Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 23, 14 1. CALL TO ORDER: President of Council Donovan called the Regular Council meeting of Thursday, October 23, 2014 to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. PRAYER: Kurran Bishop, Shephard’s Pasture for all Nations 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 Pub. Service Esler, Ass’t. Dir. of Finance Gilbride, Dir. of Law Raber, Economic Developer Loughry and Clerk of Council Burton. 4. MINUTES: 10-9-14 Regular Council meeting minutes. Mrs. Ray moved to adopt the 10-9-14 Regular Council meeting minutes. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Voice vote 7-0. The 10-9-14 Regular Council meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 7-0. FINANCIAL REPORTS: None. 5. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None. 6. COMMUNITY INPUT: Pres. of Council: I would like to welcome all of the students that are required to be here. Tallmadge City Council meets on the second and fourth Thursday’s of the month for their Regular Council meetings. The preceding Monday’s are the Council Committee meetings. Council is divided into six different committees with one of the Council members acting as the Chair of that committee. Legislation is discussed thoroughly at the Committee meeting and then the committee gives a recommendation to the Council of the Whole whether to adopt, amend, reject, hold or table the legislation. We do allow time for community input at this point in the meeting. If there is anybody who would like to address Council; now is the chance? You are welcome to come forward. Bill McCauley, 69 S. Munroe Road, Tallmadge. I have been told by my wife, and I sure hope that it is accurate, that the leaf pick-up is ending on November 13th and like myself probably one of several hundred homeowners in Tallmadge whose house was built in the 60’s; I have a yard full of silver maples and those things don’t even stop dropping leaves until November. I think that the November 13th cutoff date is going to leave an awful lot of people with an awful lot of leaves in their yards and nothing to do with them and nowhere to go with them. I used to have a pickup truck, but I don’t anymore, but I would just like to ask Council to consider at least one more run perhaps a couple of weeks after that because every house built in the 60’s has got these silver maples and there are a lot of those in Tallmadge. There are going to be a lot of leaves left in yards or on the curb or out in bags. Dir. of Pub. Service: I’m not sure where you got that information from, but actually it is actually a six-week program and we are only in our first week. Mr. McCauley: It will go beyond that date then? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. Mr. McCauley: Alright. Super. Well then thanks for listening. Have a good night. Pres. of Council: Would anyone else like to address Council? Rev. Kurran Bishop: We are taking another blessing in the City trip this Sunday if anybody wants to join use. It is basically a cash mob . . . we have about four or five churches in the area that have joined us to go bless some of the Tallmadge businesses and so this time we are going to Café Italiano. It is a small business that could use a little help and so it should be easy to give them a little jolt and so anytime between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. this Sunday, we are all just going there and just buy as much stuff as we can to bless them. So this will be about the 7th or 8th business that we have helped in Tallmadge. Mrs. Ray: Awesome. Mayor: Thank you so much. If I may, I actually met with him yesterday. We were together yesterday and he shared that with us, but just about what we were meeting on; he actually has the property directly behind the Tallmadge Bowling Alley. For us to get to the hike and bike trail it is going to require an easement onto his property to get to that hike and bike trail and so we have been working out for some time the details of actually doing that. He has another building there that he wants to lease it out to another tenant and so I think it is going to work out very well with him allowing us to go onto that property if we tear down the bowling alley to create that parking lot; it will be joint parking for the hike and bike trail, for Lion’s Park and for his church that is busting at the seams on certain days. Thank you for all of your help and input and I think it will be a good partnership. 6.A. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Mrs. Ray: I do have an announcement. I just want to remind everyone in attendance that the Lion’s Club is selling cider this Saturday. I believe it starts at 8:00 a.m. until they run out and I think they have been running out at about 12:30 p.m. and I see some of our students in the audience tonight and I see some members of Leaders in Action and I know that you need a certain number of service hours and I am sure that the Lion’s Club would love to have you come out on Saturday morning and help them sell cider. So, if you have any questions, you can contact Mayor Kline or the Lions. Mayor: You can work with me holding up the cider and we get 300 gallons and when the 300 gallons are gone; it is gone and this is the last weekend for it and so they only do it in the month of October and since this is the last Saturday of October. So come buy them up so we can go home early! Mrs. Ray: It is very good cider too.  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 23, 14 7. REPORTS OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES: None. 8. AGENDA ADDITIONS: Ord. 86-2014 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 letters for gas aggregation. The letters did go out this week. I am getting a few phone calls. There are three different styles of letters that went out. If you are on the SCO and that is Standard Choice; you will get a letter to opt-out. I did receive one phone call today and they were upset that they have to opt-out and you know I tried to explain to him, and he was cordial and very nice, but he said that the government shouldn’t tell me that I have to get out of a program. They can’t automatically put it in. But the voters back in 2003 when they voted to do the aggregation it was an opt-out program at that time. So therefore . . . and really what the opt-out program is for is for those seniors who really don’t understand it; they get this letter and they typically throw it away and the worst scenario is that their price per mcf would be $4.61. Some seniors are paying right now $5 to $8 per mcf. So that is really why it was an opt-out type of letter. If you are on the SCO just make a simple phone call. He could have opted out as long as he talked to me on the phone by just calling the 800 number or going on-line or mailing in the little card. So that is the opt-out letter. The opt-in letter; if you are with another supplier other than Constellation you will get what is called the “opt-in” letter. You can join the program, but you must check your current supplier to see if there are any penalties to opt-out of your program and so that is the resident’s responsibility to do that. Then just a simple letter stating that this is a friendly reminder that you are in our program and the rate is going to change effective January 15, 2015, at the rate of $4.61. So that was just a common letter if you are currently on the program. So that is all for gas aggregation. I did receive a few phone calls this week and hats off to Bryan Esler, the Service Director and Josh Goodrich; Josh do you want to stand up. That’s Josh. He is the Water Superintendent for those of you who have not seen Josh. I told Josh that I wouldn’t do that but . . . I did it anyways! His daughter is here and she is going to shadow a few of us next week. The letters for the meters inside the houses; a letter went out and we were not privy to see the final draft of that letter and it was deplorable and we did not like the letter and nobody from the City really approved it. We approved the letter to go out, but we wanted to see it. Unfortunately it was a Xerox copy of our letterhead with the print on it . . . it is a legit letter, but we were receiving phone calls because there was not really a signature from the City on that and so we talked to the press today and that letter that Bryan produced to the 425 folks was mailed out yesterday with Bryan’s signature and the correct phone numbers and just an apology to the residents. I am just sorry that went out and we have a policy in our office that any publication going out to the public from any of our departments needs to be approved through the Mayor’s office and this just slipped through the cracks and I apologize. The home improvement program that we are doing with the help of the County with the CDBG Funds . . . as of the end of next week; we will have 11 homes under contract and three of them will be completed by that time. It is moving along pretty well. We are pretty happy with that program. Dennis and I just got back from NEOMED out in Rootstown. They had their grand opening of their new wellness center and it was nice to see some of our counterparts from Rootstown and Brimfield and the City of Kent and the NEOMED folks. You have two 1st Reading ordinances and I am going to ask for your consideration. They are Ord. 85-2014 and Ord. 86-2014 which is the ordinance that you just added to your agenda; when those come up I will explain the importance of those two ordinances and I apologize that you are getting them at the last minute. With that; end of report. Mr. Rensel: Mr. Mayor, could you briefly update us on 26 Nottingham? Mayor: 26 Nottingham; I sent Council some photos today . . . was 26 Nottingham in that one? Mrs. Kilway: No. Mayor: I have some great ones; I will forward them. 26 Nottingham is completely cleaned out on the inside. So we did the asbestos testing on the house and part of the demo program is that you have to do an asbestos test. That takes 10 days to complete that test and that is under progress right now. Then the EPA report for demo is also a 10 day program and so we are looking at November 1st as the first day that the wrecking ball could hit that house and so it is right on track and things are going pretty well on that. We are getting excited about it and we will let you know the date of the wrecking ball. I know Linda Poinar would love to be there to take the first sledge hammer into that house and I promised her that she could do that! Craig; we will get you there also and anybody who wants to go. It is sad to see that house have to be torn down because I grew up playing in that house when I was young but still it needs to go; it’s a blight. Mrs. Ray: How many applications did the City receive for the home improvement program? 2  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 23, 14 Mayor: I want to say probably 25 or so and they were bid out through the help with the County who is part of that process. It is so much work and it is so hard . . . the first bid that we sent out; you bid three at a time and the first one got zero bids. So then you have to start it all back over. We are . . . today there is a bid opening on three houses and we received two contractors bid on all three of those homes. Things are going along pretty well and these are certified contractors that had to come to a mandatory pre-bid meeting on every home and the County is helping with all of that process. Mrs. Ray: So then next year if the program continues will the people that applied this year that didn’t receive the dollars; will they get pushed up in the queue or will they . . . or will they have to apply all over again? Mayor: Yes. All of the above. We will have those applications and we can continue to keep those. Things may change on the house; we don’t know if they needed a new furnace this year and we were unable to get to it; they might have already installed a furnace. So we will look at those programs and we did receive additional funds for 2015 and in the 2015 budget we are also matching that fund. Dir. of Pub. Service: We talked about leaf collection a little bit. It is a six-week program and this is the first week and we usually get through the City pretty quickly. By the end of the day tomorrow we should have the whole City done. There are a lot of leaves down now and it is going to be a nice weekend and so we will probably just be getting one section done next week. You have Ord. 85-2014 before you and that is about the electronic radio read water meters. We ran into some of the oldest meters and they will not send the proper signal to these new Hertz and so we are going to have to buy some more meters and it is a 24% increase over the contract and so we will be asking for you to approve that since we are going over the 10%. I hope to get that passed at 1st Reading. I think the Mayor sent you some pictures of Ritchie’s siding. The company we got was $5,000 below anybody else we could find and they did a lot more work and they did a really nice job on the outside. We already have new cabinets and countertops and appliances for the kitchen and we are going to redo the flooring in there and we have new windows and next year we hope to redo the bathrooms to make them handicap accessible and so we are going to have to schedule a period where we are not renting it out to get all of this stuff done. We are moving on that. We may have to raise the rates a little bit. We did find out that they are not calling for that polar vortex and so we are hoping that snow control is not going to be so bad this year. Mike has worked hard to implement the liquid salt program. We have a large tank full of the material right now. He has set up one truck that is just a large tank for pre-salting. We have two regular salt trucks that have the tanks on the side that actually pre-wet the salt. So we are excited to use those this year. We are going to try it on some sidewalks and things too and so hopefully that is going to save us some money in salt plus they just opened up in Mogadore and so that is real close and if we can’t get salt deliveries then we can get that stuff. City-wide recycling, since we started the new program; has increased 33% over the third quarter of last year. We went from 169 tons in the third quarter last year to 225 tons in the third quarter this year. So that is a big improvement and we are happy about that. Don’t forget the Street Dance next week. Come out and have a hot dog and some donuts and if you want to help cook; come on! Mrs. Kilway: I just have one question Mr. Esler; you are talking about recycling and we had discussed the textile recycling project; where do we stand on that? Dir. of Pub. Service: Pat Sauner is working on that. Dir. of Law: I can answer that for you. I reviewed the contract and wanted a few things addressed and we are going to communicate back with the other entity and we will see if we can get that going depending on whether or not we can reach an agreement on the terms. Mayor: First of the year. Mrs. Kilway: First of the year; OK. Ass’t. Dir. of Finance: No report. Dir. of Law: I will just take this opportunity to mention something that I think you were probably all aware of based on the Tallmadge Express article last week, but just in case you didn’t see it; in the midst of the other news, the City of Tallmadge did receive an award from the Chamber of Commerce for Investment in the Future. We do a lot of work with students in a variety of different areas and through a variety of different departments and we are very appreciative to be recognized, but we would be doing the work whether we got the recognition or not, but even so it is nice that that happened. Other than that; I have no other report. Economic Development: No report. 10. Ordinance 72-2014 At 3rd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Granting a conditional zoning certificate for P&Z REC. APPROVAL 3-0 special nonresidential development to WITH CONDITIONS applicant Cynthia A. Mason, owner, Donald W. Hamilton to operate an elder law office at 1347 Southeast Avenue. 3  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 23, 14 Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of 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 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 11. Ordinance 81-2014 At 2nd Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a con- tract with the Tallmadge Chamber of Commerce for Economic Development Assistance and to maintain Chamber personnel at the Community Center and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 81-2014 is at 2nd Reading and will remain before the Finance Committee. 12. Ordinance 82-2014 At 2nd 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. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 82-2014. Seconded Mr. Stalnaker. Mr. Rensel: This is a question for the Law Department. This is safe to go at 2 nd Reading? We don’t require a 3rd Reading for this? Dir. of Law: That’s correct. Roll Call: Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 82-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 13. Ordinance 83-2014 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Accepting donations to the City of Tall- madge for the 9-11 Memorial and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 83-2014 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Finance Committee. 14. Ordinance 84-2014 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Adopting a budget for various funds of the City of Tallmadge Ohio, for current expenses and other expenditures during fiscal year ending December 31, 2015, appropriating the necessary funds for the administration thereof, authorizing transfers between funds, and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 84-2014 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Finance Committee. Mayor: We met today on the budget and we are very close to having it wrapped up. We are looking at doing the budget hearing on November 17th. Dir. of Law: Work Session. Mayor: Work Session on that. The 17th is a Monday that is the off week of Council and that will give Council two weeks to look at the budget prior to that. If you are available on that Monday; we would like to have the Work Session on that day. I can do it as early as Council wants to do it or keep it at 7:00 p.m. If Council wants to come in at 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. I’m available to do that. I know that some of you work and some of you are retired and I don’t know what your schedules are and so if that day will work for you; it will work for us. Pres. of Council: We need to set a public hearing . . . Mayor: No; it’s a Work Session. Clerk of Council: We need to set a public hearing for the budget. Mayor: Yeah, but that’s in December. Pres. of Council: Right. So we will set a public hearing for December 11, 2014 at 7:03 p.m. Mayor: Are there any comments on the Work Session. Mr. Rensel: I think we should work off of the most restricted schedule that we have here on City Council. Then those of us that are less restrictive then we can . . . Mrs. Ray: I would suggest that if Council, as the Finance Committee Chair; I would suggest that if Council can meet on the 17th if we could do it at 5:30 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. to allow for travel time; if that works. Then if we needed to do until 8:00 p.m. we could maybe wrap it up in one session and then if we needed to come back, we could do so. Mayor: We will do a PowerPoint presentation like we have done before and I am going to get it into your hands . . . Mrs. Ray: Prior to the Work Session; right. Mr. Stalnaker: 6:00 p.m.? Mrs. Ray: Mr. Rensel; is that good for you? 4  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. October 23, 14 Mr. Rensel: Oh yes. Mrs. Ray: Ms. Tricaso? Ms. Tricaso: Yes. Mrs. Ray: Mrs. Kilway? Mrs. Kilway: Yes. Mrs. Ray: If Mr. Stalnaker says the 17th of November at 6:00 p.m. then that is when we will meet! Mr. Donovan; does that work for you as well? Pres. of Council: It works for me. Mrs. Ray: Then we will go ahead and schedule the 17th at 6:00 p.m. in Council chambers. 15. Ordinance 85-2014 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Mayor to exceed a contract with Trumbull Industries in excess of ten percent (10%) for purchase of additional radio read water meters and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 85-2014. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Mayor: If Council has any questions on it; Bryan talked about it earlier. Mr. Sisak: I do. Is it the actual meter or is it the device? Dir. of Pub. Service: No, it’s the meter. Mr. Sisak: Who is going to be doing the installation? Dir. of Pub. Service: We have a company that is doing the installs. Mr. Sisak: I know that we have one for the radio stuff . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: No. They are doing both. If it is a meter change-out; they do the meter and the ... Roll Call: Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray – unanimous. Ord. 85-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 15.A. Ordinance 86-2014 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a con- tract for the purchase of one 2014 Chevro- let Tahoe Interceptor Police Cruiser for the Police Department through the State Pur- chasing Program and providing for imme- diate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 86-2014. Seconded Mr. Rensel. Mayor: Thank you for your consideration on this. This is the K-9 unit. The K-9 unit car is a 2008 and the mileage is way up there and the cage . . . the 2015 Tahoe’s; they are changing the internal dimensions of the vehicle, therefore, the cage for the dog and the person in the back seat would all have to be modified and so with that, the Chief found the three Tahoe’s in the State of Illinois and the guy is willing to sell us one and so with that, we can take our cage and stick it in that vehicle and then when we change that out in the next five or so years; we will have to modify the cage at that point, but as you can see in the WHEREAS clause, it was considered in the 2015 budget. We had three Police vehicles in that and today we just reduced it to two in anticipation that Council would allow me to purchase that one this year and it is a cost savings. The underlying cost savings of $6,000 over next year and so I think it is a wise decision. The money is there and so I will entertain any questions. Mrs. Ray: So, Mrs. Gilbride; so then will you have to re-appropriate? Ass’t. Dir. of Finance: There is a re-appropriation in the ordinance. Mrs. Ray: Alright. That’s fine. Pres. of Council: Is this still the same buying program? Mayor: Yes. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. Ord. 86-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 16. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: None. 17. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Rensel moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 7-0. The Regular Council meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m. sb Approved: _____________________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton James M. Donovan Clerk of Council President of Council 5