Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 11, 13 1. CALL TO ORDER: President of Council Poinar called the Regular Council meeting of Thursday, April 11, 2013 to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. PRAYER: Rev. Dawn Anderson, First Church of God, Tallmadge. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: 3. ROLL CALL: Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Maguire, Mrs. Poinar, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Sarver, Mr. Stalnaker – present. Also present were Mayor Kline, Dir. of Finance Shanafelt, Dir. of Pub. Service Esler, Dir. of Law Raber, Economic Developer Loughry and Clerk of Council Burton. 4. MINUTES: 3-14-13 Regular Council Meeting Minutes. Mr. Sarver moved to accept the 3-14-13 Regular Council meeting minutes. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Voice vote 7-0. The Regular Council meeting minutes of 3-14-13 were adopted by a vote of 7-0. FINANCIAL REPORTS:  Appropriation Report, Fund Report, Revenue Report, and Encumber Report for the period ending 3-31-13 to Council on 4-10-13.  Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 3-31-13 to Council on 4-10-13.  Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 3-31-13 to Council on 4-10-13.  March Financial Reports to Council on 4-10-13.  Revenue Comparisons for the period ending 3-31-13 to Council on 4-10-13. Mrs. Ray moved to accept the Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Shanafelt. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 7-0. The Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Shanafelt were accepted by a vote of 7-0. 5. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None. 6. COMMUNITY INPUT: Pres. of Council: This is the regular business meeting for Tallmadge City Council. It is held on the second and fourth Thursday of every month. This is the meeting in which Council does the actual work of Council which is dealing with our legislation. When we hit Item 10 that is when we begin reading our current legislation into the record. At that time we will either be holding it over for another reading, or possibly amending it or possibly adopting it. So, that is what we will be doing very shortly. Once we get started with that we start whirling through it pretty quickly and you may think; wow, do they even know what they are doing. But on Monday night we meet in committee and we actually look at that legislation and discuss it and make recommendations so we do know where we are headed tonight. We kind of have done our homework. We do allow a short period of time during the Regular Council meeting for community input. So now would be the time if you would like to address Council that we would ask you to come up to the podium. If you want to talk about a piece of legislation or any other miscellaneous item; now is the time. Is there anyone who would like to address Council at this time? No one responded. 6.A. ANNOUNCEMENTS: rd Pres. of Council: The only thing that I will mention is that on May 23 , as all of those people sitting in the back probably know; is Tallmadge High School graduation. Two of our members of Council have children that will be graduating and so they will not be here for that meeting. So, I want to let the rest of Council know that if there is going to be a problem with any of you being here on that night, try and let us know so we can try to actually be here because we are going to be down two people. So, we had a little discussion about changing the date and coming up with a date that everyone could reschedule to was a little difficult and so just keep that date in mind that Mr. Donovan and Mrs. Kilway will be attending graduation along with those kids in the back row. Hopefully we will have a quorum that night. 7. REPORTS OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES: None. 8. AGENDA ADDITIONS: None. 9. REPORTS OF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS: MAYOR, DIR. OF PUBLIC SERVICE, DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, AND DIRECTOR OF LAW. Mayor: Just a couple of dates for Council to keep in mind. Don’t forget the Tallmadge th Expo is the 20 . That is coming up a week from Saturday. That is at the Tallmadge Rec Center and it should be a nice event. We have a lot of good exhibitors. All of the booths are spoken for and Jim Tressel will be there from noon to . . . Economic Developer: 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. I believe. Mayor: . . . to sign autographs and to talk and also the two football coaches, one from Akron University and one from Kent State will also be there and so it should be a nice day of a lot of events. The Tallmadge Freedom Trail; the brand new hike and bike trail that Metro Parks took st over; the ribbon cutting dedication ceremony will be May 1 at 11:00 a.m. and that is over at the Lions Park. We will post that and I will make sure that you guys get e-mailed on your calendars for that. Summit County residents are going to be welcomed, as well as Tallmadge residents, to attend a risk information open house put on by FEMA. It is about the flood plain map that we have to adopt here in Tallmadge; the riparian setbacks. It is a requirement of them.  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 11, 13 nd Mayor (Cont’d.) That will be Thursday, May 2 from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Akron Summit County Library down at 60 South High Street and I will also post that and scan that in and send that to you. We have to adopt our riparian setbacks and that is a requirement for them to put on. th The Circle Fest; keep in mind that is August 17 . I know that is a little bit away, but it will be here before you know that. That is on a Saturday afternoon and we will again have the Circle; the light parade and closing the Circle off at 5:00 p.m. and opening it back up at 11:00 p.m. I am asking Council for their consideration of Ord. 107-2012; that is the Rec Center grid and then the new ones tonight; Ord. 55 and Ord. 57-2013; we can talk about those when they come up. The three personnel ordinances that we said we would adopt; it is OK to go ahead nd and put that at 2 Reading and we will talk about it at the next Council meeting. That was Ord. 50, 51, and 52-2013. Mr. Sarver: Ord. 107-2012? Pres. of Council: Actually, he meant Ord. 53-2013 that references that ordinance. Mr. Sarver: Oh, that’s close!! OK. Mrs. Ray: I know that it seems like a long ways away, but it will be here before we know it; Memorial Day parade? I haven’t heard anything about it. Mayor: The Memorial Day parade and the pancake breakfast that weekend for the Chamber . . . th Mrs. Ray: And it will be held May 27 which is Memorial Day; technically Memorial Day; we will be doing it on the Saturday before or that Monday? Mayor: Monday; it is always on Monday. We meet at Our Lady of Victory Church; the Council members and Administration typically walk in that parade down to . . . th Mr. Sarver: When is the Little League parade? The 27 ? th Mayor: The 27 . Mr. Sarver: Is that a Saturday or Sunday? Mayor: It is a Sunday. It kicks off at 2:00 p.m. th Mr. Sarver: That would be the 28 . th th Mrs. Ray: No; it would be the 26 . The 26 is a Sunday. th Mr. Sarver: It’s April. That’s the 28 . Dir. of Pub. Service: The Water Department will begin flushing hydrants in May and so you may hear some complaints about dirty water. We will put an ad in the Tallmadge Express letting people know that this is going to happen and if they do get some dirty water just to run cold water in the lowest part of their house for a while until it clears up. We have a new sewer camera has been mounted on our truck. The company has finished that up and they are going to start training our men on how to use that next week. The valve exercising machine should be delivered in two weeks. The Ohio EPA has approved our East Avenue Water Looping Project and we will be th bidding that out; it is already out for bid and the bid opening for that will be April 30 . We also have out for bid the asphalt FOB where we pick it up and the bid opening for that is th April 24 . The Street Department is real busy right now doing all of the landscaping for the Memorial Day time and planting flowers and everything and so that is what they are busy doing right now. As soon as we get the bid for the asphalt; they are going to start doing some asphalt repairs. We are currently working on the list of streets that we are going to do this year with the asphalt program. st Maca Pool will be opening Saturday, June 1 . We are still doing interviews for the seasonal help. We are close to finishing that up. All of the background checks will be done and so we are looking forward to that opening. Mr. Sarver: Salt? How did we do? Dir. of Pub. Service: The salt; we are on par with last year; maybe a little bit more. We are still below what we would normally have for winter. Our bin is full and we actually have an auxiliary bin that has salt in it too, so I don’t look to be ordering any salt for the rest of the year. We have enough. Mr. Sarver: So, you are saying that we used a little less than we did last year? Dir. of Pub. Service: A little more; not much. It was just because we had a lot of small snows; we didn’t really have any big snows. Dir. of Finance: We have completed the first quarter of 2013. The General Fund has collected about 23% of the annual estimated revenue. Income Tax is 4.7% ahead of last year. We do have an unencumbered balance of $4,525,456. The Recreation Center ended the month with $141,639 net operating profit. We have received $118,689 in Local Government Funds to date. That still represents 25% of the budget revenue. It is down from last year although we knew it was going to be down and so it on par. All departments are running close to budget as far as expenses are concerned. The Fire Fund currently has an unencumbered balance of $124,324. The Street Fund has an unencumbered balance of $372,745. 2  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 11, 13 Dir. of Finance (Cont’d.) The Sewer Fund has an unencumbered balance of $1,317,533. We are continuing to monitor the effect of the increases as it relates to the unencumbered balance in the Sewer Fund. The Water Operating Fund unencumbered balance is $1,854,829. The Storm Water Revenue is at 24% of projection. If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them. st Dir. of Law: This evening I am going to ask for 1 Reading adoption of Ord. 54-2013. This ordinance is standard after we do a codification. Our codifier has done the codification based on all of the pieces of legislation that we have passed in the last six months and in addition to that, has us align our traffic and criminal codes with the current changes in the State Law. So that is what this section relating to Title 3 and Title 5 that are in your ordinance are about and you also have a link on your system to all of the changes should you wish to look at them. Economic Developer: We haven’t seen each other in a while and so I have a lot, but I will be as quick as I can. Our quarterly economic and community e-letter went out and you guys have a copy in your box. It has been very well received. I also e-mailed you the AHEPA timelines and also copied Holly on that to hopefully get some more coverage so that everyone is aware of the process. Clover Construction; that is the company out of Buffalo that we have been meeting with for several months does have an option on the Rocco property and they have made application and they will be on the Planning & Zoning agenda for May to be read into the record for discussion at the June meeting. OFA, from the State; that is the Finance Authority for the other two senior projects that are before us. They came and had their official visits this week. Joel Testa was very happy with the conversation and the feedback he got on the site next door. I did not hear anything from representatives from L&W, but the State did go to both sites. WXZ; that’s the company that owns the property on East Avenue next to Rite Aid; that property is listed once again for $500,000. We have strong interest in the old Acme Plaza. The potential buyer is hoping to close on that property barring anything unforeseen within 30 days. We also have strong interest from a couple different suitors for Tri-City Nissan. I am doing my best to try to work through the bureaucracy with the Post Office to get our businesses in Portage County, Tallmadge; to get Tallmadge mailing addresses as opposed to Kent mailing addresses. Just so you know what is going on right now; they are located in the City of Tallmadge; they have Kent mailing addresses, but if they receive anything from a common carrier, they have to tell that delivery company that they are located in Brimfield Township or it messes up the GPS. So consequently, most of those businesses need to have PO boxes in Kent so that they can make sure that they get the receivables and payables and those things. Most of you probably received this yesterday (holding up a new Tallmadge phone guide). First off; we do not endorse this. It is not City approved. We don’t know where they get their list from. We do know it is an old list, but there were a couple of things that I thought were interesting. One is, if you notice how thin the residential part is; that shows you the decline in land lines in our resident’s homes and then the other thing that I thought was interesting was just the number and the amount of different businesses in our area. Lastly, the school report card was in the Beacon Journal today for the Summit County Districts and then also in the Record Currier for the Portage County Districts. Tallmadge faired very well. We rank with the best on the indicators and so that is always good. As you know, our demographics continue to age and we continue to lose people that are ages 35 to 45 and so the school district and the success of the district along with plentiful, available housing are magnets to our entire community so the school district being strong is good for us. That’s all I have; any questions? Mr. Maguire: Is it the whole Rocco Plaza or what is it? Economic Developer: It is the rear property. Half of the rear. The property on I guess it would be the east; the east half of the rear property, which incidentally, is zoned commercial and the west property abuts it and it is zoned residential. So those will be things that will be worked out through Planning & Zoning and then you. Mr. Maguire: Secondly, the Acme Plaza; are you at liberty to say what is proposed to go in there? Do we know? Economic Developer: Well, we know, but they did not say that we were at liberty to say. rd 10. Ordinance 40-2013 At 3 Reading. COMMUNITY ISSUES/SAFETY Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a con- tract with the Tallmadge Little League, Inc. for lease of Mack Burleson Field and pro- viding for immediate enactment. rd Pres. of Council: Ord. 40-2013 is at 3 Reading and will remain before the Community Issues/Safety Committee. 3  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 11, 13 rd 11. Ordinance 48-2013 At 3 Reading. FINANCE Amending and restating Ordinance 121- 1984 and Ordinance 71-2004 authorizing a pension pick-up for all employees of the Police Department who contribute to the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Maguire moved for the adoption of Ord. 48-2013. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Maguire, Mrs. Poinar, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Sarver, Mr. Stalnaker, Mr. Donovan – unanimous. Ord. 48- 2013 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. rd 12. Ordinance 49-2013 At 3 Reading. FINANCE Amending and restating ordinance 121- 1984 and Ordinance 72-2004 authorizing a pension pick-up for all employees of the Fire Department who contribute to the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Maguire moved for the adoption of Ord. 49-2013. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Roll Call: Mr. Maguire, Mrs. Poinar, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Sarver, Mr. Stalnaker, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 49- 2013 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. nd 13. Ordinance 50-2013 At 2 Reading. PERSONNEL Extending the training period for Adminis- trative Assistant/Public Service position to 20 days and providing for immediate enact- ment. nd Pres. of Council: Ord. 50-2013 is at 2 Reading and will remain before the Personnel Committee. nd 14. Ordinance 51-2013 At 2 Reading. PERSONNEL Extending the training period for Adminis- trative Assistant/Planning & Zoning position to 20 days and providing for immediate enactment. nd Pres. of Council: Ord. 51-2013 is at 2 Reading and will remain before the Personnel Committee. nd 15. Ordinance 52-2013 At 2 Reading. PERSONNEL Extending the training period for Secretary/ Law to 20 days and providing for immediate enactment. nd Pres. of Council: Ord. 52-2013 is at 2 Reading and will remain before the Personnel Committee. Mr. Sarver: Just a clarification; the committee recommended on all three of those that they be nd adopted. I understand that before Council somebody said that we were going to keep them at 2 Reading. Do we need to do anything committee-wise? Dir. of Law: You don’t have to, but if want to have a clear record of it; you could go back into committee and . . . Mr. Sarver: I just want to make sure we are OK. Mr. Maguire: Why are we not adopting? Mayor: They really don’t go into effect until May anyways. You still have another Council meeting rd just to give it a 3 Reading. We could have had it wiped off the agenda, but I am fine with just going rd to 3 Reading. nd 16. Ordinance 53-2013 At 2 Reading. FINANCE Amending and supplementing Ordinance 107-2012 to amend rates, charges, and fees for all recreational facilities and pro- viding for immediate enactment. Mr. Maguire moved for the adoption of Ord. 53-2013. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Roll Call: Mrs. Poinar, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Sarver, Mr. Stalnaker, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Maguire – unanimous. Ord. 53- 2013 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 4  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 11, 13 st 17. Ordinance 54-2013 At 1 Reading. An ordinance to approve, adopt and enact the 2013 replacement pages to the Codified Ordinances; to repeal ordinances in conflict therewith; to publish the enactment of new matter; and providing for immediate enact- ment. st Mr. Sarver moved for the adoption of Ord. 54-2013 at 1 Reading. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Roll Call: Mrs. Ray, Mr. Sarver, Mr. Stalnaker, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Maguire, Mrs. Poinar – unanimous. Ord. 54-2013 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. st 18. Ordinance 55-2013 At 1 Reading. FINANCE Creating an UPSON/RASP Historical Pre- servation Fund and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sarver moved for the adoption of Ord. 55-2013. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Mayor: As I mentioned to you on Monday night; this is allowing the Finance Director to petition the State of Ohio to allow us to create this fund. As we said on Monday night, we are looking at possibly getting a donation from the Tallmadge Historical Society, but we wanted to create the fund so the money goes directly into that fund so we can define the use of those funds. It would not go into the General Fund, but it would go into this special fund for the preservation of historical structures that are owned by the City of Tallmadge and so that is why I am asking. I don’t know how long it will take for the State to get back to us. Roll Call: Mr. Sarver, Mr. Stalnaker, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Maguire, Mrs. Poinar, Mrs. Ray – unanimous. Ord. 55-2013 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. st 19. Ordinance 56-2013 At 1 Reading. Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a mutual assistance and aid agreement with multiple municipalities for reciprocal emergency management services and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sarver moved for the adoption of Ord. 56-2013. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Mayor: Just if I can speak on this. I am fine having it go into all the readings. Bryan and I and Dr. Pascarella, who is actually the Chairperson of the Portage/Summit Regional Collaboration; I think we changed the name today to Mayors, Service Directors, City Managers/Summit . . . it was a long drawn out name, but today we actually had a meeting in downtown Kent at the new Acorn Alley. It was pretty neat to go down there to listen how Kent has put that collaborative project together. Also at that meeting we were handed a couple of different mutual aid agreements from different communities that have already passed their legislation. When this is all done, hopefully we will have multiple communities in the area . . . ODOT has already committed all of their equipment to this list and so Service Director’s could go to that list and if we need, for emergency situations, a backhoe or something different; there is a list there and a contact from ODOT across the region. It is a neat program for the collaboration of all our local communities and it is doing very well. Mr. Sarver: As Chairman of the Community Issues/Safety Committee, for the sake of discussion; I st moved to adopt this ordinance at 1 Reading. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Mr. Maguire: Question Mr. Mayor; for example if we loan a backhoe to another community or vice versa; is there any compensation or is it just an even . . . what is the game plan? Mayor: Some of that is being worked out. FEMA actually has a code and a price figure for labor and equipment and that is a pretty common number that everybody plans on using. Sometimes it depends on the mutual aid . . . if it is an emergency, then no, we will probably just go to that community and help them out under an emergency, but if it is borrowing someone’s piece of equipment that is really non-emergency, then we would be able to have a charge-back. The cities of Kent, Stow and Ravenna purchased an asphalt emulsion machine that they can produce hot asphalt for patch repair and that. That would have a cost if we needed to use that. Maybe Bryan has some more information. So the easy answer is that there are some costs that could be charged back and forth. Sometimes there won’t be. Mr. Stalnaker: Who is the Chairman of the Committee Issues/Safety Committee? Pres. of Council: We have been tossing committees around this week; I think you are the Chairman, Mr. Stalnaker. Mrs. Ray: So, am I reading this incorrectly then; because this is emergency management services. So you . . . you mentioned something about an asphalt emulsifier; how is that emergency management services? So is it for all equipment or is this a management . . . Mayor: It is a management for emergency situations only. Mrs. Ray: OK. Dir. of Pub. Service: But we are working with other communities where we will have a list of the equipment that they can rent or loan to other communities. Mrs. Ray: I was confused because this legislation is specific to emergency management. 5  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 11, 13 Dir. of Law: If I may just interject; I think to clarify we typically have had this type of reciprocal agreement with Fire Departments and Police Departments and what this is designed to do is expand that in the case of an emergency to other types of vehicle City services that you wouldn’t necessarily think of right away but that we have seen in emergency situations; you may actually need to have some assistance with. So, it is to go into the Street Department type vehicles and that sort of thing. So that is the intention. Mrs. Ray: OK. That’s fine; that’s a great idea. Roll Call: Mr. Stalnaker, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Maguire, Mrs. Poinar, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Sarver – unanimous. Ord. 56-2013 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. st 20. Ordinance 57-2013 At 1 Reading. PERSONNEL Amending and supplementing Ordinance 136-2009 to clarify and redefine full-time and part-time status for non-collective bargaining employees and providing for immediate enactment. st Mrs. Kilway: You said you would like 1 Reading adoption on this? Mayor: I did ask Council for their consideration. Currently we did it administratively where we sent out a memo to all Department Heads and we are working under the 29 hour rule for part-time. Legislatively, our legislation currently, as it is prior to this, states that they are allowed to work up to 32 hours before they are considered full-time. So, the reason I asked for this is so we can really be in line with exactly what we are doing. It is for health care purposes. st Mrs. Kilway: Should I open my committee to discuss it or just do 1 Reading adoption? st Mr. Sarver: Just do 1 Reading adoption. Mrs. Kilway moved for the adoption of Ord. 57-2013. Seconded Mr. Stalnaker. Roll Call: Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Maguire, Mrs. Poinar, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Sarver, Mr. Stalnaker – unanimous. Ord. 57-2013 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 21. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: None. 22. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Donovan moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 7-0. The Regular Council meeting of 4-11-13 adjourned at 7:36 p.m. sb Approved: _____________________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton Linda S. Poinar Clerk of Council President of Council 6