City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 1. Call to Order: President of Council Bozic called the Council meeting of Thursday, March 14, 2024, to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Opening Prayer: Pastor James Case, Tallmadge Lutheran Church. Pledge of Allegiance: Alaina Warzinski. 3. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino – present. Mr. Bollas was excused. 4. Correcting and Adopting Previous Meeting Minutes: 02-22-24 Regular Meeting Minutes Mr. Pavlik: I will make a motion to approve the 2-22-24 Council meeting minutes. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino – unanimous. The 2-22-24 Council meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 6-0. 5. Financial Reports: • Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $255,000 and Street Maintenance & Repair Fund Transfer in the amount of $255,000 to Council on 02-27-24. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report and Revenue Report for the period ending 02-29-24 to Council on 3-5-24. • February Financial Reports to Council on 3-5-24. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 02-29-24 to Council on 3-5-24. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 02-29-24 to Council on 3-5-24. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 02-29-24 to Council on 3-5-24. • Income Tax by Source Report for the month of February to Council on 3-5-24. • Revenue Comparisons for Major Funds for the period ending 02-29-24 to Council on 3-5-24. Mr. Pavlik: I move to accept the Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride. Seconded Mr. Roy. Roll Call: Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. The Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride were accepted by a vote of 6-0. 6. Public Hearings: None. 7. Community Input: Pres. of Council: It is at this point in time that we allow anyone in our audience if they have anything that they would like to discuss or bring before Council that is not related to any of the issues on our standing committees, please feel free to come up to the podium. 8. Agenda Additions: • Presentation of Paul Warzinski Proclamation. Mayor: I would just like to say that it is with deep humbleness that I do present this proclamation honoring former Mayor Paul Warzinski for his commitment and dedication as a public servant. If you don’t mind, I would like to read this. “WHEREAS this proclamation recognizes and honors Mayor Paul Warzinski on his many years of dedicated service to the City of Tallmadge, and WHEREAS Paul proudly served in the U.S. Air Force as an aircraft mechanic after which he was elected to Tallmadge City Council serving as the 4th Ward representative and as President of Council during his 25 years of service, and WHEREAS in 1992 Paul was elected as the Mayor of Tallmadge serving through 1995, and WHEREAS his administration’s accomplishments include annexation of land in Brimfield, negotiating a long-term water contract with the City of Akron, adoption of a Charter form of government and addition of a Human Resource Department, and WHEREAS Paul was a member of the Knights of Columbus and Our Lady of Victory Church serving as an original lay minister and helping to organize the Sponsi Club, and WHEREAS Paul served as an Honor Guard for the American Legion, volunteered with Akron Reads as a tutor for students at Essex Elementary School and Helen Arnold CLC, delivered to 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Mayor (Cont’d.) residents in need while volunteering with Mobile Meals, was a member of the Dynamics Community Theatre and was nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 for his compassion and benevalence, and WHEREAS Paul achieved all of this as a devoted husband to his loving wife of 59 years, Bernadine, their 4 children, 4 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren. THEREFORE, I Carol Sicliano-Kilway as the present Mayor of the City of Tallmadge on behalf of the City of Tallmadge, City Council and citizens of this community do hereby recognize Paul Warzinski for his service to the community and the greater good.” Mayor: I would like to present this to the Warzinski family. Mrs. Warzinski: Thank you very much. Thank you Council. This was one of Paul’s favorite places to be. Pres. of Council: I just wanted to say, as a long-time family friend of the Warzinski’s, what an absolute honor it was to know Paul and to know the family. So, from the Bozic family to the Warzinski family; thank you for everything. • Confirmation of Helen Fire to the Civil Service Commission. Pres. of Council: I will turn it back over to the Mayor. Mayor: Helen Fire has agreed to the appointment on the Civil Service Commission. She is a long- time Tallmadge resident. I did send her bio to all of you guys just so that you know she does have experience in this area and all I would ask is that you would confirm her so that we can get on with our meetings. Pres. of Council: Megan, do we need a motion or just go ahead and do a vote? Dir. of Law: You need a motion to confirm or to not confirm. Mr. Pavlik: I will make a motion to confirm. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Mr. Roy: I will talk about her. I was her neighbor probably for about 12 years. Families that grew up in Tallmadge, their kids got married to Frank Fire who was a gentleman I knew for a long time. She married the son actually. They raised 2 boys, and they were great kids, very intelligent kids I must say. Obviously, they get that from their mom and their father, but just a good person and I think she will do a very good in that role. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein - unanimous. Helen Fire is appointed to the Civil Service Commission by a vote of 6-0. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Director of Economic Development: • I will be really brief. I do have my “After Hours with the Mayor” as I had stated it is going to be the 4th Thursday of every month from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m., however for March since that does fall on Spring Break and also Holy Week, I am going to cancel them for March just because I do have a church commitment. They will start again in April on April 25 th and as always to everybody, my door is always open with any concerns, so just stop in or give me a call. • Again, we are working really hard with economic development within the City. We have gone on some business retention meetings with Industrial Control Design and Maintenance, Serpentini Chevrolet and Henry Bierce Company. We do have our inSITE advisor team with us today, Sean Joyce, Catey Breck, and Scott Harrison and they will be here to answer any questions when we get to that ordinance. I do believe they do have PowerPoint as well. • We are still preparing for the solar eclipse. The last update I got with the Summit County Fairgrounds is they have, as of the 12th of this month, they have rented out 15 car spaces and 9 RV campsites. So, we still have some time. I’m not sure how that is going to play out, but we are having meetings and getting prepared for that. • We have finalized and gone to print on the Tallmadge Circular, which is a joint venture newsletter collaboration between the City and the Tallmadge School District, so that should be in the mail in the next couple days. We have been working very hard on it. It 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Mayor (Cont’d.) is my way of increasing communication to the public and the coordination with the schools has been a nice addition and a way to help share costs on it. • We are also working on the Memorial Day Parade, and the Circle Festival and Light Parade. A reminder that municipal income taxes are due on Monday, May 15th, or I’m sorry, April 15th. • I am also working on the State of the City. All of Council is invited to attend and encouraged to attend. I will be doing it at the Primetimer’s meeting next Tuesday, the 19th at noon at the Ritchie Center and the reason why it is at the Ritchie Center is because that is also primary election day as you all know. • Then I will also be doing it at the Tallmadge Chamber of Commerce on the 20th. So, if you would be interested in coming, please get in touch with Becky Allman at the Chamber so she can put you on the list. • I also met with the Tallmadge Ministers. It was just a get-to-know type of a meeting and we had some really good conversations about our City, the demographics and how our City is changing a little bit. It was great conversation. Their biggest question was what can we do to help our community? So, I thought that was very heartfelt and I really enjoyed that. • Then the last thing that we have just kind of finalized is our Employee Wellness Program. It is a budgeted item. The last wellness program that we had they kind of sunsetted that software program at the end of last year and so it took us a little bit of time in order to get a new one up and running but that will be available to all full-time employees the beginning of April. Pres. of Council: Any questions for the Mayor? Mr. Pavlik: In terms of the Summit County Fairgrounds, when you say 9 RV campsites and 15 car spaces; that doesn’t seem like a lot. Mayor: No. Not yet. I will keep you posted. Mr. Roy: Do you know if they are going to put signs in the neighborhoods off of 91 and Howe Road in those neighborhoods? Dir. of Finance: They discussed doing it just like for Fair. Dir. of Pub. Service: We are even going to add some on North Avenue. Mrs. Epstein: I had a question about the State of the City. For our working families that might not be able to come in the middle of the day, is there a way that they could watch that on our U-Tube channel, or would that be posted on our City’s website? Mayor: OK, we are not going to live stream it, but it is going to be filmed and we will put a video of it together and put it on our website. Mrs. Epstein: OK. Thank you. b. Director of Administration/Director of Safety: c. Director of Public Service: • This evening you have Ord. 2024-33 in front of you. What this ordinance deals with is the water tank here in Tallmadge with just some facts for you. It was built in 1982. It holds 1,000,000 gallons and the height is 107’. We have the exterior inspected annually and the interior is inspected every 3 years. I am going to say that this is probably the City’s most important asset. I mean, it deals with public drinking water and unfortunately it is time to get some maintenance done to it. As you can see here, that is on top of the bowl; you are at the very top and that rust and pitting you can see the size of them; they are getting to a decent size at this point. Below this is the issue that got us questioned by the EPA during our audit last year; it is the exterior rods that are showing various degrees of deflection to them and that is not good when you think about the amount of weight that is in that so it is holding 1,000,000 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) gallons and 8 lbs. per gallon I mean so that is a lot of weight standing up there. So, it is time to get the maintenance done to it. So, it is stretched over 6 years and this agreement with this company, the first year is the bulk of the work. You can see there pressure wash the overcoat applications and painting. Just the pressure washing, and the painting of that structure is almost $300,000. So, the first 3 years there it is just stretching the payments out. The first year is $143,959 that is what we have budgeted and then the next 2 are the same amount and then year 4 that is when they go inside and pressure wash it, clean it and then that payment is $170,003 over the next 3 years so all in all it is almost $1,000,000 million budget that we need to get this project taken care of. What allows us to do this is the Ohio Revised Code 9.29 Multi-year Management of Professional Service Contracts, Political Subdivisions may enter into by direct negotiation or through solicitation multi-year asset management and professional services contracts for engineering, repair, sustainability, water quality management and maintenance of water storage and tanks owned by the political subdivision. So, this is why we don’t have to go out to bid. As you can imagine, there are not a lot of companies that specialize in this. There are only a few of them. This is more of a housekeeping agenda. We just couldn’t get it on those first ones. We weren’t quite done dealing with the company at that time. So, just to let you guys know what this is all about. Mr. Pavlik: Was this budgeted for? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, it was. I know there are 4 new Council folks on here and that is why I wanted to give you an explanation. You guys were probably wondering what this was all about. Mr. Rubino: What is the life expectancy of the tower? Dir. of Pub. Service: So, we already have 40 years in, and we will get another 40. This is the maintenance stuff that you have to keep up on. Keep in mind that this is ongoing like I said, this is a 6-year contract stretched out. That first year is $400,000 and this company is stretching that payment out for us. Mrs. Gutman: I know you said there are only a few companies that do this type of work, but what was the main factor that made you choose USG Water Solutions over different other companies. I know we have worked with them, but what made you pick them? Dir. of Pub. Service: They were very helpful in getting the EPA to agree to the audit. Mr. Pavlik: So, it is like the roofer going up before the insurance claim. Dir. of Pub. Service: That is the end of my report. Mr. Bozic: I have a question related to the water tower. Is there, in the pricing, is there any branding we are doing on the water tower? Are we like putting City of Tallmadge or are we putting any kind of . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: No, we are just keeping it that light green. Nobody even knows where it is at because of the color and then again, it is our most important asset, and I would prefer not to advertise exactly where it is at. Mrs. Epstein: While they are doing this work is there any impact to the drinking water itself like with the agitation that you had mentioned. Dir. of Pub. Service: No, so the agitation device is to mix that water up because believe it or not, there is a belief that that water, because there is only one tube that puts the water into the tower and it is the same tube that takes is out of the tower, so some people believe the top water is stale. So, if you had one at the top and one at the bottom it would be good, but because they are at the same location, there is a belief that the water at the top is getting stale because it never really settles because the water that is going in is going right back out if that makes any sense. Keep in mind that the whole reason for the tower is that it is hydrostatic pressure. Instead of running pumps 24 hours a day, the weight of that water is pushing through those lines and that is really the significance behind it. 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Mr. Pavlik: The water is first in; first out. Dir. of Pub. Service: We do test our water. Mrs. Epstein: My household participated in it, and I know it is taken seriously. Dir. of Pub. Service: There is a belief that it gets stale. That is why we also flush the hydrants as much as we do because there again in those lines even though you are running your water in your sinks and stuff, you are not moving the water through those lines like through a hydrant does. So, it is just getting the water moving and keeping it moving. Mr. Pavlik: Councilwoman Gutman what kind of testing was done? Out of curiosity. Mrs. Gutman: Well, I can speak to like what we did. They leave you a test kit with a list of instructions of how to collect the sample and then you write down how you collected it and the timing and leave it for them to pick up and it is kind of a neat process. Dir. of Pub. Service: Councilman Pavlik we are always looking for volunteers to have their water tested. Dir. of Finance: What is the total value of the contract over the 6 years? Dir. of Pub. Service: $941,886. Dir. of Finance: Thanks. I just wanted it to be clear that it is in the budget this year, but it is going to require multiple years of large expenditures. Mr. Rubino: What is the value of the tower if it had to be replaced some day? Dir. of Pub. Service: I will get that to you for the next meeting. I don’t know off the top of my head, but yeah it would be a lot. Mr. Bozic: I have a question for Ms. Gilbride. You mentioned that there are payments over the years. Are we breaking that up to kind of even payments or are we . . . how does that process work? Dir. of Pub. Service: It is based on the first three years it is $143,000 and the next 3 is $170,000 each. Mr. Bozic: Are there any further questions for Mr. Rorar? Hearing none, we will move on to the Dir. of Finance. d. Director of Finance: Thank you. Everyone should have received their financial reports. Everything is still going well. Our City of Tallmadge withholding taxes are in a good spot, which is our main driver of our income tax. We did see a little dip this month, but just like I repeated it and said last month that it is still early in the year and probably not until May is when we kind of get a better picture of what the year is kind of shaping up to see trends, but otherwise everything is going smoothly so far and I will be glad to answer any questions and I know there are new Council people and I always ask please, if there are other reports or information that I am not giving you that you would like to see or are interested in, I would be glad to hear that and provide additional documents to Council. Mr. Rubino: I do. On . . . there was a project previously approved by Council for charging stations. Is that budgeted? Dir. of Finance: Yes, and we are in the process actually of working out the details. Mr. Rubino: What was the amount on that again? Dir. of Finance: I would have to dig into the numbers. Dir. of Pub. Service: I could give you a ballpark figure; it is about $26,000. The chargers themselves were donated from Chevy and then the installation is $26,000. Mr. Rubino: Those will be owned by the City? Dir. of Pub. Service: Correct. Mr. Rubino: What are the locations? Dir. of Pub. Service: There are 3 locations. One is at Station 2; there is an electrical charging station there now, but you can’t charge; there is no way of collecting any fees on it so we are putting one of the new ones there so you can use it and collect the money. 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) The other station is at the Rec Center and then the 3rd location is at the Circle parking lot that we own across from Circle-K. Pres. of Council: We have one question from the audience, so sir, if you still have a question, if you want to stop up to the podium and state your name and address. Chris Forrester, 24 Timothy Drive, Tallmadge. I am here with my daughter who is participating with Scouts. She is earning her Citizenship in the Community merit badge. Getting back to the water tower. Is there any kind of like a warranty for that work or how long do they expect the coating to last before pitting reappears or pitting does re-appear do they come back and recoat for free? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. There are warranties on that. Off the top of my head, I couldn’t recite them back to you but yes, there are warranties on them. Then they are on the hook for 6 years for sure. They are not going anywhere. Mr. Forrester: Right. The second question was I think on your chart you had the interior coating done like year 3 or 4; year 4. Is there a reason why that is being done later as opposed to sooner? Is there rust or conditions inside the tank that should be addressed first? Dir. of Pub. Service: No because you want to get the exterior fixed first because it is eating from the outside in. You want to fix that up before you do the inside. Mr. Forrester: OK. e. Director of Law: Good evening. I just wanted to let Council know that I will be requesting an Executive Session and need a Special meeting for that. You will get some additional details here shortly. This Special meeting will literally be for the purpose of an Executive Session but we need to have that here coming the first week of April so I will be reaching out to everyone and if you could respond as promptly as possible when I am able to finalize those potential dates, I would appreciate it very much. 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 nothing before us this evening. Does anyone have anything for Planning & Zoning? Hearing nothing, 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. Third 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 have Ord. 2024-30 at 3rd Reading. The ordinance was read into record. Mayor Kilway, do you have anything? 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Mayor: This allows me to move money in my budget from my Personnel line down into another line in order to retain the inSITE Advisory Group as part of my economic development team. I have also told you that I do plan on hiring an in-house person that would be an economic development/grant writer to work with inSITE in order to progress moving forward. They are here today, and they do have a presentation that they would like to give and tell you again a little bit more about inSITE. Catey Breck: Thank you Mayor and Council President for the opportunity to be here again. I am Catey Breck, Director of Economic Development for inSITE Advisory Group and we are proud to be the economic development for the City of Tallmadge. Mayor Kilway invited us back to Council and asked us to provide more information on our previous work and to answer any additional questions that you may have. For those who may be viewing this presentation at home, we are inSITE Advisory Group, a boutique regional and economic and community development consulting firm that is based in greater Akron. We provide economic development consulting services to municipalities and corporate clients as well as owner representation services. Our president, Sean Joyce, is a CPA and proven executive leader in financial management and strategic development. With over 20 years of experience in a leadership role with organizations from a multi-billion-dollar for-profit organization to nationally recognized non-profits. Sean is a government relations expert and uses his expertise to secure millions of dollars in State and Federal funding. I have more than 15 years of public sector experience. Most recently I served as Director of Strategic Development for the City of Akron and while I was in my role, I oversaw the City’s federal investment into key capital projects and strategic initiatives like the Akron Civic Commons and Lock 3, our financial empowerment center, and our small business relief program. I also led the City’s work with the Bloomberg Global Mayor’s Challenge where we developed the THRIVE Program which stands for Targeted Health for Resilient and Innovative Entrepreneurs. Since that program was launched it has attracted $1.5 million in funding. Scott Harrington worked for more than 20 years for the largest Chamber of Commerce in the nation; the Greater Cleveland Partnership. He led their business retention and expansion efforts. In addition to coordinating meetings that allowed employers to interact with multiple layers of economic development eco systems simultaneously he elevated the level of follow-ups to add value to the visits for businesses. We also included some of the community service work that we do serving on numerous boards throughout the community. So, as I mentioned since April 2023, we have been working with the City of Tallmadge under the previous administration. Since April 2023, inSITE refreshed the old BRE program and since then we held 12 BRE meetings in that year, dropped in on businesses more than 70 times and regularly attended the Tallmadge Chamber, Portage Development Board and regularly checked in with Summit County and our other regional economic development partners on behalf of the City. In 2024, we reprogrammed our efforts for business outreach to BRE and our economic development strategy. Since the start of this year, we have held 7 BRE meetings with Mayor Kilway and we have slots to fill in March. We have been the City’s representative as a current company and marks on their new construction and expansion in Crystal Parkway which will resolve in $5 million in investment to retain a business in Tallmadge at an annual payroll of more than $1.5 million at the completion of the project. We are also working to backfill their current building which will become available and presents an attraction opportunity for Tallmadge. Since 2015, inSITE has partnered with the City of Barberton as its community and 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Catey Breck (Cont’d.) economic development partner. inSITE created the program to connect Mayor Judge to the businesses within the community. When B&W shared with the City that they were considering taking 700 jobs to Akron it was inSITE that advocated for Barberton and when they ultimately announced that they were leaving, inSITE helped the City to strategize on how to mitigate fallout. Since then, Barberton continues to get favorable press coverage. I included some articles that were recently featured in Crain’s Cleveland Business. Our work in Barberton continues and it is centered on helping the City reimagine its downtown. We continue to implement the BRE work, but we are also leveraging our expertise in securing funding and helping to make connections to solve our client’s issues. We are part of the leadership team driving the downtown Barberton strategy along with the Barberton Community Foundation, Main Street Barberton, the City and the business community. We helped the City design a program to address structural repairs in their downtown by connecting property owners with flexible capital through the Western Reserve Community Mart. Lastly, we have the City of New Franklin. We are laser focused on funding opportunities to extend sewers and waterlines into the City’s commercial corridor. This is part of Mayor Adamson’s overall strategy to bring sewers to all of New Franklin beginning with the commercial areas of State Route 93, and State Route 619. inSITE is proud to lead economic development and government advocacy that has resulted in millions of dollars in Federal funding for this critical project. We are optimistic that this budget cycle will lead to even more investment from Federal and State government. Lastly, we have our past municipal clients. I know the last time I was here the question was asked who are the other communities that you have worked with in the past. So, here we have some examples of project specific work that we have done. inSITE worked with the City of Gahanna and implemented their Covid Small Relief Program and also set up their rental assistance back in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, inSITE partnered with the City of Conneaut and their Port Authority to provide grant writing services as well as writing RFPs for key projects. Also in 2022, inSITE worked with the City of Richmond Heights to educate their City Council on tax increment financing that led to the development of Belle Oaks, a mixed-use development on a former mall site. Lastly, inSITE partnered with the City of North Olmstead in 2023 to build their economic development plan and facilitated community engagement work for the plan. I just wanted to . . . I asked Scott to help me pull together some conversations that we have had through some of our BRE visits, and so I just wanted to share those stories with you. So, through our BRE visits we learned . . . we visited a growing company that supports the manufacturing industry in the region. They have doubled in size in the last 2 years, putting them at capacity of their current site. They expect that growth tragetory to continue. They would like to stay in Tallmadge but expansion at their current site is not feasible. They had their eye on a building in another city and with inSITE’s network of contacts, including partners like Team Neo and brokers, we are confident that we can retain 25 good paying jobs and add to it in the next two years. Without that visit, we would not have known how close they were to leaving the City of Tallmadge. A conversation with a high-profile employer that has been investing heavily in their business gave them an opportunity to vent a little bit about things that they would like to see Tallmadge do better, which by all means, we are all ears. It gave Mayor Kilway an opportunity to share her vision face to face and reset that relationship. The company also revealed that they would consider selling a piece of land that could be a strategic acquisition to the City if they could get some help with the purchase of an additional building. It would be a win/win. 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Catey Breck (Cont’d.) A company called a week after a routine BRE visit saying you said to call if I need help and I need help. They had a specific challenge with an electrical upgrade that if it was not done in a timely fashion would cause them to miss a window of installation of an important piece of equipment they purchased and would set their production back 6 weeks. inSITE took the lead and managed to get the issue addressed in time. The company is very happy and called the City to thank them for our efforts on their behalf. Outreach to a business with multiple locations in the region revealed that they were very unhappy with the local administration to the extent that it cost the City an opportunity for a regional headquarters that they weren’t even aware of. The regional president of the company didn’t even want to meet but inSITE stepped in and set up a meeting with a key contact on a local level and after a 30-minute meeting, the City was able to work out that relationship. We are very excited about continuing our partnership with the City of Tallmadge. We are honored that Mayor Kilway wishes to continue our partnership and look forward to the work that lies ahead. With over 55 years of combined experience, Sean, Scott and I hope to continue the work we are doing to elevate Tallmadge’s economic development efforts. We look forward to answering any additional questions that you may have. Thank you. Mr. Pavlik: Mayor Kilway, is there anything that you want to add? Mayor: I think Catey did an excellent job. I am extremely satisfied and happy with all of the work that they do. I think they are a great team that can work with our administration wonderfully and move the City forward. Mr. Pavlik: Council, any questions? Mr. Roy: Right now, obviously you have someone coming in later on. That person you said will be here at the end of May? Mayor: It is a moving target that is actually, hopefully going to be sooner. I’m hoping to have another person in-house in July for economic development and grant writing. Mr. Roy: If we don’t bring them in then basically it falls on you then pretty much? Mayor: Yes. Mrs. Epstein: I have a question for inSITE. So, you have pointed to a lot of the meetings that you have held with our local businesses and pointed to some successes that resulted from those meetings and how your work can help bring in millions of dollars of funding to support our local small business owners; right. Can you maybe talk about what would be the ramifications if you weren’t here. If we only had one economic developer by themself? Do you think that there is value in the trust that you have built with these relationships that were possibly fractured before? Mr. Joyce: I will just talk about a bigger picture regarding that. I think it is important that the challenge was with one individual trying to focus on a broad opportunity that Tallmadge has to maximize their resources. It is really hard to keep up with everything that is going on. With our resources, we can bring in partners to assist with help and with needs that come from the businesses pretty much immediately to what is holding them back. Maybe it is resources and a big challenge for businesses right now is they have plenty of work, but they can’t find people. Those relationships need to be maintained and continued. It just can’t be that I came and visited you in 2024 and I will come back and see you in 2026. The other challenge is businesses don’t tend to come running to the resources. They struggle and they try to figure it out themselves and they are busy themselves, so it is important to try to keep that outreach going to them and make sure it is a two-way connection. I will say that right now in the State of Ohio there is more money at the State level; it is the biggest budget. It is literally $4.5 billion dollars dedicated to economic 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Mr. Joyce (Cont’d.) development and really lifting up communities throughout the State. A lot of money for infrastructure and a lot of money to help take sites and make them more marketable for development, a lot of help for renovating or redoing buildings like reinventing some of the resources within the community and so having those relationships to get at those funds, to find those big grants is huge and that is where we can come in. Mrs. Epstein: And one individual that does not have the connections and the resources that we are getting from your service would potentially not be able to take advantage of the same opportunities; is that correct? Mr. Joyce: It is a little harder because it is very competitive. Those resources are very competitive, and it is a constant follow-up. It’s gaining the attention of the decision makers who are being asked across the State to come see projects. Don Taylor is the Vice Chair of Team Neo, and they are the big economic regional resource that represents Northeast businesses and part of those businesses . . . we actually help companies buying sites and financing their projects and financing the headquarters. We are also in tune with what businesses are looking for new homes as well. Catey Breck: If I could just mention that once the new person is brought aboard, it is our intention to empower them with all the tools and information that they need to be successful in their position and that is something that we are committed to. Mr. Rubino: Mayor Kilway, would inSITE report directly to you or to the new Economic Development Director? Mayor: Economic Development is under the Director of Administration and so they would fall under that and so right now since there is not a Director of Administration, it is me for the next 2 months. Mr. Rubino: So, it would go to your Administration and not to the Economic Development Director? Mayor: Once the Economic Developer and Planning gets on board then they would report to them, but right now it’s me. Mr. Rubino: OK, they would report directly to him. Mayor: Or her. Yes, and also realize too when inSITE came in under the former administration, they came in when there was a period of no one in that position and so they had to go back through and develop the plan and a lot of it was building their plan and building the strategic plan for the City and building their databases and so forth so they have gotten to the point where we can now affect change and so to not have them continue would be 20 steps back for the City. Mrs. Gutman: I think I would like to add to that what I have been thinking about other than I would like to thank you for all of the additional details of what you have been doing for other places and for Tallmadge. It is very helpful. What would be the alternative if we didn’t pass this ordinance; what would we do instead? What would we have that would be better? Would we improve anything if we said no, and I don’t see any alternatives out there that would benefit the City in any way. We would just be losing all the progress that we have made and the money we have invested in inSITE to date; we would just be throwing that out the window for not any reason I can see given that this is budgeted money. This isn’t new money. This is just budgeted money for this purpose really. So, I would just say that I am strongly in support of continuing to work with the company. Mr. Pavlik: Mayor Kilway, on the actual ordinance, Section 3 it says, “an appropriation of $50,000.” When we last spoke, I think you wanted to increase it. Mayor: The $50,000 is all I need to move from the Personnel line item into my Other Expenses item in order to continue working with them. 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Pres. of Council: So, what is the total expenditure to partner with inSITE for the remaining part of this year? Mayor: So, what I would like to do is increase their contract to 40 hours per month which would be $8,000 per month starting in April. $72,000. Pres. of Council: So, the total expenditure of $72,000 for the remainder of the year moving into the later half of the year in July, I think you said would we have this individual step in as the Economic Development Director, that money is already . . . Mayor: And there is still money for that; yes. Pres. of Council: We budgeted for this right? Mayor: Yes. Mr. Rubino: Now, this money would pay for just going through the end of the year and then the budget would have to be revisited in January. Mayor: Yes. Mr. Rubino: Why would the contract go further than what they are budgeted to be paid? Mayor: It is a 12-month contract that we are looking at. So, the contract would then go into March and so obviously if you are not going to pass that part of the budget in January that would be up to you, but then you would be stepping into the administrative side of the whole realm and that would be you know a little bit awkward at that point in time. I mean it is how I would like to run my economic development and so you could cut the funds however you want to cut them if you would like and then the City would suffer at that point in time. Mrs. Epstein: So, the contract is $72,000. Mayor: The contract is for $72,000 towards . . . until December. Then there are 3 more months in order for the one-year contract. Mrs. Epstein: And the purpose of economic development is to bring in additional money hopefully above and beyond $72,000. So, in that sense it could potentially pay for itself? Mayor: Yes, so realize that our General Fund is funded by income tax which is generated from businesses and so we need an economic development team in order to keep our businesses here in Tallmadge in order to keep our income tax steady and increasing in order to pay for the services. Mrs. Epstein: And if we don’t do that who does that tax burden fall on? Mayor: The taxpayers. Mrs. Epstein: Exactly. Mr. Pavlik: inSITE what can you tell me or know anything about Tallmadge Grow? Catey Breck: I understand that it is a CIC that I would love to help reimagine and see what else we can do to have it reach the City’s goals. Mr. Pavlik: Can I ask a very blunt question? Catey Breck: Sure. Mr. Pavlik: Why wasn’t that done last year? I am on that board. Catey Breck: I was invited to several meetings, but they were cancelled. I believe they are quarterly or monthly and it was just a miscommunication I think with whoever is responsible for scheduling. Mr. Joyce: If I could just add a comment to that though. The CIC should be a resource that we should work in partnership with for further strategy for sure. Mr. Pavlik: 100%. Mr. Joyce: We work with those effectively like with Barberton. We are very active right now with those groups. We should be working together. Mr. Pavlik: And let Council note that that is something that needs to happen. It starts with Tallmadge Grow. 11  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Pres. of Council: So, I do have a question for inSITE. Thank you for coming in today. My question really kind of touches again on some of the questions I had at the last meeting where for me, I am a visual learner; I like to see something; an end product. What am I going to get? So, can you kind of walk us through what are . . . what is the end result service that we are going to have that we can look at and Mayor Kilway can put out on Facebook as a hey, here is the plan for the City. Can you kind of walk us through what that entails, what that involves, what it has in it? Mr. Joyce: So, as the Mayor said, last year we spent most of our time trying to catch up. The staff was trying to keep the momentum going but it is kind of evident that it is kind of hard to do that. The next stage really of the strategy is continuing to move that relationship forward with businesses because the reality is that there are plenty of studies you can find that show 90% of job growth in a community is from existing businesses in that community. Those businesses need to be fostered and they need help getting there. So, we have to make sure we keep that robust program going and capture the data from those businesses so we can help the Mayor and Council understand who is really feeding the economy and which businesses are doing what services and how many employees do they have and who are your biggest employers’ so we know where the opportunities are to make the biggest impact. The other part of the strategy is really understanding your assets. So we are looking at not only your businesses and employees but what is your residential demographic; where are your housing needs in your community and we know that across Ohio there is a shortage of housing everywhere and so more than likely you could use some type of housing in the community that goes along with the job growth. One of the biggest things that new businesses look for or even some existing businesses is good housing for their employees to want to come to Tallmadge. So, looking at the residential components of development as well as commercial development. Where are your properties that could use investment and inventory of properties so what are vacant properties and what are expansion properties and where are properties that need improvements? As Catey mentioned, Barberton’s downtown corridor lost a lot of businesses because of the pandemic and there has been a lot of deteriorating assets. We are coming up with a program to fix some of those things. So, looking where your existing inventory is and then lay out an action plan to approach that. So, site development, site improvement, business retention programs, developing some funded programs and resources that we could tap into. Like I said, there is a lot of money for these types of initiatives that are coming out of the State, and we work closely with the County as well. So, that would be laying out a strategy that we can share with you, to the community that this is our approach for 2024 and beyond. Our goal is to lay out a strategy that you can follow to maximize your resources and the opportunities here and we hope to bring in those relationships that can help do that. Pres. of Council: Thank you for expanding on that and giving more explanation. I guess on hearing that and knowing what is involved in a position like this do you think 40 hours a month is going to result in something that we will physically be able to see within the City? Mr. Joyce: Yeah. Definitely it will get us a long way to that. The master planning we have gotten a long way on already on the business side of it and I also think bring in you know, Tallmadge Grow and the Chamber where they could be a part of this participation because it really is a full community operation. Once you have their targets and their goals and know what we have to work with for everyone to work together. So, it is a cooperative effort, but I think for sure that laying down a vision for where those opportunities are. You may not get the execution of all of it. We know a lot of the sites and have opportunities. There are some big sites we are looking at on West Avenue that 12  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Mr. Joyce (Cont’d.) have a lot of development opportunities. We have relationships that are looking for similar types of properties and we are trying to line up those things. Pres. of Council: Thank you. Mr. Roy: I just want to add that my concern is if we don’t do this, we are going to pretty much sit idle for what the next 4 or 5 months until somebody comes in which means these other people aren’t going to come in for 4 or 5 months and they are going to have to hit the ground running and it is going to put us behind the 8 ball a little bit . . . Mayor: And opportunities will be lost if that happens. Mr. Roy: Exactly. That is my concern there. We have to keep moving. We can’t sit idle because we don’t have our people in place, we have to give the Mayor time to get her people together and build that. Mayor: And as I have said . . . Mr. Roy: That is my concern is we don’t want to go idle on this. Mayor: Right. As I have said, I have tried to hire someone for economic development, and it is just very hard to find an individual that is qualified to do what they can do as a team. That is why I am going to reimagine that position so that that person can be in-house to work with inSITE and then also do other tasks like grant writing in order to help fund the initiatives. Mr. Pavlik: Law Director Raber, a question for you. Can we change this ordinance to limit it to just 2023, or I mean 2024? Mayor: The ordinance moves money for just this year. Dir. of Law: The ordinance moves money for this year basically as far as the appropriation. It does authorize you to enter into a contract so you could make an amendment however if there is not funding, there is a termination clause with “x” number of days notice so if Council didn’t want to fund something as needed in 2025, then the Mayor could initiate the termination of the agreement for the additional months into 2025 that we are talking about. Mr. Joyce: I believe there is a 30-day out clause. Mr. Pavlik: Both parties or just . . . Dir. of Law: And not for cause. Mr. Pavlik: OK. Pres. of Council: To kind of touch on what Councilman Roy had said, I think we are all in agreement that doing nothing would be detrimental to the City overall; I agree. I think the holdup that at least that I have as I look back at our previous 3 Economic Development Directors is that overall, one of the big issues has always been what programs does the City offer and what amount of money is the City willing to put behind it. That has always been a struggle so I guess not knowing if the City is going to allocate additional funds for the Economic Development Director to actually get programs up off the ground that they may bring up, I think that is my holdup is knowing that every economic development person we have had in the last . . . the last 3 there has been no budget for that. So, knowing that there is no budget how are they to get anything done because we are just pulling it from the General Fund. If we had a budget in mind knowing that we are willing to put this amount of money behind this to make it move forward that to me would make sense that would put forth a stronger stance of the City’s behalf to say here is what we are willing to do to put the City first. Mr. Pavlik: President Bozic, Law Director Raber and Finance Gilbride correct me if I am wrong, but there were times when we were looking at potentially getting money directed from the City to Tallmadge Grow to either retain a business, help them with the purchase of land for parking, and various things, but those never came to fruition. So, there have been discussions and that was from the former Mayor that there was potentially some, but it never happened. There was purchase of property on Southwest being one and so 13  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Mr. Pavlik (Cont’d) there were attempts made but from where I sit in Tallmadge Grow and being on that committee since 2011, the last 3 years have been stale where we met either once or twice a year and the meetings lasted 20 to 30 minutes. We did have a presentation because we did do a feasibility study at the MRDD site and I alerted that to Mayor Kilway and she pulled it up and we had a lengthy discussion about that, but it went nowhere. There was no follow-up on it partly because I think our economic development officer left at that time we were having that meeting; he was already leaving or had announced he was leaving but nothing was followed up with the committee. Mayor: So, all I would like to really say is give me a chance. I am a different person and I like to work together, and I want everybody to work together. I will accept ideas from everyone, and we can reinvigorate the Tallmadge Grow CIC. I have no problem with that. I think we do need to do that. Give me a chance and let’s work together. That’s all I am asking. We need to get out of our silos. Mr. Pavlik: Yup. Question for inSITE, you bring up the cities that you are working with, and Councilman Epstein had a very good question and observation. What other cities would you be talking to because if this is something that is prevalent, you would think that Stow, Hudson, you know, Akron, Norton and Green would all be using your services. Mr. Joyce: Well, good question. So, we are in discussions with cities throughout several counties right now to move forward their economic development. They are slow to react due to what has happened in the economy and also what is going on in economic development across the State. So, we are actually . . . I have done work with the City of Cleveland and helped them get caught up with some of their work. We are working with Lake County; their commissioners are looking at using us to help their cities and communities that are trying to come back as well from some of the development losses they have had up in Lake County. We are working with possibly just down in the City of Columbiana last week and so it is becoming more and more . . . I took over inSITE in October of 2022. So, we have about probably 20 other communities in the pipeline right now that are looking for this type of help. The reality is that there is not a lot of awareness to hire someone like us yet. We are a fractional economic development team. Much like you look at a fractional CFO for a small business, we are a fractional economic development group. The good news about that is you get our services for about the cost of an economic analyst right now and we bring a lot of expertise and the ability to bring a return pretty quickly and that is our goal. So, there is a lot of demand. Not a lot of communities are ready to go forward yet. We are working with them on a daily basis. Mr. Pavlik: What visibility do you have with the Ohio Budget and districts from the standpoint of working with State reps or Congressmen to pull funds into Tallmadge. Mr. Joyce: Yeah, so we have really strong relationships on that front. I work close with Senator Dolan and Lydia Mihalik in the Department of Development, the Governor’s office, Husted; we have a direct line of communication to the Governor’s office. We work with a partner in Creo Company that I have worked with a lot of years now. They are a lobbyist group, and they have a lot of influence. We had 9 out of 10 projects awarded in the House Bill which is pretty good considering how competitive it is. I am also working with the big astronaut project up in Brook Park helping them raise about $250 million for the astronaut training facility coming out of the UK. Sherwin-Williams, we brought about $250 million in from the State to keep Sherwin-Williams here in Cleveland. We have a lot of influence. We work well with the State. We align well with the strategy that comes through with the politics around and all of that, but we are good friends, and we bring the projects; that’s the key and that is why they come to us. When I was with Stan Hywet I was successful 10 years in a row getting money from the State budget. Most times the largest grant in Summit County. 14  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Pres. of Council: Mr. Chair, question for inSITE, I know on your website you list that you guys are an affiliate of the Welty Building Company. This isn’t my area of expertise, so forgive me if I am a bit naïve on it but because you are an affiliate of them, do you foresee I guess any issues with perhaps this building is owned by your competitor and having to turn and work with us to find funding for them essentially . . . I guess kind of walk me through what that looks like because you are essentially helping your competition in a way. Mr. Joyce: Yeah, well so we are a subsidiary of MGM which also is Welty Building, Welty Development. We have an interior design company, and we have us. We work side by side with those organizations within our umbrella. We work with our competitors already. In Barberton there are several development companies doing work and we help them with their development. Now, I would like to see . . . the good news is when we have a need for interest or resources or a development project that might need infusion investment, we do have access to the resources of Welty. Plus, the vast network of relationships of other business owners, other investors and their developers that would look at projects that don’t have any involvement with Welty at all just from a relationship standpoint. We work closely with our competition on a lot of projects. I mean, Gilbane is one of our largest competitors and we are joint ventured with them at Sherwin-Williams right now. Welty is doing the Stark County Jail; a $150 million project with another one of our competitors so it is friendly competition but the way we look at it is we have an opportunity to work and bring resources in with our clients, but we also have clear independence from anything else. We cross over with our competition I should say the building side is the competition. Pres. of Council: So, it is not to say that . . . obviously you are tied to them, but you know we are not going to see a project completely fall on its face due to relationships that you guys are already in because of . . . Mr. Joyce: I am representing a client, and we have a construction project, and we have bids and Welty shows up, I mean, I have chosen another firm over Welty. That is just the deal. We follow the protocols that are in front of us and that is how we work. Pres. of Council: Great. Thank you. Mr. Pavlik: Are there any additional questions or comments? With that . . . Pres. of Council: I guess I have one thing. I know we are down a Council member right now and I think this could go to potentially a 3-3 gridlock, I would ask that we could maybe go one more reading. Mayor: At that point in time, their contract . . . well we are still working on their last contract right now and it comes up for renewal on April 1st and I would really love it if I could to get this approved tonight so they can continue the work. We were just working this afternoon and we have other things going forward and I would hate to lose any momentum on that. Mr. Pavlik: I am fine with that. Is there a motion? Mrs. Gutman: I move for the adoption of Ord. 2024-30. Mayor: What motion would you make. Please be specific. Mrs. Gutman: I would move to approve Ord. 2024-30. Seconded Mr. Roy. Mr. Pavlik: Is there any further discussion? Mr. Roy: I just want to say that we can’t go backwards. If we don’t pass this, we are not going to have anything for 4 or 5 months and that is not a place that I think the City really wants to go. That’s all I have to say. To me you are going back. Roll Call: Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Ord. 2024-30 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Pavlik: inSITE thank you for your presentation and it was a good presentation. Thank you. 15  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 Pres. of Council: Thank you and I know we as Council members definitely look forward to working with the administration and with you at inSITE so thank you. Mr. Pavlik: Is there anything else that needs to be brought before the Finance Committee? Hearing none, I will close the Finance Committee. ii. Additional Items: None. c. PERSONNEL Jonathon Bollas, Chair Donald Pavlik, Vice Chair The Personnel Committee deals with personnel, labor relations, insurance claims, Rules of Council and State Statutes. Mr. Pavlik: I call the Personnel Committee to order. We have no legislation before us. Is there anything for Personnel? 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. Is there anything for t Safety? 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 Community Issues to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Is there anything for Community Issues this evening? Pres. of Council: I have one question related to . . . obviously we are only in March, but Halloween is around the corner. There have been some talks of or at least some questions about the Street Dance, whether or not we bring the Street Dance back and whether we move Trick or Treat night and all those things. Mayor: So, as you know programming is done a year ahead of time and so we will continue with the programming that has already been set for this year. We are going to be pushing out a survey a couple of times this year to see what the residents would like; if they want to change the date or if they don’t, if they want to reimagine the fall festival. Mr. Roy: Is there anything else for Community Issues? Hearing none, I will close the Community Issues Committee. i. Additional Items: None. 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, recycling, waste, and trash. 16  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. March 14, 2024 f. First Readings of Resolutions and Ordinances. A. Ord. 2024-33 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a multi-year asset management professional service contract with USG Water Solutions for renovation, maintenance, and inspection of the water tower on Alling Drive and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Director of Public Service Rorar Mrs. Epstein: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have Ord. 2024-33 before us this evening at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Mr. Rorar, are there any additional comments you would like to make on this? Dir. of Pub. Service: Not unless Council has a question. Mr. Pavlik: When was the last time we did something of this magnitude? Dir. of Pub. Service: I don’t think any . . . I mean we do the inspections, and we have replaced some electrodes and stuff but nothing like this. Mr. Pavlik: So, this is stuff that you do and it’s like 20 years later you have to revisit it? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. Mrs. Epstein: Thank you for answering my earlier question. You prefer 1 st Reading adoption this evening? Dir. of Pub. Service: It is not necessary. I mean, it is housekeeping but it’s up to you guys. Pres. of Council: When are we scheduled to begin the project? Dir. of Pub. Service: It is weather dependent. I mean, because it is the exterior. So, because it is the exterior we have to hit that window right and hopefully we are hitting it right. You never know what the weather is going to bring. Mr. Pavlik: As Service Director Rorar said this is our most important asset so I will move for the adoption of Ord. 2024-33. Seconded Mr. Rubino. Roll Call: Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik – unanimous. Ord. 2024-33 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Epstein: Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, I will close the Public Service Committee. i. Additional Items: None 11. Reports of Special Committees: a. Council Operations Committee i. Additional Items: None. 12. Announcements: None. 13. Adjournment: Mr. Pavlik moved to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Roy. Roll Call: Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy – unanimous. The Council meeting of 3-14-24 adjourned at 8:24 p.m. sb Passed: ____________________________________ ______________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Adam M. Bozic, President of Council 17