Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. March 8, 18 1. CALL TO ORDER. 2. PRAYER: Rev. Kurran Bishop, Shephard’s Pasture for All Nations Church, Tallmadge. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: 3. ROLL CALL: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Carano, Mr. Donovan, Ms. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Ms. Tricaso – all present. Also present were Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar, Dir. of Law Raber, Dir. of Finance Gilbride, Dir. of Administration Cooper, Dir. of Economic Development Weinberg and Clerk of Council Burton. Mayor Kline was excused. 4. MINUTES: 2-22-18 Regular Council Meeting minutes. Mr. Donovan moved to adopt the Regular Meeting minutes of 2-22-18. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Voice vote 7-0. The Regular Council Meeting minutes of 2-22-18 were adopted by a vote of 7-0. FINANCIAL REPORTS: • Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $150,000, Street Maint. & Repair Transfer in the amount of $170,000, Bond Retirement Transfer in the amount of $100,000, and Fire/EMS Capital Transfer in the amount of $40,000 to Council on 2-28-18. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report, Revenue Report, and Encumber Report for the period ending 2-28-18 to Council on 3-1-18. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 2-28-18 to Council on 3-6-18. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 2-28-18 to Council on 3-6-18. • Revenue Comparisons for the period ending 2-28-18 to Council on 3-6-18. • February Financial Reports to Council on 3-6-18. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 2-28-18 to Council on 3-6-18. Mr. Sisak moved to accept the Financial Reports as presented. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Voice vote 7-0. The Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride were accepted by a vote of 7-0. 5. PUBLIC HEARINGS: Ordinance 26-2018 At 3rd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Supplementing the Tallmadge Codified Ordi- P.H. ON 3-8-18 @ 7:33 P.M. nances by establishing Chapter 766, Medical Marijuana Cultivation, Processing and Retail Dispensing, prohibiting the same; and estab- lishing enforcement and penalties for viola- tions. Pres. of Council: It is now 7:34 p.m. and I call the public hearing for Ord. 26-2018 open. Is there anyone who would like to speak in favor of Ord. 26-2018? No one responded. Please come to the microphone and state your name and address. These meetings are recorded. Is there anyone who would like to speak against Ord. 26-2018? No one responded. For the second time; is there anyone who would like to speak in favor of Ord. 26-2018? No one responded. Is there anyone who would like to speak against Ord. 26-2018? No one responded. Third and final time; is there anyone who would like to speak in favor of or against Ord. 26-2018? No one responded. It is now 7:35 p.m. and I will call the public hearing for Ord. 26-2018 closed and I will recognize the Planning & Zoning Chair; Mr. Donovan. Mr. Donovan: I call Planning & Zoning to order. Committee; any recommendations? We are recommending adoption of Ord. 26-2018 by a vote of 3-0. Close committee. Pres. of Council: Mr. Donovan. Mr. Donovan: I make a motion to adopt Ord. 26-2018. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Dir. of Law: I’m sorry, but you didn’t ask for any other discussion. Pres. of Council: Is there any other discussion? No one responded. Mr. Loughry: Even though no one spoke either in favor of or against this evening, out in the community no matter where I have been no one had spoken in favor of this to me. Everyone wanted us to prohibit this. Pres. of Council: I would have to agree with you. I talked to many people as well and I do believe that this is something that we do not want in our community. Thank you Mr. Loughry. Is there any further discussion? No one responded. Roll Call: Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Carano – unanimous. Ord. 26-2018 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 6. COMMUNITY INPUT: Pres. of Council: Once again community, 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 meeting legislation is discussed thoroughly with the Council deciding to adopt, amend, reject, hold or table legislation. We do allow some time for the community input at this point in the meeting. Is there anyone who would like to address Council? Please come forward to the microphone. Once again; no takers! 6.A. ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. 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 Pres. of Council: The Mayor has been excused for today. Dir. of Public Service.  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. March 8, 18 Dir. of Pub. Service: Good evening. For the month of February; it was actually a good month. There were 14 permits total given out and as you can see, 6 was the majority of them and they were Zoning certificates and as you know that is for set-backs, fencing and that sort of thing. Parks & Rec; the Spring and Summer Program Guide was released and we did something different this year. We distributed it this time through the schools instead of putting it in the Tallmadge Express and so far we have seen no change; actually an increase in the requests at this time and so that is a good thing. Family Fun Night; we had the highest attendance ever. The Rec staff did a great job. 1,000 tickets were sold. Membership is up compared to last year by 384 memberships and then hiring is underway for the lifeguards and concession stand and the front desk for Maca. The final design for the Lions Park equipment is just about wrapped up and we will be presenting that hopefully at the next meeting. As you know, we received that check tonight from the Lions Club and so that was a good thing. Utilities; two new water services; 20 water samples were taken and that is pretty much the norm; we do that every month and 2 sewer lines were inspected, I hope I am not jinxing myself, but we had no water breaks for the month which is really impressive and so that is a good thing. The drawback was that we had 2 sewer backups and unfortunately it was at the same resident’s house. So that was not a good thing. The snow and ice; we actually were over 1,000 hours on snow and ice control which thinking of the month it is hard to believe, but we are a little bit less than we were in January but still it was a pretty active month. The shifts; we are ending shifts on March 16th. This is the first year that we went on shifts and so we started right after the new year and we are going to pull them off on March 16th which is a Friday and so that will be the last day for shifts. Just wanted to bring you guys . . . we tried these delineators and they blew right through them and the intent was that they were supposed to be collapsible and not really prevent, but it was supposed to give them a warning and we did those delineators because we were trying to be aesthetically pleasing for the Circle. The last slide I will show you . . . we had 3 hits and so that was the first hit, this is the second and it damaged the tree and we had that tree removed. The nice thing is that we had the insurance from that driver. This is the 3rd hit; all within a month. This is the 3rd hit and it also did damage to the tree. If you look at that tree; that tree was actually split in half. So we actually had four trees; another tree dropped; it had nothing to do with any cars, but it was next to the church and it actually rotted and split in half and so we had all these trees taken down in the last week or so. But, this is the next slide and it is actually what we put up with the removal of that tree; those are Chevrons and that is exactly what should be up. They are yellow and they are on North Avenue southbound heading into the Circle and we will probably end up doing this. Get a feel for it and ask around and see if anybody . . . but really this is what we should be doing here. It alerts you . . . it is not going to . . . they can drive through those as well, but they are not as breakaway as those delineators. Something new though, and this was something that was brought up I think two Council meetings ago was; can we reduce the speed limit on State Routes and we can’t and that is based on the ORC 51.11 and it discusses that you can do that in a business district. We technically don’t have a business district, but we do have a general commercial district which meets that definition of a business district and so if you see that, everything but 261 on the Northeast Avenue corridor; everything else is about 2,500 feet out from the Circle; all the spokes and so you see where that takes you. The reason we went out farther on 261 on Northeast is that gets you past that Waltco walkway. Pres. of Council: Right. Perfect. Dir. of Pub. Service: So we decided to extend that out. We are starting with a small footprint. This isn’t a very big area; 2,500 feet is not . . . when you are driving a car; that is not a very big area and so we are hoping; this is what the Mayor wanted to report on tonight as the Safety Director. He has talked with the Police Department and we are hoping to get some feedback from you folks and implement this here sometime in April. Pres. of Council: How are we going to slow the cars down before the 25 mph zone? Dir. of Pub. Service: You would have to install a “reduce your speed ahead” sign. You would have to do that. Pres. of Council: So just by signage and not by anything else at this point in time? Dir. of Pub. Service: No. Just by signage. That’s correct. Mr. Sisak: I do have a couple of questions. You know, I think, in my opinion, I think East Avenue is our biggest challenge for the speed with the number of ingresses and egresses between McDonald’s, Mike’s, the oil change, Rite Aid, the Mexican restaurant, Speedway, the bank . . . I mean that; I think that must be part of this plan. It just seems like all of them . . . because then people would be like, oh, is it 25 or 35? Oh, well I don’t know. It is like all of the spokes should be universal coming into the downtown or into the Circle. Everyone knows that, hey I have to reduce my speed. There is no question and there is no doubting as you approach the Circle from any direction it should be 25 and I think that would be a challenge especially for the Police Department to say hey, we will give you a break this time; we will give you a break next time and then the third time we will issue a citation, but that is just my opinion on the speed. Dir. of Pub. Service: It is all the routes. Everything in the red line. Mr. Sisak: Oh I was looking at the yellow; I’m sorry. 2  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. March 8, 18 Dir. of Pub. Service: That was just signifying the State Routes. Keep in mind that those other routes are ours and so we can change those. Mr. Sisak: OK. Thanks. Dir. of Pub. Service: Does everybody understand. I mean every spoke coming off that Circle will be down to 25 mph from 2,500 feet from the Circle except for Northeast. We wanted to make sure that we got that Waltco walkway. Then we can expand if we need to take it out farther, but we wanted to start with a pretty small footprint there. Pres. of Council: It looks good to me. Mr. Sisak: It looks great. Dir. of Pub. Service: Thank you and then Madame President; just a reminder that I would like to ask for the adoption of Ord. 30-2018 and Res. 6-2018 tonight. Mr. Loughry: Mrs. Kilway; can I ask Mr. Rorar a question? Pres. of Council: Yes. Mr. Loughry: Mike, as you know, we turned our Building Department over to Summit County several years ago now and from the beginning inspections times for our contractors have been long, and I mean we are several years into this now and not a week goes by that a builder does not complain to me about how long it takes to get inspections and approvals of plans from Summit County and they are telling me that it is worse now than it was even a year ago. Dir. of Pub. Service: Is that right? Mr. Loughry: Yeah and so we are heading into busy season especially on residential construction and literally a project that used to be done in 6 weeks now takes 10 weeks and the result of that is that the homeowner is paying more for his project because the builder is not going to reduce his profit because Summit County is taking too long and so the projects are costing more and they are taking longer to get done. I don’t know how often you guys meet or get reports on those kinds of things from Summit County? Dir. of Pub. Service: I have not received any notification of that. I mean you always hear grumblings from all contractors and just not about the building department, but with soil and water; you hear the same thing that they are dragging their feet; they are taking too long, but I will definitely look into that more. Mr. Loughry: Thank you very much. Dir. of Pub. Service: You’re welcome. Dir. of Finance: Good evening. Everyone should have received their February financial reports. Everything so far as I see it is going smoothly for the first two months of the year and we are in the midst of our audit and working on our Annual Financial Report. End of report. Mr. Sisak: Mrs. Gilbride, at the Rec Center; I know we are behind about $11,000 for the month of February; what is the year to date? I missed that somewhere. Dir. of Finance: The year to date revenue at the Rec Center? Mr. Sisak: Yeah. Dir. of Finance: We are about $3,000 behind what we were last year. We did not this year, and there were some purposeful things that did not happen; the Rec Center got away from scheduling; they had a volleyball tournament that used to take place in February and they decided not to do this year and some other things, but currently though, on the flip side of that, our membership revenue is up about 6% and so they are supplementing those with some other things, but right now it is about 1% behind from where it was last year. Mr. Sisak: But our expenses are up too it said. So I just kind of wondered if we are . . . Dir. of Finance: That is also a timing item. Last year . . . or this year we ended up paying two bills for referees for the Youth Basketball League whereas one of those bills had been paid in the previous year last year and so it is more of a timing issue where we are at right now with that. Usually those timing issues kind of wash themselves out towards the end of the year, but sometimes in January and February those timing items make things kind of look a little bit scue. Mr. Sisak: Then I know and this is probably not for you, but we are supposed to hire a part-time marketer for the Rec Center. Has that been completed yet? Dir. of Finance: I believe you have legislation tonight to start the process of . . . that position actually had to be created; although it was budgeted; the position did not exist and so you have to go through the process of creating the position for them to fill that. Mr. Sisak: Good. Thank you. Mr. Carano: Ms. Gilbride; does the fact that like the volleyball wasn’t tiered this time; do people come to the Rec Center . . . I am trying to understand how it works actually since I don’t know; do people come to the Rec Center and say hey we would like to do a volleyball tournament or does the Rec Center advertise that type of thing? Of course maybe if there is a new position with that person; they will be pulling in business, but I just didn’t know how that worked. Dir. of Finance: I am going to invite Jessica up to explain exactly how that works because I could probably give you a really great explanation, but it is probably not going to be 100% accurate. Rec Center Manager: OK. So, the volleyball tournaments; what they were was something that we joined up with the Junior Olympic Volleyball Program and they would host tournaments at our facility and we would collect the registration fees for the teams and then they would basically put the volleyball tournaments on. So our expenses for that were the referees, although the Junior Olympic people would find them; we had to pay all the referees; the 16 teams came in and took over our entire facility and anyone who came to the Rec Center on a Sunday when we had these; you would know because there 3 were teams camping out down the hallway. It was just really cumbersome to host them and the profit REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. March 8, 18 Rec. Center Manager (Cont’d.): margin really wasn’t that great and we figured it would probably be better to give that space back to the members or to rent it out to people who use our facility for practices and that sort of thing. Mr. Carano: Thank you. I just didn’t know how business was drawn to the Rec Center or if they were approached often by people wanting to use the facility or if they had a form of advertising these things which I guess in the future; they may have. Thank you. Dir. of Law: Thank you. We are . . . I am still waiting to see if we are going to be able to reschedule the N.O.P.E. program that we had at the high school. To date that has not been rescheduled and so I will let you know if that changes. I just wanted to put on the calendar that the last Saturday in April will be the next Drug Takeback. Other than that; I am always busy. End of report. Dir. of Administration: Good evening everyone. Just a couple of quick things. We are going to be; the Administration is meeting now in preparation for union negotiations for our three labor unions; three full-time labor unions. We will be probably having our first meetings there in April or May. That is one thing that we are doing preparation on. We had our Health and Wellness Cost Containment Committee meeting today. We do that approximately quarterly to address any issues and try to control the costs of our health insurance. That you may recall that last July we changed to a different program where we are more self-funded and the good news is that that seems to be working very well for us right now. So we are kind of building up a bank account if you will to spend at future dates when it might get a little harder. So with that, that is all I have to report. Thank you very much. If you have any questions, I would be happy to give it a shot. Otherwise, thank you. Economic Developer: Good evening. Just one quick item, yesterday there was a ribbon cutting for Re- Max Crossroads; Jody Merrick opened up her new office there and it was well attended and that is all I have. End of report. 10. Ordinance 29-2018 At 2nd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Approving and granting a conditional zoning certificate to property owner BGR Ware- house LLC and applicant T&T Retail LLC, Tyra Zwick for an amusement arcade at 132 Osceola Avenue. Pres. of Council: Ord. 29-2018 is at 2nd Reading and will remain before the Planning & Zoning Committee. 11. Ordinance 30-2018 At 2nd Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the City to pay their portion of the project to resurface State Route 532 from 2.63 to 3.55, minor bridge work to SFN 7710712, SUM 532-2.85 over branch of Little Cuyahoga River and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Ord. 30-2018. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Carano, Mr. Donovan – unanimous. Ord. 30-2018 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 12. Ordinance 32-2018 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Appropriating funds from the unappro- priated balance of the General Fund transferring to the North Avenue improve- ment Fund and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 32-2018 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Finance Committee. 13. Ordinance 33-2018 At 1st Reading. PERSONNEL Establishing the number of employees by department and position pursuant to R.C. 731.08 and providing for immediate enact- ment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 33-2018 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Personnel Committee. Mr. Loughry: Mrs. Kilway; can we move to adopt that. I would make a motion to adopt that this evening at 1st Reading. Dir. of Law: That has not gone in front of the Civil Service Commission yet as indicated. I just wanted to make you aware of that. Mr. Donovan: There is no rush. Mr. Loughry: No, there is no rush. 4  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. March 8, 18 14. Ordinance 34-2018 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Director of Finance to enter into a contract with Software Solutions for the purchase of finance, payroll, and utility software which is special in nature and not requiring a competitive bid, and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 34-2018 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Finance Committee. 15. Ordinance 35-2018 At 1st Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Approving and granting a conditional zoning certificate for special nonresidential development to property owner John Anderson/Anderson Family LTD. and applicant All Heart Cross Fit for a fitness center/fitness class at 4481 Crystal Park- way Suites 800 and 900. Pres. of Council: Ord. 35-2018 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Planning & Zoning Committee. 16. Ordinance 36-2018 At 1st Reading. PUBLIC SERVICE Authorizing the Director of Public Service to prepare plans, specifications, and cost estimates for purchase and installation of street lighting on Kensington Park Drive, Kensington Park Circle and a portion of Clark Drive and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 36-2018 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Public Service Commission. 17. Resolution 6-2018 At 2nd Reading. PUBLIC SERVICE Expressing approval and support for the development of State and US Bicycle Routes and requesting AASHTO and ODOT to officially designate the Free- dom Trail. Mrs. Allman moved for the adoption of Res. 6-2018. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Voice vote 7-0. Roll Call: Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Carano, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Res. 6-2018 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 18. Resolution 7-2018 At 2nd Reading. COMMUNITY ISSUES/SAFETY A resolution adopting a Health in All Policies approach that systematically takes into account the health implications of decisions in order to improve population health and health equity. Mr. Carano moved for the adoption of Res. 7-2018. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Carano, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry – unanimous. Res. 7-2018 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 19. Resolution 8-2018 At 1st Reading. Expressing the appreciation of the Council and Administration to Wayne Wilson upon his retirement from service with the City of Tallmadge and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Res. 8-2018. Seconded Ms. Tricaso. Mr. Loughry: I worked with Wayne for a long time while I was here and I always enjoyed him and always found that Wayne would always want to talk about deep stuff. So anyway, early in the morning we would have some great discussions and I think that he was a good employee and I hope to still see him around town. Mrs. Kilway: He really was a good employee. He was a good person for the City of Tallmadge and always there helping out. Voice vote 7-0. Res. 8-2018 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 5  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. March 8, 18 20. Resolution 9-2018 At 1st Reading. Expressing the appreciation of the Council and Administration to Velma Williams upon her resignation from service with the City of Tallmadge and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Res. 9-2018. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Mr. Loughry: Mrs. Kilway; the same. For as long as I have been involved either on a Board or a Commission, Velma has always been here. She always did a great job with those minutes under crucial timelines and she was always pleasant to work with. Mrs. Kilway: Yes, she really was and she always has a smile on her face and is always prepared for every meeting. She is great and is going to be missed. Voice vote 7-0. Res. 9-2018 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 21. Resolution 10-2018 At 1st Reading. Extending the sympathy of the Council and the Administration to Mayor David G. Kline and members of his family in the death of Jeanette M. (Wells) Ondecker and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Res. 10-2018. Seconded Ms. Tricaso. Mrs. Kilway: For those of you that don’t know; that is Mayor Kline’s mother-in-law that passed away and so I just express my sympathy to him and his family, especially to his wife. It is a hard time to go through. Voice vote 7-0. Res. 10-2018 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 22. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: Pres. of Council: The next Council on March 22nd is cancelled because of Spring Break. So enjoy your Spring Break and we will see everybody back on April 12th for our Council meetings. 23. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Donovan moved to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Voice vote 7-0. The Regular Council meeting of 3-8-18 adjourned at 8:04 p.m. sb Approved: _________________________________ ____________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Carol A. Kilway, Acting Mayor /President of Council 6