Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. October 25, 17 1. CALL TO ORDER: President of Council Donovan called the Regular Council meeting of Wednesday, October 25, 2017 to order at 7:30 p.m. 2. PRAYER: Silent prayer. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Pres. of Council: We do have a Scout troop here that is going to lead us in the pledge. What is the number guys? 361. Mayor: You guys can come up front and we will do a silent prayer and then you guys can lead us in the pledge. Mr. Sisak: This is for their communications badge by the way. 3. ROLL CALL: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Ms. Tricaso – present. Also present were Mayor Kline, Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar, Dir. of Law Raber, Dir. of Finance Gilbride, Dir. of Administration Cooper and Clerk of Council Burton. Economic Developer Weinberg was excused. 4. MINUTES: 10-12-17 Regular Council meeting minutes. Mrs. Ray moved to approve the 10-12-17 Regular Council Meeting minutes. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Voice vote 7-0. The 10-12-17 Regular Council meeting minutes were approved by a vote of 7-0. 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 with the Council Committee meeting starting at 7:00 p.m. followed by the Regular Council meeting. 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 for the record. Would anybody like to address Council? No one responded. 6.A. ANNOUNCEMENTS: There will be an Investment Board meeting following the Regular Council meeting this evening. 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, DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Mayor: I will be very brief. I was going to talk about Beggar’s Night, but we already talked about that earlier. Also, Council passed Ord. 78-2017 establishing an Ad-Hoc for the Circle Park. Part of that ordinance was three appointments by the Mayor and I did appoint Nancy Treichler, Bernie Warzinski and Cheryl Esler to be on that committee. Mrs. Ray had also asked and Council has two appointments and so Kim Ray asked to be on it, and I would ask Council to appoint one other person because we need to meet next week. We are a little behind schedule of starting to put the lights up. We are going to continue with our big Christmas tree in the center that will go up, but we want to talk with committee to give us direction on wrapping the trees or not wrapping the trees, but we do want to go forward with that a.s.a.p. We might be a little behind the 8-ball, but if Mrs. Ray; if you want to be on that; that is fine; Council has two appointments. Pres. of Council: Is there anybody else? Mr. Rensel: I will volunteer to be on that committee if the Mayor is acceptable. Mayor: That is fine. It is up to you guys. Mrs. Ray: We need a motion. Someone needs to make a motion. Mrs. Kilway: I move to discuss and poll members of Council that wish to be on the decorating committee for the Circle. Is there anyone on Council at this point in time that would like to be part of it, please indicate; we have Mr. Rensel. Mr. Rensel: Yes ma’am. Mrs. Kilway: We also have Mrs. Ray. Mrs. Ray: Yes. Mrs. Kilway: So, I move that we appoint Mr. Rensel and Mrs. Ray as the Council representatives for the Christmas decorating or the Circle Decorating Committee. Seconded Mr. Sisak. All in favor. Everyone answered aye. No one opposed. Mayor: Thank you. We would like to meet early next week so we will notify both of you on that appointment. Also, we have the Memorial in the Circle Monument. I did appoint two members; one was Adam Bozic; he asked to be on the committee and he is a veteran and so he meets part of that requirement and also Jim Forsythe and another member from their board will be on that committee so that is coming along very well. Mr. Sisak: Mayor; did that get repaired? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. Mayor: It is put up in place . . . did they repair the chip? Dir. of Pub. Service: Not yet, but it is up and . . . Mayor: It’s all put back in place.  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. October 25, 17 Dir. of Law: If I may just remind Council that you also have appointments on that committee so you need to be thinking about persons whom you would like to appoint and it doesn’t necessarily have to be members of Council; it can be other people, but you just have to ratify their appointment. Mayor: Then my request for legislation tonight would be Item 14, Ord. 94-2017 and that is the opiate litigation that is going on. I did attend the County of Summit’s State of the County today and it was very well done and Eileen Shapiro did announce that they are going forward with the legislation and a lot of the Summit County communities will be joining and that is part of this legislation to allow us to join that effort. We can talk about it when it comes up. End of report. Dir. of Pub. Service: No report, but I would like to ask that Ord. 93-2017 gets a 1st Reading. Dir. of Finance: No report this evening. Dir. of Law: Just want to reiterate that we have the Drug Takeback Day on Saturday as discussed earlier and anyone who wants to help out, you are welcome to do that. Typically we have appropriate staffing, but we are always happy to have extra people and so you are welcome at any of those sites and I would also echo a request for the adoption of Ord. 94- 2017 this evening. Dir. of Administration: Good evening. I have no report this evening. Economic Developer: Mayor stated that Rita was not present. 10. Ordinance 77-2017 At 3rd Reading. P.H. ON 10-12-17 @ 7:33 P.M. Approving and adopting a revised Compre- Continue P.H. Until 11-9-17 Reg. hensive Plan for future development. Meeting Pres. of Council: Ord. 77-2017 is at 3rd Reading and will remain before the Planning & Zoning Committee. The public hearing has been continued until the 11-9-17 Regular Council meeting. 11. Ordinance 82-2017 At 3rd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Amending the zoning map by rezoning the P.H. ON 10-25-17 @ 7:31 P.M. properties of: Ripley Farms, LLC and CANCELLED & RESCHEDULED Frances L. Ripley LLC et al; Robert P. FOR 12-14-17 @ 7:31 P.M. Ripley, and Cheryl M. Rocco, Co-Trustee and Robert P. Ripley, Co-Trustee; from Residential-2 to R-6 Residential Open Applicant requested continuance Space Planned Development District until the 11-2-17 P&Z Meeting consisting of approximately 103.7813 acres and approving the general develop- ment plan located at 1229, 1223 and 1241 East Avenue. Mr. Sisak: I would like to reschedule the public hearing for 12-14-17 @ 7:31 p.m. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Donovan – unanimous. The public hearing for Ord. 82-2017 has been rescheduled for 12-14-17 @ 7:31 p.m. 12. Ordinance 92-2017 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Adopting a budget for various funds of the City of Tallmadge, Ohio, for current WORK SESSION 11-9-17 @ 6:00 PM expenses and other expenditures during fiscal year ending December 31, 2018, P.H. ON 12-14-17 @ 7:31 P.M. appropriating the necessary funds for the administration thereof, authorizing transfers between funds, and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 92-2017 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Finance Committee. Mayor: Mr. Chairman, I would ask Council for their thoughts on a Work Session either before the next Council meeting at 6:00 p.m. or . . . it looks like the agenda is fairly light anyways. Mrs. Ray: So that would be November the 9th? Mayor: That’s correct. Mrs. Ray: I would be in favor of, as Finance Chair; I would be in favor of doing that. Mayor: Either at 6:30 p.m. and continue on into the next meeting or 6:00 p.m. whichever. It is a pretty straight forward budget. Mrs. Ray: I am open to whatever works for Council; 6:00 p.m.? Mrs. Kilway: That’s fine. Pres. of Council: So, there will be a Work Session on the 2018 Budget on 11-9-17 at 6:00 p.m. Mayor: Thank you. We will get you the document. It is almost ready to print . . . prior to that meeting. 2  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. October 25, 17 13. Ordinance 93-2017 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Expressing intent to sell unneeded, obso- lete, or unfit motor vehicles by auto auction in calendar year 2017 and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for adoption of Ord. 93-2017 at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Mr. Sisak: Service Director; would you like to say what we are salvaging? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, absolutely. It is an opportunity for us to sell vehicles on the Akron Auto Auction. It is just another tool that we can use and the vehicles . . . there was legislation sometime this year on about 7 of them and the way they sit right now, this would be the easiest path to get rid of those vehicles. Roll Call: Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 93-2017 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. Dir. of Pub. Service: Thank you. 14. Ordinance 94-2017 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Director of Law to enter into an agreement with Motley Rice LLC, Nealon & Associates, P.C., Raffaelli & Prazak Attorneys at Law and Brennan, Manna, & Diamond, LLC as legal counsel to investigate, litigate, or negotiate for settlement, actionable claims that may be pursued by the City against individual and entities related to the marketing, pre- scribing, distribution, or sale of opioids and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 94-2017 at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Mr. Rensel: Thank you. Megan, in the information that you sent to us, you were saying that expenditures over $25,000 would be approved by the City; are you meaning approved by City Council or how is that to be clarified? In terms of legal fees and whatever was required? Dir. of Law: We have no required outgoing expense in the event that they were to expend a certain amount and they would be in consultation with us as to that amount. But, we have no obligation as a contingency basis, so we have no expenditure other than the time it will take to gather and collect the information that is relevant to it. Mr. Rensel: So that $25,000 referred to Summit County or . . . Dir. of Law: I’m not quite sure where you saw . . . Mr. Rensel: It was in the document that you sent this afternoon. Dir. of Law: Well, I sent two and so I don’t know what . . . Mr. Rensel: The first one. Just take a look at . . . Dir. of Law: If you give me a moment, I can look at that, but I reviewed it already and I didn’t see anything that raised any red flags to me whatsoever. So, in other words, any miscellaneous expenses must be approved in advance and so they would come to us before they would do it. They expend the money, but then they would be reimbursed for the money at the tail end and so anything that is over that expenditure; they basically have to get pre-authorization before they expend it so we know at the end if they were to be successful; we would be reimbursing them for those expenditures so that is what that means. Mr. Rensel: Right, and so that was the basis for my question. Who authorizes that to go forward? Dir. of Law: I would be the one authorizing that or the one entering into the agreements. Mr. Rensel: OK; that was my question, thank you. Mayor: Thank you. Thank you Council for your consideration of this. This is such a problem going on, not only in Tallmadge, but in all of Summit County. There have been 372 accidental drug overdoses in Summit County just in the last 60 days and a total of 762 reported drug overdoses since 2012. Dir. of Law: 1,076. Mayor: 1,076 of those folks passed away from this terrible epidemic that is going on since 2012. This is affecting a lot of people. As you know, what happened here in Tallmadge just a week ago; as you saw in the obituaries and we had a couple ourselves here in Tallmadge and it is just very unfortunate. Will this litigation help that; we don’t know but I think it is good for us to get involved with it. All of the communities in Summit County will be involved in this litigation I think. What I am hearing from our other Mayors is that they have to go through the same process that we are going through. Summit County, Akron, Barberton, and Cuyahoga Falls have already joined that effort and if Council adopts this tonight; then we will join as of tomorrow. If you have any other questions, I will gladly speak on it. Mrs. Ray: It’s just frightening. Roll Call: Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray – unanimous. Ord. 94-2017 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 3  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. October 25, 17 15. Ordinance 95-2017 At 1st Reading. PERSONNEL Clarifying and defining personnel benefits and policies for non-collective bargaining employees and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 95-2017 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Personnel Committee. 16. Ordinance 96-2017 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Director of Finance to transfer and appropriate funds from the General Fund to the Community Develop- ment Block Grant Fund account and pro- viding for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 96-2017 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Finance Committee. 17. Ordinance 97-2017 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Appropriating additional amounts for various funds and providing for imme- diate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 97-2017 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Finance Committee. 18. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: None. 19. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Rensel moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 7-0. The Regular Council meeting of 10-25-17 adjourned at 7:52 p.m. sb Approved: _____________________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton James M. Donovan Clerk of Council President of Council 4