The Regular Meeting of the Eastlake City Council was held at Eastlake City Hall, 35150 Lakeshore Boulevard. The Meeting was called to order by Council President Mr. D’Ambrosio at approximately 7:00 p.m.  

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

ATTENDEES

Members of Council in attendance were Mr. Licht, Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, Mr. Evers, Ms. DePledge, Mr. Hoefle, Ms. Vaughn and Council President Mr. D’Ambrosio. Also attending was Council Clerk Mrs. Cendroski.

Those attending from the Administration were Mayor Morley, Law Director Klammer, Finance Director Slocum, Acting Service Director Rubertino, CBO McReynolds, City Engineer Guard, Police Chief Reik and Fire Chief Whittington.

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Regular Council Meeting – February 25, 2014

MOTION: Mr. Licht moved to approve the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of February 25, 2014. Ms. DePledge seconded.

ROLL CALL:     Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried. The minutes were approved.

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COUNCIL PRESIDENT’S REPORT – Mr. D’Ambrosio

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Between the Police Department and the City we are trying to put back together Safety Town. There will be a fund raiser for Safety Town Friday, April 25^th at 6:00 p.m. at the American Legion – it will be mostly funded through donations. The tickets are $20 and will include dinner, cash bar, side boards, and a Chinese auction. If you can find it in your hearts and if you are available to come that would be great. Most of us on Council have tickets if you are interested.

Meetings Scheduled

Mr. D’Ambrosio: The next Council-as-a-Whole Committee Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 25, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. The Regular Council meeting will be convened immediately following the adjournment of the Council-as-a-Whole Committee meeting.

 

COMMUNICATIONS & PETITIONS

A communication was received from the Administration regarding the recognition of April as National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: If there are no objections this legislation will be on the March 25^th Regular Council meeting agenda.

There were no objections.

A liquor license request was received for 7 Eleven, Inc. dba 7 Eleven #36216, 35068 Vine

Street, Eastlake.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: There were no objections from the Administration or Police Department. A lot of times we would have Planning Committee meetings and all we would say is that there are no objections so we are now trying to do these during the Council meeting. If there are no objections from Council I will ask for a Motion to approve this request.

There were no objections.

A communication was received from the Administration regarding an amendment to City Ordinance Section 333.03 “Maximum Speed Limits; Assured Clear Distance Ahead.” This was referred to Ordinance Committee.

A communication was received from Mayor Morley regarding the “Building Better Neighborhoods” Program.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Mayor Morley advised he would comment on this during his report.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Mr. D’Ambrosio: A Finance Committee meeting was held.

 

fINANCE cOMMITTEE – Ms. Vaughn, Chair

Ms. Vaughn: The Finance Committee meeting was held on March 4^th with all members of Council present and all members of the Mayor’s staff on the Administrative level. The first item discussed was the lease agreement for the Senior Center between the City of Eastlake and the Willoughby/Eastlake School District. After discussion the Committee and Council recommended moving forward with this item and it appears on this evening’s agenda. We then discussed an amended tax incentive agreement with Presrite Corporation which Mr. Slocum explained and after discussion the Committee and Council recommended to move forward with this item and it appears on the evening’s agenda. The majority of our meeting was spent on reviewing and discussing the 2014 budget. We asked every member of the Administration staff to be there for their input. Not necessarily to ask them to reduce their budget but for their input and to see if they could see any way to reduce expenditures. I felt the meeting went very well. We will have one more meeting – it will be our final meeting on the budget – on March 18^th at 6:00 p.m. We will end up with a balanced budget and the Administration told us they will fill in any gaps left at the last meeting. The only people I would like to attend are the Mayor and Finance Director and all of Council. This concludes my report and I am open for questions.

Mr. Licht made the following Motions:

Legislative Recommendation

Legislation No. 03-11-(01)

Mr. Licht moved to add Legislation No. 03-11-(03) to the evening’s agenda Recognizing March, 2014 as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month in the City of Eastlake. Ms. Vaughn seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried. Legislation No. 03-11-(03) is added to the evening’s agenda.

Liquor License Request

Mr. Licht moved to approve and send back to Columbus, Ohio with no objections the liquor license request for 7 Eleven, Inc. dba 7 Eleven #36216, 35068 Vine Street, Eastlake, OH. Ms. Vaughn seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried. The liquor license request is approved.

WPCC COMMITTEE – Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, Chair

Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: The WPCC had its annual meeting Wednesday, March 5^th. Basically they gave us an idea of what is going on down there. They wanted to tell us that they have been very efficient and only have one man per shift and use cameras to make the plant a safe environment. Also, the EPA reviewed or audited the WPCC and they are very concerned about our sanitary sewer overflow – especially at Quentin and East Island. They are formulating a response to the audit and we are expected a response back sometime in April at which time they will call another meeting to discuss it because they believe they are going to insist that we repair the Quentin and East Island sanitary sewer overflows. Also, many years ago there was a sanitary sewer evaluation study – SSES – and it went many years ago and we never heard a response. We are expecting a response and there may possible be a need to raise rates. If there are any questions Mr. Gwydir can help us out.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: I believe the SSES study was done 3 years ago.

Mr. Licht: One of the suggestions from the SSES study that has not been implemented was to have each City – this is a joint venture between Willoughby and Eastlake and currently each City is putting in $75,000 into a capital improvement fund for some of these instances where they know they are going to have to make improvements or repairs. They have recommended that we work to increase this to get to a total of $450,000 which would be $225,000 from each City. I was under the impression that they were proposing $50,000 for three years, starting this year. However, Mr. Slocum and I spoke with Willoughby’s Finance Director and they have no plans to institute this increase until next year. We were prepared to possibly do that this year – it is a joint venture so both parties need to agree. I think we are waiting on Willoughby to determine if we are going to increase that this year.

Mr. Slocum: What I would like to do in the appropriation legislation is to actually show an increase for the payment in the event it is approved. In the end you are going to have to sign off on any disbursement. But, in order to save us a potential step I will include the appropriation increase by $150,000 as we have sufficient funds to cover the increase. It is not really an issue in that fund.

Mr. Licht: The amount of money in that fund is approximately $2.5 million.

Ms. Vaughn: Didn’t we just put in a new pumps station at Quentin Road – should part of that problem have been solved then?

Mr. Gwydir: A small portion of it was resolved but the overall sanitary sewer overflows are not affected by the improvements we did. It is a matter of storage and volume coming in and unfortunately we cannot pump it out as fast as it comes in and that causes the sanitary sewer overflow to occur.

Ms. Vaughn: What will ever change that? They just put in a new lift station.

Mr. Gwydir: The lift station is sufficiently sized and pumps out to a pipe called a forcemain which leads towards the plant. That is insufficient to take all the flows when they are very high flows. A portion of those very high flows bypass and the solution to that is to build a retention basin underground, next to the pumping station, to handle that. That was contemplated in the SSES study which Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins spoke to earlier.

There were no further questions or comments.

ORDINANCE COMMITTEE – Mr. Hoefle, Chair

Mr. Hoefle: I will be scheduling an Ordinance Committee meeting for March 18^th before the Finance Committee meeting.

Legislative Recommendation

Legislation No. 03-11-(04)

Mr. Hoefle moved to add Legislation No. 03-11-(04) amending Chapter 1155,

“Off-Street Parking and Loading,” of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Eastlake.

Mr. Evers seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried. Legislation No. 03-11-(04) is added to the evening’s agenda.

Eastlake Port Authority – Ms. DePledge, Liaison

Ms. DePledge: Tomorrow evening is the Port Authority meeting at 7:00 p.m. in City Hall. One of the items on the agenda will be raising rates for boat license fees on the river.

Economic & Community Development Council – Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, Chair

Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: We changed the date of the ECDC meeting to before our next Council meeting on Tuesday, March 25, 2014 at 5:30 p.m. so it is convenient for the Mayor and all of us to attend – if you so desire.

                              RECOGNITION OF THE PUBLIC

                              Mr. D’Ambrosio recognized the public input at this time; he reminded the speakers that there is a 3-minute limit for their comments; all comments are to be directed to the Chair and not include any personalities or individuals.

There was no one who wished to speak.

 

 

 

LEGISLATION PROPOSED – First number will be 2014-006

                                                                        RESOLUTION NO.: 03-11-(01)

Requested by: Administration                                    A Resolution authorizing and directing the

Sponsored by: Finance Committee                 Mayor and Director of Finance to enter into a                                                                       Lease Agreement between the City of Eastlake                                                                     and the Willoughby-Eastlake         School District for                                                                  use of the Taft Community School, 1580 East                                                                       332^nd Street, Eastlake, Ohio with said property                                                                       to be used as the JFK Senior Center, and                                                                               declaring an emergency.

MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and

reading in full. Mr. Licht seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to adopt. Mr. Licht seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No. 2014-006.

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                                                                        ORDINANCE NO.: 03-11-(02)

Requested by: Administration                       An Ordinance authorizing and directing the

Sponsored by: Finance Committee                Mayor and Director of Finance to enter into

                                                                        an Amended Agreement for a Tax Incentive                                                                                     Grant with Presrite Corporation, and declaring                                                                      an emergency.

MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and

reading in full. Mr. Licht seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to adopt. Mr. Licht seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Ordinance No. 2014-007.

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                                                                        RESOLUTION NO.: 03-11-(03)

Requested by: Mayor Morley                        A Resolution Recognizing March, 2014 as Sponsored by: Eastlake City Council                        Developmental Disabilities Awareness                                                                                    Month in the City of Eastlake, and declaring                                                                         an emergency.

MOTION: Mr. Licht moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and

reading in full. Ms. Vaughn seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

MOTION: Mr. Licht moved to adopt. Ms. Vaughn seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No. 2014-008.

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                                                                        ORDINANCE NO.: 03-11-(04)

Requested by: Administration                       An Ordinance amending Chapter 1155,

Sponsored by: Council                                   “Off-Street Parking and Loading,” of the                                                                              Codified Ordinances of the City of Eastlake, and                                                                 declaring an emergency.

MOTION: Mr. Hoefle moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and

reading in full. Mr. Evers seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous

MOTION: Mr. Hoefle moved to adopt. Mr. Evers seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Ordinance No. 2014-009.

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LEGISLATION PENDING

There was no Legislation Pending.

 

UNFINISHED BUSINESS  

There was no Unfinished Business.

                                                                       

NEW BUSINESS

There was no New Business.

 

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS:

MAYOR/SAFETY DIRECTOR – Dennis Morley

Mayor Morley:  We will have a balanced budget for you. Mr. Slocum, all the Directors and I have been looking at the monies needed to get down to that number. We will have that for you next Tuesday. Also, Mr. Rubertino, Mr. Evers and I met with the Captains today to finalize the Easter Egg Hunt which will be Saturday, April 12^th at 9:00 a.m. The gates will open at 8:30 a.m. and it will be for Eastlake residents. Proof of residency will be required. We will give out tickets in some of the Easter Eggs for baskets for each age group; the Easter Bunny will be there for the kids. Again, this is a joint effort between the Captains, Eastlake Police Athletic League and the City. Mr. Evers went to a few of the businesses today looking for the eggs and candy. We are on schedule. Chief Reik will talk about Safety Town. I sent to Council the “Building Better Neighborhoods Program.” Chief Reik and I met with Channel 5 to discuss a plan. Channel 5 will come out to the Community. Instead of doing Block Watch we decided to do safety forums – the Police Department will be out there to talk to our residents about safety and awareness in the neighborhoods. Our tentative date is April 16^th at 6:30 p.m. and the streets are East 337^th in Ward 1, East 332^nd Street in Ward 2, Roberts Road in Ward 3, St. Lawrence in Ward 4 and Galina in Ward 3. Chief Reik is going to contact the Attorney General’s enforcement agency to see if they want to come speak to our residents. Both Chiefs and I met with a group that is going to do a 5-K run on May 31^st. They will get back to us with more information. That will go from the Croatian Home, up S.R. 91, across Victor and Beachpark and come back. Mr. President, at the end of this session I would like to adjourn into Executive Session to discuss the Service Director’s position. This concludes my report and I am open for questions.

Ms. Vaughn: What group is putting on the 5-K run?

Chief Reik: The race is called the CRO-RUN. I don’t know the complete phases of the organization.

Mayor Morley: They will start and finish at the Croatian Home.

Ms. Vaughn: I am glad the Administration is getting so involved in providing things for the community – I appreciate all your work.

Mr. Hoefle: Do we have any updates on Two Bucks?

Mayor Morley: I spoke with the owner. Unfortunately when a liquor license transfers they have to pay the penalties of the business that had it prior. They go to Columbus March 13^th for a hearing and his plans are to be open the last of March or by the Captains opening day.

Mr. Hoefle: Anything on Rally’s?

Mayor Morley: I drove by today – they said March 20^th but I don’t know. They just joined the Western Lake County Chamber of Commerce. I will call them tomorrow.

There were no questions of Mayor Morley.

 

POLICE CHIEF – Larry Reik

Chief Reik: The Mayor mentioned the “Building Better Neighborhoods” – for clarification there are two 337^th Streets – the one chosen was the one off of Vine Street to Curtis, East 332^nd to Willowick Drive and Lakeshore Blvd. I have received emails back from some of the sponsors. There is an ap you can put on your phone to keep people connected with everything from garage sales to being out of town. As the Mayor said the Attorney General will have a representative there to try to get information to people about keeping an eye on their street and safety tips like lighting their address so it can been seen from the street to help the Fire Department find their house in case of need of service. Safety Town will be Monday, June 9^th through June 13^th. There will be two classes. The morning class will be 9:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. and the afternoon will be 12:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. There will be 25 kids per class. We hope to have 50 kids for the first set and we will go from there. There is a fund raiser for donations and we will need volunteers for seal coating the area which will be over by Thomas Jefferson and getting buildings built. We are getting some ideas from what other places have done. Teachers are going to help. The age group is 4, 5, & 6 years old. Eastlake residents will get preference and as we get closer to the date and have any openings those from neighboring cities may join. 50 is the number we are going with and if it goes well we may try to have a class the end of summer. I am open for questions.

Mr. Rubertino: I have one resident who is a senior who has grandchildren. She asked if that is acceptable as an Eastlake resident even though the grandchild lives outside the City – would they be accepted as a resident to get into the class the first round.

Chief Reik: I will get back to you on that. We have discussed issues where my wife watches kids from another City but our kids are going – you have that complexity. We will have to discuss this in the Safety Town Committee.

Ms. Vaughn: Are the “Building Better Neighborhoods” meetings being held on the streets or at City Hall?

Mayor Morley: Channel 5 wants to go onto the street to try to talk to residents. I think after the initial meeting we will get more information from Channel 5. They want to go into the City.

Ms. Vaughn: It is confusing. Are they just going to knock on the door and say “Hi, I am from Channel 5.”

Mayor Morley: I think there will be sign-ups.

Chief Reik: We are going to try to get some literature out to those streets to invite them to the meeting. Channel 5 today was in another community doing the same thing. There are five cities. They have ideas and we have ideas and I am sure we will be somewhere in the middle. We decided to have the meeting here so there are no weather issues. Hopefully we will have a good turnout.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Who do we turn the fund raiser tickets for Safety Town into?

Chief Reik: The Police Department.

Mayor Morley: The checks should be made out to Eastlake Safety Town.

Mr. Hoefle: Someone asked me what the dinner would be that will be served?

Chief Reik: I will have to get back to you.

There were no further questions of Chief Reik.

FIRE CHIEF – Ted Whittington

                     Chief Whittington: I did receive some phone calls regarding the river. Willoughby flooded           again this morning by St. Clair. What we have found over the last month is there is a             significant ice jam that runs along Chagrin River Park by the observation bridge in    Willoughby. It is probably one of the worst I have seen. Every time we get a thaw the water            builds up and floods the low lying areas which are not populated areas. The way the jam is          we do not see much of a rise in the river in Eastlake – at least until the thing lets go. So, the           flooding is based on a jam that is occurring in Willoughby. We will continue to watch it. I think that we have a lot of good events coming up in the City – it is refreshing. I appreciate the Mayor’s efforts and being included in this. I think it is a good time for our community. I          am open for questions.

There were no questions of Chief Whittington.

                     CHIEF BUILDING OFFICIAL – James S. McReynolds

Mr. McReynolds: I wanted to talk about the proclamation I distributed. It is sponsored by the ICC – a national organization that proclaims May, 2014 as Building Safety Month. I think it would be good for us to do and would like you to look at it to see if it is something you want to consider. I want to bring everyone’s attention to the revised demo list. We originally started with 11 properties 4 of which have been purchased by people who are now in the act of repairing them. This list is what we have whittled it down to. We are inspecting these homes weekly. Also, there are two other properties – one mentioned by Ms. Vaughn and one we discovered on our own. I do not know if there is a possibility we can add them to the list – one we can but the other one we still need to do an inspection. We are going to do our best to see if they can be added. We are reluctant to demolish houses – that is our position. We would rather these houses be purchased by someone who takes the time to fix them up. It is a last ditch effort. We notified everyone. Right now we have 7 houses which are good to go so far and the closer to demolition time we hope to eliminate any others we can. I have been contacted by ISO – Insurance Survey Organization – which also rates the Fire Department. This is something that affects safety in Departments across the country and I cannot stress the importance of this evaluation. They will be coming in next month and it will affect the City’s insurance rates. We are looking for a good score. I am not sure exactly how they compute the scores – there are over 100 questions in the booklet and I will be audited by a representative of ISO. I do know that if you have a full time CBO it is worth a certain amount of points and for a part-time CBO they take away points. We have a fully certified Building Department that can inspect any type of construction – that is worth a certain amount of points. I am going through this right now and will be working with Chief Whittington to try to get a better handle on it before the actual audit occurs. We are hoping for a good response. I am open for questions.

There were no questions of Mr. McReynolds.

ACTING SERVICE DIRECTOR – Nick Rubertino

                     Mr. Rubertino: We are making progress with potholes. I have been out there going street by         street trying to locate the worst scenarios we have going on. Our hot box is on schedule to         come in the day we had projected and we seem to be okay on it. Tomorrow we are expecting           more snow and our salt is limited with no access to salt at this time. We are sitting on         approximately 250 tons which in a 12-hour snow storm will be depleted. We will be          concentrating again on mains, bridges and hills as far as the salting aspect and everything else will be plowed and probably not salted as much. We are looking for a little patience and        understanding. We will try to accommodate any emergency area or handicapped access area            as best we can. I am open for questions.

                     There were no questions of Mr. Rubertino.

 

CITY ENGINEER – Tom Gwydir

Mr. Gwydir: I have nothing to report other than what I have stated previously. I am open for questions.

There were no questions of Mr. Gwydir.

 

FINANCE DIRECTOR – Mike Slocum

Mr. Slocum: The last two weeks I have been in the infirmary and I think I probably gave it to the Clerk and the Mayor – for that I apologize. As a result I have nothing additional to report at this time. I am open for any questions.

There were no questions of Mr. Slocum.

 

LAW DIRECTOR – Randy Klammer

Mr. Klammer: I have some things for Executive Session. I am open for questions.

There were no questions of Mr. Klammer.

MOTION TO ADJOURN INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION

Mr. D’Ambrosio asked for a Motion to adjourn into Executive Session to consider employment of the Service Director.

 

MOTION:   Ms. Vaughn moved to adjourn into Executive Session for discussion in compliance with Ohio Revised Code Section 121.22, “Open Meeting Law” to consider employment of the Service Director. Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried.

MOTION TO ADJOURN INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION

Mr. D’Ambrosio asked for a Motion to adjourn into Executive Session to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation by the local law enforcement agencies and a matter otherwise required to be kept confidential by law.

 

MOTION:   Ms. DePledge moved to adjourn into Executive Session in compliance with Ohio Revised Code Section 121.22, “Open Meeting Law” to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation by the local law enforcement agencies and a matter otherwise required to be kept confidential by law. Mr. Evers seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried.

The meeting was adjourned into Executive Session in compliance with Ohio Revised Code Section 121.22, “Open Meeting Law” to consider employment of the Service Director and

to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation by the local law enforcement agencies and a matter otherwise required to be kept confidential by law.

 

MEETING CALLED BACK TO REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING

Mr. Licht moved to adjourn back into the Regular Council Meeting portion. Ms. DePledge seconded. The meeting was called back to the Regular Council Meeting with Mr. Licht, Ms. DePledge, Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, Mr. Evers, Mr. Hoefle, Ms. Vaughn and Council President D’Ambrosio in attendance.

 

ADJOURNMENT

Motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:15 p.m.

                    

           ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­                                                ______________________________________

                                                            JOE D’AMBROSIO, COUNCIL PRESIDENT

APPROVED: __________________________

ATTEST: _____________________________

                 DEBORAH A. CENDROSKI,      

                      CLERK OF COUNCIL