Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 8, 14 1. CALL TO ORDER: President of Council Donovan called the Regular Council meeting of Thursday, May 8, 2014 to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. PRAYER: Fr. Mike Matusz, Our Lady of Victory Church, Tallmadge. 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 and Clerk of Council Burton. Economic Developer Loughry was absent. 4. MINUTES: 4-24-14 Regular Council meeting minutes. Mr. Rensel moved to adopt the 4-24-14 Regular Council meeting minutes. Seconded Ms. Tricaso. Voice vote 7-0. The 4-24-14 Regular Council meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 7-0. FINANCIAL REPORTS:  Bond Retirement Transfer in the amount of $100,000 to Council on 4-30-14.  Police Pension Transfer in the amount of $100,000 to Council on 4-30-14.  Appropriation Report, Fund Report, Revenue Report, and Encumber Report for the period ending 4-30-14 to Council on 5-2-14.  Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 4-30-14 to Council on 5-2-14.  Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 4-30-14 to Council on 5-2-14.  April Financial Reports to Council on 5-2-14.  Revenue Comparisons for the period ending 4-30-14 to Council on 5-2-14. Mrs. Ray moved to accept the Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Shanafelt. Seconded Mr. Sisak. 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: Again I see nobody here. 6.A. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Pres. of Council: The Clerk of Council has asked for an extension on the liquor application from the Dollar General Store on Brittain Road. The Division of Liquor Control will be sending us a new date for our recommendation whether or not to have a hearing. 7. REPORTS OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES: Mayor: Just a brief update. The sub-committee for the Fire Department are looking at the two stations. We did meet this week and we toured Station 2 and talked about some response times. I think the meetings are progressing very well and when I can give something substantial to Council, I will make sure you guys get a report. End of report. 8. AGENDA ADDITIONS: None. 9. REPORTS OF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS: MAYOR, DIR. OF PUBLIC SERVICE, DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, AND DIRECTOR OF LAW. Mayor: Just real briefly, on West Avenue; on lots 145, which is the new building going up for Dr. Schmeiser and 125, which is a City owned property that Council already authorized to switch over to the CIC; the final easements were wrapped up in the past couple days and so you will see legislation at your next Council meeting to allow us to accept those easements and with that, this property will then be put into the CIC and then our portion will be put up for sale and hopefully we can have a building starting by the end of this year and so we are real excited about that lot. Also, I am happy to announce that the CDBG Block Grant that we received for the Home Repair Program is now completed and the brochure; we are actually allowed to start advertising for this. The monies will become available towards the middle of June to the end of June, but this is a brochure that I will make sure all of Council gets. We will be doing advertising in the Tallmadge Express and it will be in the Beacon Journal and if you qualify, and it is all salary and wage driven; a single family . . . a single person household can make $34,800 all the way up to an eight person making $65,650 could qualify for a grant up to $15,000 to do home repair. Eligible code violations are roof, gutters, downspouts, chimneys, garage repairs, furnace, hot water tank, drywall, exterior windows and electrical repairs and plumbing work and so we are going to really push this program out because if you recall, we did receive a $65,000 grant and we matched it and so we have monies there. It has been a great help between Pat Sauner and Jill Stritch working with the County. The program is really going to run pretty smooth. So, if you see any . . . I know that my dilemma is that there are some houses out there that could use some work, but I don’t want to offend them by walking up and saying here is a program that you might be eligible for. It is a new program out there and if you qualify; great and if not . . . and the nice thing with that program with the County helping us; if the house has lead inside of it and they have children in the house that are 6 years of age or younger; there is another grant that they can qualify for to do lead abatement in the homes over and on top of this $15,000 and so when we do the inspection and we see that there are children in the house and it is before 1978 and there are paint chips in the house, the next question is; do you have children that frequent here more than 60 hours in a year and then they will do a lead test.  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 8, 14 Mayor (Cont’d.) The furnace . . . even though we can do it under this program, they could qualify for the weatherization program through the County and they can get a furnace replaced or windows if they don’t qualify for the other. So, we are pretty happy to start pushing this program out. I would ask for the consideration of Item 15, Ord. 50-2014; Item 17, Ord. 52- 2014; Item 18, Ord. 53-2014; Item 20, Ord. 55-2014 and of course the resolution of sympathy for a previous Police Officer, Tom Walters. End of report. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, I will talk about some of those ordinances as they come up. We also have the Coke contract before you. I have sent everybody a copy of that so you can look that over. You can give that three readings; it doesn’t need to be adopted. Ord. 49-2014 is creating the part-time position for Administrative Clerk. We have a bid opening tomorrow for the installation of water meters and it is at 10:00 a.m. Pavement marking will be out for bid and the bid opening for that will be May 29th. The summer hiring date for the Recreation Center/Maca Pool is this Monday, the 12 th and they will be filling up the pool next week with an opening date of May 31 st. The Rec Center Soccer Field is almost complete. All the turf is down and they are putting in some of the yellow permanent lines and tomorrow they are supposed to start the rubber sand infield and so it may be completed by the end of the day tomorrow. End of report. Mrs. Ray: Is the City going to sponsor the “Adopt a Spot Program” this year? I know in years past the City has always wanted to have the flowers in the planters by May 31 st and I just hadn’t heard anything about it. Dir. of Pub. Service: It is normally the same people that take the same spots over and over again. Yes; they will be doing that. Mrs. Ray: I will look for information. I just haven’t seen any information come out yet about it. Dir. of Pub. Service: They might be a little bit behind. Mayor: Under that same thought; we had the garden sign-ups that started yesterday and the weather was a little rainy yesterday and I think we still have half of the garden spots available. Dir. of Finance: Thank you Mr. President. I have a brief report here this evening. We have completed April, which puts us a third of the way through the year. The General Fund has collected about one third of what was projected. Income Tax is 8% ahead of last year. The General Fund Balance is a little more than $5.6 million. The Rec Center ended the month with a $50,115 net profit. The Fire Fund Balance is $190,658. The Street Maintenance Balance is $131,193. The Sewer Fund is a little over $1.2 million. The Water Fund is $1,622,933 and the Storm Water Balance is $123,252. End of report. Dir. of Law: No report. 10. Ordinance 42-2014 At 3rd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Amending the zoning map by rezoning the P.H. ON 5-22-14 @ 7:03 P.M. property of applicant, Americana Develop- ment Inc. (Martin Wheel Division) on behalf of owner, Americana Development Inc. from Commercial-4 to Industrial-1 consist- ing of approximately 2.014 acres located at 360 West Avenue. Mr. Sisak moved for the amendment of Ord. 42-2014. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan – unanimous. Ord. 42- 2014 is amended by a vote of 7-0. 11. Ordinance 46-2014 At 2nd Reading. PERSONNEL Amending Ordinance 39-2013 establishing the number of employees by department and position pursuant to R.C. 731.08 and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 46-2014 is at 2nd Reading and will remain before the Personnel Committee. 12. Ordinance 47-2014 At 2nd Reading. PERSONNEL Creating one full-time position of Deputy Fire Chief and establishing the pay band and benefits therefore. Pres. of Council: Ord. 47-2014 is at 2nd Reading and will remain before the Personnel Committee. 2  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 8, 14 13. Ordinance 48-2014 At 2nd Reading. PERSONNEL Creating one part-time position of Adminis- trative Clerk/Fire and establishing the pay band and benefits therefore. Pres. of Council: Ord. 48-2014 is at 2nd Reading and will remain before the Personnel Committee. 14. Ordinance 49-2014 At 2nd Reading. PERSONNEL Creating one part-time position of Adminis- trative Clerk/Zoning and establishing the pay band and benefits therefore. Pres. of Council: Ord. 49-2014 is at 2nd Reading and will remain before the Personnel Committee. 15. Ordinance 50-2014 At 2nd Reading. PUBLIC SERVICE An ordinance to approve, adopt and enact the 2014 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. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Ord. 50-2014. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Roll Call: Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 50-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 16. Ordinance 51-2014 At 2nd Reading. PERSONNEL Amending Ordinance 60-2009 and repeal- ing Ordinance 61-2009 to clarify Regular Auxiliary Police Officers of the City and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Kilway moved for the adoption of Ord. 51-2014. Seconded Mr. Stalnaker. Roll Call: Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray – unanimous. Ord. 51- 2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 17. Ordinance 52-2014 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the appropriation of funds from unappropriated fund balances for an expan- sion of the 2014 Paving Program and pro- viding for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 52-2014 at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Stalnaker. Pres. of Council: Any discussion? Mrs. Ray: So, I can either ask Mayor Kline or Mr. Esler; this does include the additional street that we talked about? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. Yes it does. It finishes up Tallmadge Woods. You have the original spreadsheet. Mrs. Ray: Yes, we have the original spreadsheet, but I don’t think that street was included on that. Dir. of Pub. Service: Right. I can send the updated to you if you would like. Mrs. Ray: Perfect. Thank you. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel – unanimous. Ord. 52-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 18. Ordinance 53-2014 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the appropriation of funds from unappropriated fund balances and pro- viding for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 53-2014 at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Pres. of Council: Any discussion? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes Mr. President. We had started a purchase order so we could get some equipment to VPN in and after we looked at the equipment, we found out that it is not quite up to par and so what this is is transferring that money back into the fund so we can re-appropriate it and start a new purchase order for the VPN equipment. This will allow you to work from home and I have verified that you are allowed to take your laptops home with you. You are just responsible for them when they leave. Roll Call: Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. Ord. 53-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 3  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 8, 14 19. Ordinance 54-2014 At 1st Reading. PUBLIC SERVICE Authorizing the approval and adoption of the Summit County Hazard Mitigation Plan and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 54-2014 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Public Service Committee. 20. Ordinance 55-2014 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a con- tract for the purchase of accessory equip- ment related to radio read water meters and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 55-2014 at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Pres. of Council: Any discussion? Dir. of Pub. Service: This has been a long time coming and we are excited to finally see it coming to fruition. It is the radio read meters that will allow us to do monthly billing instead of us sending our whole Water Department to read meters for a quarter of the City; they can drive through the City and they don’t even have to go to each meter. They just drive through with their vehicle and this unit mounts in the vehicle and it is hooked up to a laptop and there is an antenna and a GPS. They just drive through and they sometimes can just drive by a neighborhood and get all of the readings. It is one person who can read the City all in one day. These are the meters that you have already approved us to go to bid for that, but unfortunately, the people who sell the meters don’t sell the electronics for it and vice versa. So this is what you have already approved. We have already purchased them and we have them in stock. This ordinance is about this little device. This is the antenna that plugs into the meters and that is what sends it to this unit for the readings. The ones that we are getting are an improved model. We are buying some additional leak detectors. In the Bierce allotment, we get a lot of breaks and what these leak detectors will do before they show up, when we do read the meters, they will give us notice that hey there is a leak and it helps us pinpoint where it is. They go in every third house. Also, we can get if we wanted to, we could put remote shut-offs for indoor meters and people that aren’t paying their bills and won’t let us into the house, we can go by and just remotely shut them off until they pay it. Mayor: We are not doing that right now. Dir. of Pub. Service: These hand held units when they put these in; they have to program them with the meter number and address and everything. They program that right into the water meter and then they can go out and do single readings with this if they miss something. So, the proposal is for $446,284 for the electronic equipment that goes with that and it is all a proprietary system which works with . . . it is the system that we already have and these units are proprietary to that system. Pres. of Council: Where are the majority of the meters? Are they actually out at the street or are they underground? Dir. of Pub. Service: The majority of ours are on the outside. Some of them are in the houses in the basements and things. Mr. Rensel: Yes. Thank you. I am just curious though; the transmission frequency is megahertz 915? Dir. of Pub. Service: I don’t have the literature as far as what the megahertz is, but somebody else can’t just go by and read them. Mr. Rensel: That would be leading to my next question because with the FCC rules, you have to be careful. You can’t just overpower the signal and so you have to be within some range. Dir. of Pub. Service: Right. Well, they can’t manufacture . . . they have to follow FCC regulations to manufacture them. Mr. Rensel: Right. What is the security level so that someone else can’t just drive by with a scanner and pick up the information or . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: The only thing they would get would be a meter reading off of it. Mr. Rensel: OK. Dir. of Pub. Service: They wouldn’t get any personal information or anything like that. None of that is in the meter. Mr. Rensel: My concern is that if they can get a meter reading then can’t they shut it off? Dir. of Pub. Service: We are not putting those on. We haven’t even purchased those. Mr. Rensel: OK; that’s good. Mayor: Even if the electronic portion fails, the head still has the reading. We can manually read every meter and so if something would happen to the head, the electronic portion, inside the meter there is a meter inside there that reads and so if we get a weird reading, we would have to go out and verify, but you can actually turn that laptop on here and actually read about a quarter of a mile where today we send four guys out to a zone to read and it takes a couple of days to a week and we have to estimate readings and we have high bills, but with this we will be able to even flag if you have your toilet running in your house, if we have the computer on, and we will try to make that a practice to drive with the computer on for the Supervisors. It will flag up a house that is running water. Dir. of Pub. Service: It flags high readings that come in. Mayor: It is a neat system. Pres. of Council: I have a question on these units; what power is the unit? 4  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 8, 14 Dir. of Pub. Service: These have a ten-year battery and we are setting them at low power and so they will probably last longer than that. Pres. of Council: OK, so is that something that we would need to replace the entire unit at some point? Dir. of Pub. Service: This portion; just the battery. Mr. Sisak: Mr. Esler, I have a couple of questions. Are there any other communities using this device locally? Dir. of Pub. Service: I’m not sure . . . Mayor: Ravenna. Dir. of Pub. Service: I’m not sure if they are using the Itron . . . there are other devices out there, but there are other communities . . . yes, Ravenna is using it. Mr. Sisak: And then, obviously we appropriated the money to buy that. What about manpower for installation? Dir. of Pub. Service: We are having a bid opening for that tomorrow. Mr. Sisak: So the City will not be installing this? Dir. of Pub. Service: No. Mrs. Kilway: I just have question. I need a little bit of clarification. We have already approved the purchase of the pumps and what we are doing right now is approving the purchase of the electronics? Dir. of Pub. Service: You approved us to go to bid for the meters. Originally, we were going to bid this all as one package, but because they don’t sell these and these people don’t sell meters; it was cheaper for us to do it separately. So, yes, we have already purchased these and they were delivered this week and they are in stock and now we just need to purchase the electronics to go on it and our hope it to start installing these in June. Mr. Rensel: What is the estimated time to install all of those 6,000 households? Dir. of Pub. Service: It is going to depend on how many people they send out. We won’t know until we open the bids and talk to the contractor. Mr. Rensel: OK. Fair enough. Dir. of Pub. Service: It could be three months or it could be longer. Mrs. Ray: I just wondered . . . so does the homeowner have to be home to have that installed? Dir. of Pub. Service: If they have an inside meter; yes, they will have to be home. We will have to make appointments with those indoor ones. Mrs. Ray: Indoor ones, but not outdoor ones? Dir. of Pub. Service: Not the outdoor ones. Ms. Tricaso: What happens to the old meters? Will they take those out and put these in? Dir. of Pub. Service: In some instances where they are really old; other ones we can buy just the head units to put on those meters so we don’t have to replace the whole meter. We have already put in a lot of meters that are fairly new and that is all we will do. Roll Call: Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker – unanimous. Ord. 55-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 21. Ordinance 56-2014 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a five- year or volume-specific contract with Coca- Cola refreshments USA, Inc., a Delaware Corporation, for the right to advertise and sell its beverage products in certain City of Tallmadge owned facilities and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 56-2014 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Finance Committee. 22. Resolution 12-2014 At 1st Reading. Extending the sympathy of the Council and the Administration to Marie Walters and members of her family in the death of Thomas E. Walters and providing for imme- diate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Res. 12-2014. Seconded Mr. Rensel. Pres. of Council: Any discussion? Mayor: For some of you who may not have known Tom Walters; he was in the Police Department; you can see in the WHEREAS clause, from 1971 to 1978. Actually when I was in school, he was our Juvenile Officer, which I had a great repor with him; not in a bad way! He was always at our school and helping us out and really just a great person and did a great job for the City. Then he was the Chairman of the Richardson Trust for many, many years; well, up to 2013. He would go out to the homes and really worked with these folks and so my heart and prayers go out to the family members and he will be sorely missed. Voice vote 7-0. Res. 12-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 5  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 8, 14 23. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: None. 24. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Rensel moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 7-0. The Regular Council meeting of 5-8-14 adjourned at 7:31 p.m. sb Approved: _____________________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton James M. Donovan Clerk of Council President of Council 6