01-31-24 to Council on 02-06-2024. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 01-31-24 to Council on 02-06-2024. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 01-31-24 to Council on 02-06- 2024. • Income Tax by Source Report for the month of January to Council on 02-06-2024. • Revenue Comparisons for Major Funds for the period ending 01-31-24 to Council on 02-06-2024. Mr. Bollas: I make a motion to accept the Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride. Seconded Mr. Pavlik. Roll Call: Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. The Finance Reports were accepted by a vote of 7-0. 6. Public Hearings: PERSONNEL Third Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions P.H. on 02-08-24 @ 7:03 p.m. Ord 2024-15 – Tracked – 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: I call the Personnel Committee to order. It is 7:06 p.m. We have a public hearing for Ord. 2024-15 – Tracked. The ordinance was read into the record. Additional information on this, this is at 3rd Reading and it was approved by the Civil Service Commission and this ordinance again is changing the position of the Administrative Assistant for the Road Department from a classified to an unclassified position. It does not change Pay Bands or anything else of that nature. I would ask for adoption this evening. So, with that said, I would like to call anyone in the audience who is for or against Ord. 2024-15? No one responded. Second time, is there anyone in the audience for or against Ord. 2024-15? No one responded. Third and final time, is there anyone for or against 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 8, 2024 Mr. Bollas (Cont’d.) Ord. 2024-15? No one responded. It is now 7:08 p.m. and I will close the public hearing. Mr. Pavlik: I will make the motion to adopt Ord. 2024-15. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Mr. Bozic: I will be abstaining from the voting this evening on this particular position because of a possible familiar relationship of a candidate. Roll Call: Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik – unanimous. Dir. of Law: You need to call on Mr. Bozic. Deputy Clerk: Mr. Bozic – abstain. Ord. 2024-15 is adopted by a vote of 6-0-1. Mr. Bollas: With that said, are there any other matters to come before the Personnel Committee on this ordinance? Hearing none, I will close committee. 7. Community Input: Pres. of Council: At this point of the meeting, we will turn it over to anyone in the audience for a time period of 2 minutes if they have anything to bring before Council that is not on the agenda. At this time, do we have anybody from the audience? No one responded. 8. Agenda Additions: Pres. of Council: We currently have none. Does anyone on Council or the Administration have any additional additions to add? Hearing none, moving on to No. 9. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Director of Economic Development: Mayor Kilway was not in attendance, however Ms. Jill Stritch was present. Mrs. Stritch: I really don’t have anything to report this evening. We are going through some transitioning and hiring some staff and preparing to do some other items which is in regard to the ordinance that has been requested to have just a 1 st Reading tonight, not adoption. But Mayor Kilway is at a family function, and she will be in tomorrow morning. So, thank you. b. Director of Administration/Director of Safety: None. c. Director of Public Service: I would like to request Ordinances 2024-28, and 2024-29 be passed at 1st Reading. • For the month of January, in Zoning we had 33 total permits issued. It was a pretty busy month actually. There were 27 Code Violations and 10 were property disrepair and at the end of the day, that was pretty good considering the size of the City we have that there were only 27. • On the cemetery there were 8 total burials: 7 full and 2 cremains. • For the Parks and Rec, you can see the numbers there. The membership at the Rec was just a little over 8,000. The visits were 25,856. The Rec Center will be celebrating 20 years on February 14th. There is no school day camp on the 16th and 19th. Family Fun Night is March 1st and the Winter Wonderland Dance is March 2nd. The Midwest Wheelchair Tournament is March 2nd as well. • In Parks, the new shelter at Lions Park is 85% complete. The only thing that remains is the concrete floor and hopefully that is done sometime here when it dries out. The Howe Road Park renovations are ongoing, and they have a scheduled date of May 31st for completion. • Maca Pool memberships go on sale to residents on February 15 th. Non-residents will be on March 15th. We are increasing the number of passes being sold this year to 2,250. Last year it was 2,000 and remember we could only allow 880 people in that pool at one time and based on staffing, that number probably never gets reached because we don’t have enough staffing to make it safe. We are doing a couple of things there that are different than we did last year. • The Street Department, believe it or not, we had quite a bit of snow and ice. The early part of January; I know lately it doesn’t seem like it, but there is ice that stays there and so the guys did a nice job on that. We have been street sweeping. We have removed 4 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 8, 2024 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) tons of street debris with that. We did 125 feet of lineal ditching. • We removed the lockers over at the Police Station in the locker room. They are getting new lockers over there. We painted the offices in the John Westren Service Center and the street light inventory is complete. • In the Utility Department we had 2 water main breaks in the month. In December we had 7 water main breaks. We average 17 water main breaks a year. We did 15,000 lineal feet of sanitary sewer. We televised that and 15,000 lineal feet were cleaned. Normally those numbers don’t match but we decided to clean every one that we televised because it needed it. • The annual testing of the City-owned backflow system was completed, and Ord. 2024- 29 is for an EPA Loan Grant to get a utility locater wand. The one that we have now can only find the utility you hook it up to; the one that this grant allows you to get for $10,000 will help you find every line that is there that has either a tracer tape to it or is metal. So, if you look at that picture there you can see the electric which is the red arrow and the two green are sanitary sewers and the yellows are gas. So, as you can imagine, that utility wand would come in great use and especially its safety. We can go into more discussion when we get there. • We did have a water disturbance on Tuesday and that was due to a battery failure during the test. We test weekly so normally we don’t think anything about it but there was actually a good test, and we were able to get the water back on in 15 minutes. It showed the weakness in that battery, so it was a good test. • Moving on, the last time I brought up that we did score 2 grants for resurfacing, and I said it would happen next year. I was off, it is not going to happen until 2028. Just wanted to make sure of that clarification. That ends my report. Mrs. Gutman: Not getting that grant until 2028 does that set our project back significantly? Dir. of Pub. Service: No. Mrs. Gutman: Thank you. Mr. Bozic: I do have one question related to the backflows. I know that we have recently discussed a new requirement for the backflows to be installed like if there was a pool or things of that nature; how is that going? Dir. of Pub. Service: Slow. So, we have put out inserts in the bills letting people know that we have done a survey that you do online, and we are meeting the EPA requirement and that is not a new requirement actually. I think that goes back to 2007. We are just kind of not . . . we were probably slow at getting some of those done because it is unbelievable what you need the backflow for like you said, a swimming pool, above ground or in-ground, hot tubs, jacuzzies, irrigation systems, etc. If you have a water well and City water, you need a backflow, so it is quite a bit. We are underway and we are meeting the EPA requirements. Mr. Bozic: Great. Good news. d. Director of Finance: Everyone should have received the January Financial Reports. The year is going well. One month doesn’t give you much data to deal with but everything is going well. We are just in the process of my office preparing for our annual audit. If anybody has any questions on the financial reports, I would be happy to answer them. Mr. Bozic: It did look like our income tax was doing pretty well for the first month. Dir. of Finance: It is, but I always hesitate with one month of data to make any assumptions because a lot of income tax fluctuation can be timing differences from year to year and so I always hesitate . . . I think I had already said that in my report. I don’t see anything making any significant trends at this point, but it is always good to start off the year in a positive direction. e. Director of Law: Thank you. I have no report this evening. 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 8, 2024 10. Reports of Standing Committees of Council of the Whole: a. PLANNING AND ZONING Mary Gutman, Chair Jessica 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 Commission to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Does anyone have anything for Planning & Zoning? Mr. Bollas: I was unable to attend the Zoning meeting when the application was reviewed on the McDonald’s location. Is there any update on that? Has anyone heard? Dir. of Pub. Service: It was given a year extension. Mr. Bollas: OK, and were there any development in terms of the project in terms of that location physically moving forward? Dir. of Pub. Service: I think all of that is still a go. No, they are just asking for an extension. Mrs. Gutman: That was what I was going to add is that the extension was granted. My understanding was that it was just a matter of getting everything together so that the owner could do it as quickly as possible once they started the project. Dir. of Pub. Service: That’s correct. It is amazing - the supply chain. There are still issues out there. We have been waiting 18 months for some things just for some HVAC. It is actually upsetting sometimes. Mrs. Gutman: Absolutely. Dir. of Law: I think the application also indicated that there are some technical issues with some of the property transfer. Mrs. Gutman: Thank you. Is there anything further? Hearing none, I will close the Planning & Zoning 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 2024-30 Authorizing the Mayor to contract with Insite Advisory Group, LLC for economic development consulting services without competitive bidding; appropriate the necessary funds and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mr. Pavlik: I call the Finance Committee to order. We currently have one 1 st Reading. That is Ord. 2024-30. The ordinance was read into the record. The Mayor is not here tonight, but Ms. Stritch, do you have any comments? Dir. of Administration: The Mayor is just asking for a 1st Reading but not adopted tonight. Mr. Pavlik: Perfect. Council members, do you have any comments? Hearing none, I will close the Finance Committee. ii. Additional Items: None. c. PERSONNEL Jonathon Bollas, Chair Donald Pavlik, Vice Chair 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 8, 2024 The Personnel Committee deals with personnel, labor relations, insurance claims, Rules of Council and State Statutes. Mr. Bollas: I call the Personnel Committee to order. We have no legislation. Does anyone on Council or the Administration have anything for the Personnel Committee? Mr. Bozic: Have we begun the negotiations? Dir. of Administration: We have not yet. We will be doing that this year though. Mr. Bollas: Anyone else on Council? Hearing none, I will close the Personnel Committee. i. Additional Items: None. d. SAFETY Nicholas Rubino, Chair Ted Roy, Vice Chair The Safety Committee deals with disaster services, communications, fire, and paramedics, police and health. Mr. Rubino: I call the Safety Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Does anybody have any questions for the Safety Committee? Hearing none, I will close the Safety Committee. i. Additional Items: None. e. 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. Mr. Roy: I call the Community Issues Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Is there anything for Community Issues? Hearing none, I will go ahead and close Community Issues. Mr. Bozic: I did have one question. Mr. Rorar, I didn’t know if we utilized the Civic Ready alert system that we have through the City when we had no water? Dir. of Pub. Service: No, we did not. By the time we would have gotten a message out, we had it back on. i. Additional Items: None. f. PUBLIC SERVICE Jessica Epstein, Chair Nicholas Rubino, 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 Resolutions and Ordinances A. Ord 2024-28 Authorizing the Director of Transportation to replace signs on SR-261 within the City of Tallmadge and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mrs. Epstein: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have Ord. 2024-28 before us. The ordinance was read into the record. Mr. Rorar, would you like to speak on this? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, so the State is coming through and replacing and upgrading all of the signs on the State routes and we have no cost in this at all. They are just asking for us to allow them to come in and do that. There would be no reason why we wouldn’t. Mrs. Epstein: Is there . . . is the traffic going to be impeded at any time when they are replacing them? 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 8, 2024 Dir of Pub. Service: It shouldn’t. Mrs. Epstein: It is just replacing existing signs and not placing anything new? Dir. of Pub. Service: No, existing signs per the State Code. Mrs. Epstein: Are you looking for 1st Reading adoption; is that correct? Dir. of Pub. Service: It would be nice; yes. Mrs. Epstein: Can I have a motion? Mr. Pavlik: So moved. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Mr. Bozic: Does the Dept. of Transportation do the installation on these or does the City? Dir. of Pub. Service: They do. Mrs. Epstein: What is the timeline as far as when those would be replaced? Dir. of Pub. Service: I would think summer. They want to do it this year, but I don’t believe they gave us a timeline. Dir. of Law: It is actually a housekeeping ordinance that is approved with the rest of them. It authorizes them to come and go whenever they need to throughout the year. Roll Call: Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Epstein – unanimous. Ord. 2024-28 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. B. Ord 2024-29 Authorizing the Mayor to apply for and accept, if awarded the Ohio EPA Division of Drinking and Ground Water Grant Program (DDAGW); and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Public Service Rorar Mrs. Epstein: Next, we have Ord. 2024-29 at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Mr. Rorar, do you have any comments? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, so this is an EPA Grant being offered and so we would have no percentage and it is for that utility locating wand to define the utilities out there. It is a great system. It is much better than the ones we have now. Like the picture shows, it is a tool that will come in handy many times. Mrs. Epstein: Can I have a motion? Mr. Pavlik: So moved. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Mr. Bozic: So, you mentioned this is a tool that we are getting a grant to be able to purchase. Is there any certifications that our crews have to go through to operate it? Dir. of Pub. Service: They will have to go to training but that is it. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino – unanimous. Ord. 2024-29 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. Mrs. Epstein: Is there anything else to come before Public Service? Hearing none, I close committee. Thank you. ii. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: a. Council Operations Committee: Mr. Bollas: Just a quick update. I received information from our IT Department that the Council Chambers equipment upgrade; various audio video equipment has been ordered. It should be arriving in the next couple of weeks. You may have noticed that there has been some electrical work already done in preparation. Thank you. Pres. of Council: Thank you sir and thank you for heading up all of those improvements. i. Additional Items: None. 12. Announcements: There will be a Richardson Trust Fund Trustees meeting immediately following this meeting. Mrs. Epstein: I had one additional announcement. I did bring it up at the last meeting, but just in case there are any new streamers out there, President Bozic and I are having an event, “Hearts for Heroes” this Saturday at the library. We will be making cards and writing letters to troops already 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 8, 2024 Mrs. Epstein (Cont’d.) deployed overseas. So, just a reminder that that event is taking place this Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Mr. Pavlik: I was not on Council last year, but there is an individual that is going to be retiring. Ms. Stritch, thank you. I have known you for about 15 years and we have had some fun on the Tallmadge Grow, CIC and so thank you for your service and what you have done for the City. Dir. of Administration: Thank you Mr. Pavlik. Pres. of Council: You didn’t steal my thunder, but I was going to bring that up. So, thank you Jill for your years of service, many years of service. Again, I have had the unique opportunity to work with you as a Councilman and as an employee of the City and I just want to thank you for your guidance, many years of guidance along the way and I just appreciate everything you do for the City and everything you have done for the City so thank you. Dir. of Administration: Thank you very much; all of you. 13. Adjournment: Mr. Pavlik moved to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Roy. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. The Council meeting of 2-8-24 adjourned at 7:32 p.m. sb Adopted: ___________________ ___________________________________ ______________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Adam M. Bozic – President of Council 7