COUNCIL AS A WHOLE COMMITTEE MEETING

                                                                    MINUTES

                                                                    TUESDAY

       MAY 12, 2015

 

Council President Mr. D’Ambrosio opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. 

 

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, Service Director Rubertino, City Engineer Gwydir, Police Chief Reik and Fire Chief Whittington. CBO Menn was absent and excused.

 

RECOGNITION OF THE LAKE COUNTY YACHT CLUB ON ITS 50^TH ANNIVERSARY

Mayor Morley and Council President D’Ambrosio acknowledged the Lake County Yacht Club on its 50^th Anniversary by presenting a Certificate of Recognition and a Key to the City to Vice Commodore Larry Schwenk and members.

 

Vice Commodore Schwenk: I would like to thank the members of Council, the Mayor and the Administration for this proclamation.  I accept it on behalf of Commodore Bernie Keary and all the members and associate members of our Club. This is especially gratifying to me personally as being a resident. I built a house on Christine Court 16 years ago – the Club is what attracted me to come to Eastlake and we do have a lot of members in the Club who actually live right here in Eastlake.  Thank you all very much – we appreciate it.

 

LEGISLATION PROPOSED:

05-12-(01):  Municipal Incentive Grant Agreement: Presrite Corporation

Mr. D’Ambrosio:  We discussed this at the last Council meeting but did not have a quorum so we placed it on this evening’s agenda. Mr. Slocum?

 

Mr. Slocum:  As discussed we granted a tax incentive grant to Presrite two years ago. Last year they had a bogie of $3,000,000 and had salaries of about $1,500,000.  We knew their salaries were growing and amended the agreement last year by paying 30% and if they made last year’s bogie we would pay the other 20% and continue on.  They missed last year’s bogie.  Instead of $3,500,000 million they had $3,420,000.  They came very, very close and are expanding and continue to expand. It is the Administration’s recommendation that we pay them 30% from last year and continue the award going forward. They are in agreement with it.  They have gone from -0- to $3.4 million and I think this is the type of business we are trying to entice and in order for us to keep a good reputation we heartily recommend this.  I am open for questions.

 

There were no questions or comments.

 

05-12-(02):  Charter Amendment: Article VIII. Section 3: Mandatory Referral

Mr. D’Ambrosio:  This was discussed in Ordinance Committee.  Mr. Hoefle?

 

Mr. Hoefle:  The Ordinance Committee met last Tuesday to discuss this amendment. Mayor Morley?

 

Mayor Morley:  For those of you who have been coming to the meetings this year we have talked about our hands being tied on some of the properties we are trying to develop.  One is the WalMart property and the other is the NIKE site off of Curtis Blvd.  Right now everything we need rezoned goes to the ballot as a ballot initiative. We would like to amend Article VIII. Section 3 of the Charter and place the amendment on the ballot to amend the section.  A rezone would still go through Planning Commission and Council so if there are objections to a business coming into the City it will allow for more than enough time – probably over two months – to block it.  One example is the WalMart property.  We have had a few businesses come – one wanted to have assisted living, doctors offices, and sell equipment but they would have to rezone to retail.  Once a lot of developers hear the words rezone and ballot they look for the next location.  This has happened a couple of times with the WalMart property and once on the NIKE site.  We are looking to try to help us move forward economically and develop and this will help us. I will provide more details as we get closer to November. If anyone has any questions they can call me.  There will also be information in the Gazette and at meetings.

 

Mr. D’Ambrosio:  As this is a Charter Amendment and will appear on the ballot I suggest if there are no objections by Council that this be read three times with the first reading being tonight.

 

There were no objections or comments.

 

05-12-(03):  Acceptance: 2016 Tax Budget

Mr. D’Ambrosio: This is a housekeeping matter. Mr. Slocum?

 

Mr. Slocum:  This is a requirement from the County and is the first step so we can collect the inside millage and the voted millage that has been authorized in this community.  I would not put any real weight in any of the budget projects this seems to show because all we did was take this year’s budget and put it in for next year. Why we do this exercise is beyond me.  There is a county in the State that does not require it but Lake County is not that county.  If we want to collect the millage we are authorized this is the first step in the process.

 

There were no objections or comments.

 

05-12-(04):  WPCC Funding Request: Outfall Diffuser Section Replacement Engineering:  $78,000

05-12-(05):  WPCC Funding Request: Equalization Basin Rehabilitation Project: $74,000

05-12-(06):  WPCC Funding Request: Plant Performance Assessment Engineering: $65,000

Mr. D’Ambrosio:  We share the waste water treatment plant with Willoughby.  Funding is necessary to make repairs.  We typically wait for legislative action by the City of Willoughby because they own the plant before we approve anything.  City Engineer Gwydir looked into this today and they have not approved this yet.  If there are no objections from Council I suggest these items be placed on First Reading so we can see what Willoughby does before we authorize any expenditure of funds.

 

There were no questions or comments.

 

LEGISLATION PENDING:

There was no Legislation Pending.

 

MISCELLANEOUS

RE-APPROPRIATION: JANUARY 1, 2015 – DECEMBER 31, 2015

Mr. D’Ambrosio:  Mr. Slocum, part of this is for the Fire Department grant?

 

Mr. Slocum:  The need for the re-appropriation is two-fold.  The first part is for the grant for the Fire Department.  We will get the money and put it into the Federal Fund.  I have no authorization to spend any money unless we approve the appropriation.  There are a lot of things I need to have before I can spend the money – if it is more than $12,500 I must get Council’s approval. I know the grant has been presented to you but unless we pass the first part of the legislation we will not be able to take advantage of the grant.  Second, this deals with the City Hall refinancing bonds.  This was handled a little bit differently this time than it was in the past.  In the past when refinancing occurred the refinance transactions went through an escrow type agent who did all the disbursements.  In this case the bank actually gave us the entire amount – $835,000 – for the refinancing. Of that we have already spent $821,000 to pay off the earlier bonds and any accrued interest and we still have to pay $12,000 in expenses.  Due to the refinancing we will save $21,325.  We had said earlier we would save an additional $16,985 this year.  Well, on top of that we will get an additional $1,155 from the refinancing savings for this year.  I had the flexibility because of previous appropriations to move the money around in the bond fund. However, I need this appropriation so we can pay the debt when it comes.  This truly is a housekeeping legislation for us. The bond actually settled on April 30^th.  It is a done deal.  I am open for questions.

 

Mr. D’Ambrosio:  Most of the $21,000 will be a savings for this year?

 

Mr. Slocum:  Of the $21,000 we will save $16,985 plus about $1,155 this year which is about $18,000.  We will save $289 next year and $3,000 the following year for a total of $21,325.  All we had to do was invest a little work and we will get $21,000 in savings.  That means we will have less cash going out to pay off the same debt. This thing was a win-win for us.

 

There were no questions or comments.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 7:12 p.m.

 

dac                                              

 

        

                                                                                      APPROVED:  ________________

 

                                                                                        DATE: __________________