FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING

DECEMBER 1, 2015

 

Committee Chair Ms. Vaughn opened the meeting at approximately ­­­6:00 p.m. Members of the Committee in attendance were Ms. Vaughn, Ms. DePledge.  Present from Council were Mr. Evers, Mr. Hoefle and Council President Mr. D’Ambrosio. Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins and Mr. Licht were absent and excused.

 

In attendance from the Administration were Mayor Morley, Finance Director Slocum, CBO Menn, Law Director Klammer and Fire Chief Whittington.

 

Also in attendance were members of the public.  

 

A resolution for the acceptance of a bid from Fire Force to purchase self-contained breathing apparatus.

Chief Whittington: This is part of the FEMA grant and there is a 5% obligation. We have been managing that grant because we have already…at the Council Meeting that the bids in.  We have requested the funds for FEMA for the breathing apparatus.  I believe that Mr. Slocum said that he has it in the account so we have the money for that.  This part of it is just the SCBA part and because of the cost and because of the useof the SCBA we put a bidout for them. We only got the one back and I gave a copy of that to Mrs. Simons. This will move the process forward with that and again the funding is there. more than anything it is just managing the grant. It is our obligation and it will come out of the four ten account as far as that goes. These would replace the units that are about 10 to 12 years old and they do have a shelf life. This would be replacing the entire fleet with the exception of some bottles.  We are going to be able to retain which will be put into the new sets.  A couple of the harnesses will be used for different types of things.  As a whole this replaces it and we will not have to worry about this for about another 10 years. I am not sure about the status of all of this in this room but the next time that the SCBA are going to be due…

 

Ms. Vaughn: I hope that I am around somewhere.

 

Chief Whittington:  As far as the decision on getting them I hope that it is some else’s problem.

 

Ms. Vaughn: This is the grant that Lt. Chief Lloyd wrote correct?

 

Chief Whittington: That is correct.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Are there any questions from the committee? Ms. DePledge?

 

Ms. DePledge: No questions.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Are there any questions from Council? Does the committee want to move it ahead?

 

Ms. DePledge: Yes

 

A resolution for the approval of the purchase of two F250 Ford Trucks with snow plows attachments.

Ms. Vaughn: Would you like to discuss this Mayor Morley or Mr. Slocum? My only question is that are they all wheel drive or just front wheel drive?

 

Mayor Morley: They are all wheel drive and the plows are included.  As we know that all of our trucks are used for all of our departments.  They will be used for everything.  We do not have a fleet where we can say that this truck is for this department.  They will also have the plows on them.  They are in stock and they are a state bid. It is through Classic Ford.  As we have discussed in the previous months that we have to end up scrapping a couple of our trucks and one split in half. And we have the money in the Road Levy.

 

Mr. Slocum: It is the Road Levy and the Sewer Fund.

 

Ms. Vaughn: And the Sewer Fund. Are there any questions from the Committee or Council?

 

Ms. DePledge: No.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Move it ahead?

 

Ms. DePledge: Yes.

 

Ms. Vaughn: I am comfortable with that as long as they have the four wheel drive and you know why I am asking that.

 

An ordinance to temporarily appropriate for the expenses of the City of Eastlake beginning January 1, 2016 and ending December 31, 2016.

Ms. Vaughn: This is a temporary appropriation but by law we have to have in and passed prior to January 1, 2016. Mr. Slocum?

 

Mr. Slocum: You should have two things however I thought that I had both and I do not. The one here is the exact legislation and the second one is attached….the worksheet as to how I calculated the amounts.  Basically what we did is strictly personal cost and it is for three months and we took a third…it gave us a little bit of slack.  The other item is…yes?

 

Ms. Vaughn: Do we have a worksheet?

 

Mr. Slocum: We took half unless we use it specifically that….contractors do and if you take a look in the bonds in section 301 we are not appropriating that much. We only had one bond payment in that first quarter and it was for $60,000.00 and that is it.  There are other things like election expense which we will get that in the first quarter when we get our settlement we have to have funds.  We will get the quarter costs in the first quarter.  This is to keep us operating this is not envisioning any new types of spending.  This is to continue the way that we have been operating for this year.  Notice that ability to pay for things.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Currently there is not an increase in personal or a decrease in personal is that correct?

 

Mr. Slocum: Correct. The only increase in the personal is in the Fire Department…

 

Ms. Vaughn: That is a grant. I meant normal off of the general fund.

Mr. Slocum: There is no increase in personal what so ever.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Thank you Mr. Slocum is there any questions from the Committee or Council? Move forward?

 

Ms. DePledge: Yes.

 

An ordinance adopting Section 182.2706 “Adoption of RITA Rules and Regulations” of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Eastlake.

Ms. Vaughn: As everyone here knows that we have had to make some changes due to the fact that RITA is now handling our City Income Taxes. Is that correct Mr. Slocum?

 

Mr. Slocum: If I could expound on it just a little bit. We passed a very similar section of this in Section 184 which is the new section.  The new section is for the tax years 2016 and forward. We did not have anything similar to this in Section 183 which covers tax years 2015 and previous.  RITA reviewed what we had passed in Section 184 and they were happy with what they saw.  They made the recommendation that we should adopt this so that we are staying crystal clear in compliance with what the state mandates.  They are still going to be collecting under Section 183 next year.  There is going to be a period when they are going to be collecting under both.

 

Ms. Vaughn:  I understand.  Does everybody else understand?  Mr. Klammer?

 

Mr. Klammer: You never talked too much about the title…..

 

Mr. Slocum: Yes we did do that before we…..

 

Ms. Vaughn: Mr. Klammer are you ok with that? Are there any questions for the Chair?  Committee can we move it forward?

 

Ms. DePledge: Move it forward.

A resolution for a Lease Agreement with the American Croatian Lodge.

Ms. Vaughn: I attempted not to make any kind of comments or have any conversations on this since I sit on the PAL Board. This contract would affect the PAL Organization negatively so I will not be participating in this conversation.  I will turn it over to the Council President Mr. D’Ambrosio.

 

Mr. Slocum: If there is no objection may I be excused.

 

Ms. Vaughn: It is fine with me if it is fine with everybody else.

 

Mr. Slocum has left the meeting at this time.

 

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Mayor Morley did you want to talk about this?

 

Mayor Morley: I guess for one I am sort of caught off guard by the negative impact from PAL. Since I have talked with Mr. Evers before so.

 

Mr. Evers: I have not seen the contract.

 

Mayor Morley: This will be the first time that I am hearing that.

 

Ms. Vaughn: I haven’t seen the contract.

 

Mr. Evers: This is the first time that I have seen the contract.

 

Mr. Klammer: Mr. Peterson he is the attorney.

 

Mr. Peterson: Just so you could name your questions the right way once we get to them. We have very distinct rules and Marco has had primary substantive conversations.  I have been trying to put it in some sort of a legal form.  I will talk about it more but just so you know where to aim them. 

 

Mr. D’Ambrosio: I just read the contract today and I talked with Mr. Evers who runs the E-PAL and I know that he had some concerns. Mr. Evers did you want to bring up your concerns?

 

Mr. Evers: I think that it is a good deal for everybody right off the get go but there are some negative impacts that are in there. One is the use of the parking lot at the Community Center.  E-PAL rents out that Community Center and at times we could have an upwards of about 200 cars in the parking lot.  My people are paying for the building and E-PAL is solely responsible by their lease for the maintenance of that parking lot.  Adding additional parking in there is not going to work for us and I am sorry.  We had the skate park, the basket ball courts plus rentals.  That is going to be a problem and I don’t know if we could revisit that and look at it.

 

Ms. DePledge: Where are they thinking about putting additional parking in?

 

Ms. Vaughn: They are going to us the parking.

 

Mayor Morley: This is where I am sort of lost in the shuffle.

 

Ms. DePledge: Like I said this is my first time.

 

Mayor Morley: We had discussed that the parking would still be at the Croatian Home and they would walk across.

 

Ms. Vaughn: That is what I thought but the contract does not say that. That is why we are confused.

 

Mr. Evers: The contract says nonexclusive use of the parking facilities located at the Community Center off of Roberts Road.

 

Ms. Vaughn: yeah.

 

Mr. Evers: That is the Community Center. It is on page 107 paragraph D.

 

Ms. Vaughn: It certainly isn’t because we don’t want it. We want you to have use of it.  It’s the parking.

 

Mr. Peterson: When you said that it surprised me a little bit because I didn’t remember writing it that way. It is written as nonexclusive use.

 

Mr. Evers: Right.

 

Mr. Peterson: I thought that I heard you say nonexclusive use.

 

Mr. Evers: No non exclusive use.

 

Mr. Peterson: Our thought in that would be that we understand ….is there. Our thought was that when it is not in use we would be secondary.  We would be secondary because you are there.

 

Mr. Evers: Right but see that could create a problem. How are we going to communicate?  That is a big issue with me.  You could have twenty cars parked over there for the basketball courts and I could have an upwards of thirty cars for the skate park that take the main parking lot.  If I have a rental coming in and there is no communication…the people who are renting that building will not have a place to park.  And they are paying for exclusive use of that building and the parking facilities.  Again under our lease which Mr. Slocum wrote E-PAL is responsible solely for the maintenance of that parking lot.

 

Mr. Klammer: Do you think that you have enough parking over at the Croatian Hall?

 

Mr. Mazar: I believe that we have plenty of parking for the usage of this property. We are going to open up the access in the back.  The idea of having that in there was for any special tournaments for the soccer use.  The purpose of the facility is for recreational and it is for a non-profit organization.  I just want to keep that in mind for everyone.  Once a year we have ideas to host a soccer tournament over a weekend. That is something that we will be able to coordinate with you guys.  This would not be on a frequent basis or a weekly basis or anything like that.  Maybe we could work something out to where we can completely eliminate that and ask for permission on a…

 

Ms. DePledge: As needed.

 

Ms. Vaughn: As needed

 

Mr. Evers: I think that we could sit down and work that out.

 

Marco: As needed or whatever might be. That is fine.

 

Mr. Peterson: We could eliminate that if you guys.

 

Ms. DePledge: Just to ask you I have seen how you guys have your soccer fields set up and how you have the massive parking lot over there.  When you guys do your functions do you say that the main parking center is yours over at the Croatian Lodge?  Could you manage it that way? If you are advertising for your tournament primary parking is at the Croatian Center.  Something like that.

 

Mr. Peterson: Sure.

 

Ms. DePledge: Because I would imagine that is where people would go anyway.

Mr. Mazar: It is also about coordinating with our other groups internally. We do have some store fronts there as well that a have a certain amount of parking.  We are a little nervous that in the event that we do host a tournament it is going to be during the summer and over the weekend.  Primarily what we use our facility for are for banquet halls.  There are a lot of large weddings that are about 300 to 500 people. If it happens to coincide with a tournament that the non-profit organization is hosting then what do we do in that case?

 

Ms. DePledge: Then you could have a wedding at the Community Center on the same night.

 

Mr. Mazar: That is something that we could coordinate with everyone ahead of time with all of the parties that are involved.

 

Ms. DePledge: We need to make sure that it is in here.

 

Ms. Vaughn: We have to handle it somehow because PAL needs the money from the rental for the hall from the weddings and the receptions. They like to keep the organization for the young people of Eastlake running and we need the money.  We can’t just say that you could have it every Saturday night.  We want to make it to where…I don’t know how much do we get $200 or $300 or something like that for the evening.  We basically need the money and it is as simple as that.

 

Mr. Mazar: Can I ask one question and this may eliminate the entire discussion. You said that you had exclusive responsibility for the maintenance. Does it already give you exclusive use of the parking lot?  Because if it does it is a non issue and in this lease we have to go to you and say can we use it.

 

Mr. Evers: It does.

 

Mr. Mazar: So I mean….

 

Mr. Klammer: Why don’t we just do that and then we will just document that the other lease exists and the parties agree in good faith.

 

Ms. Vaughn: That is fine.

 

Mr. Mazar: We are going to have to go to you and say can we use it?

 

Ms. Vaughn: Mr. Evers is the Director I’m just on the Board.

 

Mr. Evers: I think that it is something that we can sit down and work out. It is a viable option.

 

Mr. Klammer: I think that we can work something out.

 

Mr. Evers: We can work something out.

 

Ms. Vaughn: We welcome having The Croatian Organization using part of our facilities for the people coming to Eastlake. That is important to us too. I just have to also protect…Mr. D’Ambrosio?

 

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Is public access going to be allowed as far as some of the Eastlake leagues? Would they be able to use the area and participate on those fields?  Was there any discussion about that?

 

Mr. Mazar: Yes there has been plenty of discussion on that. Now based on where the discussion has gone because there is going to be a significant investment that is going to be involved.

 

Mr. D’Ambrosio: I know.

 

Mr. Mazar: In knowing that there is also going to be a certain time frame where there is going to be a return on that investment. We would be willing to coordinate with our activities group and the non-profit organization to be able to rent it out.  I know that we can’t necessarily put something in a contract…we are worried that we are going to invest $100,000.00 to $150,000.00 in the facility and you know the football team is going to practice on it twice a week and tear the fields up. 

 

Ms. Vaughn: That is not going to happen.

 

Mr. D’Ambrosio: I was thinking more along the lines of the soccer league’s to use the facility in the way that you guys are setting it up for.

 

Ms. DePledge: Is that an option?

 

Mr. Mazar: Yes we would be open minded to at a very, very low cost to lease it out depending on the amount of time and wear and tear on the fields.

 

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Sure.

 

Mr. Mazar: It would also depend on the season and the condition of the field.  And the availability as well so yes we are open minded to it.  Do we want to open the doors up and let the local rugby group come in?

 

Ms. Vaughn: No.

 

Mr. D’Ambrosio: No we understand.

 

Mayor Morley: It would be like the same set up as PAL. PAL right now rents out the facility just as we did.  They would rent out…

 

Mr. D’Ambrosio: I agree.

 

Mayor Morley: They’re putting the investment in and they would rent out that part of it.

 

Ms. Vaughn: If you choose too.

Mayor Morley: The only thing that I want to put in there is and I know that Mr. Evers sees it every day. I don’t know when the last time anyone was at the Community Center it is just terrible back there.  When they first came too talked to us we went back there…we also had a softball group that was going to try and renovate the fields and again they couldn’t come up with the funds for the month.  Everything back there is falling apart the fences are down, the softball fields that we don’t us at all are over grown with grass.  I think that this is a good thing for us.  That is what this committee meeting is for to work out the issues.  We don’t have to have anything settled in stone tonight but this is why we have committee meetings so we can talk through these things.  You had that with the whole East thing…unfortunately with the transition in Council. These things that we had…the lease for you before the holiday however I can’t answer them today.  We have there last week…Mr. Klammer and Mr. Peterson will be going back and forth and we have stayed out of it.  We said to let them write the lease and we will go from there.  Mr. Mazar and I have met a few times.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Unfortunately tonight was the first chance to see it because we didn’t get it until today. It wasn’t ready for us and Mr. Evers was in last night trying to get it and I was trying to get it and it wasn’t available.  I apologize for that and we don’t want to hold things up but it’s just that he had a concern. 

 

Mayor Morley: I was caught so off guard. I don’t want to rush things through. They want from end is that are we interested or not.  We have talked and they have land in other cities and they will just move on.  I think that for us…and they have other visions for that property over there that we don’t need to discuss today.  There vision for Eastlake is to make it a great place.  That is what Mr. Mazar and I have visions on for that whole area after the school decides that they want to see Washington.  There are things that they want to do.  It’s part of the puzzle.

 

Ms. Vaughn: As I have said before we want to welcome them here but we just have to protect every body’s interests.

 

Mr. Mazar: We expect a ton of questions. Mr. Klammer made it very clear to send us a try and that we are going to have questions.  Don’t worry about asking as many questions as you want.

 

Ms. Vaughn: That is the only thing that I can come up with. Mr. D’Ambrosio?

 

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Just from my point of view I welcome this. Like the rest I just saw this today at 5:30 p.m. so I don’t have any questions for you right now.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Or any additional questions.

 

Mr. D’Ambrosio: To hit you guys with and I would like to read this a little bit more thoroughly. It sounds like a great idea.  Mayor Morley told me what was going on and I have also seen some of the emails that were going back and forth.  I don’t have any problems with it but I may have other questions.

 

Mr. Mazar: I would like to add one thing to this and not to over sell it but keep in mind that in the contract that there is a provision in there that states that the intent is for a non-profit organization that is affiliated with us.  That it is part of the soccer program and half of the kids are part of the soccer program and they are within the Croatian community.  The other half of the kids are from surround cities in the Lake County community.  It is also part of the whole community.  We also have some little events that we have that we host for non-profit that are for about 100 people that we roast pigs for that we want to do.  If we decided to use this property for any other intent that is something that we would have to ask for permission for through the City in order to get.  The Mayor and I have also discussed the idea of teaming up with the school board and creating a large festival.  Doing something like the feast or the October Fest and actually promoting this and having half of the proceeds go towards the Eastlake City Schools and back to the Croatian community for the non-profit organizations.  We are for profit but a lot of non-profit organizations are affiliated with us also. We are like the mother of all of this.  I think that was a question that was raised in a letter that I saw.  It is important to know that The American Croatian Lodge….the soccer program is there and that is the non-profit part of it and it is promote it for all of the kids in the lodge.  If there is any concern about The American Croatian Lodge being for profit. I still think that it is the right entity to have this lease because it is going to have a longer existence and a much broader picture through its board of how we interact with Eastlake rather than just soccer focus. 

 

Ms. Vaughn: I remember when it was built and it has been a great thing for the City for quite a while. We have no problem with that.  Are there any questions from anybody else? Mr. Evers?

 

Mr. Evers: I understand that there were some drawings made up? I would like the Council to see those before we…

 

Mr. Mazar: Just keep in mind that they are very rough and we didn’t want to take the time…

 

Mayor Morley: I wasn’t going to have them $50,000 on drawings.

 

Mr. Mazar: This is kind of what we had in mind. On the back side of our parking lot this would open up into these fields and we your current pavilion is we would create a little bench pavilion garden entry into where the fields would go. 

 

Ms. Vaughn: Where is the Community Center?

 

Mr. Mazar: The Comminunity Center is down here….

 

Ms. DePledge: These are the City basketball courts?

 

Mr. Mazar: In fact your City basketball courts are right here. These are where I believe that the old tennis or basketball courts are supposed to be on the original city drawing.  So you entrance from Roberts Road comes in from right here and our back entrance comes in from right here.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Our entrance from Roberts Road comes in from…where is the entrance from Roberts Road?

 

Ms. DePledge: So Washington is up here?

 

Mr. Mazar: That is correct Washington is up there.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Where is Roberts Road?

 

Ms. DePledge: Roberts Road is over here.

 

Ms. Vaughn: So where is our entrance?

 

Ms. DePledge: Right here.

 

Ms. Vaughn: It is not on there.

 

Ms. DePledge: Right.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Ok.

 

Ms. DePledge: So this is actually behind the Community Center?

 

Mr. Mazar: Right.

 

Ms. DePledge: For me it is behind but some people call it the tennis courts and some people call it behind. To be behind is Washington.

 

Ms. Vaughn: To be behind is the tennis courts.

 

Ms. DePledge: Behind is Washington. So this is Lakeshore Blvd. over here and this is Rt. 91 and this is Roberts Road.

 

Ms. Mazar: That is correct.

 

Mr. Hoefle: This would be the tennis courts and this is the skate park right here and then this would be the Community Center right here then….

 

Ms. DePledge: Right.

 

Mr.Hoefle: Then you have the future horse shoe pits right there.  

 

Mr. Mazar: No I do not have that.

 

Ms. DePledge: You can read that thing?

 

Mr. Hoefle: Where is your horse shoe pit area?

 

Mr. Mazar: Those were drawings that I received from the City. Which I basically did as a scale what I did is I took that drawing and I scaled it.  I basically drew up a good sketch of what we were thinking. 

 

Mayor Morley: If you visualize where you would go into Dubrovnik’s Restaurant going into the Party Center. That is where there entrance would be….

 

Ms. Vaughn: That is what I figured because I see the kids practicing there.

 

Mayor Morley: From there going to the fields that they will put in. We have the pavilion that is on there and the concession stand that they had talked about.  Putting some money in there and making that look nicer.

 

Ms. DePledge: Just for the record I think that it looks like a beautiful park development plan. That is what I would call it for the City and I don’t see…it will be different and it will be new.  It certainly looks like a positive thing for the community.  These are tiny soccer fields?

 

Mr. Mazar: They would be considered…we have three different groups.

 

Ms. DePledge: I see junior fields.

 

Mr. Mazar: They would the junior. They would be for the small kids’ ages eight and under.

 

Ms. DePledge: And the Doverplace? Is this were the Croatian Center is by your entrance over here?

 

Mr. Mazar: The Croatian Center would be all the way…

 

Mayor Morley: This is probably a better picture to show The Croatian Center.

 

Mr. Mazar: So essentially the fields would be a development from square here is where we would develop it and open up this tree line where half of our fields go and all the way up to the end of our parking lot is the tree line that we would take down. We would open up this park area right here for this little sitting park and three fields here and the two large fields here along with a potentially longer field here as well.

 

Ms. DePledge: We can mark this as an exhibit if we want to. Mark it as “Exhibit A”.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Who do they belong too?

 

Mayor Morley: They are mine.

 

Ms. Vaughn: I don’t want to take them away for the Mayor.

 

Mayor Morley: I can make copies of them. 

 

Ms. Vaughn: Our prospective is off on this whole thing.

 

Mayor Morley: Because we also have what we own and what the school owns.

 

Ms. Vaughn: That’s it there now I can see it and now I can see where the Community Center is and the PAL Center is.

 

Mayor Morley: We have met with the schools too because if you have noticed…the Board of Education owns that parcel and the City owns that parcel which is odd. The Board of Education owns this one and this one and then our parcel is right there behind. 

 

Ms. Vaughn: This is easier than the map for me to read.

 

Mayor Morley: I will make better copies of those.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Mr. Evers?

 

Mr. Evers: I have one more concern on this and it is on page four Section B. That if the City decides to lease or sell the Community Center…

 

Ms. DePledge: Which Section?

 

Mr. Evers: Section B at the top. That the Croatian Center will get first rights and I think that is wrong.  E-PAL is a tenant in that building and they should have the first rights to buy that building.

 

Mr. Mazar: We would be ok with that.

 

Mr. Evers: You and I talked about that.

 

Mr. Mazar: We were concerned if somebody else comes in and rents it. Potentially a competitor or something that is not exactly safe for kids and then we would be a little nervous about that as well.

 

Ms. Vaughn: That is understandable.

 

Mayor Morley: I have also said that we have no plans on selling it if that was the case I would have done it by now.

 

Mr. Klammer: It is residential property anyway. I think right?

 

Mr. Evers: No.

 

Mr. Klammer: The Community Center…as far as the business going in.

 

Mayor Morley: From our prospective I would hope that someday that the City is going to be a little bit more solvent but if that was the case I would have said…we have talked about them buying the property and we said no. We really talked about that and we want to keep the Cities property the Cities property at this point. Somewhere down the line.

 

Ms. DePledge: Is this the current soccer field?

 

Mr. Mazar: Should we re-word it?

 

Mr. Peterson: How about just subject to the rights of E-PAL? Or secondary to E-PAL or something like that.

 

Mr. Klammer: I don’t know if E-PAL has it in their lease. We would have to look at it and give it to them.  I don’t think that anyone objects.

 

Mr. Evers: I have no objections. This is a good thing and seeing those fields back there empty just tears me up every day when I look at them.  E-PAL has been in the City since 1995.

 

Mayor Morley: We have gone this route with E-PAL in the ten years that I have been here and it is no disrespect but this is always a concern that E-PAL wants to buy something but unfortunately they never buy anything.

 

Mr. Evers: Under previous…

 

Ms. Vaughn: Under the previous board it is totally different.

 

Mayor Morley: This is a ten year thing with E-PAL. When I first came on to Council we were going to actually sell…

 

Mr. Evers: Council stopped that one.

 

Mayor Morley: The Community Center to E-PAL and it didn’t happen.

 

Mr. Klammer: Let’s be realistic nobodies buying it and the only people that would be interested would be E-PAL or the Croatian Center. There is no business that could go there the facility is out dated.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Do you think that they would buy our houses? PALS houses? PAL has two houses’ that are for sale if anybody is interested. Talk to the Director they are both for sale.  Ms. DePledge?

 

Ms. DePledge: This is a question for Mr. Peterson. Is this your current soccer field?  I see Mr. Evers concern with the parking is you going to turn that into a parking area?  No that is not your plan so this would be the only parking down over to here and up in here.

 

Mr. Peterson: It is pretty significant parking.

 

Ms. DePledge: How many people do you think that your tournament on a weekend would attract? I don’t know I have no idea.  I am not a soccer mom.

 

Mr. Mazar: I don’t believe that the parking facility that even you guys have would be enough. We would have to coordinate that with the City.

 

Mayor Morley: We have also talked…

 

Ms. DePledge: If we are trying to work this out what about the option for using the Washington parking area?

 

Mayor Morley: That is what we have discussed and I have met with Willoughby- Eastlake Schools and they want to work with the City and the Croatian Home. We have sat down and Mr. Neddick at the meeting and we could actually use that parking lot back there if we needed to.  They were actually going to let us use any of the fields back there once we put these in the fast pitch leagues or any of the other teams wanted to use the fields in Washington they were going to let them us the fields.

Mr. Peterson: Where do they shuttle people for the bocce tournament?

 

Mr. D’Ambrosio: It is at the ABB.

 

Mr. Mazar: We designed that there would be three small fields and two large fields and potentially a third large field.

 

CBO Menn: If you have a tournament starting at eight o’clock in the morning running on the hour…you could have so many teams drawing in here and how many fans?

 

Mr. Mazar: On the large fields…our current field we have five large fields.

 

CBO Menn: That is a lot of people.

 

Mr. Klammer: I thought that Wickliffe had a bocce tournament every year. In Canada it is huge.

 

Ms. Vaughn: You have the parking lot from Classic Park where they can park and you can shuttle them down. There is lots of parking up there. 

 

Mr. Evers: Erie Road.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Also the corner of Erie Road.

 

Ms. DePledge: It seems like we have a lot of options to explore for parking.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Just to bring this to a reasonable conclusion do you want to hold this until our next meeting? Our Council Meeting is next week.  Do you want to hold it till Council-As-A-Whole or do you want to hold it until the following Council Meeting which is December 15^th.

 

Mayor Morley: If Mr. Klammer can figure out the two items in the lease that you want changes.

 

Mr. Klammer: I know that they had and I don’t want to speak because the weather is changing but they had some hopes of something yet this year before the weather breaks.  I don’t know if your intentions have changed or not.

 

Mr. Mazar: It’s too late we are past that point.

 

Mr. Klammer: Ok.

 

Mr. Peterson: We didn’t have them done and we couldn’t see them for six months.

 

Mr.Mazar: We would still like to work out the whole engineering and architectural side of things over the next two to three months let’s get the drawings finished and go from there.

 

Ms. Vaughn: I don’t know if you want it done this month but after this month don’t count me in as a supporter because I will not be here. I will still be a supporter but I will not have a vote.  Everything is changing and that is why I didn’t know if there was a time frame this.

 

Mr. Klammer: Things are difficult for me and Mr. Peterson.

 

Ms. Vaughn: We have a meeting on December 8^th, 15^th, and the 29^th. So we should have it done this month.  Is that fair enough Mayor Morley, Mr. Klammer, Mr. Peterson and Mr. Mazar?

 

Mr. Klammer: If we could get Mr. Evers concerns addressed by December 8^th for sure.

 

Ms. Vaughn: I would appreciate that.

 

Mr. Hoefle: It would give me time to review it since I saw it as I walked in.

 

Mayor Morley: If you have any other questions…

 

Mr. Hoefle: I will get them over to you.

 

Mr. Evers: It just fell the way that it did and we didn’t get the contract until Friday.

 

Ms. Vaughn: It’s not your fault we have some internal problems.

 

Mr. Evers: We are doing the best with all the way across the board.

 

Mayor Morley: I get it every day.

 

Ms. Vaughn: It is not your fault Mayor Morley.

 

Ms. DePledge: Generally it is seen as a positive and I that there is a lot of support for it and if there are issues that come up we are going to find a way to resolve them so that this happens.

 

Ms. Vaughn: We will make it happen.

 

Ms. DePledge: We will make it happen.

 

Ms. Vaughn: Is there anything else to come before this meeting if not I will open the floor for the people who are here that might have something to discuss. Does anybody have anything that wish to bring before the Finance Committee?

 

LAW DEPARTMENT

Mr. Klammer had nothing to report.

There were no further questions or comments.

 

FINANCE DEPARTMENT

Mr. Slocum had nothing to report

There were no further questions or comments.

 

MAYOR’S COMMENTS

Mayor Morley had nothing to report.

There were no further questions or comments.

MISCELLANEOUS

REGOGNITION OF PUBLIC:

Jennifer Luczywo, 34186 Waldmer Ave., Eastlake

Ms. Luczywo: I have a couple of comments about the lease and these are things that I noticed. Based on your discussion I think that everyone is assuming that the soccer fields are going to be used for the community but from what we have heard they are going to be used by members of the community with explicit permit. There is nothing in the lease that says that Eastlake residents will be able to use with permission. Which I think might be a whole new lease that would include something that states that Eastlake residents will be able to use these soccer fields under certain circumstances. Next I noticed that there is no termination section in the lease…a 20 year lease that Eastlake has no way to terminate it. Which I would imagine if the circumstances changed maybe in ten or fifteen years the City will want a way to terminate this lease. Finally I do not understand the Cities unwillingness to sell the land. One dollar seems like a really low consideration for such a big part of land that The Croatian Center is going to be able to make money by holding tournaments there. There will be improvements on there but not for the residents of Eastlake to use at their will. So I guess we really don’t understand why the City wouldn’t be willing to sell that.

Mayor Morley: In opposite to what you said about what other residents will say we pay for the land we don’t want to sell it is our tax dollars that bought the land.

Ms. Luczywo: I think that resident’s will say why are you letting The Croatian Center use the land when now we can’t.

Mayor Morley: We don’t use the land because we can’t afford to use the land. I think that… I love that you guys have a lot of questions but you guys try to sometimes look at right now and we have been dealing with this for 10 years and you come in…I am ok with your ideas and thought process but again I have told you thirty people could get in line at that Council Meeting and have thirty different things as to how it affects them. We make decision for this City for how it affects 18,500 residents. I look at it that we are not using that field at all and to me it is a blinded area in our City. If you walk back there and look at everything it is blinded. So when I look at what it does for the City when someone drives through the City and goes back there and says “this is really nice.”

Ms. Luczywo: While you might be looking at it from the past I think that we are trying to look at it as to what can the City do in 20 years. I mean that the old Mayor might have said that about the spot where the Captain’s Stadium is and said that was a blinded area. Now we are stuck with that and I think that this might be a good idea but not for 20 years locked in if we can have some sort of shorter lease or some sort of…

Mayor Morley: What is your number?

Ms. Luczywo: I would say five years repeating.

Ms. DePledge: Would you invest $100,000.00 or $150,000.00 for five years?

Mr. Mazar: It is more than that.

Mayor Morley: More like $300,000.00.

Ms. DePledge: They are not going to do that. I wouldn’t give you $300,000.00 and walk away in five years.

Ms. Luczywo: I think that I would prefer to not have…I feel that our options are to keep our options open for that field. To have soccer fields that Eastlake residents can’t use for 20 years.

Mayor Morley: I’m not saying that they can’t use them. They can rent them like they would at the Community Center.

Ms. Vaughn: Mr. Evers why don’t you explain.

Mr. Evers: Let’s just assume that this was E-PAL you are more than welcome to come into that building anytime you want to and sit down and say I would like to rent it on this date and this date and this date. It is still open to the community but if I have a function going on there and it is my option to say sorry you have to choose a different date. This is what is going to happen with them also. That if you want to use the soccer field you would be able to lease it but if they have something else going on there you will have to work it out with them. So it is not blocking it off from the community.

Chief Whittington: You already have a good soccer field to use too.

Ms. Vaughn: Yes we do. We have a pretty big one.

Chief Whittington: So it’s not like any of the kids in the City would be looking for soccer fields.

Mr. Klammer: If the facility isn’t being used the community soccer league’s can come to you guys and say can we host a tournament there? Because it is a bigger field and the kids get a kick out of it. They would be willing to consider it. They just don’t want the facility abused because of the investment.

Mr. Mazar: There is going to be a significant investment not only in the upfront costs but also in the ongoing maintenance which is part of the reason you guys are having difficulty with it. On top of that it is not a closed program it is an open program. If kids want to join the program they can just like the Croatian kids can and they are welcome to do that. It is a fantastic program and hopefully it will be even more fantastic as we add the facilities to make it bigger and better.

Ms. DePledge: If the facility is there and it exists and it is open to the public for people to join it will draw families here. That is a bigger boost to our community.   You can disagree and that is fine.

Mayor Morley: Right now how many people do you think use that park right now? How many people used to go on the fields?

Ms. Vaughn: Zero.

Mayor Morley: Have you seen the fields lately? Have you been back there?

Ms. Luczywo: Yeah I live right there.

Mayor Morley: Do you ever see anyone playing baseball or anything there?

Ms. Luczywo: I am not saying that it wouldn’t be a good use of land it might be a good use. I just don’t if I agree that it should still belong to the City.

Mr. Klammer: I was surprised to find out that there are 30 cars in the skate park.

Ms. Vaughn: Everyone is allowed only three minutes to make their comments and you guys know that so we are going to cut it off there. Yes Mr. Rubertino you got your trucks. Mr. Evers?

Mr. Evers: We are going to survey these lots before any…

Mr. Mazar: I don’t have a problem with that but if there are going to be improvements…I think that it has a fence on it so.

Mr. Evers: Don’t we have to survey those lots?

Mayor Morley: They are going to go thought he Building Department just like everyone else.

Mr. Evers: That’s what we are asking. Are the lots going to be surveyed?

Mayor Morley: What do you mean by surveyed?

Mr. Evers: Each parcel you are going to have a dividing line between City property and what is now being leased to the Croatian Lodge.

Ms. Mazar: Would it be acceptable to do a border survey of the entire border instead of each lot?

Mr. Evers: Just a border survey? So that there will be no more doubt or questions?

Mayor Morley: The Board of Education is here and we are right here.

Mr. Evers: Can they do a border survey like he said?

Ms. DePledge: Yeah.

Mr. Evers: That is it I am done.

Ms. Vaughn: Are there any other issues?

Mr. Mazar: Along with an architect and get it drained properly. There is going to be a large investment to be put in place.

Mayor Morley: The other reason we are selling to the Croatian Home is because they won first bids and I know that they can afford whatever we are going to ask.

Ms. Vaughn: Are there any other question that come before the Committee?

CBO Menn: I would like to say that if it goes forward and when you get to the site plan work when you do your rough drawings just come in and speak with us. We will sit down and talk with you and make sure that we are all on the same page and where the drawings are going and drainage, water runoff all of that stuff.

Mr. Mazar: That is something that I think that we would ask is a permit from you guys and go through the whole process.

CBO Menn: Even before we get to that stage we would like to have conformation.

Ms. Vaughn: We will bring this up briefly at the meeting next Tuesday but it will not be voted on because we don’t have all of the information. When we report on the meeting tonight we will say that this was under discussion and that is probably as far as we will go unless someone has comments.

Mr. Hoefle: I am going to review this and if I have any questions I will forward them to the appropriate people.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: We are going to leave it in Committee?

Ms. Vaughn: Leave it in Committee.

Mayor Morley: I have all of your questions that you have submitted.

Ms. DePledge: Will we get it done…

Ms. Vaughn: Sure it will go to Council-As-A-Whole.

Ms. DePledge: Ok.

Ms. Vaughn: Everybody has been here except Mr. Licht.

Ms. DePledge: No problem.

Ms. Vaughn: We are missing one person tonight.

Mr. Klammer: Just so they know you are going to leave it in Committee then move it for the last Council Meeting of the year?

Ms. Vaughn: It is the second to last Council Meeting on December 15^th. If all of the pieces go into place properly we could probably vote on it on December 15^th. If not our final chance would be on December 29^th.

Mr. Klammer: And the next Committee Meeting will be when?

Ms. Vaughn: We don’t need another Committee Meeting.

Mr. Klammer: I thought that you hold it in Committee.

Ms. Vaughn: We call it hold it in Committee but it would go to Council-As-A-Whole.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: We will move it to Council-As-A-Whole. We will discuss it there and motion to vote.

Ms. Vaughn: We will just move it to Council-As-A-Whole if that is alright because the only Finance Committee Meeting will be on December 29^th when we close the books for the year and the meeting should only last fifteen minutes. There is nothing that we can do about it. Mr. D’Ambrosio?

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Mr. Klammer why do you try and get together and we will work this entire thing out and maybe even get it us before the next Council Meeting so we can at least discuss it. We can talk about it in Council-As-A-Whole and review it. We have that meeting on December 15^th and we will just keep it moving.

Mr. Klammer: I wanted to make sure that they knew that it would show up in Council-As-A-Whole.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Yes. It will be in Council-As-A-Whole.

Ms. Vaughn: It is not going to die in Council. December 8^th at seven o’clock and our next Council Meeting and the next one after that is on December 15^th at seven o’clock and the Final one in on December 29^th at six o’clock. The meeting on December 29^th is primarily to close out the books for the year unless we need to bring this up. It is located in Council Chambers.

There was no one else who wished to speak.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:47 p.m.

tms      

                                                                        APPROVED: ___________________________

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        DATE: ______________________________