City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. June 12, 2025 1. Call to Order: Vice Pres. of Council: It is Thursday, June 12, 2025, and this is our regularly scheduled 7:00 p.m. Council meeting. We will start things off with our opening prayer led by Rev. Phil Anderson of the Bethel Church. 2. Opening Prayer: Rev. Phil Anderson, Bethel Church of Tallmadge. Pledge of Allegiance: Donald Beckett, Tallmadge Elementary School. 3. Roll Call: Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Pletcher, Mr. Roy – present. Mr. Bollas and Mr. Rubino were excused. 4. Correcting and Adopting Previous Meeting Minutes: 5-22-25 Council Meeting Minutes Mrs. Cipa: I will make a motion to approve the minutes. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Roll Call: Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Pletcher, Mr. Roy – unanimous. The 5-22-25 Council meeting minutes were approved by a vote of 5-0. 5. • Fire & EMS Transfer in the amount of $200,000, Street Maintenance & Repair Fund Transfer in the amount of $175,000 and Police Pension in the amount of $87,500 to Council on 5-29-25. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report and Revenue Report for the period ending 5-31-25 to Council on 6-6-25. • May Financial Reports to Council on 6-6-25. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 5-31-25 to Council on 6-6-25. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 5-31-25 to Council on 6-6-25. • Income Tax by Source Report for the month of May to Council on 6-6-25. • Revenue Comparisons for Major Funds for the period ending 5-31-25 to Council on 6-6-25. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 5-31-25 to Council on 6-6-25. Mrs. Cipa: I make a motion to accept the Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Roll Call: Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Pletcher, Mr. Roy, Mrs. Cipa – unanimous. The Financial Reports are accepted by a vote of 5-0. 6. Public Hearings: Planning & Zoning At 3rd Reading. P.H. on 6-12-25 @ 7:01 p.m. Ord 2025-51 Amending Ord. 77-2009 creating the list of Recognized Heritage Structures Architectural Review Bd. Rec. (LRHS); to remove 12 Southwest Avenue. Approval 4-0 Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Vice Pres. of Council: Next we have a public hearing for Ord. 2025-51 which is in the Planning & Zoning Committee so I will turn the meeting over the Mrs. Pletcher the Zoning Chair. Mrs. Pletcher: I call the Planning & Zoning Committee to order. We have before us Ord. 2025-51 which was read into record. It is now 7:06 p.m. and I call the public hearing for Ord. 2025-51 open. Is there anyone who wishes to speak for Ord. 2025-51, please come to the podium. Is there anyone who wishes to speak against Ord. 2025-51, please come to the podium. Second time, is there anyone who would like to speak in favor of Ord. 2025-51? Is there anyone who wishes to speak against Ord. 2025-51? Third and final time, is there anyone who wishes to speak for or against Ord. 2025-51? Hearing none, it is 7:07 p.m. and I will close the public hearing. Is there any discussion on Ord. 2025-51? Hearing none, is there a motion to adopt? Jessica Epstein: So moved. Seconded Mrs. Cipa. Roll Call: Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Pletcher, Mr. Roy, Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein – unanimous. Ord. 2025-51 is adopted by a vote of 5-0. 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. June 12, 2025 7. Community Input: Vice Pres. of Council: Next on the agenda is Community Input and this is the part of the Council meeting where the community can come to the podium and speak if they wish on anything that is not listed on the agenda and if they want to talk about something that is on the agenda, they can save it for that time. Is there anyone who wishes to come to speak? There is none so we will move on. 8. Agenda Additions: Vice Pres. of Council: Next up we will be going into an Executive Session for Collective Bargaining Matters and when we return, we will continue with the meeting. Can I have a motion to go into Executive Session for the purpose of discussing Collective Bargaining Matters? Mrs. Cipa: So moved. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Roll Call: Mrs. Pletcher, Mr. Roy, Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik – unanimous. It is now 7:08 and Council will go into Executive Session and upon ending that Executive Session, we will go back onto Council floor. Vice Pres. of Council: It is now 8:08 p.m. and we are back on Council floor. Next on the agenda is reports from the administrative officers. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Dir. of Pub. Safety: • I have attended several legislative updates. I attended the Northeast Ohio Mayors and City Managers Columbus Day event. I attended the Greater Cleveland Partnership Local Leadership event in DC and the Ohio Municipal League’s Annual Mayor’s Conference in Columbus which just finished up this afternoon. I was getting updates on our State Legislation and Budget Process. We are going to have to really sharpen our pencils on our budget because our funding is not going to be coming in as we have been able to enjoy over the last several years. • We did have a successful Memorial Day event. We did swear in our 29th Police Officer, Aaron Kuczkowski and then we swore in a full-time Firefighter/Paramedic, Nick Mroczynski. • We also had the grand opening of McGuire Park which is in the JEDD right next to the VA Center that is almost up and running. It is a beautiful building. It is over on Cascades Blvd. Actually, the land was donated by a Tallmadge family; the McGuires, and that is who it is named after. • Our Farmer’s Market started today, and I am going to let Joe go ahead and discuss that. • On the Rec side, Maca did sell out on all of their passes. One of the specials is 99 days for $99 and that is June 1st through the end of the month. I think Mike has a couple of other things that he will discuss on the Rec side as well. • My next After Hours with the Mayor is on June 26th. • Then just an update on mapping. The Neighborhood Center Overlay on Northeast Avenue; we did have our community engagement meeting on May 27th, and it was very well attended. There will be a public meeting at the Planning & Zoning meeting on July 1st and then the public hearing will be at Council roughly around July 24th and then if approved the amendment becomes effective in August. End of report. b. Director of Administration: • The Farmer’s Market opened up today and we tied our record as of last year. We had 54 vendors, so it was a wonderful event. I was out there earlier. It will take a break next week for the Juneteenth holiday and it will resume on June 26 th. As I encouraged everyone last year, please stop out and visit the Tallmadge Farmer’s Market. 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. June 12, 2025 • Ms. Poole will provide her economic development report at the next Council meeting on the 26th. I just wanted to update everyone that we did attend a professional education development in Columbus with the Ohio Economic Development Association last week. It was a fantastic event, and she will be reporting on that but there are a lot of great things going on with Ohio Jobs and OEDA. I am proud to be a member of that and more to follow on that next week. That’s all I have pending your questions. c. Director of Economic Development: d. Director of Public Service: • For the month of May we had 78 total permits issued for the month. 40 of which were zoning certificates for your fences and such. For code violations, we had 52 open violations, 19 of which were property disrepair and 10 of which were high grass. • We had 3 total burials. • Rec Center, you can see the numbers there. We are averaging about 600 visitors a day right now, which is really good. That is pre-Covid numbers. You can see there Touch a Truck, which is on June 14th from 10:00 a.m. to noon. • You also have Music on the Circle, the Revolutionary Pie, which is a Beatles tribute band on June 26th, the same day as the next Farmer’s Market. • Keep in mind that the Rec Center is closed on July 4th and that is a Friday this year. • Pool numbers are good. We are having success with the B&K Root Beer folks running the concession stand. They are actually selling out of product over those couple of days they were open which is good. • Tallmadge Circle in the Parks. Does anybody know what these pictures are? These are folks who have brought in the stuff that drive through the Tallmadge Circle and so starting next week we are putting up guard rails at certain areas in the Tallmadge Circle. Those are all different accidents too by the way. Guardrails at Tallmadge is not something new so this is a 1933 photograph. This will be the guardrail we are putting up. It is a wood guardrail, and it is aesthetically pleasing, and it will be set off about 7 to 10 feet off the curb of the Circle and there again it kind of looks like the 1933 photograph there. We are putting them right across 5 of the 8 spokes. These 5 spokes are the ones that are breached the most. Vice Pres. of Council: What time of day were those accidents? Dir. of Pub. Service: Ironically, most of them occur after 10:00 p.m. but we have had 2 that occurred at 7:00 p.m. • Also next week, the splitter island in front of the Old Town Hall, we have had no success growing any vegetation in there and so we are going to remove all of the vegetation and put in a stamped concrete to match the promenade and that goes on next week. So, there again, with the paving going on this week and the guardrails starting and the splitter island it should be quite a bit of activity going on at the Circle. • Street Department – Busy month. You can see what they did. I’m not going to read everything there. I will say that it took us 160 hours for the Memorial Day setup. It was quite a bit. • We had training; pesticide, berm mowing and GIS training. The water tower. It has been completely painted, rehabbed on the outside and pieces were fixed to get access to it. The bolts were all tightened and a couple of 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. June 12, 2025 • Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) tie rods were added. Keep in mind this is part of an EPA audit that we were failing in maintaining our water tower and so the outside has been done and in 3 years we are going to do the inside of the tank. So just keep that in mind so we should be back up and running with the water tower tomorrow. • You can see with the utility department; you can read it there. 6,591 feet was televised. We cleaned that much as well. Usually we don’t clean that much, but we were able to do it. The employees also focused on the water tower. So with the water tower being out of commission, you have to run everything on pumps and that is fine as long as you don’t have a fire or two or three and that is what we had while the water tower was down and so the guys did a nice job keeping the pumps running and were able to keep pressure in the lines. • 3-point repairs on the sanitary sewer on Van Evera. That is about 12 feet deep in the ground and so the guys did a nice job on that. End of my report. Vice Pres. of Council: Mayor, I would like to acknowledge you, I know you played a part in getting the B&K in there at the pool, so we appreciate that. Mayor: Not a problem at all. They will also then be coming to the Rec Center, and they will be opening their concession stand at the Rec Center and they will be our contractor there so that will be a great addition for us as well. Vice Pres. of Council: Mr. Rorar, one question. Karvo will start Indian Hills after the Circle? Dir. of Pub. Service: No, we switched to Dunbar. We had Dunbar done instead of Indian Hills. Vice Pres. of Council: Is Indian Hills needed at some point? Dir. of Pub. Service: It does. It needs it but we are looking at putting sidewalks on Indian Hills and there is no sense in paving it and coming back through and tearing it up. Mrs. Epstein: I just had one item if I can follow up. I know that a couple of us received some safety concerns about parking during some of the Little League games and I have spoken to a couple of you all about it and so for the complaints or concerns that Council received was parking on both sides of the road and restricting safety vehicles from accessing the roads during Little League games. So, one of the things that we had talked about Mayor was utilizing Little League to see if they can help communicate parking and then we are also going to put up no parking signs; is that correct on one side? Dir. of Pub. Service: Correct. No parking signs on Laurann and also on Indian Hills, a section if Indian Hills; it’s not the whole thing. Mrs. Epstein: Have you been able to make contact with Little League yet or is that . . Dir. of Pub. Service: They are aware of it. It happens a couple times a year and it was a big tournament, and they tried to get the word out, but that’s you know . . . so, the No Parking signs I think will help in the future because then you can enforce them. Vice Pres. of Council: Thank you for the quick response when I sent you the e-mail. I appreciate that. It was over the weekend. Mrs. Epstein: There were several members that were contacted, and they seemed to appreciate that they received a fast response. So, thank you. e. Director of Finance: I distributed the May Financial Reports which were read into the record earlier. Our income tax continues to come in this year just as anticipated. We are not seeing a lot of major growth and some of the areas have kind of been a roller coaster ride. One month they are up and the next month they are down. They are coming in within budget expectations so that is good. Our property taxes also have reconciled for the first half so that has been reported and those have also come in as anticipated. Everything else seems to be going as expected at this point and I would be glad to entertain any questions anybody has. 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. June 12, 2025 f. Director of Law: Thank you. I have no report this evening. 10. Reports of Standing Committees of Council of the Whole: a. PLANNING AND ZONING Tracy Pletcher, 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. Pletcher: I call the Planning & Zoning Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Is there anything anybody would like to discuss? Hearing none, I will close committee. i. 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. Third Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2025-53 – Authorizing and directing the Director of Public Service to uniformly increase water rates and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsors: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar Dir. of Finance Gilbride Mrs. Cipa: I call to order the Finance Committee. We have before us this evening three ordinances. The first one is Ord. 2025-53. The ordinance was read into record. Are there any questions or comments on this? Dir. of Finance: Just would be glad to answer any questions. We gave the presentation at the first meeting, and we really feel that at this time it is going to be important that we increase those water rates to ensure the sustainability of the fund and our ability to make sure we are maintaining our water supply properly. Mrs. Cipa: Any questions from Council? Mrs. Epstein: Since the presentation there was some feedback from residents that was received. So, one question that I wanted to kind of brainstorm on is some of our fixed income residents; are there programs in place as this Council has seen a few things come across our way as far as utility cost increases and this is just the latest one that might be experiencing a financial burden; what programs do we have or are there programs that we can offer. Dir. of Finance: So, we currently offer a Homestead Exemption for our senior population and so if you are eligible for the Homestead rebate on your property taxes you receive a 25% credit on the sewer portion of your water bill. So, that is kind of currently the only program that we have. We do work with our residents giving them payment plans and those kinds of things, but we do not have any . . . we don’t have a large grouping of specific programming that we do. The Homestead Exemption is the main thing for the senior fixed income, and it is a rebate on the sewer portion of their bill which as we saw in the presentation, the very large portion of the bill is for sewer. Mrs. Epstein: Is there a reason why or can you specify the reason why it is exclusive to the sewer portion only? Dir. of Finance: I cannot but that has been the program that has been offered since my time here. I don’t know what the justification at that time was to limit it to just the sewer bill. Mrs. Epstein: Is it something that we should consider expanding that to the water since we are increasing it right now? 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. June 12, 2025 Dir. of Finance: We can look into that. I didn’t factor that though into my projections so obviously that was . . . I would probably need to look at what kind of impact that would have on my projections if we reduced that. I will be glad to look at it. Mrs. Epstein: If it takes us away from our goals, I think that would kind of defeat the purpose, so I see that, but there are residents that have expressed concerns. Dir. of Finance: Absolutely. Hopefully those people though are not consuming a lot. So our minimum water bill is $34 so the net impact was $12 or $15 for the whole year. So, hopefully you know, that can be, but I do encourage people also . . . I know with the quarterly bills sometimes it is kind of jarring for people when they get that so we do have mechanisms that people can set up monthly or bi-weekly payments through our on-line payment system if that helps them to better manage the cost through their budgets and those kinds of things but I will definitely do some analysis to look if there would be a possibility to expand that exemption to the water portion of the bill. Mrs. Epstein: O.K. Vice Pres. of Council: Are there any additional questions? Mrs. Epstein: I don’t believe we did, but I don’t recall last time if we discussed what the communication strategy for the residents would be other than all of our viewers at home right now. Dir. of Finance: We will go ahead and probably put a notice on the top of the website and I will also . . . we can put a notice on the bill as they get it so that they understand that there has been an increase and that this would be the mechanism that we would use through having public meetings about the increase. Mrs. Epstein: Your presentation was . . . it draws a very clear picture as to why. Do you think it would be helpful to have something in the bill to help residents to understand that? Dir. of Finance: We can put that presentation on the website also for people to have. I think we did a similar thing when we increased the sewer rates and so we will go ahead and we can create a page for people to go to to understand why we are doing that on the website and we can potentially have something there on social media. Mrs. Epstein: OK. Thank you. Mrs. Cipa: Any other questions? Can I have a motion? Mrs. Epstein: I will move to adopt Ord. 2025-53. Seconded Mr. Pavlik. Roll Call: Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Pletcher – unanimous. Ord. 2025-53 is adopted by a vote of 4-0. B. Ord. 2025-56 – Authorizing the Mayor to receive funding from the Summit County Land Reutilization Corporation Community Development Matching Grant Fund for the demolition of the structure deemed blighted at 12 Southwest Avenue and authorizing the Mayor to enter into all necessary agreements pursuant to the Tallmadge Demolition Program appropriating funds and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mayor: No, this is just basically the sister ordinance to the ordinance that was already adopted for 12 Southwest Avenue. It is just to receive the matching grant of . . . the total grant was $19,570 so it would be 50% of that. Mrs. Cipa: Next we have Ord. 2025-56. The ordinance was read into the record. Any comments? Vice Pres. of Council: I will make a motion to adopt Ord. 2025-56. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Roll Call: Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Pletcher, Mrs. Cipa – unanimous. Ord. 2025-56 is adopted by a vote of 4-0. Mrs. Cipa: Is there anything else to come before the Finance Committee? Hearing none, I will close the Finance Committee. ii. Additional Items: None. 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. June 12, 2025 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. i. 3rd Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2024-75 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into an agreement with the International Association of Firefighters, Local 2764 and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mrs. Cipa: I call the Personnel Committee to order. We have Ord. 2024-75. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor, do you have anything you wanted to add? Mayor: No, we are just not ready for this so just give it another reading. Mrs. Cipa: Ord. 2024-75 will be left at 3rd Reading. B. Ord. 2024-76 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into an agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police (F.O.P.) consisting of Tallmadge Police Patrol Officers and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mrs. Cipa: Next we have Ord. 2024-76. The ordinance was read into the record. We will leave this at 3rd Reading also. C. Ord. 2024-77 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into an agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police (F.O.P.) consisting of Tallmadge Police Sergeants and Tallmadge Police Lieutenants and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway. Mrs. Cipa: Next we have Ord. 2024-77. The ordinance was read into the record. We will leave this at 3rd Reading. ii. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2025-58 – Appropriating additional funds for a full-time Assistant Law Director and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Law Raber Mrs. Cipa: We have 1st Reading of Ord. 2025-58. The ordinance was read into the record. Dir. of Law: Thank you. I am asking for your consideration for my office to be able to move from . . . right now we have one full-time Assistant Law Director and one part-time Assistant Law Director to make that second position to be a full-time position. I had intended to ask for this as part of the budget cycle and that would have been my ideal preference. However, the part-time Assistant Law Director has given notice and will be leaving at the beginning of July. That means that I will be looking for the replacement and as I experienced from the last time where I was seeking to fill that position as a part-time position, I am pulling from far fewer potential applicants when I am advertising for a part-time position. I received 2 applications last time and I had far more options when I was advertising for a full-time position. With regard to the amount of work that my office does, we are increasingly busy, and I believe that having that full-time position will be extremely beneficial to the overall functioning of the City. My office assists all the different departments with all the myriad of different policy issues, personnel issues, we help residents, we deal with the municipal prosecutorial services for the City and we deal with records requests and we assist with civil litigation and so all of those things are an ongoing demand on our time and we continue to experience even more demands as we have additional video equipment, as we have additional officers, our officer case load increased significantly in 2024 from what it had been in 2023 which is a great uptick to see that the officers are busy but that does mean that we are also busy. We also have seen, again with records requests, that we have far more time consumed with all the additional video recordings that are now available through body cam footage and cruiser cam footage and so the amount 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. June 12, 2025 Dir. of Law (Cont’d.) of time it takes us to do that analysis is significant. We have outsourced a lot of that but even doing that we have to doublecheck that things are done appropriately before we actually do the release. There is a new law that was enacted earlier this year that places a cap on the amount that someone can be charged for that footage. So, if we exceed that amount, we are trying to take that on ourselves and do that so, for example right now the Assistant Law Director has been working diligently to fill a request for weeks and weeks. It is extraordinarily voluminous. Additionally, we have seen an increase in collaboration with different offices and positions which means that it is great for the functioning and efficiency of the City but it does pull me away from being able to complete different projects. So oftentimes I have a lot of things that have to be put on the back burner, which we all have that in our jobs, but it would be nice to be able to get to some of the additional trainings that we want to do and some of the additional projects that we have again for the benefit of the City being able to function appropriately and smoothly. If this position were to be approved for the remainder of this year, it would be an additional appropriation of $40,000, which is what I am requesting. I am requesting moving forward that it would be budgeted for . . . actually I will be able to make a better assessment to what that cost will be once I am able to fill that position so obviously the level of experience of whoever I am bringing on board will play a role into how much money would be appropriated. The amount that I am asking for now though would be at a Band 8 level which is one band below the current Band 9, Assistant Law Director position and my intention is that as we go through the budgetary process I would be asking to change the title so that we have an Assistant Law Director position at a Band 8 and then a Deputy Assistant Law Director or a Deputy Law Director at a Band 9 which is the current band. So, it wouldn’t affect the pay because I am intending to hire at that lower band if this were to be approved. I know this is a lot of information and I am asking for consideration. The sooner I am able to know that I have this approved or hope that I have this approved, then I will be able to move forward with advertising and getting someone in place to be able to fill that role. Again, the demands in my office are constant and we would like to be able to move in that direction if possible. Mrs. Epstein: I am assuming the additional $40,000 is over the budget plus the part-time. Dir. of Law: Right. So, we had money appropriated for the part-time position this year and that person, again because anyone . . . I mean I guess you could find that rare person that doesn’t have another part-time position but because they are doing another job, was not able to even provide the full amount of hours that I was hoping for that person to be able to provide. So, we have that left over money that was from the budget being applied to it plus, the additional plus I am budgeting for a family insurance and again depending on who I would get I may not need that full amount but I am asking for that in the event that I would. I am asking for it at the higher amount for that Band to the midpoint again just in case that I have someone that does have that level of experience and again if I wouldn’t then I would adjust accordingly. Vice Pres. of Council: That would be the $40,000? Dir. of Law: For this year. Vice Pres. of Council: That is what I am saying for this year? Dir. of Law: Yes. Vice Pres. of Council: The other question is since you want this approved immediately; right? Dir. of Law: If at all possible. Vice Pres. of Council: But there are only 4 of us here so if there are 4 of us here it takes 30 days so wouldn’t it be quicker if we waited 2 weeks and have everyone here so that it can be approved. Dir. of Law: So, the difference in the date of adoption would be either if you pass it tonight, it wouldn’t go into effect until July 12th but I could bring on a . . . I could start advertising for a person knowing that it was approved and just not actually do the hire date until the date of the 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. June 12, 2025 Dir. of Law (Cont’d.) effective date. I could at least start the process of trying to fill that position. If we don’t, then I would . . . I would ask that you at least do it by maybe the next meeting but again I am happy to answer any questions, and I don’t . . . I am looking to fill it just because there is an immediate need and again, I would not have asked for it outside of the budget cycle had it not been for the fact that this is now a vacancy. Vice Pres. of Council: I would recommend just waiting until the next meeting so that it can be approved immediately. I understand that you want to get the ball rolling on that but I am just thinking it is safer because you could find a candidate right away and you are not going to be able to start until July 12th and he or she could go somewhere and you lose that candidate so you lost that time; right? That is just my two cents. I don’t know how anybody feels about that. Mrs. Cipa: How do you feel about that? Dir. of Law: Again, I think I will be able . . . I will be able to start the process now so I am OK, I don’t want to . . . if you want to wait, you can wait. I feel like if I at least know that this is approved then I can move forward. So, I will leave that to your discretion to decide but if not at 1st Reading tonight, I would ask for it at the next meeting to be considered please. Mrs. Cipa: By the time you start advertising, and you gather your applications, you are looking at 2 weeks. Then you are doing your interviewing, and they have to give a 2-week notice hopefully which takes it to the middle of July anyway. Dir. of Law: Right. Mrs. Cipa: We might as well just do it tonight. That would be me. Vice Pres. of Council: I am fine with it. I mean if we take a straw poll of what we are going to do, and I get what the job entails now I guess I would say that I am fine either way. I was just thinking it would be faster if we waited, but I would be OK with approving it. Mrs. Epstein: Just considering the full-time versus the part-time, I am assuming that the part- time position has been less stable than a full-time position or that there has been more turnovers in the part-time position? Dir. of Law: So, I . . . this is the first time that we had the part-time position, and I was hoping that I would be able to make it work with that. Again, it has not proven to be a success, and I think that we have enough work that we can keep that full-time person, if we switch over to a full-time person, that full-time person can definitely stay busy in that office. Mrs. Epstein: We would be able to probably retain them. Dir. of Law: I think you are going to have a better pool of applicants, and you are going to have more opportunity to get someone with better experience because they are coming potentially from another part-time position or a full-time position. We are not going to attract a person in a full-time position now to come to a part-time position typically and then hopefully that does lead to more stability because they are also getting benefits, they are able to stay and be more stable and generally speaking I think you tend to see that in a part-time versus full-time. Mrs. Epstein: You also mentioned that as far as contracting out work and sometimes it is specific work that we are contracting out in the various areas of expertise and that makes sense. With having full-time and having those additional hours on the table, is there a potential cost savings by not having to contract out certain work. Dir. of Law: I do think that as long as I can find an applicant who has the experience that I am hoping for that we would be able to keep some of the matters that are smaller matters that sometimes we ask for assistance on we would be able to handle internally because we would have more to be able to do that. Again, I am not going to sit here and tell Council that we will be able to handle all of the issues because sometimes we really do need outside counsel that does have that area of expertise. Vice Pres. of Council: I think as you had the part-time job, even if the part-time person would still be there you are still, at budget time, going to increase it to full-time? 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. June 12, 2025 Dir. of Law: That is correct. Yes. Vice Pres. of Council: So, you have got a, why hire another part-time person just for 4 months later to start the process of hey, I am going to build in the budget a full-time person? Dir. of Law: Correct. I would want to be transparent with that with whoever I was hiring and again unless something amazingly different happened than the last experience I would think that I would want to reopen that whenever we had the full-time position to a new applicant so I would be telling the person that hey, by the way, you may not have this job in 4 months. So, or I guess 6 months. Mrs. Epstein: As far as consideration of the ordinance itself I could see the benefits of a full- time position and I don’t have an issue passing it tonight because it allows you to start advertising and I don’t think that is my position to determine when to start advertising. I am just considering if it should be passed. Dir. of Law: As Ms. Cipa said there are definitely advantages for me to be able to get started right now because it is a process and it does take time to do the advertisements and get the responses back and give them time to be able to respond, go through the interview process and then they usually need to have some kind of notice to their employer as well. So, the sooner I can get started, the better and again the effective date can end up being around the same time, but my end result I think I will be able to start sooner and get them in actually quicker if we move forward. Mrs. Cipa: The only thing about approving it today would be that you cannot set their hire date before July 12th. Correct? Dir. of Law: Correct. Mrs. Cipa: But you can say we are going to be offering you the job and the start date will be July 13th or whatever; correct? Dir. of Law: Correct. Mrs. Cipa: You are going to need 4 weeks at least. Vice Pres. of Council: With that, I will make a motion to adopt Ord. 2025-58. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Roll Call: Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Pletcher, Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein – unanimous. Ord. 2025- 58 is adopted by a vote of 4-0. Mrs. Cipa: Is there anything further for Personnel Committee? Hearing none, I will close committee. iii. 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. Third Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2025-57 - Appropriating OneOhio Opioid Settlement Funds for Naloxone to be available in City Parks and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsors: Dir. of Finance Gilbride Dir of Law Raber Mrs. Epstein: I call the Safety Committee to order. We have Ord. 2025-57 before us at 2nd Reading. The ordinance was read into record. Dir. of Law: There were some questions that were raised with regard to how the functioning of the boxes would be. I was able to connect with the Summit County Health Department and talked with Megan Scott and she provided me some resources that essentially we would be . . that the temperature control is the best practice and you want it to be at the appropriate temperature and so if . . . I think there was a question about what happens if the power is out 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. June 12, 2025 Dir. of Law (Cont’d.) and the temperature slides into something else; does it become ineffective and the answer is no, provided it is back at the regular temperature. So, in the event that the electric was out that could be reported to dispatch and then they could not use that item. There is a Good Samaritan law that protects everybody with immunity when they are using Naloxone to help revive people. That was not a concern and we just need to make sure that we are checking the equipment and I had spoken with Jessica Simons who said that we have already got a contract in place with the same people that do all of our first aid supplies to make sure that they would be going out to the parks to make sure that both the AED unit and the Naloxone was appropriately still in place and still stored appropriately. So, I was satisfied that those issues would not be a problem. Mrs. Epstein: I actually have a question; on the agenda it says 2 nd Reading and I read it as 2nd Reading, but this is at 3rd Reading. Vice Pres. of Council: We will make that change to the agenda and the minutes. Mrs. Epstein: Is there a motion? Vice Pres. of Council: I will make a motion to adopt Ord. 2025-57. Seconded Mrs. Cipa. Roll Call: Mrs. Pletcher, Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik – unanimous. Ord. 2025-57 is adopted by a vote of 4-0. Mrs. Epstein: Is there anything else to come before the Safety Committee? Hearing none, I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. e. COMMUNITY ISSUES Ted Roy, Chair Tracy Pletcher, Vice Chair The Community Issues Committee deals with Parks and Recreation, civic affairs, and liaison between Council and the Recreation Board and intergovernmental affairs. Mrs. Pletcher: I call the Community Issues Committee to order. There are no items on the agenda this evening. Does anybody have anything they wish to discuss? 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. Mrs. Epstein: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Does anyone have anything for Public Service this evening? Hearing none, I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: a. Council Operations Committee i. Additional Items: None. 12. Announcements: Vice Pres. of Council: I have 2 announcements. Bittersweet on both of these announcements. First off, Ms. Conti, Regina Conti, who is our Deputy Clerk, will be retiring from the City of Tallmadge after 13 years effective sometime in August. We will plan something special for Ms. Conti at a later date. 11  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers 7:00 p.m. June 12, 2025 Vice Pres. of Council (Cont’d.) Next, our Clerk, Ms. Burton. She also is announcing her retirement after 30 illustrious years. She kind of gave Mr. Bollas and I the whole background on how she got hired and it all came about. So, after 30 years she too is choosing to retire. Ms. Burton is going to retire sometime in September, maybe October; it just depends on how long it is going to take the process to find Ms. Burton’s replacement. And at a later date we will plan something for Ms. Burton, but I wanted the City, the Administration and the public to know of the intentions of Ms. Conti and Ms. Burton. So, we thank you for your service and Ms. Conti, I know you will be watching, and we thank you for your service as well. Thank you. 13. Adjournment: Mrs. Cipa moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Roll Call: Mrs. Pletcher, Mrs. Cipa, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Pavlik – unanimous. The Council meeting of 6-12-25 adjourned at 8:56 p.m. by a vote of 4-0. sb Adopted: _______________________ ____________________________________ _____________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Donald J. Pavlik, Vice Pres. of Council 12