FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING

MARCH 7, 2017

Committee Member Mr. Evers opened the meeting at approximately ­­­6:00 p.m. Members of the Committee in attendance were Mr. Evers, Mr. Hoefle and Mr. Zuren.  Present from Council were Mr. Meyers, Mr. Kasunick and Mr. Spotton.  Council President Ms. DePledge was absent and excused.

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

Also in attendance was Mr. Rayburn.

There were no members of the public in attendance.   

PROPOSED:

1. Purchase Agreement for the Nike/JFK Site

   Mr. Evers: At this point I will turn the meeting over to Mayor Morley and Mr. Klammer.

   Mayor Morley: I will just talk about the purchase price and tearing down the old JFK, and to also talk about some of the other things that we came up with.

   Chief Reik has entered the meeting at this time.

   Mayor Morley: I sent to everyone about a month ago that the property was appraised at $300,000.00 and I am working with Mr. Rayburn and his group…and we have agreed to a $300, 000.00 purchase price.  The other part that we talked about was the tearing down of the old JFK…Mr. Rayburn and his team also agreed to tear down the old JFK.  If they were not given the license in September that the cost would still is on them and we wouldn’t be charged for the cost of the demolition.  Talking about the cost and the property I will let Mr. Klammer discuss that.

   Mr. Klammer: Believe it or not I don’t think that the transaction is all that complicated.  We have a buyer that is pretty friendly to work with and an incentive to own a property.  The purchase price is there and we all know what the property has been appraised at, so we found the ordinance in that regard.  The only thing that would need to be amended as I put on the record when we were at our last Council Meeting…I will just say it now so when Mrs. Simons reads it…it will have to exempt this transaction from the 10 acre maximum in that specific ordinance…I don’t imagine it’s that much of a problem.  If I remember correctly we passed that ordinance in the first place for the Nike Site and I don’t know how we were off by .86^th of an acre.  Most of this is pretty topical and we have a sixty day inspection period.  We are all going to work together so if they need more time to do their general inspections…we will assume that they have the right to do that.  We all know that it is a Nike Missal Site.  So in the off chance there is something that comes up they have that opportunity and I am sure that we will extend it without any problems.  They have a contingency to get their easements in…to get across that property to Lakeland Blvd. To a certain degree it is land locked so they need to get across that and it is the school’s property now I think.  I think that they are working on that now.  The one unique part about the transaction is that it is going to require transfer to the buyer, because they need to own the property for purposes of their licensor.  Should their licensor not come through it gives the city the right to take the property back.  So there will be a transfer to them so that they can pursue their application.  For some reason that doesn’t work we are going to be right back to where we started.  They have committed in the contract to do the demolition of the property of that building no matter what.  I think it is a good deal and I think the benefit of having that property demolished helps the city, state and county.  We would have no way of doing it without all three of them, because we couldn’t afford to do it.  I think that Mr. Rayburn is here to answer any questions.  I will answer any questions as well.

   Mr. Evers: First and for most has there been any contact with the Willoughby-Eastlake School Board?

   Mayor Morley: I talked to the Superintendant and the Mr. Nedlik and we are going to have another meeting to talk about that.  At that point there were no issues of whatever we had to do.  I went and pulled something from the Auditor’s office about the easement that is there right now.  We will just have to figure out how it works.  There should not be any issues.

   Mr. Evers: Mr. Zuren?

   Mr. Zuren: I have a question for Mr. Klammer.  On page seven of the purchase agreement under subsection 8 (b)…the sellers cost which is the city and one of the costs on there is premium for title policy or title insurance policy.  I think that is pretty customary to the split by buyer and seller.  The other ones seemed to be appropriate but that one is usually is split between both parties.

   Mr. Klammer: It goes all sorts of different ways…if that is something that’s…I don’t know what the cost of the title commandment is going to be on something like that anyways. 

   Mr. Zuren: Five dollars to a thousand and that is quite a bit of money.

   Mr. Klammer: If that is something that you want to address then we will deal with that with Mr. Rayburn.

   Mr. Evers: Good point.

   Mr. Klammer: That is the policy to ensure that the title is put on the transfer.

   Mr. Evers: I have one question for you Mr. Klammer.  You had mentioned something about the title has to change hands before the property is actually sold?  What would be the closing date on that?  I didn’t see it in here.  It just says closing date.

   Mr. Klammer:  I mean it is based on…I don’t think that we set an exact closing date.  I think we had it working on the inspection period.  I know that we had a loose closing date in some emails that were circulating….Mr. Rayburn do you remember if we had a set closing date in here?  I think that they are working out the due diligence period of sixty days (60) and then with the building demolished no later than August 1^st.  His hope is that…you won’t know if you will get your license until after September 1^st right?

   Mr. Rayburn: Right.

   Mr. Klammer: So if that helps then September, we will know whether or not it is coming back to us if that helps.  So if it transfers we have to have it before September 1^st.  We didn’t set a specific date.

   Mr. Evers: Mr. Rubertino I take it that you have been over to the building its?  There is nothing inside that needs to be salvaged?

   Mr. Rubertino: I don’t think that there is really much salvageable in there.  There may be some tables I think that we still have in there that we can remove out of there.  They are old tables and I don’t know where we would use them.  They are just old wood tables that are out dated and I am not sure on the condition of them.  We’ve been in there and…

   Mr. Evers: I know that there is a lot of must and mold in there.

   Mr. Rubertino: It’s damp in there and it’s been closed up for a few years.  It’s been broken into and the windows are broken out throughout the whole building.  I don’t think that there is anything in there that the city could benefit from on our end that is salvageable to get anything out of it.  The tables would be it if they’re not like you said moldy and damp.  That building has been closed up for quite a while; there is no heat or lights. When we go in there it is with a flashlight and if there was anything I’m not sure that it would be any good anymore.

   Mr. Evers: Chief Reik?

   Chief Reik: If he does find anything we will have our auction sometime in June.  If something salvageable comes up and you want to put it in the auction.

   Mr. Rubertino: It would be tables if anything.  I wouldn’t get rid of any…we have already removed the chairs that were left in there.  I just don’t see anything in there that we would take the time that we would need to…kitchen cabinets and all that.  I would say really honestly say nothing.

   Mr. Evers: Are there any other questions?  Are there any other questions from Council?

   Mr. Klammer: To address Mr. Zuren’s point I will get with Mr. Rayburn and his lawyer to see…and I am seeing your point now that whole provision should be about buyer’s obligation for all of Section 8 (b).  That is what I will talk to Mr. Rayburn and his lawyers about.  There is really no…there is no reason to distinguish between a title commitment and a title policy anymore.  I will talk with Mr. Rayburn’s attorney, but I think that you guys could probably move forward with that one condition.  If you decided that’s a hold up you can…Council if that is okay with you.  I will include Ms. DePledge on my correspondence with the Mayor and Mr. Rayburn’s lawyer’s just to keep it moving.

   Mr. Evers: There were no further questions.  Mr. Hoefle?

   Mr. Hoefle: I am okay with moving it forward.

   Mr. Zuren: I am okay with moving it forward.

   Mr. Evers: Move it forward.

   Mr. Klammer: Can I touch on the Chapter real quick just to give an update on where that’s at so that when you guys see it you aren’t surprised.  You had a draft that can from me and Mrs. Simons did a great job making it look like an official Ordinance Chapter.  I emailed Mrs. Simons back and my suggestion was that the Council President can move forward as she determines fit.  I just assumed that she took that as she was going to talk to Ms. DePledge…did it move forward and apparently it never made it to you guys, which was okay anyways because we went back and looked at some changes.  So you should have received a good set of changes as of this morning.  But that Chapter doesn’t have to be passed along with this purchase agreement.  So we have a little bit of time on that…Mr. Rayburn can do some work on the property and the licensure.  So we have some flexibility there and I just wanted you guys to know what that hiccup was.  I thought that Mrs. Simons had sent it to you guys but I should have been a little bit clearer.  But you should have it as of today so give me your thoughts on that stuff.

   Mr. Evers: Mr. Hoefle?

   Mr. Hoefle: Mr. Klammer was it mentioned to you that I saw the first draft of it and the colander days and business days.

   Mr. Klammer: I didn’t make those changes because when you and I were talking I was waiting for some comments back from Mr. Rayburn’s guys and they sent me a bunch of comments and approved and disapproved some and we will address that in the final version if that is okay.  There some more stuff that had changed then the one that you saw.  It had changed compared to when she did it.

   Mr. Hoefle: Just so you guys know that what I spotted was throughout the ordinance there were some places that said calendar days and some said business days and some were just basically days.  I said that it should be clear cut and we should either choose business days or calendar days. And make it throughout the whole ordinance.  That way there is no…it was just too vague. 

   Mr. Klammer: The version that you see in mine I just replicated our Internet Café Ordinance so that it was something that you were comfortable with.  It is going almost be easier, because there is really only going to be one that it is going to apply too at this point.  Once we get through one without any hiccups the ordinance is just going to sit there on the book.

   Mayor Morley: I sent them over the recent copy around four or five o’clock.  Just so you know and I know that it is blank on the ordinance for the licensing fee it will be $25,000.00. If that is what you guys agree too.  We talked about $15,000.00 to $25,000.00 and I thing that $25,000.00 is appropriate for the fee.  Unless you guys…if you have any difference on opinion on that just let me know.

   Mr. Evers: We will move this item forward.  Next on the agenda are a few housekeeping issues to go over real quick.

2. To enter into an Agreement with Northcoast Lawnscapes, Inc.

   Mr. Evers: Mr. Menn would you like to comment on this?

   Mr. Menn: Since I’ve been here about every two years we bid out for our grass cutting, bushes, garbage debris in yards….the last two years Northcoast Landscaping has had it.  We had an open bid process and we had three bids.  After reviewing them my recommendation is to keep Northcoast Landscaping Company.

   Mr. Evers: I take it that they were lowest and best bidder?

   Mr. Menn: They were the best bidder and the lowest.  If you look at and I don’t know what you have with you, but if you do have the bids their bid is slightly higher.  But they go by minutes not by the hour.  So if it only takes them ten minutes they bill for only ten minutes; where the other bids were strictly by the hour.  We’ve had no issues with them and they have been very cooperative and they work out well.

   Mr. Evers: I take it that he is licensed and bonded and insured through the city?

   Mr. Menn: Yes they had to produce all of that.

   Mr. Evers: For the bid?

   Mr. Menn: Yes.

   Mr. Evers: Are there any questions for Mr. Menn?  Mr. Hoefle?

   Mr. Hoefle: I am okay with this and we can move it forward.

   Mr. Zuren: Move it forward.

   Mr. Evers: We will move that item forward.

   Mr. Menn: Thank you.

3. To enter into an Agreement with Osborne Concrete & Stone

   Mr. Evers:  Mr. Rubertino or Ms. Schindel for the purchase agreement to enter into with Osborne Concrete & Stone.

   Mr. Rubertino: They are the lowest bidder.  We have been using them for multiple years now and they are always the lowest bidder.  We’ve never had any issues with these guys.  Anytime we order anything we get it in a timely manner and they seem to go above and beyond to accommodate our emergency needs on the occasions that we’ve called them.  I am very happy with these guys.

   Mr. Evers: Was there much of an increase over the last contract Mr. Rubertino?

   Mr. Rubertino: I don’t believe that there is any increase.  I don’t have anything with me and I apologize for that.  But I believe that the figures are the same as last year.

   Mr. Evers: Are there any questions for Mr. Rubertino regarding this?  Seeing none Mr. Hoefle?

   Mr. Hoefle: I am okay with moving it forward.

   Mr. Evers: Mr. Zuren?

   Mr. Zuren: I am okay with moving it forward.

   Mr. Rubertino: Thank you gentlemen.

4. To enter into an Agreement with Osborne Inc.

   Mr. Evers: That is concrete products I believe Mr. Rubertino?

   Mr. Rubertino: It is stone aggregate.

   Mr. Evers:  There is no asphalt in this correct it is all in the other correct?

   Mr. Rubertino: Asphalt is all by itself.

   Mr. Evers: It is the same as last year.

   Mr. Rubertino: If I may?

   Mr. Evers: You may.

   Mr. Rubertino: The next two are going to be the same.  These are companies that have been long standing in my 26 years here.  They have always been our providers and they have always come in as a low bid.  We have zero issues with their service to us, so again we didn’t have a problem with going with them because they are the low bidder and we have never had an issue.  We go strictly that way with that.

   Mr. Evers: Are there any questions for Mr. Rubertino?  Seeing none Mr. Hoefle?

   Mr. Hoefle: I am okay to move these forward as well.

   Mr. Evers: Both products?

   Mr. Hoefle: Yes both products.

   Mr. Evers: Mr. Zuren?

   Mr. Zuren: I am okay with moving both of them forward.

   Mr. Evers: We will move them forward.

   Mr. Rubertino: Thank you gentlemen.

5. To enter into an Agreement with Asphalt Products

   There were no further questions or comments.

   PENDING:

1. 2017 Budget:

   Mr. Evers: Mr. Klammer?

   Mr. Klammer: Just so I can make it to my daughter’s choir concert does anybody have any…comments on the deer ordinance that I could have before I go? 

   Mr. Hoefle: I think the ordinance as it stands is the way that I would like to keep it.  If there is anything else that would be brought up?

   Mr. Klammer: Just let me know and I will figure it out and I know that it is last minute…Thank you Mr. Evers and I am sorry for that.

   Mr. Evers: Not a problem.  At this time we will go into looking at the purposed budget for the City of Eastlake and at this time I will turn the meeting over to Ms. Schindel.

   Ms. Schindel: What you have in front of you originally is the February 2017…I made an adjustment of a whole $617.00 in the General Fund so I am going to give you a new General Fund just so you have it in expenditures.  I made an additional expenditure in the Fire Pension Fund for $9,000.00.  So I am giving you those two sheets, because as you can tell my copy machine takes forever sometimes.  I will give you a complete book once we are done discussing it.  I thought that if those were the only pages that needed to be changed I wanted to short cut that for tonight.  So I think there is enough to go around that way….again from what you have is for the General Fund, which is only $617.00 and it is in the Miscellaneous Government.  The 210 is the Fire Pension and it is $9,112.43 and that is to pay for the pension.  With that the rest of your numbers are not going to change.  The highlighted items that need to be brought to your attention are the Public Health, which we get billed from, from the Health Department.  It went up $34, 458.00 and we needed to fund that.  We have the two leases…the ambulance lease, which you will find in fund 410 for less than $43,000.00.  The loader is going to be in a street fund and it is going to be less than $30,000.00.  We are signing off on the…or submitting the final documents for funding this week.  Another thing and I know that I am not going over the numbers…I just want things to be rested in your though processes as you are going through.  The Safer Grant that is a Federal Grant Fund.  The Safer Grant covers three firemen and it will cover them for about six months.  We therefore have three…we maintained the three firemen by putting their expenditures through the General Fund.  That is approximately $175,000.00.  We are hoping that the federal grant can be extended, but we won’t know until June 1^st.  Since we won’t know until June 1^st…in order to make sure these firemen are still covered they are currently right now in the General Fund.  Healthcare we talked about it before…healthcare went up $102,000.00.  The Board of Elections we know that we have an election in May and we know that we will an election in November but we don’t know if we will have another elections in the middle.  Because the Charter has a different date then what the rest of the County is, therefore there is an extra $50,000.00 in the Board of Elections this year.  To cover the expense because now we have to pay it because it is ours and it is $25,000.00 every time we do an election unless we share it with somebody.  We will be sharing the May one with the court system, but I cannot say that the August one if we have one will be absorbing the whole thing and November will fall out on its own.  It’s in there because I don’t know and I have to make sure that we have enough money to cover it.  So with that I have also supplied to you what would be the anticipated ending fund balances for each of these funds at the end of the year if we spent everything according to this schedule, and if the revenue came in as we projected it.  If you look at them you can see that we are spending down our fund balances in order to do what we needed to do.  The General Fund for salaries city wide are the same as what they were last year.  I may have allocated them a little differently, but the salary dollar amount is the same.  It tends to be our largest expense, but the salary dollar amounts are the same as what they were in 2016.  We really have no large changes in any of these line items other than some fees that I mention or the costs that I have mentioned earlier.  And some costs for collection of income taxes with an outside party, because now we are using R.I.T.A.  So those fees should have dropped down a little bit.  A lot of what is in the 2017 budget is either close to actually from 2016 or what was budgeted for 2016 for repairs miscellaneous type of expenses.  I know that I am cruising through this quickly, because I don’t see a lot of changes in here other than the ones that I may have mentioned to you already.  Allocations as I have said for payroll might need some allocations in some of the healthcare or some of the other benefits, because if I move some salaries to another fund I also move some of the benefits to those funds.  To correspond to the salaries so that we could…again I am taking in generalities there are no numbers here for you to be looking at other than something that you might want to question.  That is pretty much the General Fund; it’s the bulk of the expenses unless there are special projects or special grants that pay for them.  Special projects meaning street projects then they are charged to the Street Fund, because we collect tax dollars that go to that kind of project.  Pension is going to be pretty much the same.  It is pretty much last year’s budget with the exceptions that I had mentioned…until you get back to some of the Special Funds.  If I can talk about the 700 funds just so we can get that off of your list.  I am going to just cross those right off of the list.  The 700 funds are Trust Funds, what comes in a deposit is going to be returned in a deposit.  These are estimates and I came before you several times last changing the deposits.  I anticipate on doing that again this year, but I really don’t have any ideas as to how much these deposits will be.  I work with Mr. Menn to try and get some numbers as to what we thought would be revenues and expenditures.  But really it’s not a General Fund expense that we have to worry about how to cover.  The State Construction Maintenance Repair Fund 202 as well as the State Highway Fund 201which covers Route 2.  And fund 202 covers the rest of Route 2 that we couldn’t squeeze into the one fund and then the rest of the expenditures going through there.  Hospitalization went up and repairs are anticipated to be a little bit more so than maybe what was spent the prior year.  I am not concerned about that fund.  I will tell you that there are two funds that I’m going to talk about.  State Grants, as the grants come in this year I will come back to you and adjust for those expenditures as well.  I only have in here the expenditures for those grants that we know we are committed to.  If I don’t know about something I didn’t anticipate the revenue and I didn’t anticipate the expense.  I will come to before you as we know when we get those grants.  Grant 208 is the Safer Grant for the firemen, where we have an anticipated six months in there only and it could change if we get an extension.  I got the road projects in here and I must have bypassed that.

   Mr. Rubertino: You bypassed the Road Department.

   Ms. Schindel: We don’t want to pass the Road Department.  We have some very heft grants coming through for our road projects.  We recorded the income on the grants or loans.  And we recorded the expenditures and in particular I am talking about Lakeshore Boulevard.  So if you are comparing last year to this year you are going to see some large changes in those numbers and that is why.  It is 402 and you will see some large changes in 402.  I want you to understand why those changes are there.  It is because we know that we are going to get some OPWC money.  So the matching expenses are recorded as they should be.  Some of our debt goes up a little bit every year that was the one before that.  The Fire Levy has the ambulance.  I want to bring to your attention the Stadium and Vine Street Project…we have less money to spend there this year, which is 421.  That is the function of the revenue.  We started the year with a little bit more of a fund balance and we will end the year with just barely something over $150.00.  That fund has a lot of repairs or project that should go through there and we don’t have the funds for it. 

   Mr. Evers: Has anything ever been settled with the Radisson as far as the money that they owe to the city?

   Mr. Klammer: I now have to look at the dockets and everything on it.  Remember the receivership and there was a sale.  I just have to look to get you an answer.

   Mr. Evers: Is there any way that we can hope to recoup those funds?

   Mr. Klammer: I would have to look to see the status.  I am trying to remember where we fell on the scheme of all the creditors.  I will have to look at that.

   Mr. Evers: Thank you and sorry Ms. Schindel.

   Ms. Schindel: That is okay and those were the items that I wanted to highlight as you compared one year to the next.  As you went over these reports there are some places where the numbers are significantly different.  I believe that right now I may have addressed all of those accounts.

   Mr. Evers: What I would like to do is and if there is no objection from Council is to talk to the Directors.  To see where they are at in their budgets and see if they are comfortable.  Mr. Rubertino I will start with you and I know that you’ve had a chance to go over the budget.

   Mr. Rubertino: I think that my feelings are well known without getting into too much detail.  I find the budge extremely hard to deal with.  We have massive, massive issues out there.  I don’t think that the budge allows for us to fix everything, but I also understand that we don’t have it.  I can only tell you this that I do the best I can with what I have and I will do it every day.  I work my hardest and I put in an average of ten hours a day and sometimes it is fourteen hours a day.  I’ll do what I can with it and I don’t think that it is appropriate.  It’s nearly enough to get us where we are at…we are behind by years with the maintenance that we have for the roads.  You know the road conditions and for three years I’ve had this position the roads are not any better than they were and actually they are much worse.  We are doing minor repairs.  We are doing repairs that should be road replacements and I really don’t know how to answer it.  I am frustrated at where we are at and I don’t hold anybody here responsible for it.  I think as a whole it’s a very tough situation to be in and we are forced to deal and work with what is obviously inadequate funding for what we need to get done on the roads and the sewers.  I don’t know where to go with it.

   Mr. Evers: Ms. Schindel?

   Ms. Schindel: Part of Mr. Rubertino’s budget is what is left over after we do the big projects.  He gets the left over’s.  If we do Lakeshore Blvd. and it’s a lot of money verses what we spent last year then he has less to work with.

   Mr. Rubertino: Those are things that we don’t…that are just thrown on our lap.  The additional $300,000.00 for Lakeshore Blvd. that we are not anticipating that was thrown on our lap.  Now all of a sudden it’s here and that’s funding that I need.  I am beyond grateful for the loader, but the loader doesn’t solve all of the problems that we have and we have massive amounts of them.  I can only tell you that I will do my best with what I have.  I don’t other than to tell you that…it’s crazy and I don’t know how else to put it.  I’m here for you and I will do anything that I can.

   Mr. Evers: Mr. Menn?

   Mr. Menn: Obviously by budget is completely different then the three big guys.  Obviously I don’t have the equipment and everything like that.  The cars that we use are hand me down cars and we keep them going as best as we can with Mr. Rubertino’s mechanics.  I’m not anywhere…like I had said with the other departments as far as equipment.  I think that we are going to have a big year this year and next year and hopefully we will keep going.  Obviously I would love to have like the other departments…at least for me one more staff member would be great.  Other than that we will do with what we have.

   Mr. Evers: What big projects do you have for the future this year?

   Mr. Menn: We have two schools, Circle K is coming and they have submitted their plans.  We are hearing that…I have three to five houses on the books that are coming in.  I think that our businesses are going to keep on growing.  A lot of our businesses are doing internal work, which may be small and the public doesn’t see, but CPP is going like gang busters over there.  I am there almost every day.  I’m hearing a lot of good things and we will do what we can.

   Ms. Schindel: Some of our administration covers Mr. Menn’s administration.  When my copy machine takes three hours to make a copy it is affecting Mr. Menn…or if the server should be totally…it is pretty ancient have a hiccup that day and decided that it doesn’t want to cooperate like we want it to.  It’s going to affect Mr. Menn.  His department administratively in mind is sharing some of those resources.

   Mr. Evers: Mayor Morley?

   Mayor Morley: Just so you know that Circle K has not gone to the Planning Commission yet they handed in their finals.  Circle K will be on East 357^th Street and Vine Street.  It will take up where the car lot is…the car lot will be gone.  It will be a gas station and a store.  They will close the Willoughby Store that is on Vine Street and their employee’s from Willoughby will come down and work at that spot.  They have applied for their liquor license and they did the final plan and that is where it will be.  It will be a gas station and a store right there.

   Mr. Evers: Mr. Menn?

   Mr. Menn: I just want to re-iterate that we are a Building Department and building comes first.  I know that we get a lot of complaints and we get to the complaints as quickly as we can now that we have Lenore.  Hopefully it will be even faster and that is it.

   Mr. Evers: Mr. Hoefle?

   Mr. Hoefle: Mayor Morley is there any anticipation with the gas station that is going there…possibly a traffic issue?

   Mayor Morley: Actually they did a traffic study.

   Mr. Menn: They did a traffic study…where we are at with this is that it is at CT Consultants right now for site review.  Once we get planning commission site approval we will have a Planning Commission Meeting.  We will announce it in case anybody wants to come or you will get notified.  But they did supply a traffic study without even asking, which if you know anything about traffic studies they are very expensive and they don’t always like to do them.  I thought that was pretty impressive.

   Mayor Morley: It worked out well because….

   Mr. Menn: I am talking about Circle K.

   Mr. Klammer: You forgot about Captain Toni’s.

   Mr. Menn: Captain Toni’s is hopefully coming across the street and they have already when to the Planning Commission.  Actually I don’t know what is going but today where the old Valu King was they are cleaning that out, because something is coming in…so we will see.

   Mr. Evers: Chief Reik?

   Chief Reik:  Like the other director’s we would all like to have more.  I believe that I get my fair share of what is out there.  I wanted to sit down with Ms. Schindel…maybe between some of the items that we have and if there is any other money that we could free up to maybe get on there cruiser.  My issue with the cruiser…you drive through our parking lot and you see a lot of cars and I understand how that can look, but a number of the cars are only good enough to drive it up to the school for a basketball game in the parking lot.  We’ve striped the interiors out of some of the old ones, but they are still okay if you need a road job or for visual security for being in a parking lot during a school job or something like that.  It doesn’t have all of the radio equipment and firearms and such, but we do…I can complement Mr. Cane from the Service Department for keeping things up.  He does a really good job getting a lot more out of these vehicles’s then what they would typically get.  We are going to be putting the one car that we took out of the fleet up for sale on eBay, which you guys approved.  Hopefully between that and the other money we will have the funds available for one car.  I have an Eagles Group that I am waiting to hear from…we should be getting a decent donation from them.  Our SWAT truck is…like for the Fire Department is a 74 hour rescue squad that has served us for over twenty years in the Police Department.  We are pretty much done with that, because it is getting to old.  So between him and one of our local car dealers we are hoping to put something together to get in front of you guys to get for the members of our SWAT Team to get their equipment back in full force and supply something for that.  Again with any problems that I’ve had Ms. Schindel has been able to work with me and I have continuously tried to keep the same numbers as the past and to also not go down.  But again to not spend it all, because if I know that I am getting the same amount next year there is no…I was the…coming into this job was that if you don’t spend it that they are going to take it away and you are going to get less and less so go find things to buy.  I don’t function like that and as long as I’ve never gotten penalized for there is no incentive to do it.  We buy what we feel that we need and try to spend the money like I do in my own house hold and I do my best with it.  Again if one of these levies passed I know that all of us will be chomping at the bit to try and improve our departments.  Again I believe that I get a fair share of what’s available.

   Ms. Schindel: I also have a new grant for training and that is helping him out with the training expenses.  They pay for the extra grant this year.

   Mr. Evers: Excellent.  Chief Whittington?

   Chief Whittington: The real difficult part I think is and I think that between the Mayor and Ms. Schindel is to sit down and to try to divide up what we have.  I like to always go on record by saying that obviously my ninth year going through these and I know that my job is to work within what is given to me and I have no problem doing that.  I understand clearly where we are as a city and I do my best.  I think that for the most part working with Ms. Schindel to be able to come to you guys and make adjustments throughout the year is what we do.  I like to always go on record by saying that…and I speak for everybody as a director…the budget doesn’t represent something that we present to the Mayor and Ms. Schindel.  It doesn’t represent Mr. Rubertino’s five year plan or my five year plan, or Chief Reik’s five year plan, or even Mr. Menn’s five year plan.  It just represents the pot of money and the best that the Mayor and Ms. Schindel can do to divide it up.  I just like to go on record about that, because I don’t want there to ever be thought that this is the direction I would take the Fire Department if we had the money.  I clearly understand what we need to do and we’ve been able to make some strides between some grants and with the ambulances and things like that.  That makes a big difference to my department so I definitely appreciate what we’ve been able to do.  I will continue to do my best to stay within by budgets.  I think that the city is changing out there and I think that hopefully all of your constituents are recognizing the businesses that are coming in and the businesses that are staying here and building.  If you go off of Curtis Blvd. you will see the big construction projects…and with the new schools I think we are most certainly seeing some positive growth in the city.  I think that there is a lot of credit to the Mayor’s office and to each of you guys to be able to make sure that we have healthy growth.  I think that maybe next year when we come to these meetings it will be more intense, maybe we will be able to throw more darts and try to get more money but I think at this point we did.  That is all that I have to say.

   Mr. Evers: Mayor Morley?

   Mayor Morley: As usual I am just blessed to have the directors that I have.  Ms. Schindel has been here for over a year now and has come into her own and working the budget out and working with all of the director’s.   These guys and Ms. Schindel…in this City Hall they are an asset to me and I can’t say enough about them all.  It is tough…we had a $15 Million revenue in 2009 and with everything through the government fund cuts and the closing of First Energy…we have a revenue now of $9 Million.  So for us to run the city at $6 Million less is just phenomenal and that has to go to the director’s I can’t take the credit for all of that.  I was laughing at Mayor’s and Manager’s Meeting last week because Willowick and Wickliffe are thinking of levies and income tax and I told them I would be…my director’s for consulting fees and save them $2 Million…I can’t take credit for everything that these guys and Ms. Schindel do a wonderful job for me.  It is what it is and we will continue to make the adjustments.  We were just talking about and Ms. Schindel was talking about her copy machine…I laughed and told them to get rid of my copy machine.  I can walk down the hall and we will get a better copy machine in the Finance Department.  Those are the things and it may not be major but they are things that we still look at.  I can walk down the hall instead of just walking out of my office to the other room for a copy.  We are looking at doing things like that and we continue to try and upgrade some of the things that we have at City Hall to make it better.  That is all that I have and again I am very appreciative of my director’s.

   Mr. Evers: I will go on record saying that I appreciate you guys and I know that you do the utmost and the very best that you can with what you are allowed to have.  With that are there any questions from Council?  Seeing none do we need to re-schedule another Finance Committee Meeting or can we move it forward?

   Mayor Morley: I think that we need to have the budget passed by the end of March.

   Ms. Schindel: That is true.

   Mr. Evers: Alright…move forward?

   Mr. Hoefle: I am okay with moving it forward.

   Mr. Evers: Mr. Zuren?

   Mr. Zuren: I am okay with moving it forward.

   Mr. Evers: Motion going and we will move it forward.  Thank you everybody.

   There were no further questions or comments.

   MISCELLANEOUS:

   There was nothing under Miscellaneous.

   There were no further questions or comments.

REGOGNITION OF PUBLIC:

There was no one who wished to speak.

MAYOR’S COMMENTS:

Mayor Morley had nothing to report.

There were no further questions or comments for the Mayor.

FIRE DEPARTMENT:

Chief Whittington had nothing to report.

There were no further questions or comments for the Fire Chief.

POLICE DEPARTMENT:

Chief Reik had nothing to report.

There were no further questions or comments the Police Chief.

BUILDING DEPARTMENT:

Mr. Menn had nothing to report.

There were no further questions or comments for the Chief Building Office.

SERVICE DEPARTMENT:

Mr. Rubertino had nothing to report.

There were no further questions or comments the Service Director.

FINANCE DEPARTMENT:

Ms. Schindel had nothing to report.

There were no further questions or comments for the Finance Director.

LAW DEPARTMENT:

Mr. Klammer had nothing to report.

There were no further questions or comments the Law Director.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:48 p.m.

tms     

APPROVED: ___________________________

DATE: ______________________________