City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 1. Call to Order: Pres. of Council: It is Thursday, June 13, 2024, and this is our regularly scheduled 7:00 p.m. Council meeting. 2. Opening Prayer: Rev. Phil Anderson, Bethel Church of Tallmadge. Pledge of Allegiance: A. J. Bozic, Tallmadge Elementary School. 3. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas – excused, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino – present. 4. Correcting and Adopting Previous Meeting Minutes: 5-23-24 Regular Meeting Minutes Mr. Pavlik moved to approve. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Roll Call: Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. The 5-23-24 Council meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 6-0. 5. Financial Reports: • Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $255,000, Street Maintenance & Repair Fund Transfer in the amount of $275,000, and General Infrastructure Transfer in the amount of $30,000 from the General Fund to Council on 5-29-24. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report and Revenue Report for the period ending 5-31-24 to Council on 6-5-24. • May Financial Reports to Council on 6-5-24. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 5-31-24 to Council on 6-5-24. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 5-31-24 to Council on 6-5-24. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 5-31-24 to Council on 6-5-24. • Income Tax by Source Report for the month of April to Council on 6-5-24. • Revenue Comparisons for Major Funds for the period ending 5-31-24 to Council on 6-5-24. Mr. Rubino moved to accept the Financial Reports. Seconded Mr. Roy. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein – 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: This is the point in our meeting where we ask anyone in the audience if they have anything that they would like to bring up to Council that is not on the agenda this evening, you are welcome to step up to the podium and state your name and address and you will be given 2 minutes to speak. Jim Brouner, 142 Van Evera Road, Tallmadge. It is on the corner of Van Evera and Carruthers. The drainage ditch is like a mote going around our front yard. I have had amputations, and we are both retired, and we have been mowing it with a regular push mower for about 2 years now and it is just getting to be too much, and we need help on getting it backfilled. The other two homes that are on the corner of Van Evera and Carruthers have steel grading so the City must have done that because you just don’t go out and buy iron grates, sewage grates and put them in the ground. We would appreciate it if Tallmadge could come out and give us some kind of estimate or what to do because it is getting to be too much to try to mow it. I broke my tractor twice in the ditch. So, that’s all about all I have to say. Pres. of Council: I will let Mike Rorar speak to this topic. Dir. of Pub. Service: What was the address again? Mr. Brouner: 142 Van Evera. Right off of 91. Dir. of Pub. Service: What was your name? Jim Brouner. Dir. of Pub. Service: Jim, we will take a look at that and get back with you. Pres. of Council: Is there anyone else in the audience who would like to speak? 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 8. Agenda Additions: • Presentation of an award by Mayor Kilway from the Portage Development Board to Masters Precision Machining, Inc. The PDB had their annual recognition event on May 21st and the owners, Charlotte and Kenneth Rice, were not able to attend. Mayor Kilway will present this award to them. Mayor Kilway: The Portage Development Board is a 501C3 private non-profit which consists of a Board of Directors, of which I am a member, due to our City being in Portage County and their responsibilities include providing assistance to industrial realtors, builders, local industries and local communities in an effort to maintain and improve the economic base in Portage County. So, we do get those benefits within our City limits because we do have Portage County within our City. Last week I did mention that we had several businesses that received awards during their annual Locate, Stay and Grow event on May 21st. One of the businesses that is located in the Tallmadge annex was not able to attend and I was very honored to receive the award in their absence and so tonight I would like to recognize Charlotte and Kenneth Rice of Masters Precision Machining for their continued commitment to Tallmadge and present them with their Grow Award. So, this award will allow them to create and retain 20 jobs in Tallmadge with their partnership from Jobs Ohio and the City of Tallmadge. Thank you very much for your commitment to Tallmadge and staying in Tallmadge. You do get a lot of extra awards with this; we have the Certificate of Recognition from the Portage Development Board, I did give you a copy of the program that came with it, things from the Governor, David Joyce, the Ohio Senate, and Ohio House of Representatives. You got a lot of nice little awards and thank you very much for your commitment. Small businesses are the backbone of our City and our country and I really appreciate your staying here in Tallmadge. • Recognizing the Tallmadge High School Track and Field Team and their coaches. The team participated in the 2024 OHSAA Track and Field Tournament at Welcome Stadium in Dayton, Ohio. Pres. of Council: The next recognition is for the Tallmadge High School Track and Field Team and their coaches, which they may not have known that, for participating in the 2024 OHSAA Track and Field Championships down at Dayton, Ohio. For those of you that aren’t track junkies, it takes several meets in order to get to the State Tournament and it is not just like you win your league and you are in, you have to pull in several times in order to make it into the State Championships and so I would like to recognize . . . I will start out with Coach Mike Srodawa and I will kind of let him take it over from here. But then if we could have all the rest of the coaches come up. We have Coach Mike Hay, Elliot Tedquist, David Staszak, John Gergly, and Brin Stralka. If we could give these guys a quick round of applause for everything that they do. Countless hours, as you know if you have ever coached, countless hours go into coaching student athletes and these gentlemen here definitely put in extra hours every week. You see them there early in the morning and you see them there late at night. So, thank you. Mr. Srodawa: This is a great community and the support that you guys give to the school and the athletes says a lot. We have several people who are not here. So, the people who are here are our 4 x 800-meter relay team for the boys: Colin Adams, Jared Newenhisen, and Joey Naiman. Our 4 x 200-meter relay team of Paula Incorvati, Kari Kurko, Emma Bozic, and Alley Hay. Our poll vaulter, Kate Archer. 4 x 800-meter relay team of Alley Hay, Topanga Ross, Millie Ross, and Mackenzie Martuccio. They did a great job and lots of hard work in order to achieve this. I have a great coaching staff and I want to thank their families for allowing us to do what we do. Kate Archer receives an All-American Status for clearing 12’6” in the poll vault. The qualifying requirement for that was 12’5”. And for the 4 x 2, the qualifying standard was 144 the girls ran a 142.73. 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 Pres. of Council: If you have never been to a track meet, it is probably one of the most exciting sports you can watch. It may take less than 2 minutes for some events, but those are very exciting 2 minutes, and you can definitely hold your breath for that amount of time because I have done that, but it is just a great sport to watch. Mayor Kilway: Thank you very much Mr. Bozic for doing this today. Track and Field is very fun to watch. I did come out to a couple of your track meets and you guys are fast; very fast. Congratulations. Pres. of Council: Obviously, we don’t require you guys to stay here this whole time, so if you would like to get up and leave, that is fine. Mayor Kilway: Individuals that have agreed to serve on the Property Maintenance Board. These members must be approved by Council. These people would hear any appeals for any property maintenance concerns. So, they only meet as needed for appeals. To date, we have not had to have anybody come, but we would like to have a Property Maintenance Board active and in effect so we are ready in case if something were to happen and then I don’t need you to approve them; I just need you to confirm them. I did send out bios on each one of these ahead of time in case somebody doesn’t know who these people are. That will give you a little bit of information on their activity in Tallmadge. Pres. of Council: Prior to this if there was a concern or an issue, can you kind of walk us through the steps that would have been prior to this board. Mayor Kilway: So, this was, I believe, part of the new Zoning Code; no, it’s not; OK. Dir. of Law: This has pre-existed for a long time. We had a Property Maintenance Board before and it was filled, as the Mayor mentioned, we have not had the need to call on them. In the Code it is a 5- day time and so I just think we want to error on the side of having them ready to go just in case that we might need them, but this has been in existence since before I became Law Director. Mr. Pavlik: Do you know the last time we had a board or committee? Dir. of Law: It has been some time. Again, if there had been an appeal, we would have been able to put one together, but it would have been very quick and it is just better to have one in place just in case. Mr. Pavlik: So, is this on commercial property or is this residential property or all? Dir. of Law: It is commercial, industrial, residential; it is our property maintenance code, and it is the complaints with regard to you know, gutters falling off, windows being broken out and those sorts of things. We send out the Zoning Inspectors if there is a property maintenance issue and they can issue a citation, but part of the process is that the person could appeal to the Code Enforcement Official if they wanted to. Mayor Kilway: All of that was sent to you along with the bios as well. Pres. of Council: So, in other words, it sounds like in recent history we haven’t had the need. No one has appealed basically any of the concerns. Mayor Kilway: Ms. Hussing asked if I would make this a priority. Pres. of Council: Got you. OK. So, it sounds like if we did need it, in recent history we would have to scramble to put some people together on the board to hold the meeting. Dir. of Law: Right. So, the thought process is just instead of having to scramble, I think to have peace of mind that we have one ready to go just in case. Pres. of Council: Any other questions from Council for the Administration? Mrs. Epstein: In the information that you sent it said the terms were staggered terms and 3 years. Is it alright then that they are not staggered . . . Mayor Kilway: They will be staggered. Dir. of Law: They are going to be placed into a term slot that is staggered to begin with and then as we continue to roll through it will be staggered. Mr. Pavlik: I was going to ask; shouldn’t we confirm it with the terms or not, it is just . . . Dir. of Law: If you want to assign the terms, you are welcome to. One of them will be a one-year term, and two of them will be a two-year term and two of them will be 3-year terms. I don’t think it makes any difference to us which is what. 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 Pres. of Council: I think for the sake of us confirming individuals, I think it would be nice to have those terms, so we know when these are coming up again. So, is that something that we need to assign or is that something . . . Dir. of Law: No, I mean that is not really the intent if you want to confirm each one and say that this is the term, and you can make a motion that way if you really want to. Pres. of Council: So, say again . . . Dir. of Law: One of them would be a one-year term, two of them would be a two-year term, and two of them will be a three-year term. Mrs. Gutman: I guess I would suggest that if you would like to do that that you just do it by ward rather than person so that it is just standard over time that you know, Ward 1 is one year, Ward 2 and 3 are 2 years and Ward 4 and businesses are the 3 year and then it is standard. I don’t know. Dir. of Law: Keep in mind that from here on out then after that one-year term it will be renewable for 3 years. They will be on a 3-year term after that. So, it is only for the initiation of refilling the board that it would be . . . you can just go down the list. Mayor Kilway: I did not realize that I needed to have that in front of us to have these confirmed. But if that is how you would like to do it, we are fine with that. Mrs. Gutman: Well, if that is OK with you then I would make that motion. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Dir. of Law: Do you want to formulate the motion again so Ward 1 would be a one-year term, Ward 2 and 3 would be two-year terms, and Wards 4 and the business owner would be three-year terms. Mrs. Gutman: Yes, so I would make the motion as the Law Director stated it. Dir. of Law: And that you wish . . . Mrs. Gutman: For all five positions. Mr. Pavlik: It is just 5; we don’t need 6 or 7? Dir. of Law: One from each ward and one from a business. Mr. Pavlik: I will second. Dir. of Law: Also include in the motion that they are confirming everyone. Pres. of Council: Yes, and that we are confirming all five members with one vote. Roll Call: Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. All 5 members are confirmed with a vote of 6-0. Pres. of Council: Thank you Mayor Kilway for bringing this board back and hopefully we won’t have to use it. Ward 1: Serif Krkic Ward 2: Eric Helmstedter Ward 3: Mike Kalaman Ward 4: Tom Polatas Business Owner: Shawn Ritchie 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Director of Economic Development Mayor Kilway: I do have a PowerPoint. • We were privileged to attend the Veteran’s Flag Ceremony at R.W. Martin & Sons, and this was the Friday right before Memorial Day. I have never seen a flag change ceremony before, and this was impeccably done. It was so refreshing to see all of these employees who are veterans. R.W. Martin and Sons have employees all over the United States and they actually flew some of their employees in that were veterans in order to do the flag ceremony and it was a great way to start the Memorial Day weekend. At the flag ceremony we had the American Legion from both Tallmadge and Stow. The Memorial Day parade and ceremony was a great event. I want to thank everyone, especially the Service Department for making the City look spectacular. 156th consecutive. We are very, very lucky to have that going on in our town. • We also had our 2024 Service Award Luncheon and there were approximately 40 employees that were honored with this. We had an Olympic theme and I want to thank 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 Mayor Kilway (Cont’d.) Tish for helping to organize this. Helene Hussing helped, Andrea, Kelli and a number of people helped put this together. We had people that received from the 5-year all the way up to 40 years of service and just coincidentally I am going to say the 40-year person was my husband, Tom. I do want to thank Councilwoman Epstein for attending that as well. • We also had the ribbon-cutting at RE-MAX Diversity in Tallmadge. • Today we opened up the Tallmadge Farmer’s Market. Andrea has worked extremely hard on this. She always does. I just came back from there and there were 53 vendors this year and that is the largest that it has ever been. There is room for growth as well. These signs that are up here; Andrea visited the 3 rd and 4th graders to speak about the Farmer’s Market and each of the kids created a piece of advertisement and she is going to be using a different one of these drawings each week to advertise for the Farmer’s Market and I think it is just a cute little way to add some pazazz to our advertising for that. That is all that I have for the Power Point. I did not get a picture, but I did go to the Touch a Truck on Saturday. It was a great event to see all of our trucks shined up pretty. I have to say when I walked by our Service Department as well, we all know that the Fire trucks are always kept nice, but walked past the Service trucks and you know our dump trucks are just immaculate. They really are, but if you go into 210 Osceola at any time you walk into the garage they are always that clean. They keep things amazingly clean and so kudos to them. We also are still planning the Circle Fest and Light Parade on August 10th. Is Council going to have golf carts or something? Pres. of Council: Yes, I reached out to Becky Allman. Mayor Kilway: I also want to recognize our Tallmadge Police Department who have issued some commendations. We don’t realize what our safety forces do on a daily basis. Officer Mike Scholles received a letter of commendation, Officer Joe Svidron received a Recognition of Excellence commendation, Sergeant Orsine and Officers Bissler, Delorenzo, Scholles and Lampley received recognition of excellent commendations. Sergeant Heatwall, Officers Ickes and also in our Service Department Ben Newman also received recognition for excellent commendations as well. Just some of the things that they did . . . it is really amazing. The recognition of excellence for communication for Officer Joe Svidron was for the handling of a very dangerous subject on Beachler Road back on May 4th. He was able to diffuse the situation and the subject had shot at a house in Akron minutes before and he did an exceptional job apprehending the subject and handling with multiple suspects and assisted Akron PD collecting the evidence for their charges and recovered the weapon that was used by the drive-by. They are very thorough and do their job amazingly. Sergeant Orsine, Officers Bissler, Delorenzo, Scholles and Lampley for their handling of a burglary pursuit on April 22nd. Officer Scholles received a letter of commendation for his handling of several CIT calls which are people in crisis. And then Sergeants Heatwall, Officers Ickes and Ben Newman from our City Garage received that recognition for their service to a homeless veteran and just helping him out. I just really want to recognize our safety forces for what they do. So, the Police had a good run at it this last month and also our Fire Department received a letter of gratitude from the City of Kent for their quick response of our EMS crew. Just quickly, there was a large structure fire in the early morning hours of May 12th in Kent and the fire had made considerable headway prior to their arrival and there where multiple victims that had jumped or were thrown from the porch roof prior to Kent fire crews arriving. Our Tallmadge EMS arrived on scene and quickly treated and transported some of the victims to the local hospital and so without our mutual aid that morning, they definitely would have been overwhelmed and so the City of Kent is just very appreciative of our mutual aid and our quick response on that. 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 • Economic Development: We had some business retention meetings over the last couple of weeks and we did visit with Leppo and we had very good conversations with them. We visited some of the smaller businesses. Tiny Circuits: they manufacture very small electronics that actually work. They have a TV that is literally 1” x 1” that you can turn on. It has a remote and you can download different things to it. It is intriguing what they do and they also have a golf caddy that they are working on for I think it is called Club Cart where literally you can put your golf bag in this little cart and you have a little clip on the back of your belt and you just walk and this thing follows you like 5’ to 6’ behind and when you stop you can flip a switch and you can go get your golf clubs and it was fantastic. They make those here in Tallmadge. We also went to Green Technology of Ohio which is a large stamping company. • Finally, we are working on the West Avenue Overlay, and we are working with the Department of Administration and our Planning & Zoning Department, and we are working along with inSITE. We have mapped out the area on West Avenue and we hand delivered letters to the businesses along that area to come to like a stakeholder meeting that we are going to have on June 27th and it is at 8:00 a.m. at the Ritchie Center and I want to invite Council to that as well. Any questions? End of report. b. Director of Administration/Director of Safety: Thank you, Council President Bozic, Council members, Mayor, Dir. of Law and Finance, and Service Director Rorar. I just want to give a shout out to Andrea. Today was the first time that I have been to the Farmer’s Market, and it was absolutely amazing. As the Mayor said, 53 people signed up. We have 80 people signed up through October and so we anticipate it to be well attended. It’s amazing what Andrea does in her Community Development role and the great partnership we have with the Rec Department down there. As the Mayor’s report shows, it has been a busy couple of weeks since I started. Today is actually my month that I have been here and as a follow-up to my last report, I just wanted to let everybody know that we have concluded our meetings with potential partners to assist us in looking at developing a strategic plan. That strategic plan is going to include input from Council, community, business members and all stakeholders. We have talked to a couple of different organizations, and we have some models that are in final discussions and more to follow about that. This is really going to be our roadmap to the future. It is different than the comprehensive plan that was done in 2017, or the community survey that was done in 2013. The 2013 community survey informed the 2017 comprehensive plan, and that comprehensive plan was really focused on zoning and getting the citizens input and getting to where we want to be. We have had adjustments to that along the way accumulating to where we are today with the West Avenue Overlay and future overlays that have been through the building and zoning process and the public hearings. It is a really exciting time to see where we are going with that and to be partnering with everybody to build a strategic plan to really guide us from 2025 to 2030 and beyond. So, I am ecstatic to be back and to be working with all of you. It is really a great time to be back in Tallmadge so thank you and that concludes my report pending any questions. c. Director of Public Service: • Real quick, Ord. 2024-29 is an MOU to share the vaults that are along the conduit run and the fiber optic run from Brittain Road up to the Joint Dispatch area and the reason why we are joining it is because the road right-of-way was not wide enough to put two of the vaults side by side. You can see there that we would end up being on the sidewalk or in the ditch enclosures. The County was on board with just sharing it so we need to get that MOU so we can get access to those vaults in the future if we need them. 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) • Great news, finally the 89 East Howe Road demolition is complete. It turned out to be a great project and I would like to compliment the contractor. They did an outstanding job. They were professional and did a great job and did everything we asked them to, and I have never seen grass grow as fast as that company has that grass growing so they did a nice job. • Last month the Zoning Department did 111 permits that were issued. 52 of which were street openings and 40 re-zoning certificates and keep in mind those are fences, pools and anything like that. • Code violations were 68. It is summertime so keep that in mind, that is why we have so many. 18 were property disrepair and then 18 were high grass and there again not that bad. • Cemetery had 4 total burials. 3 were full and one was cremains. • Parks and Rec membership was up about 10% from last year. The visits were up about 3%. Summer Camp started on June 3rd. Farmer’s Market opened today. Music on the Circle coming up next is the Sensational Soul Brothers on June 20th. The Rec Center will be closed July 4th for Independence Day. • The new shelter at Lions Park is officially open and so the Building Department did the final walk-thru and we are going to start renting that out next week. If you haven’t seen it, stop at Lions Park. It is a great shelter. • Howe Road Park renovations are complete. We are waiting on the Building Department to do the final walk-thru so we can open that shelter as well as the restroom. The Dog Park might be a while. We seeded it and I guess what I am lacking now is rain. So, we are probably going to have to use some water cannons over there to try to get that going. You can imagine that grass will have to be pretty well established before we open it up to dogs because dogs will probably have that torn out in no time. • Moving forward, Maca Pool is open. The first Marlins swim meet is June 17th at 4:00 p.m. so the pool will be closing for that meet. • Zumba Class is being offered on Monday’s and Wednesday’s at 7:15 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. • The Water Aerobics Class is being offered on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. • This weekend, due to graduation parties and vacations, we are probably going to limit access to members only and their guests. It appears that the lifeguards and the safety issues are going to be . . . we want to make sure that there are no safety issues and so we are probably going to limit the park to members only and their guests. If we can pull off a miracle and get some more lifeguards, but it does not look like we are going to. So there again, that is the hamstring you get when you hire high school kids and college kids. It is what it is. • Moving on to the Street Department, the rain that we were having delayed these guys. They are doing a decent job. Wartko is the contractor. • The asphalt paving contract is scheduled to begin on July 8 th. That is Cardinal and this is the 3rd year that they have had that contract, so they do a decent job. • 3-1/2 tons of street debris was removed from the street sweepings. • 318 lineal feet of ditching was done. • 5 catch basins were repaired. • 3 drive culverts were replaced, however the big thing that the Street Department was doing, and they are more public works department in this aspect is they were getting the City ready for Memorial Day so all the mulch, the plantings, everything that was done. They did a great job as the Mayor brought up; the City looks pretty good. 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 Pres. of Council: • Utility Department: Hydrant flushing was completed. Two water main breaks on Geneva and I can’t remember where the other was at. 254’ lineal feet of sanitary sewer were televised. 300 lineal feet was cleaned. 3 backflows were installed. These are our own backflows that we install annually. Lead copper identification service lines are ongoing. That concludes my report unless there are any questions. Pres. of Council: I actually have a couple for your sir. So, I know on the, and you don’t have to be specific, but I know on Southwest Avenue as you are heading towards the Duke Station, I know that there are a few properties that might look like they are abandoned or maybe nobody lives there currently and so I didn’t know if that was something that you had on your radar or not. Maybe just take a drive down through there on Southwest Avenue, or I’m sorry, Southeast Avenue. Dir. of Pub. Service: Halfway down? Just past Elm? Pres. of Council: Yes, there is one there and there might be one other but I’m not sure. My other question is I knew we had asked about the pavilion names, and we got some information from Parks and Rec about that. My only question would be the two pavilions that are currently in Lions Park that have a name on them; do we know what constituted getting those names put on that pavilion? Was that something that was from a donation from that family or we named it in honor of a resolution or something like that? Dir. of Pub. Service: No, we went to the Historical Society, and we have asked long-time employees, and nobody could tell us any reason why those are there. It could have been Lions himself, I mean at the end of the day, but there is no history on it and we have just upgraded all of the shelter names to those more generic park-like ones so as you go through now you will see new signs on all those shelters and they have the more generic park names on them. Pres. of Council: I just wanted to make sure that we didn’t rename something if we have been given funds for that particular pavilion. Dir. of Pub. Service: If something comes up, we will be happy to readjust that, but we couldn’t find any history on anything. Pres. of Council: My other question is occasionally those of us on Council will get questions like what we do if there is a dead animal on the roadside or if there is a bunch of litter on the roadside, or something like that. Can you kind of walk us through what the Service Department’s role is or is not in that? Dir. of Pub. Service: So, first of all, call the City non-emergency number if there is an issue like that and if it is during the 8-hour day, we will be happy to go out and address those issues. If it is after hours, depending on what it is, it goes into overtime and so if it is on the weekend that is also the same thing, but if we have a guy that is watering flowers or if there is a cemetery issue going on if there was a burial, we would probably send the guys over there to address whatever that is. The dead animal issue, the EPA has gotten involved in that and you just can’t handle the dead animals like you used to, so now it might be 24 hours before we get to those animals. Just call in and we will make sure it gets addressed. Pres. of Council: Thank you. Are there any other questions for the Service Director? Mr. Rubino: Mr. Rorar, do we have any parks in the City like playground areas that are fully fenced? Dir. of Pub. Service: No, the closest one that we probably have is Memorial Park. It is probably 2/3rds fenced but the fence side is towards the street and the parking lot and so the rest of it would be towards the open park so that is probably the one that is closest to being completely fenced. Mr. Rubino: OK. Thank you. 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 Mr. Bozic: Any further questions? d. Director of Finance: Good evening. Everybody received the Financial Reports. One item to point out to Council is we have received our first half of property taxes since the revaluation. I did explain in my report that we saw about a 27% increase between our General Fund Property Tax and our Police Pension Fund. The Fire/EMS Levy because that is voted millage that does not increase proportionally to the valuation, so we are only seeing a 2% increase there because that levy is set in dollar value and it does not increase proportionally so some property owners’ property taxes were reduced in that area and increased in others, so I just did want to point that out that that is something different and I know the property valuations was a big item that was out there for a while. So, just giving Council an update on that. Our income tax continues to come in well. It looks like our net profit returns really increased with the filing of the April 15th returns and so probably some lower estimates from the previous year and they owed more at the end and so everything seems to be moving in a positive direction and if anybody has any specific questions for me, I would be glad to answer them. Mr. Pavlik: When you mentioned in the Parks and Rec report that there was an adjustment made to the Summer Camp revenue due to a double posting; how much was that? Dir. of Finance: It was $14,000. So, I had noted when I was compiling my report that the increase in that Summer Camp revenue was very high to me so when I went back and dug in and I did not want to present that kind of an increase to Council so I went ahead and in this report we reduced the revenue by the $14,000 so this revenue that you see in my report is the corrected revenue for the month of May, however, because I had already closed the month and ran like 90% of my reports, we made the adjustment to the revenue on the June side, but I didn’t want to include that to make it look like our revenue was overstated in that area. Pres. of Council: Any further questions for our Finance Director? I just had one question and came from someone who had a concern about their water bill increase and I know that the rates coming up in the next several years are based on the index so based on kind of what we know now do we have kind of a set idea of what our upcoming rates are going to be that we are coming into this next upcoming year? We already knew the percentage; correct? Dir. of Finance: So, we do not currently have another . . . we know the rate increases that we are receiving from Akron and Summit County. We have not since the last increase that took place at the beginning of 2023, we have not added an additional sewer rate increase so that is on the sewer side. There are currently no scheduled water rate increases at all. We actually have not had a water rate increase since 2012 and so there will likely . . . we have our water contract coming due and we are likely going to have to contemplate that. The rate increases that we put into effect in 2022 and 2023, they were pretty significant and they were 16% each of those years. In looking at those, I think that will allow us to kind of sit maybe for a couple of years without any increases on the sewer side knowing that our water rate will likely be the subject of our next item, but overall, right now we don’t have any planned increases but we know what our increases are and I have looked at if those increases that we instituted can last for a while, but we do need to do a more . . . I have actually looked at some software for a more comprehensive rate study so that we can have a planned out small increase instead of constantly catching up and in looking into moving in that direction. Mr. Bozic: Correct me if I am wrong, we have a, based on water usage, for our commercial side . . . Dir. of Finance: Yes, all of our bills are based on volume. The tiered system that we have that there is the first tier which is basically up to . . . there is a flat rate up to a certain amount 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 Dir. of Finance (Cont’d.) of usage depending on your rate code and then the second tier is so large that there are very few people that actually get into like the third tier. So, for instance, on our sewer bills, the second tier is from 2,000 cubic feet to I think 80,000 cubic feet and so residents aren’t going to use 80,000 cubic feet of water and so there is a lot to be revisited. Mr. Bozic: So, that will be part of that? Dir. of Finance: Yes, that will be part of the . . . looking at the software, yes, the whole entire structure of how our rates are coded would be part of that. Mr. Bozic: Great. Thank you. Mr. Pavlik: When does our water contract end with Tallmadge? Dir. of Finance: With Akron? In January of 2025. Mr. Bozic: Are there any other questions from Council? e. Director of Law: Thank you. So, you may recall that I mentioned that we are doing a recodification this year. We are working very hard on that right now. What that will do is . . . we are taking a look at our entire Code, all of our codified ordinances, and trying to eliminate obsolete provisions, duplicate provisions, reconcile things with State Law that need to be reconciled with State Law and it is a big undertaking. I am at this point anticipating hopefully getting it to Council I am going to say at the end of August or beginning of September. It will be a process to go through that and review, but it is the end product I am excited will be a much needed, refined codified ordinances hopefully so, I am looking forward to that as much work as it will be. I just wanted to give you a heads up that that is coming your way soon. Dir. of Pub. Service: Could I jump on that? The problem is that we have so much that is obsolete material in this and so it will be refreshing to actually have things that are relevant. As much as I am not looking forward to it, I will be excited to have it done. Pres. of Council: Any questions for our Dir. of Law? I just have one quick question about, so every year during our Council meetings we have ordinances 2024-37 and 47 and so on, and from my experience I don’t think there is an easy way on our website that really lists out every ordinance. Is that just like a feature that can be turned on our website or do you have to actually drill down into each agenda to find each . . . Dir. of Law: I think you can use the search engine to look up the legislation that is related to that, so it should. You should be able to type in key word that you are looking for and it should pop up that legislation that has been placed on like a place for all the documents like a document center or something like that and so as the agenda items come up and every single link that you see in your agenda, those documents remain on-line and they are searchable and stored. The nice thing about this recodification that I am really excited about too is what that will do is you can type in that key word and you can search both the ordinances itself and the codified ordinances where right now to see like the codification of it you have to go to a separate provider, so it will be all through Civic Plus so it will have some really nice searchability features and be much more user friendly is the goal. Mr. Bozic: That is great. I know just from my experience if I did need to look for, I try to remember when the ordinance happened and trying to find it in the agenda, but it sounds like I could probably do a search instead. Dir. of Law: Right and Council does have access to an internal drive and that is all on a place on the shared drive where it says legislation and then you can go to the ordinance index and look up your key word and search that way. You can also always ask your Clerk of Council to help you too. Dir. of Finance: Just to clarify, so I kind of went through it and on the main page, one of the round buttons is called Document Center and if you go in there and go under City Council and go under Ordinances and Resolutions and you can find them there. 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 Mr. Pavlik: But it seems like you have to go to passed ordinances and then it only goes back to 2021. Dir. of Law: Correct, So, we had Civic Plus earlier than that, but they weren’t putting the documents on there. So, if you want something that is older than that, you can always call and make a records request through Sue or you can use the website and send that request or if you are Council people, you can use the internal search. One other thing I did want to mention, and I greatly appreciate the Mayor’s office for this, so a little while ago, when we reworked my old library into an office, we started to take all of the old codification, old codes, old ordinances and thankfully through the Mayor’s office, the front desk staff has been helping us scan those and itemize those so that they also will be on-line because again with those, some of those were all paper versions and so we are hoping to digitalize even the oldest stuff that we have. We are working on that project. Mr. Bozic: That is a huge undertaking. Dir. of Law: It is and again I appreciate the Mayor’s office and the staff people who have been very helpful in making that happen. So, we are well on our way, and it has been a project too, but we are working on that as well. 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 Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Does anyone have 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. Third Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2024-37 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids. and the Mayor to enter into contract for miscellaneous repairs and remodeling of Fire Station 1 at 85 W. Overdale Drive and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar Mr. Pavlik: I call the Finance Committee to order. We have one ordinance at 3rd Reading and that is Ord. 2024-37. The ordinance was read into the record. This is sponsored by Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar. Do you have anything you would like to add? Dir. of Pub. Service: It is pretty much a remodeling thing; some painting, tiling, some restroom fixtures; it is nothing too crazy. It is just a remodeling project. Mr. Pavlik: Are there any questions? Mr. Bozic: Again, I didn’t look too deeply at some of the last few pages with the boilerplate topics that are in the contract, but I know in the past we have had a couple of projects that we have had some concerns about and issues when it comes to subcontracting. So, I didn’t know if that was listed out somewhere in there when we do have our main general contractor what is permitted as far as subcontracting but then can that subcontractor go to another subcontractor to another? 11  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 Dir. of Pub. Service: It is not quite that detailed Councilman. They do have to give us their subcontractors and then we have a right to vet them and to review them. Mr. Bozic: Did we have to . . . this is probably more of a question for the Law Department; when we have before, and this is probably a project that I am probably not that concerned but for other projects in the future; is that something that we would kind of address in our contracts with reassigning to another subcontractor? Dir. of Law: We can address it, but the reality is that a lot of these projects, the bigger they are, they are going to have subcontractors and so that is a reality that most construction projects will come with. Mr. Bozic: But, at least having a vetting process or you know they have to meet x, y, z requirements. I know the other question would be if we have built into any of our contracts a way to basically back-charge them for opening late more or less so they did meet the deadline that we had set in place. Dir. of Pub. Service: Then we have the bond as well. It is a two-year bond. Mrs. Epstein: I have just one question not necessarily related to this specific bid, but I did receive a constituent question in general who has a business. Is there a requirement with the City for preferential bidding to union workers? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yeah, prevailing wage. They have to do prevailing wage. Mr. Pavlik: Any other questions or comments? Since this is at 3rd Reading twice, is there a motion? Mrs. Gutman: I move to adopt Ord. 2024-37. Seconded Mr. Rubino. Roll Call: Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik – unanimous. Ord. 2024-37 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. ii. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2024-47 – Appropriating additional funds for dispatch services from the Summit Area Regional Council of Governments (SARCOG) and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Finance Gilbride Mr. Pavlik: Next we have 1st Reading for Ord. 2024-47. The ordinance was read into the record. This is sponsored by Dir. of Finance Gilbride. Are there any comments Mrs. Gilbride? Dir. of Finance: So, at the beginning of May I was contacted by Summit County as they were closing their books they realized on their 4 th quarter billing for 2023, the person who was doing the calculations had only pulled one pay period of payroll instead of the whole quarter’s worth of payroll so this bill is basically a reconciliation and because it was for last year, we do not have the funds appropriated to pay it. We let those funds lapse at the end of the year. They did send me the payroll reports and all of the backup to it and I reviewed it and it is legitimate and actually after relooking at the bill, after they sent that, the first bill they billed us for $25,000 of payroll for a quarter which we pay 11% and so that rated a whole dispatch center for 3 months because it was fully operations by that time and it wouldn’t have been $300,000 of payroll. They only employ 40 dispatchers and so I did review everything, and it is legitimate and so because we did not budget that in 2023 and 2024 dispatch payments in 2024, I need a re-appropriation. Mr. Pavlik: So, question, we would have been short $90,606 or less in our budget in 2023 or around that amount; right? Dir. of Finance: No, we would have paid it out of our 2023 budget but we let the appropriation lapse. Mrs. Epstein: That amount was budgeted . . . Dir. of Finance: We would have had the money in 2023, to pay it had we known. Mr. Bozic: I have a question for Dir. of Finance. I know and I don’t recall what the name of your committee was, but if you recall, I had asked the question when we were getting 12  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 Mr. Bozic (Cont’d.) into the dispatch center about do we have a board and then you had talked about like the Dir. of Finances from all the different . . . so other cities were also, I am assuming, . . . Dir. of Finance: Everybody has got this bill. I don’t know when other Councils have seen it or what their appropriation situation is, I don’t know any of that. We haven’t actually had a meeting since this bill came out, but yes, this isn’t just Tallmadge, it’s affecting all. Mr. Bozic: I’m not saying you guys didn’t do your job; I’m just saying like everybody kind of missed this I guess if we are all reviewing it you know different Finance Directors from across different cities and everyone kind of missed it or didn’t really even have a chance to comprehend it because it is such a new thing. Dir. of Finance: Correct. We had no expectation of what the bill was supposed to be, so it was kind of like one of those, like I said, looking back on it, I’m like oh that was kind of odd. iii. Additional Items: None. Mr. Pavlik: Are there any further questions? Is there a motion? Mr. Bozic: I make a motion to adopt Ord. 2024-47. Seconded Mr. Roy. Roll Call: Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy – unanimous. Ord. 2024-47 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Pavlik: That is all for Finance this evening. Is there anything else that needs to come before Finance? Hearing none, I will close Finance. 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 this evening. Is there anything for Personnel at this time? Mr. Bozic: I just have a question for Administration. You were kind of waiting for the Dir. of Administration to step on board for our union contracts and those negotiations. Have we kind of sat down at that table yet, or kind of give us a brief update. Mayor: We were actively moving forward with that. I will let Mr. Ignazzitto talk on that at this time. Dir. of Administration: We will be notifying the unions probably in late June or early July that we will be beginning negotiations within the period allowed by law. Then we will start negotiations with all 5 unions. We will initially start them off staggered; not all in the same day. We will be concurrently going through negotiations with the 5 contracts. Mr. Pavlik: Hearing nothing else, I will close 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. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2024-45 – Authorizing the approval and adopting the Summit County Hazard Mitigation Plan and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway 13  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 Mr. Rubino: I call the Safety Committee to order. We have Ord. 2024-25 at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. The sponsor is Mayor Kilway. Do you have anything on this? Mayor: Basically, FEMA requires that we have these disaster mitigation plans in effect. This is put together by Summit County for all of us to review and to pass so if you want to take some time to look at it. It is a very large document. I skimmed it. So, if you want to give it another reading, we can discuss it more the next time. Mr. Rubino: We can go to 2nd Reading on that. Is there any other discussion? Hearing none, I will close the Safety Committee. ii. 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. i. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2024-44 – Public Hearing on 6-27-24 @ 7:05 p.m. Extending the moratorium on acceptance of any zoning application for an adult use cannabis operator and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mr. Roy: I call Community Issues to order. We have Ord. 2024-44 at 2nd Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Do we have any comments? Mrs. Epstein: I have a question for the Law Director. Last time, when this was read, you requested from the public any feedback, and I was wondering if your office has received any feedback? Dir. of Law: We have not. Mr. Bozic: I have one question. Did anyone else on Council or the Administration receive a question asking about our opinion on whether Council would approve or not approve a dispensary going in at the Midway Plaza? Dir. of Law: I am not aware of that communication. Mr. Bozic: I will forward that over. It just dawned on me as we were discussing it that at least I received one notification. Dir. of Law: So, obviously, I guess if you do receive something like that I would say it is still pending and you can certainly express your own opinion but you need to make clear, if you even wanted to do that, or you can say something, I don’t know however you want to do that but obviously you can speak to which Council will decide on it since we don’t know which way you are leaning on this issue anyway. Mr. Roy: Is there any other discussion? ii. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2024-46 – An ordinance approving and adopting the Summit County 911 Plan and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mr. Roy: Next, we have 1st Reading on Ord. 2024-46. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor? Mayor: Yes, so this is just the approval of the Summit County 911 Plan. We do have to support and approve it through a resolution in accordance with the Ohio Revised Code 128.08. Again, if you want to give this another reading that is fine as well. 14  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 13, 2024 Mr. Roy: Any discussion? Hearing none, we will go ahead and give this a 2 nd Reading. Are there any additional items tonight? Hearing none, I will close Community Issues. iii. 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, recycling, waste, and trash. i. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2024-42 – Exhibit A – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into an intergovern- mental agreement between the County of Summit and City of Tallmadge for maintenance of vaults and co-located fiber optic cables (Juvenile Court to PSAP Run) and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mrs. Epstein: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have Ord. 2024-42 – Exhibit A. The ordinance was read into the record. Is there anything that you would like to add Mayor Kilway? Mayor: These are the vaults that Service Director Rorar had discussed earlier. Do you want it to go another reading? Dir. of Pub. Service: It is fine if it goes another reading. Mr. Rubino: I make a motion to adopt. Seconded Mr. Pavlik. Mr. Bozic: I just have one question for our Service Director, in this agreement since we are sharing the vaults is there anything in there that jumps out and says this might be a long-term ongoing maintenance issue for the City or become a liability for the City or anything like that? Dir. of Pub. Service: No. We just want to make sure that we have access to those. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino – unanimous. Ord. 2024-42 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mrs. Epstein: We have nothing else before us this evening. Are there any other comments for Public Service? Hearing none, I close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: a. Council Operations Committee i. Additional Items: 12. Announcements: Pres. of Council: I guess my only announcement would be those of us on Council that will be attending the Light Festival, I will submit that application and make sure we have golf carts that function. 13. Adjournment: Mr. Pavlik moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino – unanimous. The Council meeting of 6-13-24 adjourned at 8:20 p.m. sb Adopted: ___________________ ___________________________________ ______________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Adam M. Bozic, President of Council 15