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 7:03 p.m.  

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Mr. Evers.

ATTENDEES

Members of Council in attendance were Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, Mr. Licht, Ms. DePledge, Ms. Vaughn, Mr. D’Ambrosio and Council President Mr. D’Ambrosio. Mr. Hoefle is absent and excused.

Those attending from the Administration were Mayor Morley, Police Chief Reik, Fire Chief Whittington, Law Director Klammer, Finance Director Slocum, Service Director Semik, and City Engineer Gwydir.

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Regular Council Meeting – November 25, 2014

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

ROLL CALL:     Six (6)Yeas.

 

Motion carried. The minutes were approved.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: During these cuts that we recently made. We decided to make the Council Clerks position a part-time position. Our Council Clerk was eligible to retire and she did. It worked out real well for her. We offered her the position back, part-time and she accepted it. Under the rules of PERS, the Government Retirement System, she has to be off for 60 days. So we are trying to wing this stuff the best that we can. Mr. Slocum, the Mayor, and myself are meeting once a week, and we are putting together the legislation. Ms. Vaughn and Mr. Evers have been coming into the office answering the e-mails and the phone calls and giving them to whatever Council person they were looking for. We are kind of scrambling but we are getting it. I believe the time frame that Deb will be back is the first week of February, and I can’t wait.

Also due to the Holidays our next scheduled Council-as-a-Whole Meeting will be Tuesday December 16, 2014 at 7:00 PM, and our Regular Council Meeting will follow the adjournment of Council-as-a-Whole. There will be no December 23, 2014 meeting.

COMMUNICATIONS & PETITIONS

                              There are none.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Finance Committee – Ms. Vaughn, Chair

Ms. Vaughn: We had two (2) Finance Committee Meetings. We had one on the second and another one yesterday. We heard a presentation by a representative from RITA, which is “Regional Income Tax Agency”, and had a discussion afterwards. Then yesterday, we didn’t formalize a decision to go with RITA or not on the first meeting. Everyone was to go home read the information which was lengthily that he presented, call our Finance Director for any questions that were unanswered, and most of us did. Then we were going to make a final decision last night, which we did. After considerable discussion again, and all questions finally answered, and review of the positives and negatives, not that any of us have any problem with Tax Department as it is. They are wonderful people, they are bright, hard working, outstanding, but in the long term over a period of time we have to save money and therefore it was requested by the Committee to move forward and we will look for legislation to be prepared for the meeting on the 16^th.

We also discussed that we will be closing our Council Trust. A Council Trust, each of us have x amount of money taken out of our pay every month. It is put in a separate trust and we use it for donations only, for private, non-profit, athletic organizations, that type of thing. But that is more paperwork for the Finance Department, and they are very limited, as far as staff goes. So we are doing away with it. Then also, to save time and staff in a department that is bare bones, the Finance Director has talked everyone into using mandatory direct deposit, probably by the end of June. That completes my report.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Any questions for Ms. Vaughn? Anybody have anything else that they would like to report on Council at this time?

                              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.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Ruth Marshall.

Ms. Marshall: Ruth Marshall, I live at 29605 Lakeshore, Eastlake, OH 44095. I have been an employee with the City of Eastlake for seven (7) years. I currently work in the Tax Department. I just wanted to say that I am a little disappointed that only one Council person came in to talk to us, to see exactly what we do. One Council Person came in, so that they could make an informed decision. Apparently the salesman from RITA gave everybody else all the information they needed. We all know what happens when people vote that don’t have all of the facts. I do realize that many surrounding Cities have contracted with RITA. But many of them, never had their own Tax Department. They had no choice but to contract that outside. Eastlake does have a choice. I just don’t believe that this is the time to take away another service from the Residence, eliminate two (2) more employees, when it is not saving the City any money. That is all that I have to say. Thank you.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Ruth, Thank you.   Mr. Ted Beres has also signed up to speak.

Mr. Beres: Ted Beres, 36706 Lakehurst, Eastlake, OH 44095. I am taking a survey. How many of you know who your State Senator is? Your State Representative? Your Congressional Representative? Your Congressional Senator? These are the People that represent us in Columbus and Washington. They make the decisions that affect our lives. The only problem is, we have no say so in the decisions that they make. Unless we are maybe part of a special interest group. Now, when you attend an Eastlake Council Meeting you get to observe your Council Representatives in action. You get to see the decisions that they make, and the stance that they take. The important thing is, that you do have a voice in these meetings. Some people want to go on social media to express their discontent anomalously. But in these meetings, you do have a voice. When the Tax Increase Levy failed, the thing that concerned me, was not that 3,284 people voted against the Tax Increase, but that 6,738 people didn’t even bother to vote. I call them the silent majority. But I am sure that they were some of the ones that complained loudly when the Mayor cancelled the leaf pick-up, and when their street was not plowed to their satisfaction. There has been some complaints, some criticism recently of the City leadership. Dennis has had to make some difficult and unpopular decisions. It seems that the euphoria that was there when he was first elected, has disappeared, and has turned to disapproval. The people that were over joyed, when we got rid of the former Mayor have turned on Dennis. Frankly, I think some people need a reality check. I have been attending Council Meetings for ten (10) years. The one constant in those ten (10) years has been Clerk of Council Deb Cendroski. Mayor’s have come and gone, Council people have come and gone, but Deb has been here faithfully for fourteen (14) years. Her dedication is immeasurable. Not only the way she worked with Council, but the way she worked with Administration and with the Residence. The good news is that she is coming back. Let’s face it. This place will not be the same without her presence. Thank you.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Thank you Mr. Beres.   We are all looking forward to her getting back. That is all that signed up to speak, is there anybody else who would like to address Council?

Mr. Spangburg: Bob Spangburg, 1034 Eastlake Dr., Eastlake, OH 44095. I am not complaining about anything, so don’t get me wrong. Since I took over part ownership of WELW, which is now WINT. I am trying to put together now, something called the Townhall Meeting. I would probably have it every Saturday or something. Not only Eastlake, but all of the Mayor’s of this area. If you have something that you want people to know, I was going to set that up, where we could talk and you could let people know what is going on. I think that is a responsibility the news media has to get things out there. So we know what is going on. I just want to try and get this thing going, but it is not finalized yet. We are still trying the times to do it. I just wanted to let you guys know that I am trying to open something up like that, where we can talk about what it going on, so that people can know what is going on. So we can better inform people. That is all that I have to say.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Bob, keep us in the loop. Let us know what is going on. Thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to get up and address Council?

There were no other public speakers.    

 

LEGISLATION PROPOSED – First number will be 12-09-(01)

                                                                                               ORDINANCE NO.: ____________

Requested by: Administration                      An Ordinance to temporarily appropriate for the Sponsored by: Finance Committee                 City of Eastlake for the period beginning                                                                              January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015 and                                                                          declaring an emergency.                

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

reading in full. Mr. Licht seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

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

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried. Legislation is adopted.

_     _     _       _          _          _          _          _          _          _          _          _          _

                                                                        ORDINANCE NO: 12-09-(02)

Requested by: Administration                       An Ordinance authorizing the issuance of a

Sponsored by: Council                                   Conditional Use Permit to Yellow Light Inc.,                                                                       144 St. Lawrence Blvd, Eastlake, OH 44095,                                                                       and declaring an emergency.

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

reading in full. Mr. Licht seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

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

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried. Legislation is adopted.

_     _     _       _          _          _          _          _          _          _          _          _          _

LEGISLATION PENDING

There is 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: Thank you Mr. President. Welcome, this evening to our meeting. I would like to thank the Captains for having the lighting ceremony that was at the stadium on Saturday. Joe and I have gotten some calls about people believing that we paid for it. We did not pay for it. It was paid for by the Captains, and we thank them for that. There were a couple of little glitches there, I spoke with the Captains this week and they are going to sit down and talk about some things next year to possibly control the crowd a little. I think that they were overwhelmed. They thought that there would possibly be only a thousand people that would show up, and a lot more than that showed up. The way that they cut down the entrance it was not good for a little while, until they moved some stuff. The lighting ceremony was good. The tree is lit. Also the lights there … the Captains borrowed the lights, because we did not put up any lights here. So they borrowed our lights, and they are paying for the electric and everything.

The month of December, in our staff meeting yesterday, I told Council last night, we are going to do all of our logistics of everyone assuming the rolls that were laid off. So the Directors have sat down, and the one department that is going to shut down for lunch during the week, is going to be the Finance Department, between noon and one is what we tentatively talked about. I am getting a list of all the phone numbers that will be changed and we will post them on our website, and will continue to do business in the 2015. Start off again fresh in 2015.

Donna and I met with the YMCA again and Best Supply. Best Supply has agreed again to put funds to pay for the opening of the pool again. So again next year the pool will be open with no funds from the City. They do have a coupon that they are running for this week at the YMCA. I will put some out there, I have forwarded some to the Council people, hopefully they can get the word out. 20% off if they buy their passes for the month. So instead of $150.00 it would be $120.00 for family and $60.00 for individual. That can be done at the YMCA, or call 946-1160. That concludes my report and I am open for questions.

Ms. Vaughn: The only thing that I wish you would mention is the fact that the pool will be open from Memorial Day till Labor Day. It is the longest pool opening in this area. So residence can be aware that your kids can swim longer and better in Eastlake. So please, spread the word. Thank you.

Mayor Morley: Thank you Donna.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Any questions for the Mayor? Thank you Mayor. We will go to our Fire Chief Ted Whittington.

Mr. Whittington: Thank you Mr. President. We did have a fatal fire in the City today. The details we are still holding, because of the investigation still going on. We strive, that we try to do rescues, we went in there and although there was a valiant effort, the fire was ahead of us before we got there. There will be more to come from that.

I continue to work on the operational administrative changes that will take effect for the Fire Department for 2015. I do have, as you can imagine, a lot of concerns. A lot of things that I think I need to discuss, so those things will be coming forth for the Mayor and also to get you guys involved. I have nothing else and am open for questions.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Any questions for the Chief? Mr. Evers?

Mr. Evers: Chief Whittington, on behalf of your Department and your men, and the Police Department and their men, I would like to personally thank you guys for your efforts on Saturday at Wal-Mart. It was a very successful campaign. You spent a lot of hours out there in the cold, and it is very much appreciated. All the efforts, all the donations went to Eastlake Community Christmas. All the stuff will be handed out next week to those needy families that live in Eastlake. These guys need to be commended for what they did. It was a great job.

Mr. Whittington: It is an honor for us, I will speak for Chief Reik, it is an honor for us to do something like that for our Community, so thank you.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Thank you. Anymore questions for the Chief? We will go to our Finance Director, Mr. Slocum.

Mr. Slocum: Thank you Mr. President. I have three (3) things. First of all, I distributed earlier today the draft of the RITA agreement. If anybody has any feedback on it, since we are going to try to have legislation created later on it this week for inclusion next week, I need quick feedback from you on it.

Number two (2) I previously informed you that APSME was considering, we had a wage re-opener that they were entitled to and we were going to present a contract. APSME Union rejected with their leadership negotiated. We are trying to see where that it going to go. We will not have anything this year, related to it. They asked for one thing, we countered, so we are back playing the game again. I am waiting to hear back from them. We were prepared to go forward and make a recommendation to their, but their union rejected what their leadership did.

Finally, I did talk with the Auditor, States office today. Relative to the performance audit that Council and Quinn-Hopkins has been pushing. We are going to go a little bit forward and they are going to give me some additional feedback after taking a look at some of the Cities finances, to see what they think may or may not be done. I did ask them, and they were not able to provide me with. Anytime that you hire consultants, which is what this engagement is. I wanted to see what the resumes would like and they were not able to provide me with resumes of their people. They said that they don’t know who is going to be there. I would not enter into any contract unless I knew the resumes of the people as to what they are capable of. I specifically asked them, how do I compare and contrashed you with say KPMJ or Deloyed or other people who offer similar consulting activities. I did not get a great answer there. We are still going to take a look at it. There is no grants for Cities. Whatever we contract with them we end up being liable for. They do provide loans, interest bearing loans. The grant program they have is for schools and schools alone and not Cities. I know the one City that we looked at, their cost is $50,000.00. I think the critical piece is what real deliverables do they have and are we going to be in agreement that they are implementable? It is one thing to say yeah, you should raise taxes, and we can say we never thought of that. That is always a possibility. I wouldn’t view that as a viable suggestion that I would pay any money for from a consultant. As I previously stated, I don’t think there are efficiencies to be gathered from our operations. Ten (10) years ago we had 159 people are now down to 85. I think we have instituted every efficiency possible, plus some. Where we cut fat before, we are now cutting muscle and bone. I will look at it. I am done. If there are any questions.

D’Ambrosio: I have a question. I thought that I saw an e-mail. We actually copied Randy. Sent an e-mail to Randy on that contract for RITA correct? To look at that?

Mr. Slocum: Yes.

D’Ambrosio: Any questions for Mike? Ms. Quinn-Hopkins?

Ms. Quinn-Hopkins: In the e-mail that I forwarded, and I don’t know if that’s the same e-mail that you looked at or not, but it was regarding the City of Finlay. And they explained to me that in that contract, regarding the leap fund, in the middle of that paragraph, explains that if they do not save us more than what it cost, that the balance of our cost would be forgiven. For example, if it cost $100,000 and they only save us $25,000 then that balance of $75,000 would be forgiven, and that is in the leap fund. That is part of that e-mail that I gave you. There are like five or six attachments.

Mr. Slocum: The question is what do you determine is implementable? How do you reconcile? If somebody tells me, and I have seen their reports, part of which say that you should increase the employees contribution. That is not implementable with us. Not until at the earliest 2016. I am not concerned with that, and I don’t view that as an implementable recommendation that they can put out. I didn’t see enough, as to how that would be resolved. Again, I am not convinced that they are the best candidate to bring in if we are actually going to seriously entertain this. But we will start.

Ms. Quinn-Hopkins: Is that to say that you are going to have performance audit people come in and talk to the Council and yourself?

Mr. Slocum: At this point, I am waiting for them to come back and tell me what they are comfortable doing and I think it is an Administrative recommendation as to what we are going to do. At that point, I will discuss it with the Mayor and we may or may not look to bring Council in at that time. I can’t say.

Mayor Morley: We don’t want a number that says what you should do. We want a number where we are actually going to save money. The Middlefield woman, who said that 55,519,000, it does not say savings, it says that they have identified (inaudible). I sent you guys that Ohio Check Book for a reason. The opening line for the audit talks about Beurocrats and Beurocouty. How is the State telling us they are not Beurocrats? That is one of the lines. The other line is we don’t know what savings. That Checkbook.com, if you look at their 1 and 2 cost. 1 is health care, 2 is pension, but they continue to (inaudible) to lower your cost. So they are telling us to lower our cost, or the Cities cost, but the two highest cost are healthcare and pension. (inaudible) When you are looking at the company that is telling you what you need to do and they are not doing it, that is where I have issues with it. That is where I have serious issues with it. (inaudible) You have been asking for it, so we are going to look into it. They need to convince me and our Finance Director. Not just put on paper saying you need to do healthcare. Healthcare is negotiable they know that in Columbus. Cut down on your overtime.   Well if they are going to sit down with our chiefs they are going to know that our overtime in our City is because we don’t the other guys. Like today’s fire. These are going to be the things that if they do come here that they are going to take time. We don’t have time to sit with them all day for months. So those are the reasons that on my end that it possibly is not good. You have been pushing it and we are going to look into it.

Ms. Quinn-Hopkins: Thank you.

Mayor Morley: That is all that I can tell you at this point. Just go on the audit and pull some of the Cities and look at what they are doing. They are giving you a number, they can say City of Eastlake $300,000, you owe us $50,000 – $60,000, and we need to save the things that they can tell us that we can implement. And if we can do that, we will, I am not proud.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Anything else? Ms. DePledge?

Ms. DePledge: I don’t know if you know the answer to this Mike Slocum, but the group that is being suggested to do the audit, is that group being recommended by the Cassage Administration? Is it coming through those channels?

Mr. Slocum: It is coming through YOST. The State Auditor, he has set it up, it is a division within the State Auditor that is separate from the actual audits of the Cities.

Ms. DePledge: Is it a private company?

Mr. Slocum: No. It is part of the Auditor’s office. If you look at your big accounting firms they have their audit staff and then they have their consultant staff. This would fall under consultant. They are not the only consultant in town. I would look at the other consultants before I would recommend that you do anything. Let them make presentations also. If we even feel that it is necessary. We are going to talk and see where we can go with this.

Ms. DePledge: I am surprised that they couldn’t just shoot you off some resumes on e-mail.

Mr. Slocum: I asked for that. In my previous career, I had resumes of partners down to anybody assigned to my engagement. Or even proposed for our engagement. KPMG I was just a little bit surprised with that, but at this stage that is not going to be a killer. But it will be a killer before I recommend anything. Unless I can see what their qualifications are.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Any other questions for Mike? Thanks Mike. We will move to our City Engineer Mr. Gwydir.

Mr. Gwydir: Thank you Mr. President. I have no report and I am open for questions.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Any questions for Tom? Thank you Tom. We will go to our Service Director Mr. Rubertino.

Mr. Rubertino: Good evening everybody. I also have nothing new to report today and I am open for questions.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Any questions for Nick? Thank you Nick, we will go to our CBO, Mr. Menn.

Mr. Menn: I have no report and I am open for questions.

Mr. D’Ambrosio: Any questions for Dave? Chief Whittington?

Chief Whittington: What are you going to do if they come in and say we need three more fireman? I know that their job is to come in and cut and cut. I agree with Mike that, that is where we have been. I would hate to think that they think they could come in and cut more from the Fire Department. If they come back and say that they are going to hire, am I going to be able to count on that as gold that I am going to be able to hire three (3) firemen? I am not looking for a direct answer, but I am looking for something to consider as these reports come out. What are you going to do if it comes out in favor of the Department to add people?

Mr. D’Ambrosio: That is a good question. Thank you.

                    

                     ADJOURNMENT

                     The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:34 p.m.

           ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­                                                ______________________________________

                                                            Joe D’Ambrosio, COUNCIL PRESIDENT

APPROVED: __________________________

ATTEST: _____________________________

                 EDITH MOYER