Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. June 28, 18 1. CALL TO ORDER. President of Council Kilway called the Regular Council meeting of Thursday, June 28, 2018 to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. PRAYER: Phil Anderson, Bethel Church, Tallmadge. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: 3. ROLL CALL: Mr. Carano, Mr. Donovan, Ms. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman - all present. Also present were Mayor Kline, Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar, Dir. of Administration Cooper, Dir. of Economic Development Weinberg, Dir. of Finance Gilbride, Ass’t. Dir. of Law Scavelli and Clerk of Council Burton. Law Director Raber and Mr. Sisak were excused. 4. MINUTES: 6-14-18 Regular Council Meeting minutes. Mr. Donovan moved to adopt the Regular Meeting minutes of 6-14-18. Seconded Ms. Tricaso. Voice vote 6-0. The Regular Council Meeting minutes of 6-14-18 were adopted by a vote of 6-0. 5. FINANCIAL REPORTS: None. 6. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None. 7. COMMUNITY INPUT: There is no one in the audience this evening. 8. ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. 9. REPORTS OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES: We do have the Fire Department Special Committee; we call it that. We are organizing an agenda for the next meeting which will be coming up here in the next week or two. F.Y.I. 10. AGENDA ADDITIONS: None. 11. REPORTS OF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS: MAYOR, DIR. OF PUBLIC SERVICE, DIR. OF ADMINISTRATION, DIR. OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, DIR. OF FINANCE AND DIR. OF LAW. Mayor: Thank you Madame Chairman. I will start off with . . . I am going to sponsor legislation and it may be just myself, or other members of Council or the Administration for a proposed Charter amendment for the City. There is going to be a press release next week; a press conference with the City of Akron, City of Green, New Franklin, and Cuyahoga Falls to change the voting primary from September back to May. I have mixed emotions about it, because I like the September primary, but the benefit that is going to be publicized in the press conference is really three bullet points: • Protect the voting rights of military service members overseas • Save taxpayer money • Increase voter turnout The May primary has 46% higher voting turnout than the September primary per the Board of Elections. The overseas, by the time they send out a ballot for the September primary and then they have 14 days to get it back and they may have to certify the votes and the Board of Elections has to turn around and produce a ballot and mail out a ballot that might be incomplete and then they have to send out another ballot to the military if there is a primary. So it is really confusing for the Board of Elections. That is a request from the Board of Elections to do that. To save taxpayers money; Tallmadge has some Portage County votes and mostly Summit County, but the Portage County votes from Tallmadge Hills; Portage County does not have a September primary. So if we have a primary, then we have to pay Portage County to open up their voting booths just for our 70 households to vote. I think the last time that we had a primary we had 30 some people who voted . . . Dir. of Finance: 4 people voted! Mayor: $4,000 later; for those votes, but it is neither here nor there. So Portage County has a May primary. So therefore, we would still have to pay but it would be a lesser cost if there were a primary. If we do not pass the Charter amendment, and this is something that has to go in front of our voters; this just allows our electorate to say, yes, I’m OK with the May primary, or no; I’m not. So it is really putting it onto the voters to do that. Akron is already putting it on their ballot and they are pretty confident that they will pass it and the City of Green, Barberton, Norton, Tallmadge and I think New Franklin I think are the ones. City of Stow does not have a primary. They have already passed legislation that they eliminated their primary. They are non-partisan and so you could in essence have 5 or 10 people running for Mayor and whoever received the majority vote out of them becomes the Mayor. It could be way below majority, but that is their choice. Munroe Falls is non-partisan, but I really don’t think they have a primary either. So, you know, I wanted to bring it up to Council tonight because next Tuesday, there is going to be a press conference probably at the Board of Elections with the City of Akron wanting to do this. So you will probably see legislation forthcoming to allow us to get a Charter amendment to the voters. Any questions? It’s new. Mr. Loughry: I think another advantage of a May primary is that it helps the challenger because you have more time to get your message out against an incumbent. Mayor: That’s why I would want it to be transparent and to have . . . they are really touting the military service and the Board of Elections are mandated to try to get this changed. A primary in Tallmadge on the high end is $1,600 per precinct and the low end is $700 per the Board of Elections. So if we are stand-alone out there in September, it could be as high as $1,600 per precinct plus the Portage County side; we could be between the $20,000 and $30,000 cost. That alone is worth me sponsoring this. Pres. of Council: What is the cost right now when we have an election approximately?  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. June 28, 18 Mayor: Between $700 and $1,600. Pres. of Council: It is the same cost? Dir. of Finance: One primary; I think was that last time we had a Council-at-Large race was the last time we had a primary. Pres. of Council: Because, I thought; doesn’t the Summit County Board of Elections divvy up the cost of the election to all of the participants and communities that are holding elections, so if we are the only one there; we pretty much . . . Dir. of Finance: You bear the whole cost. Pres. of Council: Right, whereas if we were to go with everybody else in May then our cost would be quite a bit lower; correct? Mayor: When I posed the question; that is correct and I also posed the question to the Board of Elections; how many military votes do you really send out from Summit County and it was 400 ballots the last primary that they sent out. Mr. Donovan: The County? Mayor: Summit County, so it is not a lot . . . they couldn’t tell me how many were just in Tallmadge. Pres. of Council: How many were returned? Mayor: They had to print the ballot and then send out an incomplete ballot because of the timing they are required by law to give it to the military ahead of time and then after they certify the primary because there was a contested race on one of the primaries and they had to do an amendment ballot to the military. Just for this as an Akron statistic; if they had this in place last year, it would have saved Akron $82,774. Because they had a September primary, but they had municipality . . . or municipal court which is in May and so they had a May primary and a September . . . so if Council wants to do Council and the Administration; like we typically do on something that is going to the electorate; I’m all in favor of that. I am still going to sponsor this . . . you don’t have to let me know tonight. Megan, when she gets back will say, what the heck are you doing?? Mr. Donovan: Does anybody think there is a downside? Mayor: Well, the downside is if it happens this time, we will know in November and we have to turn petitions really quick by February and it will be a pain in February for the May primary and then it depends . . . if there is a primary. Pres. of Council: You still have to have your petitions in earlier in February instead of June and if there is a primary then we are looking at campaign signs all summer long. Mayor: We have a sign ordinance and everyone in this room are very good at that; taking them out and not leaving them up, but theoretically we will see signs up a lot. More work for the candidates. Alright, that is just that time. I don’t know if you guys saw the Facebook post today and I was at Rotary today and we had a special guest speak at Rotary and for the Rotarians who weren’t there; it was really a great Rotary meeting and this guy came to speak at Rotary today to talk about what it is like to be Santa Claus behind the beard. This guy was a very great speaker and he really talked about how kids react when they see him and how adults react. So he gave a whole different perspective. So I said, hey are you busy; we have a bunch of kids at the Rec Center and they would really love to see Santa Claus and so he went up there and all these kids enjoyed seeing Santa Claus and one of these kids; one of the little girls there; her mother called and thought it was weird that we posted something six months later. Don’t you know that your kid was there today!! But then Christmas in July. I thought it was pretty neat. The kids just loved it and it was something to make you feel good on Facebook. I would ask Council to consider Item 12, Ord. 51-2018, Item 13, Ord. 52-2018, Item 16, Ord. 59- 2018 and Item 17, Ord. 60-2018. We will talk about those when they come up. End of report. Dir. of Pub. Service: the only thing that I have to report is that we have filled the position of Zoning Manager with . . . most of you should know her; is Helene Hussing. We have filled that position and it makes sense. Last month the Zoning has gotten much quieter; we haven’t had as many complaints and Helene has stepped up, without being asked, and has filled that gap and took the initiative to do so and after getting only 9 applicants for the position and after interviewing the top two; it just doesn’t make sense not to offer that to her and that is what I did and she accepted, so . . . Pres. of Council: So now there is another position available. Dir. of Pub. Service: A Clerk position; yup. Pres. of Council: Very good. Dir. of Pub. Service: End of report. Dir. of Administration: I just have a couple brief things. One is the . . . we are going to have a Cost Containment Committee meeting on July 11th in a couple of weeks. You may recall that that is the group that gets together to discuss how we might be able to contain health care costs with insurance for the full-time employees in the City. We are also going to be starting negotiations probably this summer at least with the Teamsters, but this year we have the IFF and the FOP and the Teamsters are interested in starting early as opposed to October or November which is more conventional. Just so we are not in a hurry and so we look forward to the beginning of that. That’s all I have. Thank you. Dir. of Econ. Development: I have no report this evening. 2  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. June 28, 18 Dir. of Finance: Thank you. You all may have received an e-mail from the Auditor’s office that our Comprehensive Annual Financial Report has been officially released from their office and so that is a public document and it has been posted to the Finance Department page of the website, so that is available now for public inspection. I did today, actually this evening after I left, finalized the public Annual Financial Report that we distribute to all of the residents that will be posted probably early next week on the City’s website and then that will go out in the Tallmadge Express later in July. I forget the exact date, but it will be sometime in July when that will be distributed out to the residents. I would also ask for consideration of Ord. 59-2018 and Ord. 60-2018 at 1st Reading. End of report. Ass’t. Dir. of Law: We have no report tonight, but would be happy to answer any questions that the Council has. 12. Ordinance 51-2018 At 3rd Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a con- tract with the City of Stow for upgraded aided dispatch software, appropriating computer funds from the unappropriated balance of the General Fund for the admin- istration, maintenance, and training thereof, and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Donovan moved for the adoption of Ord. 51-2018. Seconded Ms. Tricaso. Roll Call: Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Carano – unanimous. Ord. 51-2018 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 13. Ordinance 52-2018 At 3rd Reading. PERSONNEL Tracked Establishing the number of employees by department and position pursuant to R.C. 731.08 and providing for immediate enactment. Ms. Tricaso moved for the adoption of Ord. 52-2018. Seconded Mr. Donovan. Mr. Loughry: I was asked about this ordinance by a few employees and specifically regarding why we did not test for two Civil Service positions. One in the Water Department; Supervisor, and then the position in the Police Department and I will tell you that number one, I was extremely happy with how forthright both Mr. Rorar and Chief Williams were and how detailed and accessible the Civil Service Commission was on both of those and so anyway; we get beat up a lot of times with the way you are perceived to handle personnel and I was on Civil Service and also sat in Mr. Rorar’s seat and I can tell you that both of those were handled extremely well. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Carano, Mr. Donovan – unanimous. Ord. 52-2018 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 14. Ordinance 53-2018 At 3rd Reading. PUBLIC SERVICE Supplementing the Tallmadge Codified P.H. ON 8-9-18 @ 7:33 P.M. Ordinances by establishing Chapter 1192 Management, Administration, and Control of the Use of the City’s Public Rights-of-Way. Pres. of Council: Ord. 53-2018 is at 3rd Reading and will remain before the Public Service Committee and there is a public hearing scheduled for 8-9-18 @ 7:33 p.m. 15. Ordinance 56-2018 At 1st Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Approving and granting an amended con- ditional zoning certificate to the Tallmadge City School District Board of Education for educational and athletic facilities purposes on a 82.2549 acre consolidated parcel on North Munroe Road and amending Ord. 106-2005. Pres. of Council: Ord. 56-2018 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Planning & Zoning Committee. 3  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. June 28, 18 16. Ordinance 59-2018 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Appropriating additional amounts and pro- viding for immediate enactment. Mr. Donovan moved for the adoption of Ord. 59-2018. Seconded Ms. Tricaso. Mayor: Madame Chair, as you can see in the ordinance it is $15,125.41 that was a payment from the insurance carrier. At first we took it out of the Operating Fund, and it is not fair for them since the check came in for money; it is just replacing the funds that were within the Police Department. So we felt impelled to give him his $15,000 back. If you remember a couple of weeks ago, a valve on the first floor; one of the toilets blew apart and flooded the basement and actually it was Memorial Day morning. So by the time we got the water off and they did a good job of getting it cleaned up and the company that came in did a fantastic job and minimized the amount of cleanup. One of the higher expenses was the ammunition in a locked room that was sitting on the floor for the AR-15’s and the first box got wet and so therefore they cannot trust those bullets, but they are using them at the practice range, but they can’t put them in service because they got wet. Roll Call: Mr. Loughry, Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Carano, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 59-2018 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 17. Ordinance 60-2018 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Accepting the Firefighter Exposure to Environmental Elements Grant from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation; appropriating the necessary funds and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Donovan moved for the adoption of Ord. 60-2018. Seconded Ms. Tricaso. Mayor: As you can see, this was a grant and hats off to the Fire Department for applying for this and receiving it; $10,930.83. It was a good job on their behalf to get this grant. Pres. of Council: And this is enough to purchase the gloves and the barrier hoods for the whole department or is it just . . . Dir. of Finance: There are . . . the numbers are in there; there are 25 sets of gloves and 128 hoods. There is a slight; we have about a $2,000 match on it, but they are able to cover that in their original appropriation and so they are only re-appropriating for the actual amount of the grant funding. Pres. of Council: Alright. Very good; any other questions? No one responded. Roll Call: Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Carano, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry – unanimous. Ord. 60-2018 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 18. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: Mr. Loughry: Just a question for the Mayor; Dave, you made reference to using those wet bullets on the range. Is it our intent to negotiate with Cuyahoga Falls to be able to use their new range when it is built? Mayor: Right now we entered into a contract with the City of Kent. It is right behind the football stadium. It is much closer for us and much more convenient for us to go there and so we have actually been going to Kent for quite a while. Mr. Loughry: I misunderstood; I knew it was Kent, but I saw a comment about Munroe Falls and then for some reason, I thought we were using Munroe Falls. Mayor: There is an issue with the Munroe Falls shooting range about cleanup and that; they are being challenged by a resident up there. Mr. Loughry: So that was my mistake. Thank you. Mr. Donovan: To follow up with that; what actually happened with our range? Mayor: Our range? Mr. Donovan: Yeah. Mayor: We did the total cleanup of it and then it was much easier to use the City of Kent’s range. Now you have the Freedom Trail right beside that and there is a lot of concern about us putting our shooting range up against the Freedom Trail and pop, pop, pop. Mr. Donovan: I know that we had that and then we talked about relocating out to Springfield or ... Mayor: To Mogadore; we looked at the site; Tod Steidl property; that was going to all be on private property. Mogadore thought they would like that site, but I just think that is not a very good site and then we also thought about Cuyahoga Falls up by Station 5 and we agreed that we would help take some of our funds that we had to build our own and help Cuyahoga Falls, but then they . . . I think they are going to do it, but I’m not sure; it depends on the joint dispatch center; will it be there; will it be at Station 5; will they build a new one. It is so far for us to travel. Mr. Loughry: Cuyahoga Falls did adopt to do it. Mayor: Yeah, but for us to qualify we would have to leave Tallmadge and run all the way over to Wyoga Lake Road and shoot a couple times and then come back and change the guy and we are right here at 261. Mr. Donovan: Where is the range? I don’t even know where that is at. Mayor: Close to Dix Stadium. Down a little bit behind back in the corner between there at 59. 4  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. June 28, 18 19. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Donovan moved to adjourn. Seconded Ms. Tricaso. Voice vote 6-0. The Regular Council meeting of 6-28-18 adjourned at 7:57 p.m. sb Approved: _________________________________ ____________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Carol A. Kilway, President of Council 5