Regular Council Meeting Minutes from January 26, 2016
EASTLAKE CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
JANUARY 26, 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 7:02 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, Law Director Klammer, Finance Director Slocum, City Engineer Gwydir, CBO Menn, Service Director Rubertino and Fire Chief Whittington. Police Chief Reik was absent and excused.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Regular Council Meeting –January 12, 2016.
MOTION: Mr. Hoefle moved to approve the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting January 12, 2016. Mr. Evers seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. The minutes were approved.
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COUNCIL PRESIDENT’S REPORT – Ms. DePledge
Meetings Scheduled
Ms. DePledge: The next Council-as-a-Whole Committee Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 9, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. The Regular Council meeting will be convened immediately following the adjournment of the Council-as-a-Whole Committee meeting. I would like to thank Mr. Rubertino and his staff for working so and diligently last week during our snow storm to our roads clear and everybody safe. I think that you did a great job.
COMMUNICATIONS & PETITIONS
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An communication from Finance Director Slocum for an ordinance to amend Chapter 155, “Employment Provisions and Compensation” of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Eastlake, specifically Section 155.01 “General Administration” subsection (d).
Ms. DePledge: This was discussed in Council-As-A-Whole and will be added to this evening’s agenda.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Ms. DePledge: A Finance Committee Meeting was held Mr. Evers would you like to make a report?
Mr. Evers: A Finance Committee Meeting did meet last week and we are in the process of reviewing our budget for 2016. Our first meeting was with all members of Council were present, Mayor Morley and Finance Director Slocum. We reviewed the revenue side of the budget and everything looks good. There really isn’t a whole lot there that we can do anything about or control. We will be scheduling a second meeting for February 2, 2016 here at City Hall at 6:00 p.m. At that time will start to review the General Fund Expediters. With that I will turn it over to Mr. Slocum.
Mr. Slocum: with the transition to the new Finance Director I have agreed to stay on for an additional couple of weeks. At the Finance Committee Meeting last week we discussed maybe putting a need for two meetings for next week. I would recommend that we go to a regularly scheduled Finance Committee Meeting for February 16 to cover the budget related to the funds other than the General Fund and as always any other questions. Again if there are any questions related to the budget so please get a hold of me and I would be more than happy to…I know that we have four new Council members here if you need some help in understanding the finances I will be more than happy to spend the time. Other than that I am open for questions.
Ms. DePledge: There were no other committee meetings held between now and our last meeting is there any members of Council wish to address the Chair or the public? Mr. Hoefle would you like to make your Motion at this time.
Mr. Hoefle: Yes.
Motions:
MOTION: Mr. Hoefle moved to add Legislation No. 01-26-(01) to this evening’s agenda an Ordinance amending Chapter 155, “Employment Provisions and compensation” of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Eastlake, specifically Section 155.01 “ General Administration” subsection (d). Mr. Meyers second.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. This will be added to the 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.
There was no one else who wished to speak.
LEGISLATION PROPOSED – First number will be 2016-001
01-26-(01) ORDINANCE NO.:___________
An Ordinance amending Chapter 155, “Employment Provisions and Compensation” of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Eastlake, specifically Section 155.01 “General Administration” subsection (d), and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Mr. Hoefle moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and reading in full. Mr. Meyers second.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Mr. Hoefle moved to adopt. Mr. Meyers second.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No. 2016-001.
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, Madam President. Welcome everyone to this evenings meeting. I would like to thank Council for forgoing the three hundred dollar a year …by ordinance and for those of you who don’t know it has been that way for about the last three or four times and Council’s pay if they would have taken it throughout the years it would have been another $1,200.00 a year. When I was on Council we started this when we were having issues so I applaud the new Council members that have already come in and made that decision and again we appreciate that. We are asking to go into Executive Session this evening to appoint a new Finance Director. We also have an Assistant Finance Director add that is in the paper until February 1, 2016 and Mr. Slocum has told me today that we have gotten about six or seven resumes so I have been working with Mr. Slocum and the new Finance Director to find an assistant for when Ms. Halerz retires. Mr. Slocum is working on getting numbers with Republic Waste and as everyone knows letters went out on February 1, 2016 for all of the delinquent garbage fees. We are at about 700 homes that are delinquent and we are hoping that they start paying. In our staff meeting we have set up a game plan on how we are going to enforce our ordinance for those who didn’t pay on their garbage. For the Port Authority Mr. Stan Leff will be stepping down as a member and we are looking for a new member. We are still looking for and ARB member and the member for the Port Authority is Council’s choice so if anyone has any name they can either give them to myself or the Clerk. Council has brought up talking with the Croatian Home and I will send some information over however I sent the latest revisions from December on the Croatian Home. All that I ask is if you have any questions please send them over and I will give them to the Law Director. In the next meeting I will probably formally ask for a meeting for sometime in February. My last part of business is that I would like to appoint Ms. Joyce Bates to the Civil Service Commission. She lives at 407 Riverdale Dr. term expires in 12-31-2021. As most of Council knows that Ms. Bates has been around the City and has been on various Committees, The Woman’s Club and she used to run Eastlake Soccer. Ms. Bates has been a main stay in our City and she has just recently retired and would like to get back into see what she can do to try and help us. I ask for your appointment for Ms. Bates. That ends my report for this evening and I am open for questions.
Ms. DePledge: Do you want her appointment this even?
Mayor Morley: Yes.
Ms. DePledge: All in favor for appointing Ms. Bates to the Civil Service Commission please say I?
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Ms. DePledge: Ms. Bates congratulations to your appointment to the Civil Service Commission.
There were no further questions of Mayor Morley
FIRE CHIEF – Ted Whittington
Chief Whittington: Thank you Ms. President. I have been working with the Mayor and as ice fishing time…we will see some people out there ice fishing and we really do not have a lot of enforcement abilities out there so we would just like to remind them that we believe that it is an unsafe act. If they fall through the ice that in may be hard for us to get them out. If you see people out there ice fishing so feel free to either the Mayor or myself and we usually go out there and give them a friendly reminder that there are some concerns out there…I am not sure that we could do much more. We were informed that on Sunday night of Captain Lesko from the Willoughby Hills Fire Department had passed away. She had some relevance to the City when we dedicated the American Remembers Memorial in 2002 she was a keynote speaker who spoke at the memorial. She worked for the Willoughby Hills Fire Department and she also worked for the Sheriff’s Department. Ms. Lesko had a K-9 dog and her and her dog spent about a week on the pile. They are accredited for finding thirty five remains and a few years later her dog passed away with cancer. The cancer that she actually had sir-commed to was accredited to her work at the World Trade Center so we are asking that you keep her and her family in your prayers. I am open for questions.
There were no further questions of Chief Whittington
SERVICE DIRECTOR – Nick Rubertino
Mr. Rubertino had nothing to report this evening.
There were no further questions of Mr. Rubertino.
CITY ENGINEER – Tom Gwydir
Mr. Gwydir had nothing to report this evening.
There were no questions of Mr. Gwydir.
FINANCE DIRECTOR – Mike Slocum
Mr. Slocum: First of all the State Audit for 2014 and 2015 is commencing tomorrow morning and they will be here for a while. I had a meeting last Wednesday with the Willoughby Court and the Willoughby finance Director relative to the court fees. Things are starting to go upside down from…last year we collected a total of $86,000.00 in fines and $56,000.00 of that we were charged court fees. There is reluctance for some reason for the Court to increase the fees to cover their expenses. We are almost to the point that if it keeps on going this way we will be paying more that what we are collecting in fines. A couple of years ago it was down to $4,000.00. My understanding that Mr. Astragelo left me a message that Judge Fields will be scheduling a meeting with the Mayor’s to discuss the issue. Hopefully we get a little bit of movement there.
There were no questions of Mr. Slocum.
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: Thank you. The Building Department is still going strong and with this winter being kind of light on the snow except for the last couple of weeks. We have actually had a lot of contractors and people still working on their homes. We have about two hundred contractor registered already for this year. For the first month that is a good sign.
There were no questions of Mr. Menn.
LAW DIRECTOR – Randy Klammer
Mr. Klammer: Thank you Madam President members of Council and Mayor. I just want to thank Mrs. Simons for preparing that legislation for Mr. Oliveri settlement and if we could get that on the next Council Meeting. It is nice to hear Ms. Bates name again and congratulations. It is good to see you. I am open for questions.
There were no questions of Mr. Klammer.
MOTION TO ADJOURN INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION FOR DISCUSSION OF MATTERS LITIGATION AND MATTERS FOR ANY QUESTIONS FOR LEGAL COUNSEL
Ms. DePledge: For those of you who are new we are moving into Executive Session and we have essentially concluded our Council Meeting and from here we go into Executive Session to discuss litigation and employment issues along with highly sensitive issue to the City. When we come back out of Executive Session we literally sit in the same circle and we take a vote to adjourn out of Executive Session and then our Council Meeting is concluded we do not discuss in the public form. So if you want to stay to the end to watch us come back in and excuse ourselves you are more than welcome too.
MOTION: Mr. Hoefle moves that we move into Executive Session for discussion of a candidate for the Finance position. Mr. Evers seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried.
Ms. DePledge: We are back on the record after adjourning from Executive Session is there a Motion to adjourn from Executive Session?
MEETING CALLED BACK TO REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING
MOTION: Mr. Evers moved to adjourn from Executive Session. Mr. Zuren seconded.
MOTION: Mr. Evers moves to accept the Mayors candidate for the position of Finance Director Carol-Ann Schindel for the City of Eastlake. Mr. Hoefle second.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Ms. Carol-Ann Schindel is appointed the new Finance Director.
Ms. DePledge: As I stated before we went into Executive Session that nothing happens when we come back that was because I forgot that we would be appointing a Finance Director so no disrespect to any members of the public by stating that we will not be doing anything after the fact. My apologies and I will be more careful with that in the future.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:47 p.m.
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LAURA A. DEPLEDGE, COUNCIL PRESIDENT
APPROVED: __________________________
ATTEST: ______________________________________
TRACY M. SIMONS, CLERK OF COUNCIL