Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 23, 14 1. CALL TO ORDER: President of Council Donovan called the Regular Council meeting of Thursday, January 23, 2014 to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. PRAYER: Silent prayer. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. 3. ROLL CALL: Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso – present. Also present were Mayor Kline, Dir. of Public Service Esler, Dir. of Finance Shanafelt, Dir. of Law Raber, Economic Developer Loughry and Clerk of Council Burton. 4. MINUTES: 1-9-14 Regular Council Meeting Minutes. Mr. Rensel moved for the adoption of the 1-9-14 Regular Council Meeting minutes. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Voice vote 7-0. The Regular Council Meeting minutes for the 1-9-14 Regular Meeting were adopted by a vote of 7-0. FINANCIAL REPORTS: None. 5. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None. 6. COMMUNITY INPUT: Mr. Stalnaker: Is everybody aware of the Columbus Dispatch article in yesterday’s paper? Mrs. Ray: It was a very nice article. Mr. Stalnaker: This is very enlightening. I have two Grandsons who live in Columbus with Justin Cook and they got an e-mail from a friend of theirs and the Columbus Dispatch had an article called, “Too Much Government in the State of Ohio.” Of course at the end, they complimented the City of Tallmadge and it was very enlightening and of course that is the reason they got it because this fellow who e-mailed them said they were from a wonderful city and you should be proud of the city. It is very good. They go into the number counties and the number of villages and 20,230 elected officials and then they go in and say what Tallmadge has done. It was a very enlightening article. We should be proud of it. Thank you. Mayor: It was good . . . I think I forwarded it to Council. They did call to interview us and Dr. Pascarella was quoted on it and so it is just touting what the City of Tallmadge is doing and as we have said all along and throughout no matter what we talk about; the Governor’s office is talking about Tallmadge all over the State of Ohio. That is the collaboration that Council allows us to do. You know we go through pains to get to where we are, but that is why we can proudly say the amount of money that our ending year balance is because of the collaboration and the cooperation with the State and local government and so thank you for the comments. Mr. Rensel: Mr. Mayor; I think you need to send a nice card to Mr. Randy Kohl who really espouses the benefits of Tallmadge to the Governor. He and I had a nice discussion this past Christmas break and he is sold on Tallmadge even though he is from Akron. He is the one that has been really filling the Governor’s ear. Thank you. Mayor: We have been with Randy quite often. Tom and Randy are very close. They go out to different meetings all the time and . . . I will leave it at that. Pres. of Council: Tallmadge City Council meets the first and third Monday’s and Thursday’s of the month (second and fourth). Thursday is our business meeting where we vote on legislation. There is a limited time for community input. Monday’s are our Committee meetings where we actually discuss the legislation and it takes a little longer and there is more time for community input. At this time; is there anybody else who would like to address Council for anything? You might have to turn on that microphone. Mr. Bill Roemer with Summit County Council and it is a pleasure to be here tonight and thank you for the time. When I was elected almost four years ago, I made a promise that I would continue to travel around all 31 municipalities in Summit County to make sure that I knew what was happening with the elected officials and with the constituents. I have been here a number of times and I have always enjoyed my meetings here. It was very fortuitous this last year; we had several pieces of legislation relative to economic development in Tallmadge and I knew exactly where these were and I was able to make an informed vote. So, I really appreciate doing this and if there is anything that comes up; you are welcome to speak with me at any time. Thank you very much. Mrs. Ray: Thanks Bill. It is good to see you. Pres. of Council: Is there anybody else? No one responded. 6.A. ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. 7. REPORTS OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES: None. 8. AGENDA ADDITIONS: None. 9. REPORTS OF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS: MAYOR, DIR. OF PUBLIC SERVICE, DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, DIRECTOR OF LAW AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPER. Mayor: I will be very brief. I was at a meeting today with a lot of Mayors and a lot of local folks who were contingent with Washington DC and so our Congressman was present and Jim Renacci, Tubbs and the one up north; Joyce . . . thank you. So it was a roundtable discussion and we sat around and just talked about different things; what they can do to help us and what we can do to help them. There was a lot of talk about the infrastructure and also the traffic; the bridges and highways and the roads and the Federal funds that have been cut. Our failing infrastructure still continues to go on and we rely on gasoline tax to pay for all of the roads. If you know, now the requirement is to have all of these cars go 50 miles  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 23, 14 Mayor (Cont’d.) per gallon and the electric cars that are out there; the natural gas vehicles that are out there; they don’t pay gas taxes as much and so the Federal funding to fund these highways are down and so they are trying to figure out a way to come up with a way to allow us to be able to tax these other vehicles that use our infrastructure. I think it is going to be a long battle, but they pledge to try to work together. They are happy the budget is adopted and it seems like they are trying . . . the Ohio contingents are really working well together and they have great complements about all of our communities and what is going on. Just to let you know that we are working with our Congressman to do stuff around here. Congressman Ryan wants to come to Tallmadge. I know he has been to Carol’s business quite often in the past and speaks very highly of your business down there, but we definitely have a friend in Washington and so anytime we need something; he is there for us. So, outside of that; end of report. Dir. of Pub. Service: Thank you. We had some issues with Republic with the trash collection and I think we have that resolved and we had a meeting with them and the issue was originally that they thought that we only had five low volume people and it turned out that we have 2,000. The low volume customers were paying $32 a quarter. A lot of these people weren’t truly low volume. We know of some people who kept saying they were low volume, but actually they were putting out a lot more than the 30 gallon container that low volume is and so they have come up with a price slightly less than what it was ($32) I think it is $31.85 for those low volume customers, but they will be charged for additional items they put out. They can supply their own 30 gallon trash can and additional bags will be $2.25 for each bag and then if they put out a couch; they will get documentation telling them what different items cost to pick up and so if they put out a couch or something like that; there will be a fee for that whereas people who have full service; it is all under one price. So it is really more beneficial to go with the full service. We are starting to bid out the water meters. We are going to the remote read water meters. We are separating that out and doing the bid for the water meters and the electronics th separately to save some money. The bid opening for the meters itself will be February 13 . We have been working down at the vehicle maintenance today. We are putting in some new software that will enable them to better track the work that is being done on the vehicles and the inventory and streamline a lot of things and make it a lot better for the mechanics to work and they are real excited about that. Water Department has been unfortunately very busy with water main breaks lately. We hate to say it, but it is starting to happen frequently here. So they are busy with that. In early February we are meeting with some other Service Directors here and we are going to start bringing some of the Street Superintendants together so they can discuss things that they do as far as snow control or paving or anything and they might have ideas that they can share and ways to cooperate with each other. So that will be coming up in February. End of report. Pres. of Council: How are we doing equipment wise? Is everything staying together? Dir. of Pub. Service: We are staying together. The mechanics were down there working on broken plows today. Salt is in good shape. We are getting regular supplies of salt. Dir. of Finance: I have no report for this evening. Dir. of Law: I just want to point out that I did distribute a memorandum to all employees and officials for the City of Tallmadge just an update regarding the Ethics Law. There are no real changes there, but it is always a good idea to just have that refresher and make sure that everybody has that reminder. That is the end of the report. Economic Developer: Just in general; we all should plan to be very busy this year. Planning & Zoning will be busy; Council will be busy with what we think will be some real exciting development plans. I did meet with Mr. Jaber today regarding the Bob’s Big Boy site and they are close to coming in to submit. th Testa, Mota Design did apply today and filed to be on the February 6 agenda with what we call Phase II of that project. That is the one that had the potential for a large medical component and it looks like they are going to move forward with that and in fact, it might happen before the housing project and so we are excited about that and then there are some other real strong possibilities that we may get some significant employment in the City if not this year; early next year. End of report. Mayor: That’s a teaser! rd 10. Ordinance 99-2013 At 3 Reading. PERSONNEL Clarifying and defining personnel benefits and policies for non-collective bargaining employees and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: It was the recommendation of the Personnel Committee to hold Ord. 99-2013 until the next meeting for further review. 2  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 23, 14 rd 11. Ordinance 108-2013 At 3 Reading. PUBLIC SERVICE Authorizing the adoption of the solid waste management plan for the Summit/Akron Solid Waste Management Authority and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Ord. 108-2013. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan – unanimous. Ord. 108-2013 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. rd 12. Ordinance 110-2013 At 3 Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Extending the conditional use permit for 76 North Avenue and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Ord. 110-2013. Seconded Mr. Rensel. Roll Call: Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 110- 2013 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. nd 13. Ordinance 26-2014 At 2 Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Amending and supplementing Ordinance P&Z REC. APPROVAL 3-0 32-1982 to vacate the remaining portion of Sunrise Street and not needed for munici- pal purposes. nd Pres. of Council: Ord. 26-2014 is at 2 Reading and will remain before the Planning & Zoning Committee with the recommendation for approval by a vote of 3-0. st 14. Ordinance 28-2014 At 1 Reading. FINANCE Accepting the safety grant from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation authorizing the Mayor to enter into the necessary agreements for the purchased of two power cots and two power load systems through State Purchasing or Local Preference as allowed by ordinance appro- priating the necessary funds and providing for immediate enactment. st Pres. of Council: Ord. 28-2014 is at 1 Reading and is assigned to the Finance Committee. st 15. Ordinance 29-2014 At 1 Reading. FINANCE Amending Section 123.03 and Chapter 143 related to competitive bidding and providing for immediate enactment. st Pres. of Council: Ord. 29-2014 is at 1 Reading and is assigned to the Finance Committee. st 16. Ordinance 30-2014 At 1 Reading. PUBLIC SERVICE Authorizing the Director of Public Service to negotiate and the Mayor to contract for various policies of insurance for the City and providing for immediate enactment. st Pres. of Council: Ord. 30-2014 is at 1 Reading and is assigned to the Public Service Committee. st 17. Resolution 5-2014 At 1 Reading. Expressing the appreciation of the Council and Administration to Mary Redfern upon her retirement from service with the City of Tallmadge and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Res. 5-2014. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Mayor: Just to let you know, Mary worked down in the Garage and so you never really saw Mary, but she did a great job working for the City. She kept the Garage Department all in check and even though she was a part-time employee; she did excellent for the City and I just wish her well on her endeavors in the future. Voice vote 7-0. Res. 5-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 3  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. January 23, 14 st 18. Resolution 6-2014 At 1 Reading. Congratulating Robert D. Maguire, former elected At-Large Council member of the City of Tallmadge and providing for imme- diate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Res. 6-2014. Seconded Mr. Rensel. Mrs. Ray: I would like to thank Mr. Maguire for his many years of service on City Council. I know that personally he offered me a great deal of assistance and guidance when I first came on Council and that was greatly appreciated. Bob is truly the epitome of a gentleman and we are all better for his service to the City of Tallmadge and we are all definitely better for the fact that we knew him and know him and continue to know him. Bob was just really; he is one of a kind. Pres. of Council: Absolutely. Mr. Stalnaker: I miss him stating the time! Pres. of Council: He used military time. Mrs. Ray: He will be greatly missed. Voice vote 7-0. Res. 6-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 19. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: None. 20. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Rensel moved for adjournment. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 7-0. The Regular Council meeting of 1-23-14 adjourned at 7:21 p.m. sb Approved: _____________________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton James M. Donovan Clerk of Council President of Council 4