Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 9, 14 1. CALL TO ORDER: President of Council Donovan called the Regular Council meeting of Thursday, October 9, 2014 to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. PRAYER: Pastor Barb Behold, Tallmadge Church of the Nazarene, 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 Finance Shanafelt, Dir. of Law Raber, Economic Developer Loughry and Clerk of Council Burton. Dir. of Pub. Service Esler was absent. 4. MINUTES: 9-25-14 Regular Council meeting minutes. Mrs. Kilway moved to adopt the 9-25-14 Regular Council meeting minutes. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Voice vote 7-0. The 9-25-14 Regular Council meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 7-0. FINANCIAL REPORTS:  Appropriation Report, Fund Report, Revenue Report, and Encumber Report for the period ending 9-30-14 to Council on 10-2-14.  Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 9-30-14 to Council on 10-8-14.  Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 9-30-14 to Council on 10-8-14.  September Financial Reports to Council on 10-8-14.  Revenue Comparisons for the period ending 9-30-14 to Council on 10-8-14.  Maca Park Summary for the period ending 9-30-14 to Council on 10-8-14. Mrs. Ray moved for the acceptance of 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: It looks like there is no one interested in speaking this evening. 6.A. ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. 7. REPORTS OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES: Mayor: Mr. Chairman; sorry to rain on your parade! A report on special committees; as Council knows, I appointed a sub-committee of the Administration to look at the fire stations. They have been meeting over the past few months. Councilman Sisak is on that committee and they are meeting again I think next week . . . or on the 22 nd I think is the date and then they are going to present to the Mayor’s office a recommendation of what has been going on and what that committee feels. At that point then I will be able to meet with Council and go over some of their recommendations to Council. I have attended a few of those meetings and it seems to be progressing very well. They are looking at both stations. They are looking at response times. They are looking at ADA requirements within the station and so far I have heard they are doing a great job and so we will be coming to Council with that. 8. AGENDA ADDITIONS: Res. 21-2014 will become Item 15.A. 9. REPORTS OF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS: MAYOR, DIR. OF PUBLIC SERVICE, DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, DIRECTOR OF LAW AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPER Mayor: Thank you. I will start with the water meter program. To date, there have been 3,604 water meters installed, which leaves about 1,400 to go and so they are really moving along pretty well. The last 1,400 will the toughest because they have to actually get inside residential houses and make appointments to get inside. To prove that this is working, the other day they read one zone, which is one book . . . they call it a book; each area . . . there are several books, but they read a book which was 1,400 readings and they did that in an hour and a half. It could be done really in ten minutes, but it was an hour and a half. Prior to that it would take four guys one week to read that. That is what will lead us coming to Council . . . we will go to monthly billing after the first of the year. We will phase that in. Out of that 1,400 that they read, there were 40 of them that they do have to go back and tweak because it was a misread or so and so they just have to look to see if the wire was not connected properly or there are just a couple of tweaks they have to work out. So we are real excited about that. We will be able to read the entire City in one day and then if someone has a leak in their toilet or a broken pipe; we will be able to flag that a lot easier. So, it is a real great program and I am really excited about that. The paving program; they actually wrapped that up. Tallmadge Woods is complete and now we are on the punch list items; a couple of items that they have to do to clean up some of the mess along the side of the roads and some cracked sealing of the joints where they butted joints together. There is a pretty large punch list that Mike has that they are working on. The Rec Center upgrades are completed. If you haven’t been to the Rec Center, the rubber floor on the second floor is completed. We removed all of that carpet that was in there since they have been open and so it is a little over ten years old and to keep that carpet clean all the time; it was difficult, but now it is clean and it is nice when people drop weights, they bounce a little better and it doesn’t sound like they are coming down to the office underneath. So they are pretty excited about that. I just hope people don’t think they can continue to drop the weights.  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 9, 14 The CIC met; that is the Community Investment Board; Tallmadge Grow met last Monday night to talk about several items, but the one item which is the lot on West Avenue in front of the old aquatic center; the CIC will be getting a couple of bids now for a real estate person to put that up for sale and that will happen by the end of this month and the CIC will meet again on the 27th to finalize that selection process. Hopefully we will get a buyer for that lot next to Dr. Schmeiser’s building that really looks great and Dennis might talk a little bit about that. The applications for the Rec Center Manager; the test was tonight at 6:00 p.m. and so I spoke to a group of 14. We had 17 applications, but when I left and the test was just getting ready to start; there were 14 applicants taking the test and one of those is our own Jessica Simons who is taking the test just like everyone else. So, that process is a rule of ten and we will get those results within the next week or week and a half and then that process of interviewing up to the top ten. 26 Nottingham; the house, if you haven’t been by there, you can see the dumpsters that are there and there are two 40-yard dumpsters are totally full and he said that he needed more and so we are going to deliver like an 8-yard dumpster if not tomorrow then by Monday and then that house . . . I made it through the house yesterday. I went out with a bottle of Purrell! It was sad to see that inside because I actually grew up in that house with the family that owned it back when I was growing up . . . it is definitely . . . we are earmarking to have the wrecking ball on November 1st is our timeframe. The asbestos test will be done next week and then there is a 10-day notice to the EPA for tearing down the house. It looks like November 1st will be that day. Lastly, Comp Management informed us that the BWC has overpaid . . . or we have overpaid them and we will receive a check back for $74,661 to be able to disperse back in every respective department that that fund was taken out of. What we have been talking about internally is . . . we are working on a wellness program and some of that money I might re- appropriate to be part of that wellness program since it is money that we did not anticipate getting back, but kick it back in to get back to the employees to do some benefit package of flu shots and stuff. We do have flu shots scheduled next Tuesday here in Council chambers. So with that; . . . one more; October 14th at the Community Center Councilman Jerry Feeman from Summit County Council and the Russ Pry group are going to do an information meeting on Issue 12. It is going to be a public forum. Anybody wishing to talk or ask questions about that issue; it is not for or against; it is just an informational seminar if anybody would like to talk about it. That is at the Community Center at 7:00 p.m. and that will be posted in the Tallmadge Express this weekend. Mr. Rensel: Back to the water meters; this is great and exciting. One question I would have though is about reliability going forward; is there a way we are going to track reliability issues to make sure that . . . . if we go to monthly billing and we start having things break down; they may not break down the first year, but . . . Mayor: That is why we took so long to figure out . . . this is a tried and true piece of equipment that has been installed in several other communities and we went to other communities to look at it. It is a two-piece thing . . . the meter is still the meter. It is a meter that we have been using for multiple years and the meter will still read and so if the device; the electronic part is not picking up the reading and we get a false read like I said, we are not losing water; the meter is still indicating water and so now we have to go out and open up that meter pit and look to see what the read actually is and do the manual read and figure out why the electronic portion did not pick up the meter. The meter has the spindles in it and if it is not strong enough then we will replace the meter, but there is like a redundancy there to make sure that we are not losing water. Mr. Rensel: I just want to be able to answer questions about calibration; you know, a guy was caught speeding and it wasn’t really . . . Mayor: We get all the time that, “My water bill is so high; what is going on” and we go out and take a look at it and there is a little leak detector on every meter that is out there and you can see if it is spinning or not when it is not supposed to be. It picks up very minute water going through it. If a toilet is running; you can sit there and watch that little meter spin. If we go out there and it is not spinning; then we offer and we have taken the meters down to the City of Akron and they have a certified person who puts it through a flow test to verify the accuracy and every meter that we take down there and it is a $15 charge because that is what Akron charges us, and it is within one half of a percent of being accurate. Meters don’t fail. Mr. Rensel: I agree on the meter; it is the instrument that does the recording. Mayor: Right, but that’s why it is redundant; if we see that is out of whack and we will set high parameters and low parameters and if it is low or high above a certain number then we will go out and take a look at it. Mrs. Kilway: Yes, I just had a question on the Worker’s Comp refund; is it specified that if they refund from overpayment or is it the general refund that Worker’s Comp is giving out to all of their businesses? Mayor: Saying that this is what they have given out and plus we go to all of the seminars to get bonus points so we can get the best rating we can. So they charge you up front and it depends on your usage and where you are at and so we really overpaid almost half of what our premium normally is. Mrs. Kilway: OK because I know for the private sector it is going a little bit differently and the private sector is getting a refund because they didn’t use that much in the whole General Fund of Ohio. I wasn’t sure . . . 2  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 9, 14 Mayor: We are in the same thing. Mrs. Kilway: OK. Thank you. Pres. of Council: I have a quick question. The billing on the water; it is staggered now isn’t it? Mayor: Yes. Pres. of Council: Is it going to stay that way or are you going to go to . . . Mayor: The break-in period, and this is not going to be easy to do, because right now you are billed quarterly and so we read the meter one month and we will bill you and we are reading someone every month and so we are sending out bills all the time, but only for a small portion of town. With that, when we go to the monthly billing; will Dave Kline get a bill in January for his last quarter, December, November and October and in January all of a sudden I am going to get another water bill and so we are going to have to figure out how we are going to stagger that in. So one month someone is going to get a three-month bill and the next month they are going to get two-month bill and then the following month they are going to get a one-month bill and from that period going forward; and that is how we are trying to stagger them so nobody is really going to be doubled; it is just right now you would anticipate getting every quarter; you are not getting a water bill for two months and all of the sudden you are getting a water bill and now you are going to get a water bill starting every month. So, we will work with the Tallmadge Express and as soon as we get those details; we are going to ease it in, but we want the public to be aware that it is coming and we will start putting notes in all of the water bills because we have that ability to do inserts for that. We had a lot of requests from people who would rather pay monthly. We do have that right now but a lot of people don’t pick that up. It is on an average for two months and then it is a catch up for the third month and we have automatic checking deductions out there and you can pay your water bills on-line. Pres. of Council: Are we going to get a report from Public Service? Mayor: I gave it. Dir. of Finance: Thank you Mr. President. I am sure you all know that we completed the third quarter of 2014. The General Fund is on track with the estimated revenue. Income Tax is just a little over 3% ahead of last year. The General Fund Balance is about $4.9 million. The Rec Center is working on new concepts to bolster membership. Local Government Funds are at 82% of estimated revenue. The Fire Fund Balance is $469,546. The Street Maintenance Balance is about $125,000. The Sewer Operating Fund Balance is a little under $1 million at $929,583. The Water Operating Fund is a little over $2 million. The Storm Water Fund Balance is $125,000. If you have any questions; I would be happy to address them. Dir. of Law: Tonight I am going to make up for all those times that I had no report. I am very excited to be able to announce a new program this evening. Dave; would you please pass those out. Thank you. I have been working for several months on a collaborative effort with the Law Directors in Cuyahoga Falls and Stow in conjunction with the University of Akron’s School of Law to create a Neighborhood Mediation Program. What we are envisioning and what we are doing is trying to provide a mechanism for people who have disputes with their neighbors to get free mediation services where they could hopefully reach some kind of amicable resolution to their problems. We all know and have experienced the phone calls where the people are fed up with their neighbors for any myriad of reasons. Our Police Officers respond to calls because of these types of things. I get inundated with calls; you get calls and unfortunately many times people are coming to the City to solve their problems and it is really not a City matter. It is really a civil dispute. Nevertheless, I think a goal of governance is to try to provide services to our citizens that will help alleviate and make their lives easier when they do have issues like this. So, this is a model that has been used in other communities around the country. We are working in conjunction with the University of Akron School of Law. They are providing us with volunteer mediators who have been trained to do mediations. We met with the students this week and trained them on the protocol that we anticipate using. It was very well received and we have a list of mediators that are ready to go. Our concept, and you will see these brochures; we are going to be mass distributing them here in the next week or so so that everyone has this information. Certain matters are going to be best suited for mediation and there are going to be those matters that are hopefully in their infancy so before we get to what I will call the “Hatfield and McCoy’s” situation where things are way out of control; we can get the parties to talk to each other and communicate and work out a resolution to their conflicts. There are going to be certain things that are not going to be appropriate for that obviously if there are pending criminal matters or if there is a pending lawsuit already or if the City has taken some kind of action or if we are already deteriorated to the kind of “Hatfield vs. McCoy” situation where we know that the parties are not going to be able to, in an hour to two hours, reach an amicable resolution. 3  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 9, 14 What I am asking for is referrals to my office so if you communicate with a citizen that you think would benefit from the program; you are welcome to explain that this program exists and again these brochures are going to be distributed throughout the community and I would encourage you to have them call my office. I think one of the obstacles for this program then is going to be me being able to get . . . buy in from both parties to participate in the program. I am very hopeful though that if we get the news out and if these are a successful as I think they can be and how they have worked in other communities that we will be able to get the participation from the parties. The nice thing about the collaboration is that we have three sets of dates and times that are reserved at the various localities and our citizens can go whatever time and place it is convenient and so they can use the services in Cuyahoga Falls or Stow to provide for more flexibility, but it also gives our volunteer mediators a more firm timeframe so they know that they can block off their schedule to be available to do these mediations. So that is the concept with that. I think and hope that it is going to be a great program and a great asset to the community and so I would be happy to entertain any questions; Mr. Rensel? Mr. Rensel: Yes, thank you very much. It sounds very interesting. May I ask or confirm that if the neighbors in Tallmadge have a problem that that will be mediated through Tallmadge and not through Cuyahoga Falls or Stow or it could to any one of the three to be mediated? Dir. of Law: The mediators themselves are going to be neutral third party mediators from the University of Akron School of Law. So the law students who have been trained to perform mediations are the ones who are going to be the ones who perform the mediations. The only way that the City’s become involved is to provide the location to perform the mediations and to try to coordinate a mutual date and time that is convenient for the parties because obviously if we get a referral from . . . if we take a call from one party and we have talked to them and they agree that yes; I would like to participate in the program then I have to be able to get the other side to also get the information and agree that they would like to participate and then broker a time that is hopefully one of those preset times for them to meet because obviously you need both parties to be present for the mediation. Mr. Rensel: So, what about the cases where one party is in violation of a City Ordinance? Dir. of Law: That is listed as one that may not be appropriate for mediation. So, again, that is why I need to be doing the screening to see whether it is a matter of you are just completely out of . . . you know; you have a violation there and that is one thing and if it is something where parties . . . because the other thing that happens is that sometimes people will call and they don’t want to call the Police or they don’t want to get the Police involved or they don’t want a letter to be sent, but maybe they would be willing to say, “Yes, I would like you to at least tell the other person about these mediation programs. So there are a couple of different things that could come into play, but you will see in the program and what I have listed and if it is a potential criminal violation or anything of the Codified Ordinances, then that is not something that is going to be a good referral. Mr. Rensel: That is what I wanted to confirm and the other thing of course in trying to understand is that our communities all have different ordinances; maybe some more stricter or less strict than the other communities. I want to make sure that what applies to us stays in Tallmadge and not applying a Stow ordinance to Tallmadge in terms of mediation. Dir. of Law: Well, and they are not . . . the mediator; that is not really what mediation will do. So the law students and how we are going to do it is we are going to, when we do our referrals, provide them with what ordinances may be implicated due to the nature of complaint and point to our individual City’s ordinances and then from there if when they meet; what we have advised and what we have instructed during the training is that you need to be familiar enough to know that you are not going to have the parties reach an illegal resolution so they will be familiar with the implicated ordinances for each individual City and they will know where the referral city is and so they will know if it is Tallmadge, Stow or Cuyahoga Falls. Mr. Rensel: Thank you Megan. Pres. of Council: The only other question I have, and this is pretty hands on for you; you are not anticipating a flood I’m guessing? Dir. of Law: You know, I get calls fairly regularly, but it is not you know; I don’t think it is going to be so overwhelming that I can’t perform other functions. Pres. of Council: Thank you. Anything else? No one responded. Dir. of Law: That’s it; end of report. Economic Developer: I will be quick. I have only three things. First off; 471 West Avenue which is Bosley Motors has sold signs up. It was listed for $249,000 and it has not filed yet and so I don’t know what the sale price is. I will know shortly. That property has been for sale on and off for years. So; that’s good. For those of you that go up and down West Avenue; Park Ford looks very nice and when you match that with the Serpentini investment; it is all good news on West Avenue. On Facebook late yesterday afternoon Summit Racing posted that they are moving Super Summit next year to a racetrack that is named for them in Norwalk. It is actually called Summit Racing Racetrack. It is a much larger facility and much more paved parking. That was the big issue; people with nice cars to show didn’t like bringing them into a graveled area and so that alleviates that concern and also much more exhibition space and just more to see and do. So, you know it is a ding for us in terms of the restaurants and the way it impacts us and the Falls and Stow for that weekend, but it is better for Summit Racing and so that in the end becomes good for us. That’s all I have. 4  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 9, 14 10. Ordinance 72-2014 At 3rd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Granting a conditional zoning certificate P&Z REC. APPROVAL 3-0 for special nonresidential development to WITH CONDITIONS applicant Cynthia A. Mason, owner, Donald W. Hamilton to operate an elder law office at 1347 Southeast Avenue. Mr. Sisak moved to amend Ord. 72-2014. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan – unanimous. Ord. 72-2014 has been amended by a vote of 7-0 and will remain before the Planning & Zoning Committee. 11. Ordinance 77-2014 At 3rd Reading. FINANCE Amending Ordinance 82-1997 authorizing a formal policy for limitations upon issuance of debt, capital improvement planning, debt structure, and overall financial credit object- tives and providing for immediate enact- ment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 77-2014. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Mrs. Ray: I would just like to express my thanks to Mr. Shanafelt and his staff along with the Administration for taking the initiative to update our Debt Policy and all of the work and the planning that went into the Capital Improvements Plan and so I just wanted to say thank you. Much appreciated. Roll Call: Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 77-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 12. Ordinance 79-2014 At 2nd Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Mayor to solicit and adver- tise for bids and to enter into a contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder for billing and collection of fees for emergency medical services and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 79-2014. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray – unanimous. Ord. 79-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 13. Ordinance 80-2014 At 2nd Reading. FINANCE Appropriating additional amounts and pro- viding for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 80-2014. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel – unanimous. Ord. 80-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 14. Ordinance 81-2014 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a con- tract with the Tallmadge Chamber of Com- merce for Economic Development Assis- tance and to maintain Chamber personnel at the Community Center and providing for . immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 81-2014 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Finance Committee. 15. Ordinance 82-2014 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a con- tract for the purchase of 333 Northeast Avenue from John Denovich and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 82-2014 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Finance Committee 15.A. Resolution 21-2014 At 1st Reading. Expressing the appreciation of the Council and Administration to Claudia Powell upon her retirement from service with the City of Tallmadge and providing for immediate enactment. 5  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 9, 14 Dir. of Finance: I would just like to note that working with Claudia Powell was an absolute pleasure and the cool part of it was that she kept me in line with a smile. She was very capable, kind and willing to help anybody that needed help and anybody that needed help in the office and we will miss her, but I know that she is going to be having a great time with retirement and I am happy for her. Mayor: Just to echo some of what Mr. Shanafelt stated, I actually hired Claudia Powell and she is retiring before me and so that’s . . . I am happy for her and for those of you who do not know; she is the sister of John Gilbert who used to be the Road Superintendent and they live side by side and so Claudia Powell wants to retire and her husband is also retiring and so it is good for them to go out and be able to do things. Claudia was actually brought in as an Intermittent Clerk some time ago and was hired part-time and then full-time through the Finance Department. She always kept us in line with the contracts. She was in charge of all of the contracts and if there wasn’t a “t” crossed or an “i” dotted; she was all over us and she did a great job, but she did it with a smile. Dir. of Finance: That as well as Board of Control; right? Mayor: Board of Control and fun to have and she still lives in Tallmadge and so . . . Voice vote 7-0. Res. 21-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 16. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: Pres. of Council: I have one. I don’t know if anybody saw the news this week, but there was a K-9 Police dog that was left in a car too long and died of heat stroke I believe it was. I had a chance to talk with Nate Ickes this evening about Axel and the precautions and if that was something that could happen and he kind of relieved my worries that there are several fail safes in our car for Axel. One is a pager that would alert him (Nate) that the temperature in the car is rising to a point that is hazardous to the dog and also there is a fail-safe in there that if that didn’t work, the windows will actually open and a fan actually turns on. So, I was really pleased to hear that all those things were in place and that is not a real issue for us. Thank you. Mayor: I know Mr. Sisak did not mention it, but he had a Town Hall Meeting last night. So thank you for doing a great job and I applaud Council for doing that. 17. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Sisak moved to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Rensel. Voice vote 7-0. The Regular Council meeting adjourned at 7:35 p.m. sb Approved: _____________________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton James M. Donovan Clerk of Council President of Council 6