Regular Council Meeting Minutes from October 24, 2017

November 17, 2017 in Regular Council Minutes

REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING

MINUTES

TUESDAY

OCTOBER 24, 2017

7:00 P.M.

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 Vice President Mr. Hoefle at approximately 7:04 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 and Mr. Hoefle. Also in attendance was Council Clerk Mrs. Simons. Council President Ms. DePledge was absent and excused.

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

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

Kristi Garabrandt-The News-Herald

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The approval of the Minutes of the Regular Council Meeting from October 10, 2017…the Council Clerk is still writing those up so we will approve them at our next Regular Council Meeting, which is on November 14, 2017.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Meetings Scheduled

Mr. Hoefle: The next Council-as-a-Whole Committee Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 14, 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. I would also like to remind everybody that next Tuesday is Halloween, so make sure that all of the kids are safe out there. November 7, 2017 is Election Day so make sure that you get out and vote. That concludes my report and I am open for questions.

There were no questions for Mr. Hoefle.

COMMUNICATIONS & PETITIONS

A communication from Finance Director Schindel to reappropriate for the expenses beginning on January 1, 2017 and ending on December 31, 2017.

Mr. Hoefle: This was discussed in Council-As-A-Whole and it will be added to this evening’s agenda.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Mr. Hoefle: Since our last Regular Council Meeting an Ordinance Committee Meeting was held on Wednesday, October 18, 2017 at six o’clock. Mr. Meyers?

Ordinance Committee Meeting Report- Committee Member Mr. Meyers

Mr. Meyers: Thank you Vice President Hoefle. We held an Ordinance Committee Meeting on October 18 and everyone from Council was in attendance, except for Council President DePledge, Councilman Zuren and Councilman Hoefle were absent and excused. Items that we discussed were a format change to Council-As-A-Whole Committee Meeting and Regular Council Minutes Meetings. Basically what this would entail is the legislation would be discussed in Council-As-A-Whole and then read and approved as an agenda. We would reduce reading of the legislation to two readings instead of three. As Mr. Klammer talked about earlier we also discussed the Medical Marijuana Licensure. Both items were approved by the Committee and we agreed to move them forward.

There were no questions for Mr. Meyers.

ECDC REPORT – Mr. Zuren, Chairman

Mr. Zuren: Thank you Vice President Hoefle. There are three events coming up in the City of Eastlake. I just wanted to announce them. We have the Taste of Eastlake-Willowick, which is this Sunday from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. It is the early Browns game so the game should be ending around twelve o’clock. It is a self guided tour and there are eleven restaurants that will have free samples of food. They are going to have a table at the front of the restaurant. You can go in and sample the food. Some of them are going to have multiple items. There will also be a fish bowl; we have a Halloween bucket at each location, where you can enter your name and information to win some gift cards. The restaurants that are included…and there will be a sign in the front of each restaurant on Sunday…but the restaurants are: Severino’s Restaurant & Lounge, Mama’ Boy Bar B-Q, Mama Primozz Pizza, Wal-Mart Super Center, Subway, Arby’s, D’Amico’s Pizzeria, Lucio’s, Dubrovnik Garden Restaurant, Amore Ristorante & Pizzeria and Sports Fanatics. I hope that everyone goes out and enjoys the great cuisine in our cities. We also have an event for banquet halls, party centers, caterers, wedding planners and church’s that will be held at Stonehill Hotel. This is our hotel right off of the freeway. It is changing over to Fourpoints Marriott and they are having some significant upgrades in the hotel. This meeting is to promote businesses in our city working together and promoting all of the enhancements to the hotel. And to let church’s know what expectations they have for wedding planners and banquet halls so they could keep the business inside of our city. And the third event that we have is on November 9^th and this will also be held at the Stonehill Hotel in the conference center area, which is the Vine Street Corridor Business Meeting. All the businesses on Vine Street are encouraged to attend. It is at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 9, 2017. This is going to focus on networking, business pride, which is taking care of their building, cleaning up their building, painting it, and putting flowers in, if there is any talk of expansion and if the city could help in anyway, and cross promoting business. Instead of them working against each other to start working with each other where everyone wins. With that I am open for questions.

There were no questions for Mr. Zuren.

MOTION

Mr. Evers moved to appoint Scott R. King, 1224 East 351st Street, Eastlake, Ohio 44095 to the Civil Service Commission, to the term expiring on December 31, 2022. Mr. Zuren second.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried.

Mr. Spotton moved to appoint John C. McCauley, 36473 Port Drive, Eastlake, Ohio 44095 to the Civil Service Commission, to the term expiring on December 31, 2023. Mr. Meyers second.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried.

Mr. Evers move to add Legislation No. 10-24-(02) to this evening’s agenda an Ordinance to reappropriate for the expenses of the City of Eastlake, State of Ohio, for the period beginning January 1, 2017 and ending December 31, 2017. Mr. Spotton second.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried Legislation No.: 10-24-(02) is added to this evening’s agenda.

RECOGNITION OF THE PUBLIC: 1/2 hour, 3-minutes per person

Mr. Hoefle 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.

Joyce Livingston, 1039 Center Road, Eastlake, Ohio 44095

Mrs. Livingston: The question is what are you going to do…or is the city going to do something more about the lighting and the holes in the parking lot. My husband fell because he could not see the hole that was there. He stepped on the rim and fell and he almost got hit by two cars. This is at 7:30 p.m. and he couldn’t see anything, because it is so dark. I know that this had been brought up many times and I have not seen all of the people that have fallen, but we hear of course the different times of the ones that have fallen there. It was pretty much the same circumstance as with my husband. The cars…I’m amazed that he was not hit by a car and when he was on the ground I helped him up. The city didn’t come on Monday…the city came and filled the whole, however today it rained. There is a big puddle next to it and you don’t know if there is a hole under there or if there isn’t. The back has many potholes, especially that one because that is where we park. I’m just wondering when something can be done for the whole driveway. Not just the hole that needs to be…the one that he fell in…when is something going to be done about it. You don’t want to wait until somebody is killed. To me it came very close to it on Saturday.

Mr. Rubertino: Are you referring to the Senior Center?

Mrs. Livingston: Yes…Oh I’m sorry.

Mayor Morley: We applied for a few grants to try and get the parking lot totally re-surfaced. We are trying and especially in the back there we did fix the one end where the food bank is. By the garage Mr. Rubertino is working on and we are trying to get some more asphalt to put down there.

Mrs. Livingston: The whole thing needs it back there and also the lighting.

Mayor Morley: The timing…and I think that we talked…I know that Mr. Kostelnik was up there looking at the timing so we can look at that again.

Mrs. Livingston: Already we were coming up before 7:30 p.m. and it was dark.

Mr. Livingston: The lights don’t come on until 8:00 p.m.

Mayor Morley: Mr. Rubertino?

Mr. Rubertino: The lights are on at 7:00 p.m. and I went up and verified that. There may be back up lighting at certain times in some areas. I went up again yesterday.

Mrs. Livingston: I know that there is a light at the end of the building but we didn’t see it where….

Mayor Morley: We can check on that too…especially in the next couple of weeks the time is going to change with the Day Light Savings. We will look at that again and I will have Mr. Rubertino and Mr. Kostelnik can go up and look.

Mr. Rubertino: We did try and…we know that there is an issue with the time change. I was up there the other night and I will go up there after tonight’s meeting…it may have been burned out. The hole is still unfortunately we can’t get to all of them…I am sympathetic to him falling and we don’t want anybody falling so we will do what we can to at least get the parking lot re-done.

Mrs. Livingston: Most of us are old people and we still like to get out and do things. That is a good place to go.

Mayor Morley: We appreciate you going there. We are sorry for his fall.

Mr. Rubertino: Thank you for bringing that to our attention.

Mr. Livingston: Thank you.

There was no one wishing to speak.

LEGISLATION PROPOSED: First number will be 2017-082

10-24-(02) ORDINANCE NO.:______________

Requested by: Administration

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, 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. Zuren second.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

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

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No.: 2017-082.

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. Thank you for the appointments to the Civil Service. They have a tentative date for December 6^th. For Civil Service we have exhausted all of the names for both the Police and Fire and next year Fire may have some promotional tests. They are looking to have that test on December 6^th and we will get more information when that is available. We have been getting a lot of calls and Halloween will be on Tuesday, October 31 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the City of Eastlake. Our City Engineer has informed me that the bridge over State Route 91…we were first told that it would be all the way till July of 2018 and it should be done by the end of this year, unless something has changed. So State Route 2 Bridge should be in by the end of the year. At the stadium this weekend we also have the Miracle League 5K run on Saturday. If anyone is out and about we will be up there at 9:00 a.m. I am meeting with Mayor Anderson on Thursday at 8:00 a.m. to discuss the continuing lot split on Erie Road. I am meeting with him and a couple of people from the Port Authority. I end up receiving a letter from State Representative Ron Young and the County Auditor Edward Zupancic about the devaluation of First Energy. So I did sign off on there for a letter that will be going to First Energy. In 2016 the value was $74,712,000.00 and the 2017 value is $50,535,000.00 and we are going to lose another $200,673.00…$91,000.00 out of the General Fund and the Police and Fire Pension will be $7,200.00. Debts in is $10,000.00 and debt out is $12,000.00 and $72,000.00 out of the Road Levy. We’ve sent the letter to First Energy to see about…we are upset about the devaluation again. I also received a letter from the Commissioner’s Office…we applied for $108,000.00 for 2018 for the Senior Center Levy and we are given $89,500.00 if that levy passes. In 2017 we had $80,500.00 so it would be an increase of $9,000.00 if the levy passes. Our phones unfortunately are still out and I talked to the adjustor again last Friday. They sent out another person for the fourth and fifth quote and they have been busy with Katrina and all of the other tragedies that have been going on. So we are trying to get that done. We’ve had our hospitalization…the first number we were given is it’s going to go up 29%, which is about a $300,000.00 increase. So we filled out our form…from all of our employee’s to shop around for that. We are hoping that we can get a better rate on that. As Mr. Hoefle said Election Day is November 7…regardless of you candidate or the issue please get out and vote. It is your right and good luck to all of the candidates. That concludes my report and I am open for questions.

Mr. Hoefle: I noticed the fencing that they put up around the Miracle League Playground…is the completely closed off now?

Mayor Morley: It will be closed off and they the start…they are having a meeting at 1:30 p.m….they are going to start the construction of the baseball field tomorrow. The actual rubber part probably will not be in this year. We are still about $200,000.00 short, but we approved $360,000.00 for the site work. So we are hoping to get all of that, the fencing, and the foul polls and everything. Next year we will just have to finish the bathrooms and put the rubber surface down.

Mr. Hoefle: So people…

Mayor Morley: Mr. Rubertino already posted a sign that the playground will be down during construction. And we will post it on the Miracle League website.

Mr. Hoefle: Are there any updates on the BP Station?

Mayor Morley: They are just tearing it down and there is nothing going there as of yet.

There were no questions for Mayor Morley.

FIRE CHIEF – Ted Whittington

Chief Whittington: I have nothing formal to report. I definitely appreciate and I kept Council President DePledge informed that my daughter was playing volleyball. I defiantly appreciate everybody’s patience and willingness to allow me to make it to her games. My kids are in high school so I only have a couple of years left with them and then they will be on their own. So I defiantly appreciate everybody’s patience while I was attending the games. I am always open for questions so if you need anything let me know. I have nothing formal unless you guys have something for me so thank you.

Mayor Morley: I did forget one thing. Congratulations to Chief Whittington’s daughter, she was Homecoming Queen for Wickliffe and Chief Reik’s daughter is out of Boot Camp for the Air Force. She graduated also.

There were no questions for Chief Whittington.

POLICE CHIEF – Larry Reik

Chief Reik was absent and excused.

There were no questions for Chief Reik.

CHIEF BUILDING OFFICIAL – David Menn

Mr. Menn had no report this evening.

There were no questions for Mr. Menn.

SERVICE DIRECTOR – Nick Rubertino

Mr. Rubertino: Good evening everybody. Just a couple of things, we are still continuing to work on potholes as you know. Catch basins we are pretty much caught up for the year and we might have a couple more to go. I would just like to remind people that we are extremely short staffed in the Service Department; some jobs take an extreme amount of time. I had a request from a Councilman regarding this today and we do post signs up that road construction is in process. It does take us an extreme amount of time…two, three or four weeks sometimes. We try and control how much time and money we spend in one area. We have jobs that are smaller and we will wait to finish that job when we can combine it with other jobs, so that it cuts down on the expense on our end. We will continue to work that way and that is just how we have to do it unfortunately. If there are questions out I will be more than happy to answer them as far as those projects are going and I am open for questions.

There were no questions for Mr. Rubertino.

CITY ENGINEER – Tom Gwydir

Mr. Gwydir had no report this evening.

There were no questions for Mr. Gwydir.

FINANCE DIRECTOR – Carol-Ann Schindel

Ms. Schindel was absent and excused

There were no questions for Ms. Schindel.

LAW DIRECTOR – Randy Klammer

Mr. Klammer: Thank you Mr. Vice President, Members of Council and Mayor. I have nothing to report but this is just a quick refresher for everybody. So the residents know that when you hear us do these three readings and emergency votes…we have a provision like most cities do that require that ordinances be read on three separate days. You can waive that, that require a ¾’s vote from the members of Council, which would get you six people to waive those three reading. That is why you hear the Council President ask for that first motion to waive the three readings, so you’ll have that vote. If there isn’t a vote to waive those you would then have three readings and it would be read on three separate days. We also have a second provision that the Councilmen pointed out, which requires a little less and that requires only five votes to pass a piece of legislation as an emergency. That is a separate provision so that is why you will hear those two different votes. They have different calculations if something was passed with the simple majority of four it wouldn’t go into effect for thirty days. That is kind of how all that works out just so you know…just a refresher to the residents.

There were no questions for Mr. Klammer.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:29 p.m.

_______________________________________

KEN HOEFLE, COUNCIL VICE PRESIDENT

APPROVED: ______________________

ATTEST: _____________________________________

TRACY M. SIMONS, CLERK OF COUNCIL

City of Eastlake Ohio

Regular Council Meeting Minutes from October 24, 2017

Today

November 24, 2024

Monday

November 25, 2024

Tuesday

November 26, 2024

Wednesday

November 27, 2024

City Hall

Fire Department

Police Department

Chamber of Commerce