EASTLAKE CITY COUNCIL REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OCTOBER 28, 2014
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 7:04 p.m.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
ATTENDEES
Members of Council in attendance were Ms. DePledge, Mr. Licht, Mr. Evers, Mr. Hoefle, Ms. Vaughn and Council President Mr. D’Ambrosio. Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins was absent and excused. Also attending was Council Clerk Mrs. Cendroski.
Those attending from the Administration were Mayor Morley, Law Director Klammer, Finance Director Slocum, CBO Menn and Fire Chief Whittington. Police Chief Reik, Service Director Rubertino and City Engineer Gwydir were absent and excused.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Regular Council Meeting with Adjournment into Executive Session– October 14, 2014
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to approve the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting with adjournment into Executive Session of October 14, 2014. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas: Ms. Vaughn, Ms. DePledge, Mr. Licht, Mr. Evers, Mr. D’Ambrosio.
Abstain: Mr. Hoefle
Motion carried. The minutes were approved.
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COUNCIL PRESIDENT’S REPORT – Mr. D’Ambrosio
Meetings Scheduled
Mr. D’Ambrosio: I would like to remind everyone about November 4th – to go out and vote. As you know we have two items on the ballot – Issue 4 and Issue 5. One is for the income tax increase and the other is for the fire levy. The future of our City depends on this. I know some people here in the audience have come to our meetings on Wednesdays. We have had three meetings on Wednesdays from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. The first two were lightly attended with 9 people at each one. The last one had probably 40-50 people and was set up as questions and answers. The Directors, Chiefs and members of Council were here. We tried to answer every question we could. If it was something we were not sure of we would get the answer. Mr. Slocum has left his office door open for questions after the meeting –as any of the other Directors. We hope you will support these two issues. The future of our City depends on it. Our next meeting is tomorrow night from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. If you have not been or would like to attend again you are more than welcome.
The next Council-as-a-Whole Committee Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 11, 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 a contract with Honeywell International, Inc. for repair of the City Hall HWP system. This was discussed in Council-as-a-Whole Committee and added to the agenda as Legislation No. 10-28-(01).
A communication was received from the Administration regarding the re-appropriation of funds for the salt storage facility. This was discussed in Council-as-a-Whole Committee and added to the agenda as Legislation No. 10-28-(02).
A communication was received from the Administration regarding a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Eastlake and the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 2860, AFL-CIO. This was discussed in Council-as-a-Whole Committee and added to the agenda as Legislation No. 10-28-(03).
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Mr. D’Ambrosio: No Committee meetings were held:
MOTIONS
Legislative Recommendations
Legislation No. 10-28-(01)
Ms. Vaughn hereby moved to add Legislation No. 10-28-(01) to the evening’s agenda authorizing and directing the Mayor and Director of Finance to enter into a Contract with Honeywell International Inc. for HWP Repair at City Hall, including labor and material, for the total cost of Fourteen Thousand One Hundred Forty-Seven and Twenty-Four Cents ($14,147.24). Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation No. 10-28-(01) is added to the evening’s agenda.
Legislation No. 10-28-(02)
Ms Vaughn moved to add Legislation No. 10-28-(02) to the evening’s agenda to re-appropriate for the expenses of the City of Eastlake, State of Ohio, for the period beginning January 1, 2014 and ending December 31, 2014. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation No. 10-28-(02) is added to the evening’s agenda.
Legislation No. 10-28-(03)
Ms. Vaughn moved to add Legislation No. 10-28-(03) to the evening’s agenda authorizing and directing the Mayor and Director of Finance to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Eastlake and the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 2860, AFL-CIO. Mr. Licht seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation No. 10-28-(03) is added to the evening’s agenda.
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 2014-067
RESOLUTION NO.: 10-28-(01)
Requested by: Administration A Resolution authorizing and directing the Sponsored by: Council Mayor and Director of Finance to enter into a Contract with Honeywell International Inc. for HWP Repair at City Hall, including labor and material, for the total cost of Fourteen Thousand One Hundred Forty-Seven Dollars and Twenty- Four Cents ($14,147.24), and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to adopt. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No. 2014-067.
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ORDINANCE NO.: 10-28-(02)
Requested by: Administration An Ordinance to re-appropriate for the
Sponsored by: Council expenses of the City of Eastlake, State of Ohio, for the period beginning January 1, 2014 and ending December 31, 2014, and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to adopt. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Ordinance No. 2014-068.
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RESOLUTION NO.: 10-28-(03)
Requested by: Administration A Resolution authorizing and directing the Sponsored by: Council Mayor and Director of Finance to enter into a
Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Eastlake and the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 2860,
AFL-CIO, and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to adopt. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No. 2014-069.
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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: Welcome residents to this evening’s meeting. I need say no more about the ballot issues on November 4th. We have been talking about them the last three or four months. The only thing I will say is everyone go out and vote. Vote depending on what you think of the issues and not just our issues – any issues and/or candidates. It is our right to vote and I believe everyone should use that right. I have said this before – 33%-37% of our residents are who vote for all our issues in our City. It would be great for the number to be 51%. Then at least you know that 51% of the people in the City are out there voting. Both issues are very important to us to continue to operate. We are ready to make whatever cuts we will have to but they will not be pleasant. I can’t emphasize that any more than what we have said. I think all of Council and the Administrators that have attended our Town Hall meetings agree that the good thing that has happened is people are coming and telling us they were no votes but after they sat here and listened and talked to us that they walked out understanding. I think that is part of the issue. If you understand our issues it is a different story. There are always so many rumors. We were just talking about the social media that is out there today – the social media is great but there is so much inaccurate information on those things sometimes. Someone will believe what the person next to them is saying but they won’t come and ask any one of us a question. On my end – I will not go on and debate all the issues on Face Book. The only things I have written on there is if there are questions here is my email and phone number and office. We have made ourselves fully available to answer any questions. We will see what happens. We all get it that no one wants to pay more taxes but we need to operate also. November 11th, which is the next Council meeting, is also Veteran’s Day. The VFW and American Legion will be having a ceremony here at 11:00 a.m. so if you are off and in the area come to the ceremony. We had a preconstruction meeting on the salt bin on Tuesday, October 21st. Mr. Gwydir, who is at a conference, just sent me an email that they expect the bin to be done in the next couple of weeks. They are putting up the precast walls and pouring the base. The goal is to be done by December. The paving program started this week and they are in the harbor area right now doing the profiling and then laying the asphalt. We will be doing eleven streets. This year was the first year we contracted out our asphalt work. Usually the City employees did it but we wanted to try to utilize our City employees in the summer to get other things done and we did do a lot more on the catch basins then we have been doing in previous years. Next year we should be able to bid a little earlier in March. That was the reason for the late start this year. We met with two or three more manufacturing companies in the last couple of weeks. We started a little different method. When someone contacts me the Finance Director, CBO and I meet with them because some have contractor issues after they want to start. CBO Menn will try to stay ahead of the game. If people can tell us their plans and what they want to do ahead of time maybe it will not be such a long ordeal to open a business in our City. We need more manufacturing and the number of new manufacture groups coming into our industrial areas over the last few weeks has been positive. This concludes my report and I am open for questions.
There were no further questions of Mayor Morley.
FIRE CHIEF – Ted Whittington
Chief Whittington: As a reminder this week will be probably pretty busy in the City so we want people to be extra vigilant. Tomorrow night North High School will be having a traditional bond fire/pep rally in the back – they went through the proper channels and the Fire Marshal and our people will be there. After the Town Hall meeting we will go there to help supervise. I know South High is doing the same thing. This is for the North/South game. Trick or Treat will be on Friday and the North/South game will be on Saturday night. There will be a lot of activity in the evenings so please be vigilant. We are working very hard as a County and community to stay ahead of the curve on the Ebola issue. We are ending the 21 day period of monitoring for the people who were on the flights. The Health Department does not expect anything to come of those patients and we will probably get through this period okay. We are preparing for something like what happened in New York City where they had someone come back into the City with the illness. I have done my best to keep the Mayor up to date on anything that would occur on a day to day basis. I don’t have much concern. We had a meeting in which a physician mentioned that if we were in a room together with 20 people and someone had a fever because of Ebola and someone had a fever because of the flu that no one would leave the room with Ebola and three people would leave with the flu. It is important we get our community vaccinated against the flu especially the geriatric population and the pediatric population. I think I have a responsibility to the community to make sure that we do what we need to do and are capable of doing. All of us have been working very hard to educate people in this community about our status and the coming election. I know under the Mayor’s guidance we have been able to disseminate a tremendous amount of information through the Town Hall meetings and literature and I think the one striking thing we deal with our public is when they truly find out the true information as opposed to what they hear a lot are actually taken aback because first and foremost 92% of their taxes do not come to this City – only 8% comes to this City. I encourage every voter before they pull the lever to make sure they have the precise information. If they choose not so support the levy – I respect that – but, at least give us a chance to give them some information. If you have anyone in your Wards who has questions have them come to the Fire Station – it is an open book and I would be willing to talk about how we spend the money. This concludes my report.
There were no questions of Chief Whittington.
POLICE CHIEF – Larry Reik
Chief Reik was absent and excused.
CHIEF BUILDING OFFICIAL – David Menn
Mr. Menn: I have nothing to report.
There were no questions of Mr. Menn.
SERVICE DIRECTOR – Nick Rubertino
Mr. Rubertino was absent and excused.
CITY ENGINEER – Tom Gwydir
Mr. Gwydir was absent and excused.
FINANCE DIRECTOR – Mike Slocum
Mr. Slocum: I have nothing with the Finance Department to report. However, I would like to personally thank everyone who has attended this meeting tonight. I wish as Finance Director that we had more interested citizens as you who actually attend these meetings and the meetings on Wednesdays. If people are unsure as to whether they are for or against as the Chief, Mayor and Council President have said we would like you to come and hear exactly what will occur one way or the other. We have heard since the Mayor’s letter was published that they see it as threats. They really are not threats – they are consequences because the fact of the matter is we are out of money and we do not have the money to continue to operate in the same manner as we have in the past. We need to get this information out and people need to understand the choice they are going to make. And, when they make that choice we are going to be here to implement on it. If you are – if your neighbors are – undecided and need further information please have them come. Have them call me – have them call any Director – we will be more than happy to discuss the issue and go over it in detail. Thank you again. I am open for questions.
There were no questions of Mr. Slocum.
LAW DIRECTOR – Randy Klammer
Mr. Klammer: The lawsuits that are pending are still pending. Nothing new has happened. The buildings came down so those lawsuits will go away as well. I know how hard you guys have all worked in trying to put together a plan to bring things back in line and how hard you have tried to communicate to the Community. I would leave the Community with the thought that I know the decisions you guys make and the recommendations you make in regards to the levies are only for the love of the Community. I say that because I cannot imagine – there is certainly no glory – there is certainly no treasure – any of those things that come along with these positions. It is not like members of Congress or things where you can questions their judgment because there is power and money and things that you can question their intentions. You guys don’t have that. These are the precious positions where I think if you are going to trust your elected officials the ones you should trust beyond all are your local elected officials – your elected council people and your mayor and your school board members because they do not have that incentive and they are not polluted by power. I see that day to day and hope the residents recognize it and trust your judgment. I am open for questions.
There were no questions of Mr. Klammer.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:24 p.m.
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JOE D’AMBROSIO, COUNCIL PRESIDENT
APPROVED: __________________________
ATTEST: _____________________________
DEBORAH A. CENDROSKI,
CLERK OF COUNCIL