EASTLAKE CITY COUNCIL

REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

JANUARY 10, 2017

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 Ms. DePledge at approximately 7:­12 p.m.   

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

ATTENDEES

Members of Council in attendance were Mr. Zuren, Mr. Meyers, Mr. Kasunick, Mr. Spotton, Mr. Evers, Mr. Hoefle and Council President Ms. DePledge.  Also in attendance was Council Clerk Mrs. Simons. 

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

Ms. DePledge: If anyone is recording this meeting as courtesy to the public will you please identify yourself so that the fellow attendees know that they are being recorded.

Kristi Garabrandt-The News Herald

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Regular Council Meeting –December 20, 2016.

MOTION: Mr. Evers moved to approve the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting December 20, 2016.  Mr. Hoefle seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried.  The minutes were approved.

Special Council Meeting – December 29, 2016.

MOTION: Mr. Evers moved to approve the minutes of the SpecialCouncil Meeting December 29, 2016.  Mr. Spotton seconded.

ROLL CALL: Six Yeas and One Abstain.

Motion carried.  The minutes were approved.

COUNCIL PRESIDENT’S REPORT – President Ms. DePledge

Meetings Scheduled

Ms. DePledge: The next Council-as-a-Whole Committee Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 24, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. The Regular Council meeting will be convened immediately following the adjournment of the Council-as-a-Whole Committee meeting.  As you have heard tonight with regard to the levy legislation there will be Special Meetings scheduled between now and January 24^th.  They are published in the newspaper and are also available on the city website for dates, times and agenda’s.

There were no further questions of Council President DePledge.

COMMUNICATIONS & PETITIONS

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Ms. DePledge: A Finance Committee Meetings was held.

Finance Committee- Mr. Evers Chair

A Finance Committee did meet on Tuesday, January 3, 2017 at 6:00 p.m.  We had one item on the agenda and that was the levy for the Fire Department.  As you hear from the Mayor recap it and the Fire Chief will recap it as well.  All members of Council were present.  That concludes my report and I am open for questions.

 There were no further questions of Mr. Evers.

 Ms. DePledge: Mr. Kasunick?

 Mr. Kasunick: I will be hosting an informal meeting for Ward 3 at the EPAL Center on Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.  If anybody has any questions or ideas that they would like to bring this is going to an informal meeting.  I hope to see everyone then.

MOTION

MOTION: Mr. Kasunick moved to appoint Nicole Jelovic, 34475 Glen Drive, Eastlake, Ohio to the Lake County Health District, to the term expiring on January 1, 2022.  Mr. Spotton Second.

 ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

 Motion carried.

RECOGNITION OF THE PUBLIC

Ms. DePledge recognized the public input at this time; she 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.

Christine Stolar, 1710 East 337^th Street,Eastlake,OH

Mrs. Stolar: I am sorry that I did not get the memo about the next meeting.  Maybe I can address a few questions so at the next meeting we can address them.  I am here because I am very disappointed about the medical marijuana plant.  It is hard to see that going in our back yard.  I have a daughter and I am fully for health benefits for people.  I think that in a residential area it is very upsetting.  Some of my questions that I have and hopefully you can address…I wanted to know and they were brought up at the last meeting that a lot of other cities were not receptive to this and I want to know why we are when they are not.

Mayor Morley: I think that one of the reasons that we are receptive to it is and my discussion in Council-As-A-Whole is we can’t pass a levy. 

Mrs. Stolar: I understand that.

Mayor Morley: We’re looking outside the box on everything.  The cities that have moratoriums on that…they have basically taken themselves out of having it.  Initially there are going to be twelve in the whole state.  When we approached by it we took a look at it again…we have been talking back and forth for about three months.  I made sure that the Police Chief was on board with it and we came to this.  I think that is one of the reasons…that land has been vacant for many years.  We’ve tried to sell it before and we’ve had some interest from a nursing home coming in there.  A lot of them want to cut through 337^th Street and buy houses.  What I have said is that I won’t imminent domain there.  When I say that…you know the walk way because I’m not going to take away someone’s house just to put a street in.  A lot of those the drive way isn’t good enough to go back there.  It’s been vacant and broken into lately…not stealing anything.  It’s an eye sore and if you live there you know that part itself.  We are looking at that and the things that we have done over the years since I’ve been in office.  Because we can’t get levies passed…like we did with the pool the YMCA runs that and there is no tax money.  EPAL has taken over our Community Center so we didn’t have to shut that down.  The administrative offices for the library are inside here.  Because in this big building there are only seven of us that work in here and the library has 28 employees and that brings in about $62,000.00 in revenue.  We are looking in and everything is in the early stages.  They have to get a license and the contingency is that they go out and try for their license and if they get that we are looking at…Council has to pass the sale of the property.  The Law Director has been working with the lawyer’s from the group.  There will be fees that would be coming in and some licensing fees and the 2% on their million and a half payroll.  Those are all of the things to bring some more money in.  If you have heard the Chief and the Director’s from before that’s the reason.  That’s the easiest reason.

Mrs. Stolar: I understand that and they keep saying that they are going to be able to bring jobs in.  They said approximately about thirty at $10.00 an hour.  That’s not many jobs to the city.

Mayor Morley: Some are $10.00 and that there is also going to be…and that is why we want to do the Informational Meeting.  There are going to be scientist that will be hired and obviously they are not entry levels and some will be $10.00.  That is why we are looking to have the Informational Meeting.  Since it’s been announced I’ve gotten a lot of good and some bad.  That is the way that it is going to be.  I think that if we do the Informational Meeting you come out and he and his group will be there to answer any questions.  I talked to him today and we are going to get some more of the laws that just…the laws keep changing daily in the state.  We will have all of that out.  We are just going to educate our resident’s and I understand what you’re saying.

Mrs. Stolar: I just picture the future…eventually like they are going to be putting up on the ballot again for personal marijuana usage after the age of 21 as well as medical marijuana.  I can picture Vine Street with dispensaries all the way down…with marijuana shops.  

Mayor Morley: From our end don’t forget that the governor signed off on this.  If the governor wouldn’t have signed off we wouldn’t be here now.

Mrs. Stolar: That is what I picture Eastlake.  We’ve been in trouble for years and I’ve lived here all of my life and its sad and it’s a shame.  I’m concerned about the…they are going to have the state of the art sewer system that’s fine but it’s going to run into the fertilizer.  I’m sure that it will it has to go somewhere else also, so years from now who knows what the outcome will be.  I do have other questions and I won’t take up anymore of your time and I will come to the next meeting.

Mayor Morley:  That’s great and if you want to leave them for me that would be great too and I could get to them.  Put your name, number and email on them that would be great and then give it to me.

 

Mrs. Stolar: Thank you for your time.

 

Brad Chesney 37099 Lakeshore Blvd., Eastlake, OH

Mr. Chesney: My biggest concern is about the Mayor’s Court. 

 

Ms. DePledge: What would you like to know about the Mayor’s Court?

 

Mr. Chesney: I realize that our Police force fines people for citations and they serve and protect that is there thing.  I am kind of against the Mayor’s Court because it seems like the kind of thing where we would be seeking the benefit from the misfortune of others.  On that level I am kind of against it…it’s a general principal.  So what we are essentially doing is we are having revenue generation be part of law enforcement and I don’t want that to ever be on their to-do list.  It opens the door to pressure for officers to collect and they wouldn’t be collecting from strangers they would be collecting from visitors and neighbors.  I realize that it would be more money for the city but at what ethical cost?  I am really sorry about the levy and I voted for it.  I was wondering as potentially having elective inclusion to still contributing to the funding the levy would have provided on an elective basis on the condition that it fails.  Do you have the technology or the access to that possible anonymous information?  Some of it might be anonymous and I don’t know.

 

Ms. DePledge: When you say elective inclusion are you suggesting that people…

 

Mr. Chesney: I voted for the levies and I would have been happy paying for it.  When it failed I still didn’t pay for it but if there was the ability for me to pay even though it failed I would be okay with that.  It would be just a few…I don’t imagine that it would be 100% of the people that vote for it would continue to pay when their neighbor’s didn’t.

 

Ms. DePledge: I guess my question would be if by some reason elective inclusion…people just volunteering in wanting to pay more to the city.  Which would strike me as odd now just to be honest with you, then the issue becomes how do we determine which services respond to which people?  Do the Police and Fire Department’s make a decision well they didn’t pay any inclusive taxes so we’re not going to respond to them right now.  Then the people who have actually paid are like why are you responding there because they didn’t pay?

 

Mr. Chesney: I don’t know that you can…I just think that you have to do it out of the goodness of your heart.  I don’t think that you can make those stipulations.

 

Ms. DePledge: The other issue that you mentioned was the Mayor’s Court and I just wanted to let you know that a task force has been established and they will be looking at all aspects of the Mayor’s Court.  It is something that City Council has looked twice before and we did not moved forward with it at that time.  Whoever the people that were on Council or on the Administration at that time decided not to.  We are re-visiting the issue and there are changes in technology, function and obviously the law has changed over the last couple of years with regard to their scope and function.  There is a task force and it is independent and neutral.  They will be doing their homework and doing their job.  They will be making a recommendation and we anticipate that it could take six to twelve months is what the Law Director the last time that we had a meeting.  It is going to be a long process for them to do what they need to do.  Is there anything else that you wanted to discuss this evening?

 

Mr. Chesney: Those are the two things.

 

Ms. DePledge: Thank you for coming up.  Chief Reik?

 

Chief Reik: As far as and I have worked with Ms. Schindel a little bit…especially over the holiday’s we do have people come in and give us donations for Victim Assistance Fund to help them.  Or they want to donate to a certain part…when we had the K-9 we used to get different donations for that.  When we have received things department specific the Finance Department has helped us set up donation accounts that don’t reset every year and they carry through.  We make sure that we use that money.  If somebody does come to the department and we just want to donate money to you guys we try to give them that these are the things that we have present accounts for…for them that something that is suitable to what they want their donation to go to when we try and match those up.  Just for clarification.

 

There was no one else who wished to speak.

 

LEGISLATION PROPOSED – First number will be 2017-001

Ms. DePledge: Legislation No.: 01-10-(01) is the Legislation Proposed for passage of the $4.5-Mill Tax Levy for fire services.  As we have discussed earlier we will not be reading that this evening.  We will review it and if need be we will have Special Council Meetings to vote on that.

 01-10-(01)                                           RESOLUTION NO.________________

 

A Resolution declaring it necessary to levy an additional 4.5- Mill Tax Levy for the purpose of providing and maintaining fire apparatus, appliances, buildings, or sites therefor, or sources of water supply and materials therefor, or the establishment and maintenance of lines of fire alarm telegraph, or the payment of firefighting companies or permanent, part-time, or volunteer firefighting, emergency medical service, administrative, or communications personnel to operate the same, including payment of any employer contributions required for such personnel under Section 145.48 OR 742.34 of the Revised Code, or the purchase of ambulance equipment, or the provision of ambulance, paramedic, or other emergency medical services operated by a Fire Department or Firefighting Company, and requesting the Lake County Auditor to certify the total current tax valuation of the City and the dollar amount of revenue that would be generated by that additional levy pursuant to Section 5705.19(I) of the Revised Code, and declaring an emergency.

 

MOTION:  Mr. Evers moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and reading in full.  Mr. Hoefle second.

 

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

 

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

 

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

 

Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No. 2017-001.

 

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: Thank you Madam President and welcome everyone to this evenings meeting and Happy New Year.  As I said in Council-As-A-Whole and if we had anyone come in afterwards on Tuesday, January 31 at 6:00 p.m. and it will be held in Council Chambers, because we don’t know how many people will be here.  We will have a presentation on the medical marijuana facility that wants to go in.  Again it is on Tuesday, January 31^st at 6:00 p.m.  Thank you for appointing Ms. Jelovic for the Health District.  We still have a BZA opening so if anyone from Council or anyone in the audience wishes to apply for the Board of Zoning and Appeals.  Janice has agreed to stay on until we find a replacement.  I know that Mr. Menn is working to try and find someone for the Architectural Board of Review Committee.  As we know the schools will start being built this year.  Mr. Menn and I sat down again today with another potential business that is looking to go in on Vine Street.  We have also talked to someone else on Vine Street.  As I have been saying in the previous meetings 2017 can hopeful be a good year for us with business coming in.  Everything is tentative right now so there is really nothing to report on for the names of the companies and a couple of the companies cannot be put out there yet.  We are going to continue to have negotiations with the unions this month and we have them some meetings set up at the end of the month.  As you know we have gotten through changing over the healthcare.  I wanted to thank Mr. Saperstein from the Eastlake Fire Department for working with us and with other the other unions to be the trend setter in the surrounding cities with the way the healthcare change this time.  That concludes my report and I am open for questions.

 

Ms. DePledge: Mr. Hoefle?

 

Mr. Hoefle: Mayor Do you have an update in regards to the traffic light on Vine Street across from Wal-Mart?

Mayor Morley: The last discussion is and Mr. Menn and I talked yesterday was that he talked to the Chief and we are waiting for the answer to start blinking it first so people are aware that there is a light there.  Then they will…did you get a time frame on…

Mr. Menn: We hope to have it within the next week or two.

Mayor Morley: It will blink at first so people are aware that there is a light there and then it will start working after that.  Then we will deal with whatever possible issues that will be after that if there are timing and all of that.

There were no further questions of Mayor Morley.

FIRE CHIEF – Ted Whittington

Chief Whittington: I have already said enough but I have nothing else to report but I am open for questions.

Ms. DePledge: We will incorporate your comments from the Council-As-A-Whole Meeting into tonight’s meeting. 

There were no further questions of Chief Whittington.

 

POLICE CHIEF – Larry Reik 

Chief Reik: We had a bank robbery on Saturday around noon.  No one was hurt a note was passed and the money was given over.  Unfortunately it went with no injury or anything like that especially if you saw what happened in Highland Heights either today or yesterday.  We are actively following up on leads for that. Topically we come to a good closer on those and we just want people to be aware of their surroundings.  Especially in the winter where more clothes and things can be worn into banks.  I just encourage people to come to the Informational Meeting.  I get inundated probably a little bit more than some of the other non-elected officials do to being the head of the Police Department and marijuana being between a controlled substance that is legal and not legal in different states.  Like the Mayor stated you don’t pass a law…Eastlake is not making an exemption for the law to not pertain to only Eastlake the laws are passed by the state and we follow those.  Council passes the laws and I enforce them.  Before people make up their mind I would encourage them to ask myself, Mayor or Council questions and to come to the meetings and get all of the information that is out there.  That concludes my report and I am open for questions.

 

There were no further questions of Chief Reik.

 

CHIEF BUILDING OFFICIAL – David Menn

Mr. Menn: Just to let everyone know that there is a Planning Commission Meeting on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and there is one item on the agenda.  That concludes my report.

 

There were no questions of Mr. Menn.

 

SERVICE DIRECTOR – Nick Rubertino

Mr. Rubertino had no report this evening.

There were no further questions of Mr. Rubertino.

 

CITY ENGINEER – Tom Gwydir

Mr. Gwydir had no report this evening.  

There were no questions of Mr. Gwydir.

FINANCE DIRECTOR – Carol-Ann Schindel

Ms. Schindel: Thank you and we are in the middle of closing out our year end.  We are pulling together budget numbers for 2017 that we will have to live with.  We are looking at leasing a front end loader and we are still getting information on a front end loader for the Service Department.  To see what we can do to replace, fix or do something to help out the Fire Department with and ambulance.  That is what we are concentrating on in this year’s budget.

Ms. DePledge: Mr. Kasunick?

Mr. Kasunick: With respect to the levy what was the approximate cost per $100,000.00 of value for property?

Ms. Schindel: The tax payer cost for $1-Mill is $35.00 per $100,000.00 value of a home.

There were no questions of Ms. Schindel.

LAW DIRECTOR – Randy Klammer

Mr. Klammer: Thank you Madam President Members of Council and Mayor Morley.  The Chief did raise a lot of these issues at our Director’s meeting yesterday.  I wasn’t aware that the permanent that is called a permanent nature was going to be an issue for him.  I would have looked at that in advance and he did mention something to that affect so I apologize.  I want to give you a couple of options in case you decide that you want to move forward today.  I know in the past we have always done three readings because it is important to the residents.  The Charter doesn’t require that so if you have comfort level trying to move forward without those three readings you could do one, two or three.  You just have to still have that emergency ordinance number of votes to pass it as an emergency we don’t need those three readings.  I think that the legislation does provide that it is a continuing nature. I think the reason that it has that and I always defer to Mr. Sharb but I am comfortable telling that the reason it is that way is because it’s dealing with operating expenses and general improvements not more capital improvements.  Theoretically you could move forward today with this piece if you wanted to or set it for just a second reading.  I think that Chief’s concerns are addressed in here as far as it being a continuing.

Ms. DePledge: I didn’t see anything limiting the term when I went through it.

Mr. Klammer: It’s continuing but the one part of the Chief’s concern I don’t think that I can answer but I don’t think can be answered.  I think that what he is implying is that he would also like it to be adjusted periodically without a vote of the people.  That I don’t think that we can accomplish so I think that you are as good as you’re going to get here.  I don’t want anybody to feel like they are jamming anything down the Chief’s throat or the resident’s throat but I could be comfortable with this today if you guys wanted to move it forward.  Again you don’t need the three readings you just need to pass the emergency.

Ms. DePledge: So you’re saying that we can just pass it as it is because you think that it meets the Chief’s concerns.

Mr. Klammer: I think that it does.  I don’t think that it is going to get any better.  I was at the Director’s meeting yesterday so I know how passionate the Chief is about it.  The last thing I want to do is to make him feel like I’m disregarding his concerns.  I also want to respect the time frame that you are under and the Special Meetings and the resident’s and all of that stuff too.  I just propose that out to you.  I would have interrupted you earlier but I wanted to give you two options.

Ms. DePledge: I appreciate that.

Mr. Klammer: You can move forward with it or set it for another reading.

Ms. DePledge: I can do an informal poll of Council and the Chief.  Again I would always want you to be on board.  We are all in this together.  If Council is agreeable we could read it as written and move it forward tonight for further processing.  We have discussed this for several months and the details are not a surprise to anybody tonight.  I think that there was some discussion about $4.5 or $4.75 and I think that we are back on board with $4.5.  It is not for any specific term as the Chief indicated.  I think that we all know tonight that this is not sufficient to cover the entire operating budget of the Fire Department.  With that understanding is Council willing to go forward with a vote this evening?  Is everyone okay and with that we will back up in our agenda and we will go to Legislation Proposed.

There were no questions of Mr. Klammer.

Ms. DePledge: Before we close Mr. Zuren I thought that you might like to make a special announcement about the Taste of Eastlake.

 Mr. Zuren: I have been working on an event for the city and it is called “Taste of Eastlake” and it is going to be an event with local restaurants showing their best samples of food.  It will be on Sunday, January 29^th from 1:00p.m. to 4:00 p.m.  So far there are four restaurants that have signed up for the event.  There are five more that are considering it.  I will keep everybody posted on the restaurants that are going to participate and hopeful we get a great turn out to support our restaurants.  Thank you.

There were no questions of Mr. Zuren.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:41 p.m.

 

          _________________________________________          

LAURA A. DEPLEDGE, COUNCIL PRESIDENT

 

APPROVED: ________________

 

ATTEST: ______________________________________

                  TRACY M. SIMONS, CLERK OF COUNCIL