Regular Council Meeting Minutes from December 20, 2016
EASTLAKE CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
DECEMBER 20, 2016
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 7:03 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, City Engineer Gwydir, Finance Director Schindel and Law Director Klammer. Fire Chief Whittington, Police Chief Reik, CBO Menn and Service Director Rubertino were absent and excused.
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.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Regular Council Meeting –December 13, 2016.
MOTION: Mr. Evers moved to approve the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting December 13, 2016. Mr. Hoefle seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. The minutes were approved.
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COUNCIL PRESIDENT’S REPORT – President Ms. DePledge
Meetings Scheduled
Ms. DePledge: The next Council-as-a-Whole Committee Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 10, 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. Since our last meeting we had a Finance Committee Meeting and we had an opportunity to discuss the appointments for the Mayor’s Court Task Force and the Impound Lot. With that Council appointments are: Mr. Jelenic, Ms. Doherty, Ms. Davis and Mr. Koons. I have called all of them and three of them have responded back and Ms. Davis has not responded back to accept the appointment. Hopefully we will hear from her shortly. Council will also appoint one Council Member to the Mayor’s Court Task Force and that Council appointment will be Mr. Kasunick. The Mayor will have his own appointments that he will discuss…unless you want to do it now?
Mayor Morley: I will do the Mayor’s Court now. Under the Mayor’s Court it is Mr. McGuigan and Mr. Komarjanski is the other appointment from the Mayor’s Office.
Ms. DePledge: There was also a discussion regarding the Impound Lot Task Force. We did not receive any resumes from any resident’s that would be interested in serving on that Task Force. That concept or idea has been tabled for now. With that there is an issue and I am sure it this evening between the Mayor and the Finance Director discussing our health insurance premiums. They have literally…I think that initial estimate was an increase of 30% and we didn’t have that money in the budget. So there will be special meetings for that so Council will have to be available for those during Christmas and New Years. I will be out of town so I will not be able to attend them and I want to make everyone aware of that. So your attendance will be critical, because they will need a majority vote for things like that. I will be available via phone if need be. With that I wish everybody a wonderful and Happy Holiday, Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. I hope that you and your families are happy, healthy and safe. That concludes my report and I am open for questions.
There were no further questions of Council President DePledge.
COMMUNICATIONS & PETITIONS
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A communication from Finance Director Schindel to temporarily appropriate for the expenses for the period beginning January 1, 2017 and ending December 31, 2017.
Ms. DePledge: This was discussed in Council-As-A-Whole and will be added to this evening’s agenda.
- A communication from Finance Director Schindel to reappropriate for the expenses for the period beginning January 1, 2016 and ending December 31, 2016.
Ms. DePledge: This was discussed in Council-As-A-Whole and will be added to this evening’s agenda.
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A communication from the Administration for the potential sale of the old JFK property.
Ms. DePledge: This will be referred to the Finance Committee and we will set a meeting. Is there a time issue?
Mayor Morley: January 3, 2017 at 6:00 p.m. I talked to Mr. Evers about it if that is okay with everyone?
Ms. DePledge: January 3, 2017 at 6:00 p.m. okay.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Ms. DePledge: A Finance Committee Meetings was held.
Finance Committee – Kimberly C. Evers, Chair
Mr. Evers: Thank you Council President. Yes the Finance Committee Meeting did meet and all members of Council were present along with the Mayor and the Finance Director from the Administration. The items that were discussed were the Mayor’s Court Task Force, Impound Lot Task Force, and the other item that was discussed was a Tax Proposed Tax Levy and I will turn it over to the Mayor or Ms. Schindel. Mayor Morley?
Mayor Morley: We discussed two thoughts that we had from the Administration. One was seeing that Cleveland passed a two and a half percent income tax we were possibly looking at that, because we have about 1,200 residents that work in Cleveland. That would not affect them at all…if we were looking towards a possible passing of a referendum that may have been it. We also discussed a $4.5 Mill Safety Levy for the Fire Department. The $4.5 Mills would run the Fire Department in full. Right now it takes about $1.7 Million to run that department. Four in a half Mills would bring $2 Million in. One that would continue with the three firemen that we have from the Safer Grant and if we do not pass a levy in May the three firemen from the grant would be laid off. We are just trying to stabilize the city. We know that no one wants any new taxes but we have to stabilize the city. Ms. Schindel is getting all of the numbers from the Election Board so we can certify. We need to have that passed by February 1st. Council has agreed that is the route that we should go…with the Fire Levy. We do have a renewal on there that is our original levy from 1982. It brings in about $408,000.00 and again that is the renewal. This would free up the $1.7 Million in the General Fund to help the other departments. In the past and we have talked about this before the Chief’s just don’t want a levy for Police, Fire, Service or the General…that brings in $500,000.00 or $600,000.00. The usual task would be that they got a levy for $500,000.00 and we will take $500,000.00 away from them out of the General Fund. This would run that department and that money could only be allocated for the Fire Department. We are hoping that the resident’s…this time after ten or eleven failures can see that we really…we don’t go out asking for money just to ask for money. We need to stabilize this city. Over the last few weeks with the calls about the snow plowing and everything else…we have five people that plow compared to ten in Wickliffe, eighteen crews in Willowick. When you have five…this is what I have been throwing out to people…think about when you do your driveway and think about having five people to do the whole city, every street it is 6.6 square miles. Bear with us on that and we meet today…Mr. Rubertino the Chief and myself and we hope that someone will bring us some food on Christmas Eve or on Christmas if the river starts flowing. With the weather it’s up there right now…it is up to the top of the bank and we are hoping that with the warm weather and possible rain that we don’t have any issues over the holiday. I will do the rest of my report during that.
Mr. Evers: Thank you Mayor. That concludes my report and I am open for any questions.
There were no further questions of Mr. Evers.
MOTION
MOTION: Mr. Evers moved to add Legislation No. 12-20-(01) to this evenings agenda an Ordinance to temporarily appropriate for the expenses of the City of Eastlake, State of Ohio, for the period beginning January 1, 2017 and ending December 31, 2017. Mr. Hoefle Second.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried Legislation No. 12-20-(01) is added to this evening’s agenda.
MOTION: Mr. Evers moved to add Legislation No. 12-20-(02) to this evenings agenda an Ordinance to reappropriate for the expenses of the City of Eastlake, State of Ohio, for the period beginning January 1, 2016 and ending December 31, 2016. Mr. Hoefle Second.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried Legislation No. 12-20-(02) is added to this evening’s agenda.
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.
Todd Vogler, 560 Howells Court, Eastlake, OH
Mr. Vogler: Council I appreciate your time and patience for hearing my concerns. I speak with a lot of the resident’s in our communities. I got to the Block watches and I interact with a lot of people and they’ve asked me repeatedly on the status of the deer culling. The one question that I’ve received more than once is 1.) Why does it take so long? I’ve tried to explain to them how government works and 2.) We’ve had some discussion over having an ordinance passed and I’m not sure and confused as to how I should address the question that was proposed to me when we had this discussion. Now all of a sudden it’s at a lawyer…we discussed to try and have an ordinance but there is no discussion of how the ordinance should have read. It’s at a lawyer and it seems to be like we are spending time, effort, and energy and resources occupying an attorney’s time, without having a discussion over the frame work of how that ordinance should be written. I’m just curious to know how there has been a disconnection there. The second issue that I would like to bring for your attention, consideration and review is that we have also discussed how the city is hurting on money and going bankrupt and that we need money. I get it the government costs money to run…we have had several ideas such as a dragon unit and that has to have a Mayor’s Court to function. I am curious to know if we have any kind of time frames of what we have a goal…do we have a goal for a Mayor’s Court? Do we have a goal to get the other ideas proposed? Do we have any kind of time frame that we are looking at to have these objectives met? That is all that I have.
Ms. DePledge: I will address part of your issues and then maybe the Law Director will comment in regards to the deer culling ordinance. We did have a committee meeting and how the process works is that ideas come into Council and they are referred to a committee. The committee discusses them and they make changes to them. They get reviewed by our Law Director and they will come back to committee. It all takes time and once that ordinance is approved by Council, the Law Director and our Mayor. It’s a process. Then it comes to us and it goes to three public readings.
Mr. Vogler: So the Committee-As-A-Whole discusses it?
Ms. DePledge: We will have another committee meeting before it comes to Council.
Mr. Vogler: An Ordinance Committee?
Ms. DePledge: Yes.
Mr. Vogler: It’s proposed to the lawyer to draft a frame work and it goes back to the Ordinance Committee…
Ms. DePledge: We have a drafted frame work and there were changes to it. We submitted it to our Law Director for his review and approval and then it comes back. Then it goes to the public for three readings. If the public has any concerns…and sometimes we have to review them again. That is the process. It is open meetings and our doors are open. People come in and they have questions. The first two meetings nobody is going to show up anyway they are all going to come to the third reading. Then we are going to have a problem. That is what we topically see happen. Or maybe we won’t have a problem we don’t know. Topically the third meeting is usually the most heated meeting, when something of that nature goes for public input. That is the process with that and I will let the Law Director elaborate on it if he needs too. With regard to the Mayor’s Court and the goals and how it will work that is up to that team. How they want to and what they identify is issues that they need to address and explore. How they want to function and divide up the responsibilities that the task force is going to look into is up to them. That is the purpose of them being neutral, unbyist and impartial. To do their job the best that they can and they have a certain amount of autonomy with that as well where we are not going to be interfering. We are going to have a meeting with them and it will probably be after the first of the year. We will set some specific guide lines. Maybe we will want a report from them once a month or every other month just to make sure that they are on track. If they sit down and they start working and they think that they can do it in a month that is great. But if they get into and they are like this is going to take us a little bit longer. We are going to give them the time that they need to do the right job. Okay?
Mr. Vogler: Sure of course.
Ms. DePledge: Hopefully it’s not going to take a year. I would think that they could probably do somewhere in four to six months. If they do it in four months that’s great and if they do it in six months that’s great. If it gets to that six months and they are still trying to do whatever it is that they need to do we are not going to shut them down for that either. Okay?
Mr. Vogler: Of course.
Ms. DePledge: Did I address your questions?
Mr. Vogler: Yes and just so I have a clear understanding the Ordinance Committee gets together and proposes an idea to the lawyer and then he drafts it up. It goes back to the Ordinance Committee then it is presented to Council. Council then reads it three times and then we go from there correct?
Ms. DePledge: If Council approves it.
Mr. Vogler: Correct. So there is to be some vigorous debate and discussion amongst the Ordinance Committee as well as Council-As-A-Whole correct?
Ms. DePledge: I don’t understand your question.
Mr. Klammer: Yes.
There was no one else who wished to speak.
LEGISLATION PROPOSED – First number will be 2016-060
12-20-(01) Ordinance No.:___________
Requested by: Finance Director Schindel
Sponsored by: Finance Committee
An Ordinance to temporarily appropriate for the expenses of the City of Eastlake, State of Ohio, for the period beginning January 1, 2017 and ending December 31, 2017, 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. 2016-060.
12-20-(02) Ordinance No.:___________
Requested by: Finance Director Schindel
Sponsored by: Finance Committee
An Ordinance to reappropriate for the expenses of the City of Eastlake, State of Ohio, for the period beginning January 1, 2016 and ending December 31, 2016, 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. 2016-061.
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. Mr. Vogler from my prospective on the Mayor’s Court is that I am hoping or my goal would be made by June. As Council President DePledge said we are going to have one initial meeting. Usually on any task force in the city and Charter Commission since I’ve been involved is we will say what we are looking for. They will be on their own to figure out and report back to us. We are not there to dictate and we will have one Councilman who will be on there. We will be there at the initial meeting. The only time that we will be invited is if they anyone like the Law Director or the Chief would maybe involved in it. We are going to let them do their thing and report back to us on that. I met with Best Supply today and they donate to our pool. They paid $20,000.00 today for the 2016 season and they have already paid the $20,000.00 for next year. The pool will be operating again next year. It is great that we have a swim team back. The use quadrupled from 2,592 people using it in 2014 to 9,131 in 2016. With addition of the kiddy pool we think that next year there will be more usage of it. We always thank Mr. Small for his donations. Today as I was telling Ms. Schindel when we got back I wish that we could write a check for $40,000.00 and not blink. He wrote a check for $40,000.00 and gave it to the YMCA today and he doesn’t even blink. We are appreciative of Mr. Small he is a great advocate of our city and the kid’s in our city. We have some appointments to some commissions and I will just run down them…I have talked to the Council President to talk about their re-appointment. For the Architectural Board of Review we still have one position vacant and we are still looking for a replacement. The CBO has reached out to some architects because the Charter says that we have to have an architect. What the CBO has brought up and we are going to talk to the Law Director is to possibly changing the ordinance to put the CBO as that other person on the board, because it goes through him anyhow. We are thinking on doing that since we haven’t been able…the replacements with the term expiring on 12-31-2019 it will be Mrs. Moran from Yard Master Inc., 124 Hampshire Cove, Painesville Twp., OH 44077. I ask for her re-appointment and she has been on for the last three years, before I took over as Mayor. For the Planning Commission on the term that expires on 12-31-2021 Mr. Liebhardt, Sr. 1034 Cliffview Drive, Eastlake, OH 44095. I am asking for his re-appointment. The Eastlake Port Authority for the term expiring on 12-31-2020 for the re-appointments of Mr. Haas, 97A River Drive, Eastlake, OH 44095, Mr. Meinke, 35981 Reeves Road, Eastlake, OH 44095. And for Council’s re-appointment for the term expiring 12-31-2020 for Mr. Opalich, 35476 Admiral Drive, Eastlake, OH 44095. We also have for the Lake County Health District needs to find someone to take over for Dr. Hernandez who has retired. We have met with a few people and Ms. Schindel is going to meet with our EAP person to see if she would like to do that for the city. She is also an Eastlake resident. For the Board of Zoning Appeals and this is a change from what I have emailed you…Ms. Balog-Tucker has declined and the term expires on 12-31-2021 so we will have Mr. Farwell, 36823 Lakeshore Boulevard, Eastlake, OH 44095 for that appointment and the re-appointment of Mr. Henderson for the term 12-31-2022 for the Civil Service Commission. I don’t believe that I missed any so I ask for all of those appointments.
Ms. DePledge: Are there any objections from Council to any of the appointments that the Mayor is recommending? Mr. Hoefle?
Mr. Hoefle: I have an objection to Mr. Farwell for the BZA.
Ms. DePledge: Go ahead.
Mr. Hoefle: I am not comfortable with the individual…public records…states that he has already made some attacks towards me. Wanting me to be removed from office and I feel that anybody who is attacking any member of Council or the Administration…I would not like to see them on any of our boards or commissions. That is my opinion.
Ms. DePledge: With that we will accept all of the appointments and we will put Mr. Farwell’s appointment to a vote. Will the Clerk please call the Roll with regards to Mr. Farwell’s appointment?
ROLL CALL: Three Yeas and Four Nays.
Ms. DePledge: With that we will look for a new appointment to the BZA. Did you want to continue on with your report Mayor Morley?
Mayor Morley: That concludes my report and I am open for questions.
There were no further questions of Mayor Morley.
FIRE CHIEF – Ted Whittington
Chief Whittington was absent and excused.
There were no further questions of Chief Whittington.
POLICE CHIEF – Larry Reik
Chief Reik was absent and excused.
There were no further questions of Chief Reik.
CHIEF BUILDING OFFICIAL – David Menn
Mr. Menn had no report this evening.
There were no questions of Mr. Menn.
SERVICE DIRECTOR – Nick Rubertino
Mr. Rubertino was absent and excused.
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: At the last meeting we had a discussion on the loader that broke down and it would cost us a significant amount of money. It is definitely more that what it is worth to repair. Just so you understand where we stand in this process we are still accumulating the quotes to lease/purchase. It looks like it is a possibility of five or six years and a possibility of less than $2,000.00 a month. But we are not ready to bring you that information currently to vote on, but we are getting very close to it. We hope to have something in the next two weeks…if we go to January 6 or whatever we are close. That concludes my report. I wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Ms. DePledge: Mayor Morley?
Mayor Morley: We’ve been talking about the health care and we are close to having an agreement. We will need a Special Meeting next week and I imagine have to get…for contractual purposes so we will have to go into Executive Session to explain what we are doing. It is not going to be the usual health care we are going to go to the HSA savings account with the high deductibles. It is a major change in their health care plan and we will have to get the 155 approved for that as to what we are doing and we will explain where we are at. The bank is coming tomorrow to set up the HSA accounts and then we are going over the memorandum an understanding with all six unions to take care of that. United Health Care is coming on Thursday as I sent you my email though I will be on vacation I will probably be in most of my time next week to handle that so we can get that up and running by the first of the year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone and Thank you.
There were no questions of Ms. Schindel.
LAW DIRECTOR – Randy Klammer
Mr. Klammer: Thank you Madam President Members of Council and Mayor Morley. Is it Mr. Vogler?
Mr. Vogler: Yes sir.
Mr. Klammer: I just to say thank you for your patience because the deer thing is still winds its way back to me, but we need to consider the deer as the criminal prohibition for using cross bows as it is. So we have to consider them both. The only one thing that I wanted to point out because it felt rather hopeful to on the Task Force timeline…that Task Force timeline for the residents remember is that is just getting their recommendations to Council. So they have to do their work and bring their recommendations presumably for and against so that Council has all of the information. Then that goes to Council. It is a pretty massive undertaking and the only thing that I can compare it to is the debate and length of time it took to debate the rental inspections. That was the better part of a year if I’m not mistaken. I only say that just because we had this discussion and I don’t want people coming back in six months expecting it to either all be done or the issue closed. That sounded rather hopeful to me so I would expect to go a little longer. That concludes my report and I am open for questions.
Ms. DePledge: I would concur with the Law Director. The Task Force hopeful would have something in four to six months. But again there is a process that we go through with our committees. For the Task Force what we were expecting or weren’t expecting whether it is something that we can move forward with or not move forward with. It will be something that would be subject to public hearing, which that right there is three meetings, which is over a period of six weeks.
There were no questions of Mr. Klammer.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:30p.m.
_________________________________________
LAURA A. DEPLEDGE, COUNCIL PRESIDENT
APPROVED: ______________________
ATTEST: ______________________________________
TRACY M. SIMONS, CLERK OF COUNCIL