EASTLAKE CITY COUNCIL

REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

JULY 12, 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 7:­01 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, City Engineer Gwydir, Finance Director Schindel and Law Director Klammer. Service Director Rubertino was 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 it is being recorded.

 Bob Spangenberg

 Kristi Garabrandt from the News-Herald

 APPROVAL OF MINUTES

 Regular Council Meeting –June 28, 2016.

MOTION: Mr. Evers moved to approve the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting June 28, 2016. Mr. Hoefle 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, August 23, 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 just wanted to thank our local communities Willowick, Wickliffe, the Captain’s and all of our local businesses for their contributions to the 4^th of July celebration at the Captain’s Stadium on July 4. It was spectacular and beautiful this year. We had a nice crowd and it was well maintained. It was really nice so thank you to our fellow businesses and communities. And for the community to come out support that even as well.

 COMMUNICATIONS & PETITIONS

 COMMITTEE REPORTS

 Ms. DePledge: There were no Committee Meetings held. Is there anyone from Council wishing to address the chair?

 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.    

 Fire Chief Whittington has now joined the meeting.

 Bob Spangenberg, 1084 Eastlake Drive, Eastlake, OH

Mr. Spangenberg: I want to address a couple of things. On July 2^nd …as a matter of fact Police Chief Reik was in attendance… I had an automobile accident at the corner of Stevens Boulevard and Route 91. I am fine and the car will be fine as well. I just wanted to address this because I have seen it a couple of times, when people are turning north onto Route 91 cars will try and go around them. I have seen where they have hit the guard rail on the other side. It is a very dangerous intersection. Another dangerous intersection…I meant to say something about this about four years ago. Around there was an accident on the corner of Route 91near the BP gas station…the reason as to why I am a little emotional is because my father was involved in a very bad automobile accident at that corner and a few months after the accident he ended up dying. I just wanted to address that and see if we could look into it. I am hearing that there have been a lot of accidents have been happening…Mr. Evers got his truck hit pretty bad on Route 91. I got hit on Route 91 and I also heard about a couple of other people that have gotten hit on Route 91. I just wanted to say that maybe we should look into that and see what is going on with that intersection because it is terrible.

Ms. DePledge: The intersection of Stevens Boulevard and Route 91?

Mr. Spangenberg: Both.

Ms. DePledge: Or are you talking about Vine Street and Route 91 or both?

Mr. Spangenberg: Stevens Boulevard and Route 91 along with Vine Street and Route 91.

Ms. DePledge: I am sure that the Chief will look into that.

Mr. Spangenberg: That is all that I have to say about that. You guys aren’t in any trouble.

Ms. DePledge: We are sorry for the loss of your father. Some of us know that a little too well.

Mary Hawkins, 3781 Lakeshore Boulevard, Eastlake, OH

Mrs. Hawkins: I wasn’t going to come to tonight’s meeting but I thought that you guys might be expecting me and would miss me. I was here at the last two meetings. Again I have a disclaimer…

 Ms. DePledge: You do not have to say your disclaimer we know your disclaimer.

Mrs. Hawkins: On behalf of myself and my neighbor’s I came tonight to thank you for resolving the issue at 37825 Lakeshore Boulevard. Thank you for listening. For awhile it seemed like nothing was happening. I wanted to represent the neighbor’s and they all seem to be quite happy and satisfied with the conclusion of the problem. And that is why I am here.

Ms. DePledge: That is good.

Mrs. Hawkins: There was one question and I am just going to throw it out here because I could not answer it and I know that I am going be asked it again. I have a very logical mind and that two plus two is always four. I work in Human Resources and you can’t discriminate against anybody. Everybody has to be equally treated in the law. It is my understanding that at 37825 the conclusion will be that the house can be rented and the separate structure can also be rented. The very next neighbor has a house and a garage apartment. She was told over and over again that she could not rent the garage apartment. That question still lingers. I am just conveying that question to you but I am really here to thank you for your efforts and for concluding the problem.

Ms. DePledge: Thank you and I would defer to the Mayor, Chief building Official and our Law Director for addressing those issues with you and your neighbors. And resolving those issues to your satisfaction.

There was no one else who wished to speak.

LEGISLATION PROPOSED – First number will be 2016-036

 There was no Legislation Proposed.

 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. Welcome everyone to this evening’s meeting. It has been a busy Tuesday. The last week we have getting ready for the RNC in our city. I have met with the Fire and Police Chief, the Radisson, the Captain’s, and the Lake County Republican Party to talk about the safety at our event. I will let the Chief’s discuss that if they would like to. Our plan in working with the County is to make sure that there aren’t any glitches…especially on the evening of July 21 at the stadium.   Today we did sit down with the Radisson to look at some plans that are there just in case there are any issues. I will be at the Radisson on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5:30 p.m. along with any other times that they may need me there. It is part of handing out the delegations that are coming from Tennessee. There are groups that…there from 8:00 am on Saturday July16th to July 24^th. It will be with all of the people who have volunteered with the RNC Committee that I have been a part of over the last year. We believe that we are in good shape for it but again the Chief’s could probably tell you that it only takes one incident. We believe that we are ahead of the game and I don’t want to jinx us too much on it. I know that you have discussed about Council break and for myself, Ms. DePledge and Mr. Hoefle who have been around we never did Council break even though it is supposed to be a break. We may not have a Council break this time if we agree with what I have brought to you in the emails over the last couple of days. We are going back and forth with this and have decided to put a police levy and a fire levy at 2-Mills each. Mrs. Schindel was at the Auditor’s Office today. Each Mill would get $437,000.00. It would generate $1.6 Million for the two departments. I have sent you the list and if Council is in agreement…I think that we have to have a Finance Committee Meeting first. It could be one day next week or Thursday of this week if possible. We will be on a time crunch. We will have to do two resolutions one is for a necessity and the other is for the Millage. The way that I have been looking at it is we are hurting in the Police and the Fire Departments. We did apply for grants for a new ambulance and we were turned down. We have had conference calls with Washington that was through HUD and we were still turned down. These guys are beat up and next year we are going to lose the three firemen from the Safer Grant. If this will not pass…as I have been saying for the last two months we are probably going to have two more firemen resign to go somewhere else, because they are at the bottom of the latter. People are looking for jobs and we have had about five or six people leave in the last six months, because they don’t know what their future is. They have to take care of their family. We never want to see anyone leave. But we are at the point that if our employee’s are starting to not believe in our city and they are the next to get laid off. Even though I keep saying that we have no more employees to layoff. That is what we are looking at. I don’t know if you guys would like to have a meeting this Thursday as the first one or maybe next Wednesday possibly and maybe we could have some more information.

Ms. DePledge: I can poll the Finance Committee. Mr. Evers did you want to meet? Everybody is available so we can do it on Thursday at 6:00 p.m.

Mr. Evers: I am good.

Mayor Morley: Mr. Klammer will already be here because we have a five o’clock on Thursday and we can just go right in. That is why I picked Thursday because the bulk of us will already be here.

Ms. DePledge: Are we going to need additional meetings after that for the following Tuesday?

Mayor Morley: We can talk about that.

Ms. DePledge: Okay.

Mayor Morley: I have had some response back from Council. I just don’t know how everyone feels about if they want to move on or not. Or if we discuss it and people don’t want to move on then we don’t move on. I am not saying that this is what has to happen. I am asking if this is what we want to look into. If it’s not then we will not go with the levy and see where we go.

Ms. DePledge: Then we will find something else. We will have our Finance Committee Meeting on Thursday, July 14 at 6:00 p.m.

Mr. Klammer: Does that give Mrs. Simons enough for a notice?

Mayor Morley: We have tomorrow.

 Ms. DePledge: Can you get the notice in the paper tomorrow?

Mrs. Simons: Yes.

Ms. DePledge: No issues with the notice.

Mayor Morley: Other than that I am open for questions.

Ms. DePledge: Mr. Zuren?

Mr. Zuren: Mayor Morley could you comment on the times and the details for the kayak tours that will be offered during the RNC?

Mayor Morley: I do not have the email in front of me but they are on July 20^th and the 21^st. I think that we are going to go through Dale first to see if they…

Mr. Zuren: Correct.

Mayor Morley: Then what we will have is the O.D.N.R will be in with Elmer from Water Shed. They are going to have one day at the kayak and there will be sixteen that they can take. The other day they can take twenty-one people. We are talking to the RNC Committee to see if they have anyone who wants to go out. It will be free of charge. If not then we will put up some sort of list for the Tennessee Contingent to see if anyone wants to go to highlight some points of our city on the river. Mr. Zuren and I have been talking to people on that and he has been very involved with that and I will give him the credit to moving this along. Do you have anything to add?

 Mr. Zuren: No I just wanted to get it out there before the flyer was available.

 Mayor Morley: We are working on a flyer. We have been going back and forth. We have secured some on who is buying water and that is I. We are trying to secure some donations from one of the restaurants for lunch.

There were no further questions of Mayor Morley

 FIRE CHIEF – Ted Whittington

Chief Whittington: Thank you Madam President. Like the Mayor said I think that we feel pretty good about the progress that we’ve made from the fire and law regarding the upcoming events at the stadium. Along with our delegations that are coming from Tennessee. I know that from a county level we work very hard. Between the police, fire, the Health Department, and the hospital systems to have county plans, along with any contingencies for Cleveland, which we do not expect to deployed. Our plans are pretty much in place we just have to formalize some things. But from the local perspective we have had several meetings with the Captain’s organization. We have met with the people from the Radisson to make sure that everyone is on the same page. Other than that I think that most of the stuff is not top secret stuff. I am not even sure that anybody is interested in hearing a lot of the stuff. It is basically having things in place just in case there are any different types of emergencies, or if there are different types of issues that need to be over come as a community.  That is all that I have and I am open for questions.

There were no further questions of Chief Whittington

 POLICE CHIEF – Larry Reik

 Chief Reik: If we’re not prepared it’s not going to be because the lack of meetings. Our big thing in the city is obviously going to be the watch party. Regardless as to whether it’s attended by thirty, three thousand or ten thousand people we have to be prepared for any event. We have good contingents from the county that are helping to prepare for that. The entire county is working together so if anything happens within our county boarders we will be as prepared as we can be. In lighter recent events it has been nice and uplifting to have a lot of community members stop by since the Dallas shootings. To drop off cookies, pizza and things like that. Fire received some things too so they are on our coat tails again. There are a lot of good people out there. A lot of people have come up to us to express their concerns about what they feel is a national distaste for law enforcement. I think that is the bulk of minority and a lot of the people who do make the effort to do that drop of cards, letters and all sorts of stuff. I just want to give a public thank you for that. For any of you who are on Facebook I am sure that you have seen that there are places were cruisers where lined with flowers. There are a lot of good people and a lot of support out there. We just have to keep working towards a solution for everything else. I would like to talk about National Night Out that will be held on August 2^nd at Jakse Park from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The News-Herald is on board with getting something’s in the paper. We are going to be putting it on the PAL website along with our Facebook page. We have had a lot of help with Mr. Evers and PAL and Block Watch. We have had a lot of good support and it should be a good evening for them. I will send something via email telling you guys about it. So you will have it if you would like to join. I have nothing else and I am open for questions.

Ms. DePledge: Our thoughts are with you this next week as you two batten down the hatches and prepare for everything. We hope that you stay safe and to be careful out there.

There were no further questions of Chief Reik.

 CHIEF BUILDING OFFICIAL – David Menn

Mr. Menn: Thank you. Just to let you know that we have a Habitat Second Hand Store that will be opening up on Vine Street in August. We will also have a Habitat for Humanity’s house that will be built in our city this year. It will be on Waldmer Avenue. It should be in the next few weeks that they will start breaking ground. That is it.  

Ms. DePledge: Mr. Evers?

Mr. Evers: This isn’t a question I would just like to thank Mr. Menn for all of your help. I know that they have been working under some adverse conditions lately and it is difficult. We have gotten things taken care of so thank you and your department.

Mr. Menn: Thank you.

Mayor Morley: Did I send you anything about the grand opening for the Habitat ReStore?

 Ms. DePledge: No.

Mayor Morley: It is August 6^th at 9:30 a.m. They want to do the ground breaking at the properties and when I get that I will send it over if anyone wants to come over for when we do that. I just want to add that CT has waived the fees for the Habitat for Humanity House. As their community involvement and obviously they are building a house for a family for nothing.

 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 nothing to report this evening.  

There were no questions of Mr. Gwydir.

FINANCE DIRECTOR – Carol-Ann Schindel

Mrs. Schindel had nothing to report this evening.

There were no questions of Mrs. Schindel.

 
LAW DIRECTOR – Randy Klammer

Mr. Klammer: We have communicated and I think that most of you were on the emails that we have communicated with Mr. Sharb. He is on standby to work on the levy stuff we just need to stay on top of that. I don’t know if we have reported publicly the results of the referendum petition results. As happen stance they came as total signatures of six hundred and sixty-six signatures. I need to decide whether Council needs to take a resolution to send it to the Board of Elections.   The Board of Elections is of the opinion that Council doesn’t need to take any action. I am not prepared to reach that conclusion so I am going to decide that and hopefully piggy back that with the levy meeting. The last thing is the dialog back and forth about Mr. Slocum’s outstanding payment. I have a summary from the Finance Director I will get it for you guys and hopefully we will have a resolution for you guys to consider on that.

Ms. DePledge: We can add those items to the agenda for Thursday night.

Mr. Klammer: Thank you and other than that I am open for questions.
 

There were no questions of Mr. Klammer.

 

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:­­22 p.m.

 

 

           ­­­­­­­­­­                                                            __________________________________________

LAURA A. DEPLEDGE, COUNCIL PRESIDENT

APPROVED: ______________________

 

 

ATTEST: ______________________________________

                 TRACY M. SIMONS, CLERK OF COUNCIL