City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. April 10, 2025 1. Call to Order: Pres. of Council: It is Thursday, April 10, 2025, and this is our regularly scheduled 7:00 p.m. Council meeting. We will kick off the meeting with our opening prayer given by Reverand Jim Case with the Tallmadge Lutheran Church followed by the Pledge of Allegiance where we welcome Shaire Sixt and her 4th Grade Girl Scout Troop 90663 who will be reciting the pledge. 2. Opening Prayer: Rev. Jim Case, Tallmadge Lutheran Church. Pledge of Allegiance: Girl Scout Troop 90663. 3. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino – present. Mary Gutman was excused. 4. Correcting and Adopting Previous Meeting Minutes: 3-13-25 Council Meeting Minutes Mr. Pavlik: I will make a motion to approve. Seconded Mr. Roy. Roll Call: Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. The 3-13-25 Council meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 6-0. 5. Financial Reports: • Fire & EMS Transfer in the amount of $225,000, Street Maintenance & Repair Fund Transfer in the amount of $175,000 and a General Infrastructure Fund Transfer in the amount of $30,000 to Council on 3-31-25. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report and Revenue Report for the period ending 3-31-25 to Council on 4-4-25. • March Financial Reports to Council on 4-4-25. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 3-31-25 to Council on 4-4-25. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 3-31-25 to Council on 4-4-25. • Income Tax by Source Report for the month of March to Council on 4-4-25. • Revenue Comparisons for Major Funds for the period ending 3-31-25 to Council on 4-4-25. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 3-31-25 to Council on 4-4-25. Mr. Pavlik: I will make a motion to approve the Financial Reports as presented. Seconded Mrs. Cipa. Roll Call: Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Cipa – 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: Michael Derr, volunteer with Citizens for the Library’s Future, will talk about the Akron-Summit County Public Library bond issue (Issue 18) on the May 6th ballot. Pres. of Council: This is the point in the meeting that anyone in the audience who would like to speak on an item not on the agenda, you will be provided 2 minutes to do so. We also have a special presentation this evening by Mr. Michael Derr, who is a volunteer with Citizens for the Library’s Future and he is here this evening to talk about the Akron-Summit County Public Library Bond Issue (Issue 18). Mr. Derr,1247 Morgan Way, Akron, OH 44313. I lived in Tallmadge for 18 years. I love Tallmadge. I am here to talk about a very important issue, as you mentioned, on the May 6th Primary Election Ballot. It is Issue 18. The Akron-Summit County Public Library is seeking a 1 mill capital bond to maintain and improve all of our library buildings. For more than 150 years your Akron-Summit Public Library has been the heart of the community by providing viable resources and programs for all area residents and welcoming more than 1.5 million visitors and circulating more than 4.8 million items per year. Our public library supports, improves and enriches your community. The 19 buildings in our library system are on average 24 years old and are showing their age. For several years library administration and trustees have been studying and assessing the conditions of the library buildings. The library system is facing a significant need for capital improvements at all locations. These needs include replacement of roofs, parking lots, flooring, and furnishings. From 2022 to 2024 the library invested more than $6.1 million in maintaining and repairing its buildings, however 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. April 10, 2025 Mr. Derr (Cont’d.) the cost of needed repairs and maintenance far exceeds the library’s budget. Passage of the bond issue will provide the needed funds to develop and execute a plan that will address the infrastructure and functionality needs of the library with specific projects across the system. Tallmadge needs a new roof. Just a little information there. The cost for the owner of a $100,000 home is only $35 per year or less than $3 a month. Without the bond issue, the library cannot make these needed repairs to modernize our buildings to address the ever-changing needs of our community. Please vote in support of Issue 18 and the Akron-Summit County Public Library on or before May 6th. If you have any questions about the levy you can find information at supportourlibrary.com. I thank you for your time. Pres. of Council: I will invite anyone in the audience that would like to approach the microphone and speak. This is the time you may do so. Dick Raymond, 330 Earlington Circle, Tallmadge. I am 88 years old. I am a new resident of Tallmadge. I’ve been here about 2-1/2 years. Spent most of my time in Akron with the Akron Fire Department. The reason I am here tonight, and I thought there would be a bigger audience, but I realize that Tallmadge is not as big a City as Akron, so anyway, if anybody has studied history, there was a guy in 1943 in Germany and from 33 to 39 he took over the country and was able to raise havoc and killed . . . in WW2 killed millions of people and the reason I bring this up is we have someone in Washington now trying to do the same thing. Now, I was a Democrat for 25 years and then they put people in jail including the Medical Director for stealing somebody’s coin collection and so I transferred to be a Republican. Now, on January 6 th of 2021, I decided I didn’t want to be a Republican anymore because of what happened in Washington, DC. Now the guy that was responsible for that, and people may argue about that, but some people argue that O.J. Simpson was also innocent. So, I just want to make it known. Now, I am of German heritage, and I never could understand through my youth and through school and so on, and through my job, is how could this happened in Germany. These are good people. You know they produced Beethoven; they produced intelligent people. How could this happen? Well, it is happening here, and people think I am crazy, but I think it is happening. This guy is replacing judges, he is replacing people who . . . anybody he doesn’t like he has them replaced and so all he has surrounding him is “yes” men and so anyway I fear for the future. I talked in front of other groups, and I say that I fear for my kids and my grandkids. He won’t be able to do that much damage in just a couple of years, but after that it is really going to be bad. He has already said that we are not going to have any more elections after the 4 years that he is going to be in there for life. Now, I know he lies, with everything he says he lies. I heard somebody say you can tell when he is lying when his lips are moving but he has said that he is going to be back for a 3 rd term. Now, and I believe it, and he is going to make it so he can do this. So, all my points are that I want people to get off their butts and quit sitting there watching television and complaining and do something about it. I went to a gathering in West Akron last Saturday and was very impressed. There were thousands of people there and they were there for one reason, because of what is happening in Washington. I looked around at this group of people and they all looked like good people and that is all I’m asking is people be aware of what is going on and don’t end up like these people in Germany saying, what happened here when the war ended. So, that’s all I have to say and if someone wants to ask me a question, I would be glad to try to answer them. Pres. of Council: Thank you for being here this evening. We appreciate it. Mayor: Mr. Raymond, just to let you know, I know you were a little disappointed that there are not a lot of people here, but we are live streaming our Council meetings, so your message did reach hundreds. So, thank you for coming out. Mr. Raymond: Will there be . . . will it be entered in the minutes or not? Mayor: Oh yes, it is all entered in the minutes. Yes. Thank you. 8. Agenda Additions: None. 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. April 10, 2025 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Dir. of Pub. Safety: • Thank you very much. As you all know, on Wednesday, March 19th I gave my State of the City Address and it was co-sponsored between the City and the Chamber. In addition to the State of the City I did unveil the Strategic Plan. I want to thank everybody here in this room for their help with this Strategic Plan and those that came and were part of our town hall meetings and our focus groups; I really appreciate that. This plan was developed and it was community driven. The City of Tallmadge prioritized public participation throughout the planning process to ensure a diverse and representative range of perspectives and this engagement included 21 individual interviews with City officials, all Council members and key stakeholders to identify the emerging issues and we also had 5 focus groups. We had a town hall meeting, and we had an extensive community service. I have placed a copy of the Executive Summary of our Strategic Plan on all of your desks. I know some of you did receive it when you came to the State of the City, so you have another copy of it. Our next steps are meeting with our individual departments to map out the capital expenditure of a 5-year period to make sure that those expenditures align with our mission, vision and core values. I just wanted to thank everyone for what they have done to get us to where we are at with our Strategic Plan. • Also, I just wanted to announce that the City Public Safety and Public Service Departments supported the Tallmadge City Schools. They had a Tallmadge High School Reunification exercise that was held on April 2nd. This exercise caused the temporary closure of the Tallmadge Rec Center and the event went as planned and they are recapping as we speak. • I just wanted to give a short summary of a cardiac arrest response by the City’s Public Safety forces. Someone recently witnessed a cardiac arrest, and they called and because of the quick actions of our Tallmadge Public Safety forces, the Tallmadge Police Department officers actually responded first, and it was Sgt. Stover, Officers Carlson, Cirullo, and Trexler. They were first on the scene. They initiated CPR and applied an AED but shock was not indicated on the patient’s condition, but because of their immediate response, it laid critical foundation for the successful resuscitation efforts and then shortly after the Police arrived, the paramedics, Jack Bennett and Battalion Chief Steve Jurkowski arrived and continued the advanced life support and so as a result,of everyone’s help and quick reaction they were able to have a great response on this. So, I just wanted to acknowledge all of those that were involved. Our safety forces are extremely, extremely busy and everybody works together, and I am so very proud of them. • We also had the swearing-in of Officer Oberlin on March 29th. He is our newest full time Patrol Officer. His name is Jacob Oberlin so welcome him to the City. He is a member of the U.S. Army National Guard and recently graduated from Kent State University Police Academy. This is significant for the Tallmadge Police Department as Officer Oberlin brings our team to 29 officers for the first time in our City’s history. • We are also going to have the City’s electronic recycling day that is scheduled for Saturday, May 3rd from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Rec Center parking lot. The office of Information Technology coordinates this event for our residents. We also have that recycling container at the Community Center if they can’t make that event, they can drop things off inside that thing as well. That’s the end of my report. If anyone has any questions about anything, I would be happy to answer those at this time. b. Director of Administration/Economic Development: • Good evening, everyone. Just one additional item. I happened to be listening to the radio the day that that incident occurred with this cardiac arrest. Our Fire Department happened to be out on . . . there were 3 simultaneous calls and so there were 3 squads out at that time and so the Battalion Chief and the firefighter arrived and started CPR and shortly an ambulance arrived and it really is amazing the teamwork of our safety forces and what they did was really amazing. You know when we have our Fire Department tied up which is not 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. April 10, 2025 • Dir. of Administration (Cont’d.) uncommon to have 2 calls simultaneously and the quick response of the Department made a real difference and saved a person’s life. • I have some good news to inform you. We have extended an offer to Samantha Poole to be our Economic Developer. She is going through the conditional offer requirements, and we are looking at a start date of April 21st. She comes from the business development background; a very successful business development background, and we look forward to welcoming her on board and we will have her here at the . . . if she is on board on the 21st we will have her on board and have her here at the following Council meeting to meet everyone. • I did provide you with an e-mail late this afternoon. Just a quick update on Sheetz. Sheetz’ outside counsel did travel up and meet with Summit County Board of Elections. They went through all of the local option elections, and they did find that the property for their future site is actually . . . was previously in a different precinct when we went from 4 precincts to 3 and therefore is eligible for beer and wine sales and only beer sales on Sunday. So, Sheetz’ application is still moving forward but has not been approved by the Department of Liquor Control. When we are made aware of that I will let you know. • So, if you have any questions, please feel free to see me afterwards and then our business retention and expansion visits continue. We visited East End Welding, Masters Precision Machining and Uzelac Granite. They are not a retail company for granite, but they work on the commercial end with builders. • Then today, there is an informal neighborhood association out on Progress Drive in the annexed area and so they are meeting quarterly, and they invited the Economic Developer from Portage County and our team out to visit with them. There was a breakfast and we just kind of gave an update on what is going on both in Portage County in economic development and the City of Tallmadge and that is something that will probably continue quarterly. It was very well attended with about 5 different company representatives or organizations represented. Pending your questions, that’s all I have this evening. c. Director of Public Service: • Good evening. Last time I brought up the salt issue. You can see that is our existing barn that holds 3,400 tons and it is empty. We have never done a summer fill. I brought it up to Council last time and we are probably going to do a summer fill. I placed an order for 3,300 tons with ODOT and we haven’t gotten a cost for the tonnage yet. You can see what ODOT’s prices have been since 2006. You can see what the CUE prices have been as well and so it probably averages out to be about $50 some dollars a ton. I’m guessing it is going to be somewhere around there. You can see in 2019 and 2020, that we were up in the $70’s so just letting you know that I will have to come and ask for a reallocation there; funds to get us that purchase. • It is hydrant flushing season. We are starting and it can go from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. I am doubtful if it will go that late, however, it depends on what is in the lineup for that week as far as work goes for the Utility Department. Keep in mind there are 3 reasons why we flush hydrants. The first reason is to make sure the hydrant works. I mean it would be terrible to show up and find out that the hydrant is not working when there is a need for it. So, that is the first reason. Second reason is of all the houses in town running their water at the same time, you cannot move that amount of water like a hydrant can and so it is getting rid of . . . it is not truly stale water, but it is moving the water through those lines that might not be moving as well if you didn’t do it. The biggest and most important reason though is it helps with our ISO insurance rating, so we get better house insurance because of our flushing of the hydrants. So, that is really the main reason, and I think it is a good thing. 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. April 10, 2025 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) • The pavement program is starting so May 11th get ready between the hours of 7:00 p.m. and probably 5:00 a.m. that is more likely the time the pavement marking will be getting done and there again keep in mind the Ohio Revised Code says it is illegal to drive through it, so they are not going to wave you through it because they don’t have to. You drive through it and if you get paint on your car, that’s on you. The company is not going to handle it, and we have nothing to do with it. Anybody who calls and says they waved them through it; no they haven’t. So, that is it for my report. Anything else and Ordinances 47 and 49, I would like to ask that those get passed at 1st Reading this evening. d. Director of Finance: Good evening. • Everyone received the March financial reports, and everything is going well as expected. Our income tax is kind of coming back into line with where we anticipated it would be at this time. Then we will see through, usually it takes through May, to see what those collections look like with returns and such. So, right now I feel good that it is coming in as anticipated. Just to give everybody an update you probably received an e-mail this morning or actually it was this afternoon from the Auditor’s office. Our annual State audit has started, and you may receive other correspondence asking you to reply to e-mails about different issues and so I just ask you to kind of pay attention to that and respond to those in a timely manner. • Finally, for the public, just a reminder that our City Income Taxes are due April 15th. We use the Regional Income Tax Agency and they offer a number of ways for you to file online. You can download paper returns and if anybody has any questions about filing their taxes they can feel free to contact the Finance Department and we will be glad to help them get that taken care of. I will answer any questions. e. Director of Law: Thank you. • I just wanted to let everyone know that we have our next semi-annual prescription drug takeback scheduled for Saturday, April 26th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. People are able to bring their unused, unwanted prescription drugs or over the counter drugs to the Tallmadge Police Department. You don’t have to get out of your car. You just drive through and drop those off so they can be properly disposed of. If you cannot make it to that event, they do have what is called a dump box in the lobby of the Police Department so you can just always dispose of them then, but you do need to get out of your car to do that. • I also want to take the opportunity to share that I had a meeting last week where the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office shared some data and information that they had collected with regard to the speed at which felony cases were processed and at that meeting it was very clear that Tallmadge was the exemplary municipality amongst our neighboring municipalities in how quickly and efficiently we process that paperwork to make sure that those cases are appropriately handled and so I want to give kudos to our Records Department who does an excellent job making sure those are processed promptly and they are supervised by Tina Alarcon so I just wanted to share with you what an excellent job they do with that and that our Officers are very diligently completing their paperwork that they need to do to also keep these cases moving in an appropriate timeframe. So, shout out to the Police Department. They are doing a great job and giving us . . . they are using us as the example community for all those around us. End of report. Pres. of Council: Thank you very much. Any questions? 10. Reports of Standing Committees of Council of the Whole: a. PLANNING AND ZONING Mary Gutman, Chair Jessica Epstein, Vice Chair 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. April 10, 2025 The Planning & Zoning Committee deals with land use, zoning, conditional uses, planning, economic and community development, and public property. i. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2025-44 – Exhibit A – Tracked Exhibit A – P.H. 4-24-25 @ 7:01 p.m. – P&Z Rec. Approval 5-0 – Amending and supplementing Sections 1104.06 “Accessory and temporary Use Table” and 1104.08N “Outdoor Storage of Vehicles and Equipment” of the Tallmadge Codified Ordinances. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mrs. Epstein: I call the Planning & Zoning Committee to order. We have Ord. 2025-44 at 2nd Reading this evening. This ordinance has a public hearing scheduled for 4-24-25 @ 7:01 p.m. The ordinance was read into the record. This ordinance was approved by Planning & Zoning with a recommendation 5-0. I know we spoke to this last time. Do you have any additional information you would like to add? Mayor: No, I don’t have anything additional I would like to add to this. We have discussed why we are doing this as well. Does Council have any questions on it? Mrs. Epstein: Any discussion from Council? OK. Hearing none, we will leave that at 2 nd Reading. That is the only item before us. If there is nothing else, I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. b. FINANCE Donald Pavlik, Chair Christine Cipa, Vice Chair The Finance Committee deals with budget, appropriations, reappropriations, bonds, franchises, investments, and expenditures. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2025-47 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to apply for and accept, if awarded funding from ODOT for the purpose of feasibility and design of a pedestrian sidewalks project and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar Mr. Pavlik: I call the Finance Committee to order. We have Ord. 2025-47 at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. The sponsor of this ordinance is Mr. Rorar. Mr. Rorar, do you have anything to add? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes thank you. So, we budgeted an amount to go out and engineer some sidewalks as well as construct some sidewalks this year. Reaching out to an engineering firm, they suggested we do this ODOT funding request to help pay for the sidewalk engineering which is about $48,000 we can get. We just found out about it a week ago so that is why it is this late. The deadline is May 1st to turn it in and that is why I am requesting it at 1 st Reading. It is a great opportunity to get some funding that we are going to spend out of our budget anyways. Mr. Pavlik: Thank you. Are there any questions or comments from Council? Hearing none, is there a motion? Mr. Rubino: I make a motion to adopt Ord. 2025-47. Seconded Mrs. Cipa. Roll Call: Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein – unanimous. Ord. 2025-47 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. B. Ord. 2025-49 – Exhibit A – Authorizing the Mayor to contract with WJUCNU Holdings, Inc. for concession stand operations at Maca Pool and the Tallmadge Recreation Center and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. April 10, 2025 Mr. Pavlik (Cont’d.): Next is Ord. 2025-49. The ordinance was read into the record. The sponsor of this ordinance is Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar. Do you have anything you would like to say? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, thank you. So, WJUCNU Holdings is actually B.K. Root Beer and so they . . . we solicited for this and so we are hoping to bring a different flavor to the concession stands. We are starting with Maca this year and so it is their employees, it’s their staff, it is their product, it is their equipment. They are sharing some of the freezer space and stuff there. You can see it in the next pages down in the agreement. Then the City gets 5% of their sales. So, the reason I am asking this to be passed at 1st Reading is the pool opens in a month, and I am sure WJUCNU would like to start getting product in there and starting to set up the staff. Mr. Pavlik: Are there any questions or comments from Council? Pres. of Council: I just had a question, there are couple things, but for right now this is for one year in duration and then in getting into the hours of operation like for the Tallmadge Rec Center, it says that year-round Monday through Friday, 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., and then October through March adds weekdays 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and the weekends and then it goes into the tournaments. So, is it either or or is it both? Dir. of Pub. Service: It could be both. We wanted to open it up . . . let’s be honest, summertime there is probably not much going to happen at the Rec Center; right? I mean, but during the fall and winter months when the tournaments with basketball are going on, use is heavier. It is probably the time that it is going to be, but we don’t want to shut the door, right? I mean we could end up doing it in the morning hours. We just don’t know and that is why we are starting with Maca first. We know we need to do it at Maca now. Then see how it works. Pres. of Council: OK. Great. I have been seeing a really popular coffee hour starting in the morning over there when I get to the gym. Then just a thank you regarding supporting the Tallmadge Marlins swim meets. Those get pretty crowded and so that is a good opportunity. Dir. of Pub. Service: A great opportunity. Mr. Pavlik: So, we used to hire the employees that worked at the concession stand and now it is just them. Any other questions or comments? Hearing none, is there a motion? Mr. Rubino: I make a motion to adopt. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Roll Call: Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik – unanimous. Ord. 2025-49 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Pavlik: Is there anything else to come before the Finance Committee? Pres. of Council: I just have one quick question. I just want to thank the Mayor for the update on the Strategic Plan and providing the Executive Summary and for the presentation at the State of the City. I just had a question regarding, so we had our Strategic Plan Retreat and then we went through and had the session to review the Executive Summary items here. Is there . . . I am just looking like at the Statement of Work upon completion of the final plan; the final plan presentation to the Strategic Planning Team; was that the strategic planning framework discussion we had on February 25th or is that still forthcoming? Mayor: Yes, that was the Teams meeting that we had back in February; yes. Pres. of Council: OK. Mr. Pavlik: Anything else? With that I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. c. PERSONNEL Christine Cipa, Chair Donald Pavlik, Vice Chair The Personnel Committee deals with personnel, labor relations, insurance claims, Rules of Council and State Statutes. 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. April 10, 2025 Ord. 2024-75 – TABLED until 6-26-25. Ord. 2024-76 – TABLED until 4-10-25. Ord. 2024-77 – TABLED until 4-10-25. Mrs. Cipa: I call the Personnel Committee to order. Ord. 2024-75 has been tabled until 6-26- 25. We are leaving it at that; correct. Dir. of Administration: Yes. Mrs. Cipa: Ord. 2024-76 is tabled until 4-10-25. Do you have a motion to table this also until June 26th? Dir. of Administration: Yes please. We are requesting that due to fact finding. Mr. Pavlik: I will make a motion to TABLE Ord. 2024-76 until 6-26-25. Seconded Mr. Rubino. Roll Call: Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy – unanimous. Ord. 2024-76 is tabled until 6-26-25 by a vote of 6-0. Mrs. Cipa: Ord. 2024-77, again that is also tabled until 6-26-25. Do I have a motion? Mr. Pavlik: I will make a motion to extend Ord. 2024-77 until 6-26-25. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino – unanimous. Ord. 2024-77 is tabled until 6-26-25 by a vote of 6-0. Mrs. Cipa: Is there anything else to come before Personnel? Hearing none, I close Personnel. 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. 2025-48 – Exhibit A - Tracked Exhibit A – Amending Sections 705.03 “Alarm User Responsibility” and 705.99 “Penalty” of the Tallmadge Codified Ordinances and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mr. Rubino: Thank you. I call the Safety Committee to order. We have Ord. 2025-48 before us at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. This is sponsored by Mayor Kilway. Do you have anything on this? Mayor: Megan is going to go ahead and discuss this. Dir. of Law: Thank you. So, I work with the Police Department at times when we have someone who is in violation of this ordinance as is currently written, and we have been experiencing several businesses that have not taken the appropriate remediation to correct on- going false alarm issues. We believe that perhaps it was time to look at this ordinance again. We believe that if we make these amendments as proposed that there is more incentive for people on a cost benefit analysis to actually fix their alarm system as opposed to letting it continue to happen and having our officers have to respond and at times respond when they are responding to other things and come to find out that it is, you know, someone emptying the dumpster or someone not entering the key code the right way and tripping it for a wide variety of reasons that are false alarms and so we just think this will incentivize people so that our safety forces can focus on actual safety needs. We are asking . . . you can have it have 3 readings. So, we are not asking for 1st Reading adoption tonight. Mr. Rubino: Is this going to be mainly affecting business or is it also going to affect residential alarms? Dir. of Law: It can affect residential alarms. They have the first . . . we are kind of giving them like 30 days so if they had a new alarm and they are having trouble adjusting, they get that and 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. April 10, 2025 Dir. of Law (Cont’d.) they also get the 3 times kind of without any kind of penalty and our Police Department does work with them so if they are actively or proactively trying to solve the problem, I don’t think that is going to be an issue. It is for the folks that are not proactively solving the problem that we have. Mr. Rubino: Do you know roughly how many of these false alarms we are getting say a month? Dir. of Law: Quite a few but I can get you some statistics before your next meeting. Mr. Rubino: I was just interested. Mrs. Cipa: Is it mainly businesses that are false alarms? Dir. of Law: It is mainly businesses. With the repeat false alarm issues. I mean every . . . you know everybody who has an alarm system can have the occasional false alarm but the repeat ones tend to be particular businesses. Mrs. Epstein: So, when you are counting the number of false alarms if this were passed, does the number start from when this is passed or do previous false alarms count towards that? Dir. of Law: Well, the way that it is written now there are already some that would be or could be included kind of under the old code but if we are wanting to enforce the new code, we would be looking at it from the time of passage forward. Mrs. Epstein: Do you feel like you are getting enough where you would be able to enforce this rather quickly then? Dir. of Law: No, thankfully there are not that many in the community that do it, but there are some that just say they would just rather pay the current $25 which is a capped amount instead of taking remedial measures to correct the problem. Mrs. Epstein: OK. Mr. Pavlik: They pay voluntarily knowing that they can hit the cap at $500. Pres. of Council: I was just going to ask; would there be any kind of communication like campaign to make sure that that goes out to all businesses like I am thinking is this something that we can put out and like target the communication just so everyone is aware . . I’m just making those . . . Dir. of Law: Again, this is not a widespread problem. It typically is just one or two businesses that have a tendency to then not correct. We have businesses that will have a problem and then they will go out and correct it and make sure that their people are trained correctly or that it is tweaked not to go off as often as they need to do. I’m not saying that all businesses are doing that by any stretch of the imagination. I’m just saying that it can become problematic for a handful and those who will take up a lot of time and so when I get the statistics, I think you will be shocked at how often it is happening. Mayor: Mr. Bollas, so we do have like a monthly meeting with the reporters at the Summiteer and they always ask is there any significant piece of legislation that has been passed by Council that would affect the public. So, we will make sure that when this gets passed that we will tell them about it and give them all the information so he can put a note in the Summiteer. OK. Pres. of Council: OK. Thank you. Mr. Rubino: Are there any other questions? Hearing none, I will move this to 2 nd Reading. I close 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. 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. April 10, 2025 Mr. Roy: I call the Community Issues Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Is there anything for Community Issues this evening? Hearing none, I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. f. PUBLIC SERVICE Jessica Epstein, Chair Nicholas Rubino, Vice Chair The Public Service Committee deals with streets, highways, sidewalks, buildings, and improvements: water, sewer, electricity, gas, energy resources, recycling, waste, and trash. i. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2025-40 – Authorizing the Mayor to contract with HZW Environmental Consultants for environmental remediation and consulting services for the property located at 892 Northwest Avenue and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar Mrs. Epstein: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have one piece of legislation this evening. Ord. 2025-40. The ordinance was read into the record. This is sponsored by Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar. Do you have anything on this? Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar: Just that this is that muffler shop up there at Barney’s busy corners right there as you are heading into Cuyahoga Falls off of Northwest. There again, this is pretty standard stuff before you demo a site. You have to do this remediation. There again, I am fine with 3 readings. Mrs. Epstein: OK. We can move to 3rd Reading unless there is a motion this evening. Mr. Rubino: I make a motion to adopt Ord. 2025-40. Seconded Mrs. Cipa. Pres. of Council: Just a quick question. From what the grant covers what is the remainder that the City would then cover? Dir. of Pub. Service: I don’t know that. Dir. of Finance: I think it was like at 20% or in that range area. Pres. of Council: OK. 75%/25%. Mrs. Epstein: Is there any additional discussion? Roll Call: Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. Ord. 2025-40 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mrs. Epstein: That is all we have before us. Are there any additional items from Council for Public Service Committee? Hearing none, I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: a. Council Operations Committee: Pres. of Council: No report. I just want to say thank you again to Dove AV as well as our Tallmadge City IT Department for keeping us up and running on YouTube. i. Additional Items: None. 12. Announcements: Pres. of Council: I just want to take a moment to make an announcement and congratulate Councilman Pavlik, our Ward 2 Councilman, for being a recipient of the Frank L. Simonetti Distinguished Business Alumni Award for the University of Akron. I will be excited to celebrate with him at the awards banquet on April 18th. Congratulations. Mr. Pavlik: Thank you. 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. April 10, 2025 13. Adjournment: Mr. Roy moved to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Pavlik. Roll Call: Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Cipa – unanimous. The Council meeting of 4-10-25 adjourned at 7:49 p.m. by a vote of 6-0. sb Adopted: ___________________ ___________________________________ ______________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Jonathon D. Bollas, President of Council 11