Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 24, 15 1. CALL TO ORDER: President of Council Donovan called the Regular Council meeting of Thursday, September 24, 2015 to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. PRAYER: Rev. Zach Reeves, Tallmadge Alliance 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, Dir. of Law Raber, Economic Developer Loughry and Clerk of Council Burton. Dir. of Finance Shanafelt was out of town. 4. MINUTES: 09-10-15 Regular Council meeting minutes. Mrs. Ray moved to approve the 9-10-15 Regular Council meeting minutes. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Voice vote 7-0. The 9-10-15 Regular Council meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 6-0. FINANCIAL REPORTS: None. 5. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None. 6. COMMUNITY INPUT: Pres. of Council: Tallmadge City Council meets on the second and fourth Thursday’s of the month for the Regular Council meetings and the preceding Monday’s are the Council Committee meetings. At the Committee meetings legislation is discussed thoroughly with Council deciding to adopt, amend, reject, hold or table the legislation. We do allow time for community input at this point in the meeting. If anybody would like to address Council, please come forward and state your name and address. I would like to also welcome all of the students that are here this evening. Would anybody like to address Council? No one responded. 6.A. ANNOUNCEMENTS: There will be a Board of Control meeting following the Council meeting. 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: To start off with, this coming Sunday at the 11:00 a.m. Mass across the street at Our Lady of Victory Church, they will be honoring all of the safety forces in Tallmadge and the surrounding communities and I know the Council office sent out a note and I did hear back from some of you who are going. Is there anybody who is not going or . . . who is going? That’s easier! Fr. Mike asked me and so he just wanted me to . . . I don’t know if he will recognize you or not and so, John; you are not going? Mr. Rensel: It’s not determined at this time. Mayor: Well, that’s alright; I’m just following up for Fr. Mike. Mr. Sisak: It’s at 11:00? Mayor: Yes, 11:00 and then right after they will have a little social in the social hall with some donuts and coffee probably. The 800 radio system that we have talked about and it is mandated to be P25 compliant; we are going . . . I am going to sponsor legislation at the next Council meeting to go ahead and purchase those radios or at least cut the purchase order for 2015. Motorola has come back with an offer to all communities; there will be a 45% savings on the radio. So that $900,000 number; really we are down to about $405,000 and it is really the time to do it. We have to do it eventually. We were anticipating, and I am working with a group, and I have met here in Council Chambers; is Summit County going to go with the sales tax increase? The radio system . . . they are not doing that. We are not going forward with that and so we have to be proactive and go after this and we are fortunate enough to be able to do that and so I will be sponsoring legislation coming up and then we will talk more about that as we go along. The budget process is moving along very well. Actually I think we had a balanced budget as of this afternoon, but I am still looking at that and we will get that to Council whenever we can get it out. The Comprehensive Plan; we had our parks meeting a week ago or so and we have another one that was not scheduled, but we went ahead and scheduled one on October 26 th at 7:00 p.m. and it is with all of the youth groups in Tallmadge; SUSA, TUSC, Tallmadge Football, Tallmadge Little League Baseball . . . and we want to pull that group together because out of that meeting that we had . . . ball fields; should we combine some; should we eliminate some; should we . . . and so we are pulling that group together to get their input on that and we will go from there and see how that is going. Mrs. Kilway: When was that? Mayor: The 26th. Mrs. Kilway: Monday? Mayor: It’s a Monday, but October has five weeks and so that is not a Council night. It is the last week and that is a Council off night and so . . . and we will send that out to you also. Just an F.Y.I.  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 24, 15 Mayor (Cont’d.) As I reported at the last Council meeting, or at the last formal Council meeting; the Akron sewer bills; they submitted a contract to all of the master meter contracts and we have a group that we are working with and looking at that contract. We have hired an outside consultant to verify what this contract is and so we are really working on that and we will have more to come in the future on that contract. End of report. Pres. of Council: Thank you. Any questions? Mr. Rensel: Yes. I am going to ask the Mayor if you were able to come up with a reply to my question on Monday sir. Mayor: Yeah, I wasn’t going to reply to it tonight, but since you are asking that. If you recall, all of Council; all seven members of Council was in an Executive Session back in the back room. We went over all the facts and figures and everything . . . and Council must have, which you did, voted 7-0 to a buy that you thought was a value to the City of Tallmadge to purchase that property and that was purchased. So, thank you for allowing that. I presented it to Council in Executive Session and I am not going to go over Executive Session topics, but Council felt they were comfortable enough with it and voted 7-0 to adopt it so. That’s my answer. Mr. Rensel: Mr. Mayor, the reason that question was broached in the first place is that we were not told all the information at that Executive Session; not nearly anything of which had happened. Back on February 10th, that property went to the Sheriff and was valued at $72,220. That was the Sheriff’s . . . had it appraised. Summit County Tax Records show that that property was also appraised in and around $75,000 according to Kristen Scalise. On May 22nd, the Sheriff sold that property for a bid of $50,000. May 22nd. Mayor: Absolutely. I know that. Mr. Rensel: On June 11th we met in Executive Session and were told that it would be evaluated at around $150,000. On July 8th, excuse me, yes on July 8th we had an ordinance 56 approved at 1st Reading. No mention was ever made about foreclosure, about the fact that the owner picked it up for $50,000 and then in August . . . what is it; August 14th it was closed; the deed for $150,000 . . . no $154,000 . . . 066.50; that is what the City paid. Someone made a cool over $100,000 in five weeks. I call that; what . . .? I don’t know. That is why I was asking you the question offering you the opportunity. That oppor . . . that that . . . while we were sitting here going through the meeting, that deed wasn’t even closed yet. It was closed on July 8th they paid and it was recorded on July 9th. I already mentioned to the Clerk of Council that her minutes are incorrect as far as the dates are concerned; we met on July 8th; we didn’t meet on July 9th. Thursday is July 8th. (After the Clerk researched the minutes, it was found they were correct with the date of July 9th). On July 10th, you signed the legislation sir for us to pay up to $160,000. I don’t understand why that was done . . . why we didn’t have the opportunity to purchase this property between February and May; why it was either out of our realm or not possible. We are the City of Tallmadge and we have an Economic Director; two of them, that actually could have been out there doing that work for you to find out. You knew and we knew that we would like to purchase, or at least Council did, that property at some point and we were just waiting for it. How that person came in Mr. Mayor, and got the property for $50,000 and I still do not understand and that is how I started it on Monday, I don’t understand how we paid $154,000 know what . . . knowing that we paid three times what he picked it up from at auction and twice it was appraised at by two different entities. So . . . Mayor: Are you done? Mr. Rensel: I’m done. Mayor: Thank you. With all due respect to you Mr. Rensel, things were talked about in Executive Session about that and you can confirm with your other colleagues and I see a lot of heads being shook so if you weren’t listening to me; that’s your problem. I did not own it; the City did not own it; we were not going to go take that land from Mrs. Kline, which is no relation to Dave Kline, even though it is spelled properly . . . no relation whatsoever. I am not going to go shut down a business in Tallmadge and take a foreclosed. This City was told it was not going to foreclosure so therefore I am not going to go take land. I would rather see it sold to anybody but the value to the City of Tallmadge and to the members who voted on this felt it was a value to be on the Tallmadge Circle and somebody asked about comps. If you look at comps around the Circle, just that property was $2 million. The Bob’s Big Boy site was $425,000; the Mosholder site; $2.1 million. Denny Thompson’s property behind it, which is not on the Circle; $132,000. Dunkin Donuts; a lot more than that. A property on East Avenue, 854 East Avenue is appraised at $166,000 but they are asking $160,000 and so just because it is an appraised value; it is the value of the end user. For the City of Tallmadge to be able to purchase property on the Tallmadge Circle to protect the Tallmadge Circle; I could sell that land and I have already been offered for $200,000. But, we bought it and its . . . and so we are looking at should we be able to turn it; should we be able to do something else, could we still get that parking that we expect people to rent that Tallmadge Circle and we rely on private property, without consent, and so . . . that’s it and so you can . . . so Mr. Donovan or any of the other Council people want to chime in . . . Mr. Rensel: Mr. Mayor, it went in foreclosure in February of 2015. Mayor: I don’t care when it went into Feb . . . foreclosure. 2  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 24, 15 Mr. Rensel: You just stated on the record that I did not want to purchase the property from Mrs. Kline; ok? Mayor: In foreclosure. Mr. Rensel: We had . . . we had . . . yeah if it went into foreclosure; it was in foreclosure; it was already out of her hands. The Sheriff had taken over on February 10 th. Mayor: You don’t understand it John . . . Mr. Rensel: I understand . . . what I understand Mr. Mayor . . . Mayor: Mrs. Kline could have got it back at any time. Mr. Rensel: . . . we paid $154,000 for somebody who picked it up for $150,000. Mayor: For prime land on Tallmadge Circle; I’m done. Mr. Rensel: OK. Sure. Pres. of Council: Mrs. Ray. Mrs. Ray: Thank you Mr. Donovan. I don’t know exactly where to start here. First of all, I would hope that most people in this chambers tonight understand the difference between the tax value, the appraised value and the sales price. They are three different figures . . . Mr. Rensel: Right. Mrs. Ray: . . . and I believe because of the unique nature of the land on the Circle; the scarcity of the land on the Circle, and to your point, the comps for the land that has been sold on the Circle recently I think that the $150,000 price that the City paid for the land was appropriate. As the Chair of the Finance Committee, I speak, I believe, for my committee members to say that in Executive Session this was discussed. I believe that most people who were in the Executive Session understood what was being discussed. Mr. Rensel, if you were not paying attention or if you did not understand, then you should have spoke up. The legislation came before Council-of-the-Whole sponsored by the Finance Committee and again, Mr. Rensel, if you were not paying attention or you did not understand, then you should have spoken up. Speaking on behalf of my committee; I don’t believe there was any misrepresentation of the facts. I believe the sales price, the price that we paid for the property was appropriate and I believe that this should be the end of the matter. You’re asking questions is completely appropriate and I respect that Mr. Rensel, but unfortunately it does reek a little bit of political grandstanding and that is not appropriate on Council floor. Thank you. Pres. of Council: Mr. Rensel. Mr. Rensel: Yes. I submit Ms. Ray if I didn’t understand and you folks did then you knew that the land was worth $50,000 and we were about to pay three times what it was worth. I don’t think anyone here on Council floor would have accepted that and yes, I was there and I understood and believe me, if I had picked that up or understood that or it was told to me, I certainly would have hollered at that time. Thank you for your comment about the fact that; no it is not political grandstanding. I am doing this as Council-at-Large. I represent the people; I represent the people’s money as we all should and that is just too exorbitant . . . too much; I don’t care what we paid for whatever . . . paying somebody more than it should . . . if we were on the ball, we should have picked that up for fifty . . . $75,000 at the time. We had that right to do that; it was a bid; it was a Sheriff’s sale; it was open to the public. Thank you Mr. President. Pres. of Council: Mr. Rensel, I just have a question for you. I mean, we all do our own research on things . . . Mrs. Ray: Absolutely. Pres. of Council: Did you look into any of the tax value or appraise values . . . I am not trying to debate . . . Mr. Rensel: No, no, no. Pres. of Council: I am just asking; did you . . . Mr. Rensel: Yes, I do. Pres. of Council: Did you look into that prior to your vote of approving it? Mr. Rensel: Yes sir. It’s the value. $75,000 . . . I have two . . . I have two . . . Pres. of Council: OK, I’m asking you that you looked at that . . . Mr. Rensel: Yes. Pres. of Council: . . . and then you still voted in favor of purchasing the property. Mr. Rensel: Oh, you mean prior to that? Pres. of Council: That was my question. Mr. Rensel: No, I did not. I had no knowledge that it was worth . . . I was told by our Administration it was valued at close to $150,000. Mrs. Ray: No, that was not what was said Mr. Rensel. The sales price was $150,000. Pres. of Council: That is all I recall was discussing the approximate price. Mr. Rensel: Why didn’t we ask what the appraised value was Ms. Ray? Mrs. Ray: I knew what the appraised value was Mr. Rensel. I did my homework. Mr. Rensel: And you were happy to pay twice the amount? Mrs. Ray: It’s the sales price Mr. Rensel. It is a free market. Mr. Rensel: I see. I see. Mrs. Ray: Yes, I’m certainly . . . no one wants to pay more than you need to, but I believe that if that property had been listed for sale that is would have been listed for perhaps more than $150,000. I mean it is a supply and demand issue. 3  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 24, 15 Mr. Rensel: Yeah, Ms. Ray, it was listed at the Sheriff’s sale for . . . Mrs. Ray: And that is a Sheriff’s sale. Mr. Rensel: two thirds of the appraised value. Mrs. Ray: And that is a Sheriff’s sale. That is a Sheriff’s sale sir and that is completely different . . . Mr. Rensel: I see, oh I know . . . Mrs. Ray: than them being listed for sale by a real estate agent. Mr. Rensel: Thank you Mr. President. Pres. of Council: Thank you Mr. Rensel. Are there any other questions for the Mayor? No one responded. Hearing none, next up; Director of Public Service. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, thank you. As we spoke a little bit about on Monday, the change- out of the Hertz for the water meters; the company that is going to be doing it is called U.S. Bronco. They are a superior company to the company we had before installing them. That wasn’t the issue; they were just defective. They have sent us handhelds that their people will use to program these. We have those already in. They have taken all our data and have created a program that transforms that into something that handhelds can use. They check that daily both on the job and at their site then they send that back to us daily in a form that we can just plug right into our system so we don’t have any conversions to do. The Hertz are supposed to start coming in on the 28th. We are supposed to get a delivery of 3,072 and then on October 23rd, we should get another 1,290 and they are supposed to start installation on October 5th. The waterline down on South Avenue; they continue to make the connections down there and we hope to have that done close to the end of the month and then we will be preparing it for repaving down in that area. We do have Board of Control tonight after this meeting for the temporary labor for leaf collections. Primetime Personnel was the low bid at $10.20 an hour. It comes out to about close to $40,000 for the program. Last year; it is slightly cheaper than last year; last year we paid $10.34. End of report. Mr. Sisak: I just wanted to comment on those Hertz. I saw that the City of Cuyahoga Falls was having, it sounds like, a systemic problem with the same things. They had to hire like temporary labor to do manual reads on all of them and so I think ours is a small number and it sounds like theirs is systemic throughout their community and so I am grateful . . . they were talking about having to replace them and it sounds like at their own expense as well. Dir. of Pub. Service: We are very fortunate. Mr. Sisak: So, thank you for going the extra mile and seeing to the company reimbursing us or replacing them at their cost. Dir. of Pub. Service: Thank you. Mrs. Ray: I just noticed yesterday; was the City actually reading meters or were they doing some type of . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: Have you seen a big, large truck going around? Mrs. Ray: No, there was a gentleman in his City . . . I thought he was a City worker and he was checking . . . I just didn’t know if they were doing a manual read yesterday. Dir. of Pub. Service: There are some meters that will still have to be manually done or if we get an error or something we go back. Mrs. Ray: Yeah, I just noticed that he was going around the cul-de-sac. Dir. of Pub. Service: The majority of them; they just drive a truck through the neighborhood. Mrs. Ray: Yes, I have seen them do that, so it was just a little surprising to see somebody with a handheld yesterday in my neighborhood. Thank you. Pres. of Council: Any other questions? Mrs. Ray: When does the leaf pickup; not that I want them to fall, but when does leaf pick-up start? Dir. of Pub. Service: We haven’t really scheduled it. We kind of wait to see how they are falling. We don’t want to start too early; we don’t want to start too late. It will be in the Tallmadge Express and on our website. Mrs. Ray: OK. Thank you very much. Pres. of Council: Anyone else? Dir. of Finance is not here; is there anybody filling in? Dir. of Law: No. I can just state for the record that Mr. Shanafelt is out of town and Mrs. Gilbride is at a GFOA event and she was speaking there. Pres. of Council: Next is Dir. of Law. Dir. of Law: Thank you. I just wanted to again remind everyone of what I mentioned Monday night, which is the prescription . . . Tallmadge Prescription Take Back Day. We are hosting that this Saturday. We have everything arranged so we should be able to let people just pull in the front parking lot at the Tallmadge Police Department and we will have Auxiliary and personnel there that will be able to take the prescriptions and people shouldn’t even have to get out of their cars. So it should be a good day to get back some of those prescription drugs that can cause real problems with drug abuse and causing some health hazards with regard to the drinking water as well when people improperly dispose of them. So, I encourage you and anyone you know to clean out those medicine cabinets. Thanks. End of report. Mrs. Ray: That’s great. 4  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 24, 15 Pres. of Council: Next; economic development. Economic Developer: Thank you. It is not official, official yet, and so the company does not want me to announce their name, but we are going to have a probable expansion early next year on one of our long-time West Avenue gateway businesses. Also, Steve Clark is going to propose, and it will be in front of Planning & Zoning in October, for a new office building on the vacant lot in front of the “Y” and if approved, that will retain over 20 jobs and create several new ones right away. Mr. Mosholder received the building permit to get started on the Bob’s Big Boy site and so you should see activity there shortly. We have had two meetings with Testa Development. There is another one scheduled. They want to get on the agenda in November and they would like to start pushing dirt in December. Danbury is on track and the only bad news I have is that Cortabella’s made a business decision to close for breakfast this past week. End of report. 10. Ordinance 58-2015 At 3rd Reading. FINANCE Amending and supplementing Ordinance 87-2014 to amend rates, charges, and fees for all recreational facilities and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 58-2015. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan – unanimous. Ord. 58-2015 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 11. Ordinance 61-2015 At 2nd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Amending Ord. 61-2014, Ord. 106-2012, P. H. ON 10-8-15 @ 7:03 P.M. Ord. 26-1981, Ord. 113-1986, and Ord. 33- 2000 to permit a revised site plan at Stone Creek Allotment No. 1 Parcels A & B and Lot Number 11 of Stone Creek Allotment No. 3. Mr. Sisak moved to amend Ord. 61-2015. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Pres. of Council: Do we have to go in committee first or can we just . . . Dir. of Law: You don’t have to. Pres. of Council: We can just skip right to it. We ran into this before and I asked you the same question. So, I am just double checking. Dir. of Law: That’s OK. Mr. Sisak: Do we need to state for the record the public hearing again? Pres. of Council: Not to amend it; I don’t think. Dir. of Law: You can at the conclusion of the vote. Mr. Sisak: That would be the only discussion that I would have. Pres. of Council: There is a public hearing scheduled for October 8, 2015 at 7:03 p.m. Roll Call: Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 61-2015 is amended by a vote of 7-0. 12. Ordinance 62-2015 At 2nd Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Mayor to apply for funding from the 2015 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program year and to enter into a contract for the same and pro- viding for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 62-2015. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Pres. of Council: We have a motion and a second for the adoption of Ord. 62-2015. Any further discussion? Mrs. Ray: Yeah, actually I do. Mr. Kline you had mentioned on Monday night that the CDBG . . . Mr. Sauner was looking into grants. So is the grant in addition to what we used to fix up the properties last year? Are there other grants that are available? Mayor: Yes, there are other grants. Before, with CDBG, all the money primarily was going to the Goodyear Project. So this year that project . . . they are saying they are going to release money. We don’t know all about it yet. This just allows us to apply for it. There are no guarantees of getting any of it. Mrs. Ray: OK, but it could be used for the home improvement program or there might be grant monies from other programs that the City could use? Mayor: Yes. Mrs. Ray: OK. Thank you. Roll Call: Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray – unanimous. Ord. 62-2015 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 5  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 24, 15 13. Ordinance 63-2015 At 2nd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Approving and granting a conditional zoning certificate to applicant Plumbers and Pipe-fitters Local Union 219 on behalf of owner Lyn Kae Corporation for use as offices and educational institution for Local Union 219 offices, union hall and appren- tice training at 1655 Brittain Road. Pres. of Council: Ord. 63-2015 is at 2nd Reading and will remain before the Planning & Zoning Committee. 14. Ordinance 64-2015 At 2nd Reading. FINANCE Amending and supplementing Chapter 181 by adding Chapter 182 of the codified ordi- nances of the City of Tallmadge regarding municipal income tax and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 64-2015 is at 2nd Reading and will remain before the Finance Committee. 15. Ordinance 68-2015 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a con- tract for disposal of end of life electronic equipment and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 68-2015 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Finance Committee. 16. Ordinance 69-2015 At 1st Reading. COMMUNITY ISSUES/SAFETY Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a contract with Summit County for animal control services and providing for imme- diate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 69-2015 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Community Issues/Safety Committee. 17. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: None. 18. ADJOURNMENT: Mrs. Kilway moved to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Sisak. 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 6