EASTLAKE CITY COUNCIL

REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

OCTOBER 25, 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 Vice President Mr. Hoefle 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 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, Police Chief Reik, Finance Director Schindel and Law Director Klammer. CBO Menn, Service Director Rubertino and City Engineer Gwydir 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 that it is being recorded.

Jessica Trivisonno

Bob Spangenberg

Kristi Garabrandt-News Herald

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Regular Council Meeting –October 11, 2016.

MOTION: Mr. Evers moved to approve the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting October 11, 2016. Mr. ­­­­­Kasunick seconded.

ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.

Motion carried. The minutes were approved.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

COUNCIL PRESIDENT’S REPORT – Vice President Mr. Hoefle

Meetings Scheduled

Mr. Hoefle: The next Council-as-a-Whole Committee Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 1, 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. This meeting is next Tuesday due to the elections we could not have it on November 8th so we had to back it up one week.

COMMUNICATIONS & PETITIONS

A communication from Finance Director Schindel regarding the General Levy Renewal.

Mr. Hoefle: This will be referred to the Finance Committee.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Mr. Hoefle: No Committee Meetings were held.

Port Authority- Jason Kasunick Liaison:

A Port Authority Meeting was held on October 20. The big news that has come from that is it looks like a deal will be done where the City of Willoughby will be transferring a portion of land over to the City of Eastlake. It is property on Erie Road by the Water Treatment Plant. It is an excellent development because it will make more grant money available to our city for park improvement. I just wanted to say that it was a great job by Mayor Morley and Mayor Anderson. There are a lot of people to thank for this including members of the Port Authority and the Chagrin Water Shed Partners.

Mr. Hoefle: Thank you Mr. Kasunick. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Kasunick?

Mr. Klammer: I just wanted to congratulate you too and for the folks who are new here. The joint ownership of that property and the recreation purpose has been such a complicated affair for Eastlake, Willoughby and the Pollution Control Center. It is significant of your accomplishment. It may not seem like it is but it is significant.

Mr. Hoefle: Thank you Mr. Klammer. The ECDC Committee did meet this afternoon but Mr. Zuren will be giving his report next Tuesday. Just to give him time to compile everything from this afternoon’s meeting. Is there anyone else on Council that would like to address? Mr. Evers?

Mr. Evers: I would like to go ahead and schedule a Finance Committee Meeting for Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. It will be before the general Council Meeting due to elections we will not be able to have one until after November 8th.

Mr. Hoefle: Okay next Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. for a Finance Committee Meeting. Is there anybody else wishing to address Council?

RECOGNITION OF THE PUBLIC

Mr. Hoefle recognized the public input at this time; he 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.

Jessica Trivisonno, 248 Euclid Ave., Cleveland

Mrs. Trivisonno: Before I lived in Cleveland I lived in Eastlake for the past two years as all of you know. In May of 2015 I took an interest in our cities government. I started coming to meetings to learn more about the city and I could see that everyone involved had to make tough decisions sometimes. I know that you might not believe it but I know that it is a part of your job and I know that it is something that you deal with everyday. I want to say that demolishing the skate park was a tough decision and something that you just had to do. But that’s just not the case. I want to say that I am surprised by your actions in the last 24 hours but frankly I’m not surprised. I launched and incentive for the skate park about six months ago. Dozens of people so many of whom are sitting behind me here today, who are interested in putting their time, money and effort into rehabbing a park that we all saw was a priority in our community. So of these people consider the Eastlake skate park their home. Our group spent an entire clean up day bagging up leaves in the park. We showed up thinking that we would have to clean up trash but to our surprise there was no trash for us to clean up so instead we picked up leaves. I know that the Mayor said that he had to demolish the park due to vandalism. I would really like to see some police reports showing that vandalism, because I just don’t believe it. That park was a safe haven for so many people in our community and it was demolished without warning. That park was salvageable. A Service Department employee was there on behalf of Service Director Rubertino examined every piece of equipment in the park along with four people from the Skate Park Revival Group in May. They determined that the park could be repaired with &7,000.00 worth of materials plus the labor. At that time he did not identify that the park was hazardous and needed to be immediately demolished. We meet with the Mayor in late June to discuss ways to fix the park again there was no mention that the park was in such a state of disrepair that it needed to be immediately demolished. By demolishing that park that could have been fixed with $7,000.00 worth of material and some labor costs the Mayor has ensured that the only way that we are going to get a skate park in this community is investing between $30 and $300,000.00 in a new park that we just don’t have. We could have fixed a park for $7,000.00 or I guess we could apply for grants and cross our fingers that we are going to get one. Obviously this wasn’t the best choice for financial planning in the future. The Mayor had other options other than demolishing the park which was salvageable. For example the city spent $4,195.00 on adding those wooden poles on the outside of the skate park after allegations that those fences were somehow damaged due to a car running into the fences. That fence could have been replaced with a chain link fence that could then been locked if the park was too dangerous to use instead we replaced it with poles. Is that my three minutes?

Mr. Hoefle: It was her phone going off. I will give you a little bit more to wrap it up Mrs. Trivisonno.

Mrs. Trivisonno: But I don’t think that Mayor Morley is the only person who should take the heat here. Councilman Mr. Kasunick is the Councilman for Ward 3 and I think that it is also his responsibility to advocate for that Ward.

Mr. Hoefle: There are no names and direct everything to the chair please.

Mrs. Trivisonno: I think that our Council could of advocated better for that skate park. Trust and transparency has been a big topic of discussion recently with the reciprocity and all of these other issues that have been coming up. I don’t know how you are building trust or showing that you are being transparent by demolishing a park that people were actively trying to save. I don’t think that it show commitment to trust or building trust in this community and I don’t think that it shows commitment to transparency. I think that this Administration let a lot of people down. Thank you.

Michelle Mikowski, 34839 Roberts Rd., Eastlake

Mrs. Mikowski: There are a lot of people behind me that live and play in my neighborhood. I live on Roberts Road and the park is right behind me. I know that people want to save this for the kids so they have things to play on and places to go. There are a lot of people like me who walk their dogs back there. I want to know what the blue print looks like for the ACL in taking that over. I have been told that I will still be able to walk through with my dog and enjoy the park that is directly behind my house. But I don’t have any proof. So if there is a blue print showing what they intend to do with the land I would love to see that. I would love to see that before anybody votes on something. It is hard to vote on something if you can’t physically see what the intention is. I walked down to the skate park today and there were three young men looked so sad and betrayed by the adults of this community. My son is 25 years old, he does not go back there to play anymore but there are kids and they have nowhere to go in the city. We have nothing for them to do. Yeah we have EPAL and the kids can go there and dance and I am all for that. You have older kids that can go in there and enjoy themselves on a Friday night. When it is sixty degrees outside in October where are they going to outside and play? I need somewhere for me to go play and I may be 47 years old but I am a kid at heart. There is nowhere for me to go and do anything except the Metro Parks down the road. So if there is a blue print of what they are going to do if this falls through and they get their hands on it I really would love to see it. That is really all that I have.

Brian Moyer, 36740 Reeves Road, Eastlake

Mr. Moyer: I have had that house over there for 42 years the entire time that I have been alive. I am trying to find out what is going on with the park and trying to figure out exactly how it is going down and what the plans are? Like the previous speaker spoke I am sorry that I didn’t catch your name. I am also trying to understand how $15.00 for 15 years works for the community. I am trying to understand why we invest in this community ourselves. If they can rent the park for 15 years for $15.00 and spend the money to fix it and turn around and we are not able to use it. I am trying to vocalize what I’m speaking. I am trying to understand how they are going to build on the property? I want to know what they are doing with it and how they are going to pay for it. I want to know if the tax payers are going to end up paying for it through tax breaks for them building on rented public property and then we end up paying for it twice. I am very new to this whole thing because I have been very sick and now I am trying to find out what is going on. I made a promise to my daughter that she could ride her bike at that park if she did well during her first year in school. I have to go home tonight and tell her that the bike in the garage won’t be able to be used unless I drive here to another park, when I wanted to ride to the park with my daughter. I would love to find out the answers to those questions and I hope that we can get to them. I don’t think that it would be wise for us to pay for it twice if we could just pay for it once ourselves and keep the money here in Eastlake. Instead of… a for profit organization is just going to pocket it. That is it and next time I promise to be a lot more eloquent. Thank you.

Lisa Sprawls, 1194 East 354th Street, Eastlake

Mrs. Sprawls: I don’t live in Eastlake I own a house in Eastlake for my daughter, son-in-law and my two grandsons. I lived in Eastlake for 18 years over on Roberts Road. I dealt with the DiLiberto administration, Andrzejewski administration and now with this administration. I pay taxes here in Eastlake regardless of whether the fact that my daughter lives in the house that I own. Now my son who is 19 years old…and I think that I speak for a lot of the kids who are here that are too intimidated by the fact of being able to come up and speak with you. Are very disheartened, hurt and very angry at the way things went down. I realize that the skate park was in disarray and that some of the stuff was probably a safety concern…there was maintenance concern and I understand that Eastlake doesn’t have money. Everybody wants to keep going back to the DiLiberto administration with the stadium situation. The fact of the matter is that we are past that. We’ve had some administrations and people on council that should have come up with some other decisions for the way that they do things here in the City of Eastlake. That was an underhanded move on how that was situated yesterday. Whether you guys want to admit it or not, when you have a dumpster dumped there at four o’clock in the afternoon after everyone is gone. You have service there at nine o’clock this morning demolishing it before anyone has access to do or say anything that is underhanded. You want this ACL situation resolved and you want your voters…the residents of Eastlake to vote on that. How do you think that they are going to feel do you think that they are going to pass that? You guys up here aren’t going to be here in another five years or ten years. These young ones back here that is what is going to come up the pipe line here. That is who we want taking care of the city. That is who you should be catering to and looking and saying “we want to teach our young ones the way to run a business and the way to run a city.” Not this underhanded stuff. Thank you.

Joshua Costello, 36153 Killarny Road, Willoughby

Mr. Costello: I am here tonight because of our situation with the skate park. I am involved in the activist movement that wanted to see prosper instead of what happened in the past forty-eight hours. My questions are why was anybody notified? Why was everything done so underhanded? There were times and points where I have been an Eastlake resident since I was fifteen years old and I grew up in this city. We invested money in the Houston Fisher Pool of $500,000.00…it was shut down for two years. Then it opens back up…I had articles in the News-Herald about trying to get some sort of help and no prevail…trying to work with our old recreation and parks department. In a city where you have troubles with the youth and when you take away from their outlets of expression where do they have to go? They have nowhere and they are going to turn to what the epidemic is that is going on now. What was done in the last forty-eight hours was very dishearten. You broke a lot of kid’s hearts and shattered a lot of dreams. I don’t point fingers and I don’t point names. I would just like answers. What can we do? Where do we have to start? It is heart breaking. We wanted to donate our own time and money. The city wouldn’t even let us do that. All we wanted was permission to fix what was there. We couldn’t even obtain that. We had our meetings and it felt like every time we were getting pushed around. With the ACL is that going to be like the Chagrin River Salmon Club Association? While they lease the land for a dollar a year where they are not…what are they putting back into it? Is there something that we can do to have them kick money back towards us? The same thing with the ACL…why give all of this stuff away when we have property that we could invest in ourselves and make revenue off of it. That is what my point is. Thank you.

Kristine Hubbardston, 223 Traymore Blvd., Eastlake

Mrs. Hubbardston: I would like to explain something and as you know I have been a part of the Eastlake Soccer Association. I want everyone to understand that in Eastlake…the fields that are over by the big soccer ball…those fields are locked. Not anybody can play on our fields and I hope that everybody knows that. You have to pay to play here and each parent with a child pays for their child to play soccer. We have a travel league that is very good and you pay to play. Nothing is free…so the ACL who wants to build this new soccer field, which are Eastlake children and residents. Want to build soccer fields here and you will pay to play. Now some people have said to me “Kristine they can’t afford it?” Well have you looked at how much it costs to play on our travel league in Eastlake? It is expensive and yes a lot of families probably can’t afford it. They have budget plans and you make payments per month and you get your kid to play. It is no different then what they are going to offer over here. We are all Eastlake people, residents and all the same children. There is no difference and I would appreciate it if people would stop labeling him as one they are not. Everyone is just trying to do something good for the children that are here and I think that it is a great thing. Now what happened over at the skate park it is terrible and I would be happy to work with young people to try and do a fund raiser. It is amazing what Mentor got and you are probably saying to yourself why couldn’t we have that? So if you want to I would happy to give you my name and number and to raise money and to try and work with the city, and to try and rebuild the skate park. I think that the skate park is a great thing I see you guys out there all the time having fun. It is a good thing not doing drugs that is awesome. I would be happy to see how I could help you. That is what I think that we need to do as residents. To see how we can help you guys rebuild that and make it safe. Thank you.

Ed Lee, East 348th Street, Eastlake

Mr. Lee: I think that you guys shouldn’t have done that because the park was a home to make people and to some of us who don’t have cars to go to other parks. It could have been fixed with a fund raiser to raise more money to fix it. That’s it.

Mary Homage, 1184 Hayes Ave., Willoughby

Mrs. Homage: I grew up in Eastlake and my parents lived here for forty-five years. I still have a lot of family in Eastlake. My husband and I have been driving my son to this skate park from Willoughby for…he is fifteen years old…for probably eight years. We have spent countless hours sitting in our car so he could have fun and hang with these kids that he has bonded with. It is exercise and it keeps them off of the streets and keeps them busy. It is a great hobby and he texted me from school today. He is devastated and his whole group of friends…it is ridiculous and horrible. Fill the boot one weekend you could have raised enough money to fix that place up so it was safe in weekend in this city. I have been filling that boot for thirty years. Every time I drive through three days in a row I have put money in that boot. It was for the kids. Now I want to know what everybody wants them to do with all of their free time. My son would sometimes go there after school for four or five hours to do nothing but drink water and ride his scooter. What is he going to do now? Are you going to let him ride on the concrete all over the city, because there is nowhere for him to ride anymore? I am just so devastated and I felt like there was a death in the family today when he was telling me that it was gone. I just want you to know that I think that it was important to the kids and you guys let them down. Or whoever makes all of these decisions. You let a lot of kids down. Thank you.

John Duebalso, 5641 Ivy Drive, Mentor-on-the-Lake

Mr. Duebalso: I’ve lived in Eastlake, Kirtland, and Willoughby and I have been going to that skate park for the past sixteen years. Before I could drive I used to ride my bike from all of those cities to that skate park to see all of my friends. I would like answers and I would like to know why the skate park got torn down, because it being unsalvageable is not the answer. We gotten together and we have proved the funds that we needed to repair the skate park. Not to bull dose it and throw it in the trash. I want to know why and I want to know the real reason, because I am not buying that it was fixable. Thank you.

Steven Fenaketti, 36125 Killarney Rd., Willoughby

Mr. Fenaketti: I have been going to that skate park for nine years and I want to know why you tore it down? I also want to know what it is going to be. Is it going to be a parking lot or nothing, because no one ever goes to that Community Center enough to fill the parking lot? I want to know why you did that. Thank you.

James Spetts, 36427 Stevens Blvd., Eastlake

Mr. Spetts: If anybody is aware that is on the cusp between Willoughby and Eastlake. Growing up I was asked to go to Eastlake North to make things easier but I did opt to go to South because I had already started at Willoughby Schools. About sixteen years ago that skate park was built and I started skating there for the first time. I will say that the skate probably changed my life and I don’t know who I would be specifically without that skate park. I have met some of my best friends and I have traveled to place in the continental United States, Canada to Mexico…to places that I would have never ever gone without skating. That park is the reason why I went to those places. This morning I took a video of you guys demolishing the park…without notify anybody and it has gotten over 8,300 views in less than 24 hours. It also has a few hundred shares. People care about that skate park and they care about parks. As soon as you stop caring about parks it is when things get lost. Kids get lost in the system and it is when things start to go bad. It is not a good idea. I don’t have much more than that but I want you to know that it is a very important place for everyone of us that is in this room right now. That might be adults or children but it doesn’t matter. That park brings us together as a community and brings us to place that we probably would have never been before.

Jason Coiner, 1197 East 337th Street, Eastlake

Mr. Coiner: As everybody else I have to admit that I was caught off guard when I saw the video of the skate park. I was disturbed that it was done without kind of recourse or reach out to the public. But it is done and over with now. I’ve prided myself on being honest and respectful not only as a man but as a parent. My votes that I have casted for both men and women that are in this room have been based upon that I have felt the honesty and respect would be continued on with that vote. I feel with actions today that respect and honesty was not given to the residents of Eastlake. I know personally for myself that when I go home respect and honesty is what my wife deserves, what my children deserve and it is what your families deserve. All that I ask is that when you go home tonight that when you wake up in the morning so keep that in the forefront of your mind. I know that tough decisions are made but the city and the residents they deserve that respect and honesty; even if it is something that we don’t want to hear and even if it’s a tough choice that you have to make. For us to be behind you we need to know that you are behind us. I just ask that going forward the decision that can be made including residents of the City of Eastlake…let them be involved. I think that whatever the outcome may be including them in it I think is what matters and what’s important. I just hope that going forward it is taken into consideration. I hope that all of you have a wonderful night.

There was no one else who wished to speak.

LEGISLATION PROPOSED – First number will be 2016-052

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 Mr. Hoefle and welcome everyone to this evenings meeting. I have written down some of the comments from everyone that got up and spoke and for those that don’t know I’ve lived in the City of Eastlake for 35 years. I’ve seen the good and the bad. As the one gentleman said about investing and we have decided not to invest in ourselves in this city. Whether we believe that we are over taxed or not we have decided not to invest. The reasons that we’ve gone out and done certain things like teaming up with the YMCA, because when we did shut the pool down we could not operate in because we did not have the money. So we went with the YMCA. We leased that land to them for $1.00 and they run our pool. After the last one we were going to shut down the Community Center and we have worked with EPAL and we lease that building to them for $1.00 and they take of all the maintenance. The people at the YMCA run the pool for us. There are no tax dollars on either one of those. We lease out to the library administration…in this building and we do make some money and it is $68,000.00 and it goes into our General Fund. That we didn’t have before. As I have been telling people and I’ve it at the last few meetings I am not upset when people tell me I will never pass a levy in this city, because of what is on the corner of Route 91 from fifteen years ago. My answer to them is don’t be upset with me when I have to cut certain services. That is where we are at and people get up and say about our dishonesty and our…I am not on any of the pages but unfortunately people send me all of the comments on the pages that are out there about the city and about myself and the administration.. The one thing that really bothers me and I know that it bothers the ACL that there have been bribes for us to go into doing what we want to do back there. The reason we are in with the ACL or we are trying to be is because we cannot maintain it. So we went out there and they approached us and said hey we want to build soccer fields in the area. There are still going to be parts of the park and unlike what is out there on the pages and how many people who have contacted me which are five possibly. That everyone listens to what is on Facebook and Facebook only. No one wants to contact me or contact Council…I have even seen a post saying “why would you want to talk to the Mayor or Council about the ACL lease?” Why would we do things…why would we go outside if we had the money to do things? Why would I tear down a skate park if we could maintain it? Why would I do all of that? If you listen to people…its vindictive…I’ve done it because political reasons…I’ve done it because I’m upset about the ACL. How many in this audience has talked to me including the people that run these pages?

Member of the audience: We just asked you right now. We are asking you right now.

Mayor Morley: We’ve had seven…on the ACL we’ve had eight months of meetings sir.

Member of the audience: I know we are asking right now.

Mayor Morley: I understand.

Member of the audience: Without any warning.

Mayor Morley: There are many questions that are being asked and I am trying to answer them.

Member of the audience: Is that part of the property that they are interested in?

Mayor Morley: No it is not. Even though it might be out there it is not. It is not part of the property. The property is behind the Community Center. To answer some other questions field number three, which is behind the Community Center…out there keeps saying the park is going to be on lock down. I will give you credit your very good on social media…you have people in an up roar and that’s good. It’s all or nothing and people have decided to alienate us from this city and villainies us and that’s fine. As part of elected officials that’s what we deal with and that is what we are told that we are and that’s okay. We need to invest in our city. No one wants anymore taxes and I agree. We’ve laid off forty-two people since 2011 and can’t run. No one understands that we can’t run they just want to say that we’re hiding money and we’re doing this. We are underhand trying to make deals with the ACL. The park was shut down because I went over once again because I got a call that all the tubing was taken out and lying on the ground.

Mr. Hoefle: Hold on the Mayor is speaking.

Mayor Morley: Do I get to talk or are we going to have this? This is why I’m not on the pages because this is what it is. You can attack me and I’ve told them that if we are attacked I’m here to be attacked. I’m fine with that. I have to make tough decisions and I made them. When we talk about that we wasted money on those pylons that was the cheapest route to go instead of doing a chain link fence. We would have done that if they wouldn’t have torn the fence down. I didn’t want to put any money into it but Law Director says that we have to have a barrier or those pylons wouldn’t of gone in there. I went over there and I’m not going to throw my guy under the bus because he is not here…we went over there…I don’t make decisions on certain things all by myself. I have my directors and chiefs and we discuss these things all the time. We went over there…the law suit will be against the City of Eastlake it won’t be against the skaters. I made a decision it had to come down. I didn’t do it to hurt you or to hurt any of the kids. I did it because that is what we had to do. I know that you don’t agree with it…we will go back to…everyone gets up and says we could get a buck or we could get this. They had something in July…we have $68.00 that has been donated so far and we have not had any other fund rising. Or anyone has come to me and says hey we are going to have a fund raiser at EPAL or at the Croatian Lodge, which they said they would give the hall for free. We have not done any of that. But in the end we want to turn around and say that it is all of us or all of me and I am okay with that. If we are not ready to invest in ourselves…we need to do that eventually and honestly I don’t know if we ever will. The whole fifteen years with the lease because we keep going back to fifteen years you’re giving away land. We could sell land lock land for $300,000.00 and put it in the General Fund and be done in a year. We could do that. Also with the lease is my goal is and you’re right I won’t be here in fifteen years in this seat. Maybe in fifteen years we will have a turnaround in this city and maybe people will quit blaming that thing on the corner. Maybe we will come together as a city and say hey in fifteen years you know what my dream is on Roberts Road? A new Senior Center, new Community Center and a new pool it has always been that. We can’t pass a $1.47 a month how are we going to pass what we would need for a bond issue? It’s not like we’re not trying we have to get people behind us. At this point it’s all of the negativity that is out there about us.

Member of the audience making a comment.

Chief Reik: This isn’t a debate.

Mayor Morley: I will use an example from last year and Kris I will ask you. I was asked by the Blockwatch and some residents in Jakse about closing down the basketball because of vandalism. Did I do out…did Kris go out and say hey we’re going to shut down? Did we do that or did we just make the decision? We made a decision because that is what I was asked to do. I have to make tough decisions. We are elected to go out and make decisions. Whether they are tough or not I’ll make the decisions and I am not always going to be liked for what I do.

Member of the audience: Is there a blueprint of what is going on down there?

Mayor Morley: There is a sketch of that.

Member of the audience: Would you take a sketch from a major company that is coming in…I just a blueprint. I want to see what they’re going to do with the land.

Mayor Morley: I’ve said it in the meetings for eight months…I am not going to have them spend $50,000.00 on blueprints and what could happen on November 8 happen.

Mr. Klammer: Whets getting lost in that part of the lease is because it’s not being communicated completely. The document exists. If the people that were putting these things out on the website shared the document…the way that it is designed is that once we have this lease agreement that parties are going to get together and decide the configuration of that property. If we don’t decide it doesn’t go forward. So the Mayor, Council and the Finance Director at the time…all of us had these discussions knowing full well that once we move forward with trying a big neighbor in, being the Croatian Center, to invest in repairing that property. In exchange for a dollar they are repairing that property. What we are going to do at that point is sit down and decide on the best configuration. If the parties can’t agree then they can’t agree. But to do architectural drawings, drainage, grade and all of those types of things will cost five to ten possibly fifteen thousand dollars. So we haven’t asked the Croatian Center to make that investment until they’re sure the city is prepared to enter into the partnership. That’s what’s not getting communicated. We have built into this legislation the protection for the city. The ability for the city to work with the Croatian Center and decide what configuration is going to work best for the community of Eastlake. It’s in the lease agreement. So for those people that tell you you’re giving all up for a dollar that’s not true. So there is no blueprint because that’s going to come next.

Member of the audience: To not know…because it is right behind my house.

Mr. Klammer: That process of deciding on what’s going to happen there is going to be a community process. I think that we are even going to have it go to the Planning Commission. But we are going to have some discussion about what’s going to be configures there. That input will exist at that point in time. The city hasn’t thrown anybody….

Member of the audience: How are you going to go further and make this better if you keep saying fifteen years…fifteen years ago we had something nice. Now we’re fifteen years from there and you’re saying that fifteen years from now it’s going to be better and you’re hoping that it will turn around and be better.

Member of the audience: where is the rough draft?

Mr. Klammer: It exists and of course nobody has it with them today. It exists and there have been multiple….

Member of the audience: It is posted online.

Mr. Klammer: But for those folks and this is one thing that I want the community to know and I don’t have an opinion it one way or the other. As actively engaged in those discussions and we invited the people that run this website and I don’t know what it’s called because I don’t go to that website either. We engaged and we had the Croatian Center bring a board member to have the discussion. He said folks if you have an objection I’ll do whatever I can on behalf of the Croatian Center to help you fund raiser. I will offer you our facility for free and you can do whatever fund raiser you want at the Croatian Center. The Croatian Center has been a great partner in that process and the dialog was fantastic. There were multiple meetings.

Member of the audience: For one brief moment I am not a website and I am not Blockwatch I am a resident of Eastlake. I came here today so when I go to vote…I have been voting since I was eighteen…I don’t have anything in my mind…

Mr. Klammer: I will gladly give you whatever I can give you. I will meet with you after this and share it with you.

Member of the audience: I am here for answers.

Mr. Klammer: I am sad that it’s gone this far when I know personally that the information…

Mayor Morley: Have you contacted me before?

Member of the audience: I have.

Mayor Morley: Have you contacted me before so that we could sit down and talk or….and I am okay with this forum because this is what I like people doing in the forum.

Member of the audience: Isn’t this what you do when you come to a Council Meeting?

Mayor Morley: I agree.

Mr. Klammer: I’ll gladly meet with you and get you what you need.

Mayor Morley: I also disagree where we put something out on the social media and that’s the only answer and no one wants to speak with us.

Member of the audience: I just don’t want to be labeled as a website.

Mayor Morley: Michelle we’ve sat down and you have been in my office and I’m not putting anything on anyone.

Mr. Hoefle: The Mayor…it is his time to give his report.

Mayor Morley: I’m an open book when everyone calls I return every call…good or bad. Anyone that walks into my office…I’m good.

There were no further questions of Mayor Morley

FIRE CHIEF – Ted Whittington

Chief Whittington: Thank you Mr. Hoefle. The only thing that I will say is that I will make it clear is that Fill the Boot…when we do that it is an excepted charity of the International Association of Fire Fighters. We do that annually and the money that we collect goes to the charity 100% and we don’t do it for any other reason. I just don’t want that to be misconstrued. We appreciate the support for the community but understand to that is strictly as a charity event and the city doesn’t profit from it. The Fire Department doesn’t profit from it all the money goes back to Muscular Dystrophy. I just want to make sure that everybody understands that. We do that for any other purpose.

There were no further questions of Chief Whittington

POLICE CHIEF – Larry Reik

Chief Reik: Right after I made Lieutenant is when that park opened.

Mr. Hoefle: Excuse me please allow the Police Chief to speak.

Chief Reik: I was actually in charge of the skate park and we had a park patrol for the first couple years to monitor to keep just the skate boarders in, because they didn’t want bikes in because the park wasn’t equip that way. As personnel and money left the park patrol left and recreation went from where it was to where we don’t have a Recreation Department anymore. Many times our juvenile diversion program, which is kids that commit minor crimes and we put them out in the community. Either they are helping the elderly, washing police a car, cleaning up the Boulevard of Flags or whatever need is out there. Countless times they had to go over to the skate park because it was horrible. I mean bottles, cans and containers and if I knew there was this passion as the…

Members of the audience speaking.

Mr. Hoefle: Let the Chief speak.

Chief Reik: In this portion of the meeting…that is part of what is the problem here. Is that nobody spoke over any of the people standing at the podium and then as soon as we start speaking it is some big debate. Again I have answered every phone call and I’ve had every meeting….for six years I’ve done this. We’ve gotten called to the park for hypodermic needles and all these things and no groups have spawned out of these issues. Maybe this is the lesion when we go and tell our kids that actions have consequences. The action of voting or not voting for things and deciding where our money goes that depends on what we have our households and within our city. I’d love for all of these people from Willoughby and Mentor-on-the-Lake to be able to continue to come to our city and skate at that park but I also know…does anyone stop. Does anyone allow the common respect of people to finish? Everyone had their opportunity to speak and nobody spoke over them. No one said liar this or that. It’s sad and it really is, but since that is going to be the decorum here I’ll answer any questions and if anyone wants to ask a question individually as always you are free to call my office. Or submit a question in any form and I will answer completely. Thank you.

There were no further questions of Chief Reik.

CHIEF BUILDING OFFICIAL – David Menn

Mr. Menn was absent and excused.

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 was absent and excused.

Mr. Hoefle: Mr. Gwydir is not here but he did send me and email. Mayor Morley did you want to touch on the Ridgewood Drive project.

Mayor Morley: Ridgewood Drive road repair is complete. I know that they started planting the grass and they did all the crack sealing. It came in $50,000.00 under budget. That was a good thing and AJ Cement did a great job working with the residents and everyone that lived on that street. That is complete.

There were no questions of Mr. Gwydir.

FINANCE DIRECTOR – Carol-Ann Schindel

Ms. Schindel: Thank you. The phone system at the city for the last three days have been intermittently auto attendant or picked up by the Finance Department. The system went down and we are band aiding it to the best of our ability. We hope to have it back up by Thursday. So if you called and you didn’t get someone to answer I apologize. We are only there for so many hours of the day. I know that the phone was ringing as I was wondering down to Council here now. We don’t have the ability to pick that up right now. The auto attendant and the voice mail are down. Just so you know we are doing our best to band aide it. Hopefully it will work.

There were no questions of Ms. Schindel.

LAW DIRECTOR – Randy Klammer

Mr. Klammer had no report this evening.

There were no questions of Mr. Klammer.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:50 p.m.

­­­­­­­­­­ _______________________________________

KEN HOEFLE, COUNCIL VICE PRESIDENT

APPROVED: ______________________

ATTEST: ______________________________________

TRACY M. SIMONS, CLERK OF COUNCIL