Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 22, 16 1. CALL TO ORDER: President of Council Donovan called the Regular Council meeting of Thursday, September 22, 2016 to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. PRAYER: Silent Prayer. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. 3. ROLL CALL: Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso – present. Also present were Mayor Kline, Economic Developer Weinberg, Dir. of Pub. Service Esler, Dir. of Law Raber, Dir. of Administration Cooper and Clerk of Council Burton. Dir. of Finance Gilbride was excused. 4. MINUTES: 9-8-16 Regular Council meeting minutes. Mrs. Ray moved to approve the 9-8-16 Regular Council Meeting minutes. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Voice vote 7-0. The 9-8-16 Regular Council meeting minutes were approved by a vote of 7-0. FINANCIAL REPORTS:  Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 8-31-16 to Council on 9-9-16. Mrs. Ray moved to accept the Financial Report submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Voice vote 7-0. The Financial Report submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride was accepted by a vote of 7-0. 5. PUBLIC HEARINGS: Ordinance 70-2016 At 3rd Reading. COMMUNITY ISSUES/SAFETY Imposing a six-month moratorium on P.H. ON 9-22-16 @ 7:03 P.M. granting zoning certificates for any building POLL 2-0 structure, use or change of use that would enable the cultivation, processing, or retail sale of medical marijuana and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: It is now 7:03 p.m. and I call the public hearing for Ord. 70-2016 to order. Is there anyone who would like to speak in favor of Ord. 70-2016 please come to the podium and state your name and address for the record? No one came to the podium. Is there anyone who would like to speak against Ord. 70-2016? No one came to the podium. Again; we ask three times. Second time; is there anyone who would like to speak in favor of Ord. 70-2016? John Marshal, 454 Carruthers Rd., Tallmadge. I understand the moratorium would be to freeze this from going forward; the medical marijuana and I would certainly be in favor of that, but I also wanted to point out that there is . . . well it is just unbelievable that our state is moving opposed to the United States which the law; the CSA has indicated that that one; it is illegal for medical marijuana and even our voting process; we voted down the idea of medical marijuana and the legalization in general of marijuana and . . . a little pressure being up here! I don’t need to go ahead and read . . . I was thinking of reading some things, but if you go on the DEA’s website you can acquire very useful information that is common knowledge . . . it is common public knowledge; it should be common knowledge, that we can see the effects of marijuana certainly that of the illicit schedule one drug and there are many terrible effects of this drug. We need to realize this and I would say, as a City, we need to make sure that this never moves forward. We cannot support medical marijuana or marijuana at all. It is not something that I would say is acceptable on any level and again this is something that had the representatives of our state done their homework and had really looked into this, perhaps they would have come to the same conclusion. I don’t think that they did. I think that they had moved forward perhaps based upon hearsay or perhaps based upon something that some company that wants to push marijuana may have told them. I don’t want to say anything about payoffs; I guess I just did but, . . . the situation is that we need to make sure, as a City, that we do not fall into the same trap as unfortunately our State has. We need to make sure that we rise above this and that we are a legal City. We are legally operating within the confines of the United States Government, which our State has decided not to do that. So, I just encourage you as members of Council to consider that and if anyone would oppose the moratorium or would push for medical marijuana or marijuana at all, at least please do research on this. It is not something that is a question if there is something wrong with the situation. It is a fact that medical marijuana or marijuana smoke for sure have many flaws and they are bad for society and it would be terrible for our City. Thank you. Pres. of Council: I have a question to go along with that and I know Megan, you and we’ve talked about this when this first came up. Again, you had an answer for this; why actually are we doing this when it is still illegal period. Can you just clarify that for us? Dir. of Law: Sure. So, the reality is that the State of Ohio has adopted medical marijuana as being something that will probably in about a two-year period of time people are estimating would actually be able to be licensed through the State. In that legislation, it does permit cities to make determinations as to zoning issues and prohibit them altogether, which is not always the case. So they did not pre-empt that; they allowed that to go to the cities to decide. It is important for us to take a look at our ordinances and if we are going to amend the ordinances to prohibit them; we need to be able to do that in a way that is appropriately throughout in the right Code sections because essentially the State of Ohio has granted the authority for people  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 22, 16 Dir. of Law (Cont’d.) to create cultivation and do the selling and transactions of medical marijuana and so we need to do that and I did not want us to rush into trying to fit that into the Code in short order. Every municipality out there is kind of struggling with this. The vast majority of them are moving towards doing a moratorium so they have ample time to be able to really look at their Codes and then get public input obviously as we go along too to determine what course of action we will take, but certainly we will have additional public forums where citizens can come in and voice their opinions on whether we should prohibit or not, but ultimately if we do, it needs to be incorporated in our Code appropriately. Pres. of Council: That’s is what I was hoping that you could kind of give an overview for everybody of where we are at with this and then how does it stand Federally? Dir. of Law: It is federally illegal and in the State of Ohio; they have allowed medical marijuana and they have indicated that there will be certain licensed facilities that can sell and distribute and cultivate the medical marijuana. Those governing administrative regulations have not been created; they have not been adopted and so the law actually went into effect in September, but the concern for the municipalities is that even before someone has all of the appropriate licensing; could they apply for a zoning certificates and not having been addressed in your Code could you leave the door open for those to come in and not have appropriate zoning regulations to address that and so that is the concern and that is why a lot of municipalities have decided to use a moratorium and again, our moratorium would be a six- month moratorium with the option to increase that if we determine that we still need additional time to review this. Again, we are not the only municipality in Ohio that is struggling to figure out what our next step should be. Mrs. Ray: Thank you. Pres. of Council: Thank you very much. Does anybody else have any questions or anything? No one responded. Thanks Megan. Continuing on; is there anybody who would like to speak against the ordinance? No one responded. For the third and final time; is there anybody who would like to speak in favor of the ordinance this evening? Chuck Marshall, 276 W. Howe Road, Tallmadge. I just wanted to say there is no certain demonstrated sufficient positive reason for medical marijuana. We know all of the terrible things it can do. It messes up people mentally and it is very addictive for some. Maybe not for all, but it is very addictive for some and that would be bad for our community and that would propose legal difficulties. There is just no good reason to allow this and all kinds of reasons not to allow it. So, I vote for the moratorium. Ms. Tricaso: Thank you. Pres. of Council: Is there anybody else? No one responded. Third and final time; is there anybody who would like to speak against the ordinance this evening? No one responded. It is now 7:13 p.m. and I will close the public hearing and turn the meeting over to Community Issues/Safety; Ms. Tricaso. Ms. Tricaso: I would like to open Community Issues/Safety Committee. We would like to poll on Ord. 70-2016. Committee? Mr. Rensel: Mary; I am in favor of the ordinance as it is constructed at the present time for the moratorium. Ms. Tricaso: You are in favor to pass it tonight? Mr. Rensel: Yes, at 3rd Reading. Mr. Sisak: I am also in favor of the moratorium for Ord. 70-2016. Ms. Tricaso: We recommend to pass 3-0. I will close committee. Pres. of Council: Is there a motion? Ms. Tricaso: I make a motion to pass Ord. 70-2016. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan – unanimous. Ord. 70-2016 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 6. COMMUNITY INPUT: Pres. of Council: Welcome to the students who are here this evening. 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. We have the usual number of takers! 6.A. ANNOUNCEMENTS: There will be a Board of Control meeting followed by an Investment Board meeting following the Regular Council meeting. 7. REPORTS OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES: None. 8. AGENDA ADDITIONS: None. Pres. of Council: We do need to discuss a hearing for the liquor application from Conversations and Company (former Greenbriar). They are requesting a permit to sell wine and mixed beverages in sealed containers for carryout only. We have this from time to time; places that want to sell carryout only and we vote whether we would like a public hearing on that or not. We actually don’t conduct the hearing. Is there anybody who would like to make a motion one way or the other on this? 2  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 22, 16 Mayor: If I may; they did come into the City to ask us what our opinion was. What they would like to be able to do there is to sell packages of either their soaps or other things and maybe put a bottle of wine with that or something to that effect. So it is really part of a package like an “attitude adjustment” package, or I don’t know what you want to call it! I think it would be a nice little thing for that shop to be able to service that. Mrs. Kilway: So just to kind of clarify; would it be for them to like put together gift baskets? Is that what it is? Mayor: Yes. Mrs. Kilway: OK. So they would be able to put a bottle of wine in a basket with soaps and other kinds of stuff. OK; that makes a little more sense. Mayor: Not for consumption on site, but I do say they do have an event coming up and I think you have probably seen a post card on that and they did get a one-day permit for that event on a Sunday, October 1st. Like a little farmer’s type setting. Pretty neat idea. Mr. Rensel: Is there a special code for this license to be able to assemble or put together wine in wine baskets or soap baskets? Mayor: Well, it’s required in the precinct that either . . . the precinct has to allow it; this precinct does just like Seven Grains and so it is not really a code, but the liquor permit has to have that precinct eligible to be able to do this and that is. Mr. Rensel: OK, and should that business turn over; then that license is not continuous; right? Dir. of Law: I think they can do some transfers depending on ownership things, but they have to do that all through the State of Ohio Alcohol Division. Mr. Rensel: So it would come back to City Council? Dir. of Law: I believe that when we had a name change on the Mexican restaurant for example, that that came back when they got that name change. So that is my understanding as to what would happen. Mr. Sisak: I have a question. So what is the actual; what is . . . it is a liquor license, but does it have a code or like a 2E or something? Dir. of Law: Right, so the State of Ohio has multiple different types of liquor licenses that they give whether it is wine or beer, spirits or whether it is consume on property or carryout and so there are all different types and you get all different combinations and they all have different designations and so it sounds like what they are asking for is just for the carryout version and that is our understanding of what they want. Pres. of Council: I think that is what that precinct is; C2. Dir. of Law: I have not had a chance to . . . I have not been involved in vetting that and so I didn’t like call the State to verify that what they are telling us that they are doing is accurate. Mr. Sisak: I guess to go off of what Mr. Rensel was asking is if they have a liquor license and it is a C2 and it were to transfer to another ownership or another entity in that building; could you change that C2 to an in-house liquor shop? Dir. of Law: I believe any change to that would be a change in licensing which would come back to before Council and then you would have an opportunity to ask for a hearing. Again, what that hearing is; it is not us deciding yes or no; it is just us presenting it so if we have concerns on a particular property, we have the opportunity be heard about that at the State Liquor people and so we would go down to a hearing in Columbus and present information if you request that to be done. Mayor: The license is owner specified so it is to the company. Mrs. Ray: I think she has done a lovely job. I think anyone who goes into Jena’s shop is just really impressed about how she has expanded her business and I think this is just another way that she can expand her business and generate more revenue and we want to keep her there. She is an asset to have on the Circle and so I would make a motion that we waive the necessity of having a hearing. Seconded Ms. Tricaso. Pres. of Council: Do we do a roll call on this? Dir. of Law: You don’t have to have one. Pres. of Council: All in favor? All voted aye. The motion carries 7-0. There will be no hearing. 9. REPORTS OF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS: MAYOR, DIR. OF PUBLIC SERVICE, DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, DIRECTOR OF LAW AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Mayor: Thank you Mr. Chairman. I will be very short. I would like to thank all of the Council members that attended the Stow Joint Dispatch meeting. I thought that was a very historic meeting to have three Councils in one chambers and all called to order their own Council and to go through that. It lasted a little over two hours. There was a lot of good information. There is a lot more information to come and I think this generated a lot more questions for a lot of people and that’s what it was all about. So, thank you for attending and there will be more to come. I have asked Mr. Cooper to get in touch with the Law Director in Cuyahoga Falls and in Stow to help work with the drafting of some of those questions and come up with something. He is very good at that; that is what he had done in the past and so I think he will help us out a lot here in Tallmadge. End of report. 3  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 22, 16 Dir. of Pub. Service: Thank you. The sidewalks on the west side of North Avenue should be completed next week. They will begin installing the underdrain for the curb on the east side in the next three days. It will be two to three weeks until the curb on the east side will be completed and begin putting the asphalt down in three to four weeks and so they will be putting base asphalt down in intermediate course and we are hoping that soon or not much later after that that they will be putting the surface course on the roadway and be able to open up both lanes, but work will continue on the sidewalks, street lighting, traffic signals and things like that. End of report. Pres. of Council: Next is Director of Finance; is anybody covering that? Mayor: Molly is actually down at the conference for her job along with the Assistant. Dir. of Law: I just would like to ask for the adoption of Ord. 66-2016 this evening. End of report. Economic Developer: Thank you. I just want to say that we had a very nice groundbreaking last Friday for Ohio Health Benefits at 125 West Avenue. It was well attended and they are looking forward to starting construction and so that will be a nice addition to West Avenue across from Serpentini. End of report. 10. Ordinance 63-2016 At 3rd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING. Extending the Performance and Main- tenance Guarantees for landscaping within Eastpointe Phase One Planned Residential Development and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Ord. 63-2016. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 63-2016 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 11. Ordinance 66-2016 At 3rd Reading. COMMUNITY ISSUES/SAFETY Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding to amend an agreement with the City of Macedonia for use of the Macedonia City Jail Facility and providing for immediate enactment. Ms. Tricaso moved for the adoption of Ord. 66-2016. Seconded Mr. Rensel. Roll Call: Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray – unanimous. Ord. 66- 2016 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 12. Ordinance 67-2016 At 3rd Reading. FINANCE Amending and supplementing Ord. 47-2016 to amend rates, charges, and fees for all recreational facilities and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 67-2016. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel – unanimous. Ord. 67-2016 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 13. Ordinance 72-2016 At 2nd Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Director of Public Service to negotiate and the Mayor to contract for various policies of insurance for the City and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 72-2016. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. Ord. 72-2016 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 14. Ordinance 73-2016 At 2nd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Amending Ord. 77-2009 creating the list of P.H. ON 10-13-16 @ 7:03 P.M. recognized Heritage Structures (LRHS); to amend the list of Heritage Structures. Pres. of Council: Ord. 73-2016 is at 2nd Reading and will remain before the Planning & Zoning Committee and there is a public hearing scheduled for 10-13-16 at 7:03 p.m. 4  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 22, 16 15. Ordinance 74-2016 At 1st Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Amending Ord. 31-2014 approving and granting a conditional zoning certificate for special nonresidential development to applicant Mota Design Group, Inc. on behalf of owner Circle North LLC at 76 North Avenue. Pres. of Council: Ord. 74-2016 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Planning & Zoning Committee. 16. Ordinance 75-2016 At 1st Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Approving and granting a conditional zoning certificate to applicant J-RS Development; owner Joe Scaccio for a storage facility at 425 Commerce Street (Parcel No. 60-07336 and Parcel No. 60- 02334). Pres. of Council: Ord. 75-2016 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Planning & Zoning Committee. 17. Ordinance 76-2016 At 1st Reading. PERSONNEL Amending Tallmadge Codified Ordinance Section 111.01 Rules of Council and pro- viding for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 76-2016 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Personnel Committee. 18. Ordinance 77-2016 At 1st Reading. PERSONNEL Amending Tallmadge Codified Ordinance Section 114.02 General Rules of Procedure and Operations for Boards and Commis- sions and providing for immediate enact- ment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 77-2016 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Personnel Committee. 19. Resolution 11-2016 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Accepting the amounts and rates as deter- mined by the Summit County Budget Com- mission and authorizing the necessary tax levies; certifying them to the County Fiscal Officer and providing for immediate enact- ment. Pres. of Council: Res. 11-2016 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Finance Committee. 20. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: I was informed tonight that the Street Dance does fall on a Council meeting day this year and we have the option of moving the Council meeting up to 6:00 p.m. I am just putting that out for discussion or as a motion. Mr. Sisak: That’s Beggar’s Night. Mrs. Kilway: We could switch it to Wednesday. Pres. of Council: That is why we wanted to address it now instead of waiting. Mrs. Ray: Why don’t we switch it to a Wednesday? That works for me; I shouldn’t speak for the rest of Council. Mrs. Kilway: I could make it work; switch it to Wednesday instead. Mrs. Ray: Someone has to cook hotdogs. Mrs. Kilway: That would be October 26th possibly. Mrs. Kilway: Or is there any possibility we could have a Committee meeting right after a . . . or a Council meeting right after the Committee meeting on Monday? Mrs. Ray: We could test the waters out a little bit! Pres. of Council: I am pretty flexible so that’s fine. Mr. Rensel: As long as the public is aware of it. Mrs. Kilway: Yeah, as long as the public is aware of it; I think that would be fine. We are still holding two meetings. I would be fine with that; anybody else? Mrs. Ray: So we would have the Committee meeting and then the Council meeting at 7:30 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. Mrs. Kilway: Yeah; 7:30 p.m. or immediately thereafter. 5  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. September 22, 16 Dir. of Law: You have to set it at a firm time of 7:30 p.m. and then if it runs over and you start it late, then that could happen, but you can’t start it early. Mrs. Kilway: OK. That’s fine; yes. I would be good with that; anybody else? Ms. Tricaso: I’m good with that. Mrs. Ray: Yeah. Mr. Sisak: Should we put it in a motion? Mr. Rensel: Yes, Mr. President . . . Mrs. Kilway: I move that we move the scheduled Council meeting from Thursday, October 27th to Monday, October 24th at 7:30 p.m. due to Beggar’s Night and the Street Dance which we all volunteer at the Street Dance. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker – unanimous. The vote is 7-0 to move the Council meeting that falls on the Street Dance night to the preceding Monday. Is there anything else to come before Council? Dir. of Law: I had the opportunity to speak to the Builder’s Club, which is like a Junior Kiwanis Club at the Middle School this week and they are very interested in coming to shadow Council on October 10th. So if that is agreeable with everyone, there may not be enough for everyone to have someone, but if that is a good date, I will tell them that would work for Council. Does that seem agreeable to everybody? Council all voted yes. So, you would have like an officer from that club come and shadow . . . there are interested in how to conduct meetings professionally and that sort of thing. Mr. Sisak: Would there be a start time Megan; like 6:30? Dir. of Law: If you want to do that; that would be nice. Maybe 6:45 p.m. OK. So I will let them know 6:45 p.m. that day and then again, there may not be enough officers to fill or match up with everybody, but we will share. I think that would be nice. Thank you very much. 21. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Rensel moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 7-0. The Regular Council meeting of 9-22-16 adjourned at 7:34 p.m. sb Approved: _____________________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton James M. Donovan Clerk of Council President of Council 6