MINUTES OF THE REGULAR STRONGSVILLE COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON OCTOBER 3, 2005 IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER

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1 MINUTES OF THE REGULAR STRONGSVILLE COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON OCTOBER 3, 2005 IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 8:00 p.m. by the President of Council, Raymond L. Haseley. All joined in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. CERTIFICATION OF POSTING: The Assistant Clerk of Council certified that the meeting had been posted according to the requirements of Ordinance No ROLL CALL: Present were: Council Representatives: Patrick J. Coyne, Joseph C. DeMio, James A. Kaminski, Raymond L. Haseley, Michael J. Gallagher, Mark A. Roth, III and Michael J. Daymut. Also Present: Patricia J. Stewart, Assistant Clerk of Council. Administration: Thomas P. Perciak, Mayor; Kenneth A. Kraus, Law Director; Donald C. Batke, Finance Director; Joseph M. Walker, Service Director; Robert E. Moody, Chief of Fire; Charles W. Goss, Chief of Police; John Bedford, Communications and Technology Director; Ken Mikula, City Engineer; Anthony J. Biondillo, Building Commissioner; and Stephen F. Kilo, Recreation Director. COMMENTS ON MINUTES: The Minutes of the Regular Council Meeting held on September 19, 2005 were approved as submitted. APPOINTMENTS AND CONFIRMATIONS: None. PUBLIC HEARING: Ordinance No AN ORDINANCE CONSENTING TO THE SALE, ASSIGNMENT AND TRANSFER OF A NON-EXCLUSIVE FRANCHISE GRANTED BY THE CITY OF STRONGSVILLE TO ADELPHIA COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION AND ADELPHIA CLEVELAND LLC TO TIME WARNER NY CABLE LLC DBA TIME WARNER CABLE TO CONSTRUCT, RECONSTRUCT, OPERATE, AND MAINTAIN A CABLE TELEVISION SYSTEM WITHIN THE CITY, AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AND EXECUTE AN AGREEMENT WITH SAID TIME WARNER NY CABLE LLC IN FURTHERANCE THEREOF, AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY. 1 st rdg: nd rdg:

2 October 3, 2005 Page 2 PUBLIC HEARING Ordinance No (Cont d): Council President Haseley opened the Public Hearing on Ordinance No and invited anyone wishing to speak IN FAVOR of the Ordinance to approach the podium and address Council at this time. Don Vavrus, Adelphia Council President, Council people. My name is Don Vavrus, I m the representative from Adelphia and I just want to thank you all for the opportunity to speak with you tonight regarding the transfer of Adelphia s franchise to Time Warner. With me is Mr. Chris Thomas, who is a representative of Time Warner, he also has some informational packets in front of you, and I m going to give him an opportunity right now to explain a little bit about what Time Warner has to offer. Chris Thomas Thank you. As Mr. Vavrus mentioned -- excuse my voice, I m getting a cold, I believe there s an information packet on the Council and the Mayor s area. Mr. Haseley Excuse me. You want to state your name and address for us, please? Chris Thomas I m sorry. Chris Thomas with Time Warner Cable, North Canton, Ohio. There are some informational packets, I m sure that all of you will be having questions as we get closer to the transition to Time Warner Cable, assuming that everything proceeds as planned, so I just put some information in front of you, as well as my business card, so please feel free to call me should you have any questions about Time Warner or the transfer process. Just a little bit about Time Warner Cable. We ve been in northeast Ohio for almost forty years now and have a number of one of the largest cable companies in the country and in the world and one of the most innovative, as well. And let me just give you some brief firsts, some of the things that Time Warner Cable here in northeast Ohio was the first to offer. Going back into the seventies, the first to offer complimentary cable to all public and private schools that we (unintelligible) K through 12. The first to have a two-way cable interactive system whereby the homes could send signals back regarding various services that we offer. The first children s programming was offered by Time Warner Cable, subsequently became Nickelodeon. The first call center that operated twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. First pay-perview movie channel. The first on-time guarantee where if we did not make our appointment twenty dollars was credited towards the account of the customer. The first high speed internet service, Roadrunner, was here in the Akron area. The first to give free high speed data services to the schools was Time Warner Cable. The first local on-demand, a service that we offer local programming, and you can get that as an on-demand service, all of our customers can do that as well. And just last year the first to offer digital phone service, which is a competitor to SBC, local and long distance services. The products that we offer largely track what you re already used to getting from Adelphia. Our digital cable, which is the most popular, 200 plus channels, various sports packages, the commercial free music channels and so forth. Our Roadrunner is our high speed online service, about three times as fast as DSL and almost a hundred times faster than standard dial-up. We offer free anti-virus, anti-spam, free firewall service. We offer wireless networking inside the homes, as well as free AOL to all of our Roadrunner customers. In the new digital phone service, it s unlimited local and long distance, all the most popular calling features the three-way calling, the call waiting, caller ID and so forth is all included for one flat fee. International calling is also at a very reduced rate.

3 October 3, 2005 Page 3 PUBLIC HEARING Ordinance No (Cont d): Chris Thomas (cont d) - That s an overview of Time Warner Cable; I d be glad to answer any questions that any of you have or from the public. Mr. Roth Mr. Haseley. Mr. Haseley Yes, Mr. Roth. Mr. Roth Thank you. For the past two caucuses, last four weeks in the Council caucus, I wanted to make sure that the large sum of money to make the Strongsville City Schools whole in back taxes is paid up, and you re going to give us that assurance tonight, is that true? Chris Thomas Mr. Vavrus is going to do that, I believe, and if you want me to turn it over to him, that s fine; if you have questions for me Mr. Roth I ll just be listening patiently with bated breath because that s a huge deal. Chris Thomas I understand. Mr. Roth You know, I want to see the large sum of money due to our schools finally paid to them. That s all. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Mr. DeMio. Mr. DeMio Ray, actually what I was going to ask, as chairman of that committee that oversees this, and I was asked by the Administration and the Law Department to allow the Law Director to go forward on the questions regarding the payment of taxes. So that s all I was going to ask to do, I didn t want to interrupt the other councilman that wanted it, but we certainly all have a clear understanding what the gentleman from Adelphia is going to say. Don Vavrus It is my understanding the City has filed properly all of the forms they would have to (unintelligible) throughout our bankruptcy on back taxes. My understanding is that we will have plans to, when the bankruptcy when we emerge from bankruptcy, at the time of closing, it is planned that the back taxes will be paid at one hundred cents on the dollar. Any further questions? Mr. Haseley Is there a time period that you would attach to that? Don Vavrus - The closing is expected to be in the first quarter, at the end of the first quarter of 2006 or the early part of the second quarter of There are a number of approvals that still have to go forward on that, so, but we anticipate that in at least in the first half of Mr. DeMio Ken Ray, may I?

4 October 3, 2005 Page 4 PUBLIC HEARING Ordinance No (Cont d): Mr. Haseley Yes. Mr. DeMio With the amendment tonight, do you feel confident that the assurance that is now part of the record, do we need to adopt the statement as part of our actually, attach this to our amendment, the minutes here, so there s no misunderstanding, or do you feel the amendment that you have in our packet is suffice? Mr. Kraus Mr. President, Councilman. I think it would be appropriate, first of all, it is at our request, and I ve spoken to these gentlemen on numerous occasions during the past couple weeks to ensure that they obtain the appropriate information and they were authorized to have that information and to make the representations that they are to this Council and to the public. It is part of the minutes now and part of the records of this proceeding, but just to be certain, I think it would be prudent as part of any motion that Council may choose to make later on the agenda with respect to this item that that be incorporated into the motion in terms of the representation of Adelphia that s been made here. Mr. DeMio So you make that part make it an additional addendum; is that what you... Mr. Kraus We can make it part of the motion, if there s a motion, for approval of the consent. Mr. DeMio There will be, I know Mike Daymut said he would do that Mr. Daymut I am. Mr. DeMio - being our amendment specialist. Mr. Daymut We turn that to the Law Director, we always turn Mr. DeMio Yes, but we ll do it. Mr. Daymut - a favorable eye to the Law Director at all times. Mr. Haseley Very good. Mr. DeMio Though I do want to say for the record, because you never get an opportunity, we do have once in awhile we give Mr. Kraus some business, bad or good, but this especially, he s worked many, many hours on this and I believe we should publicly commend him because without his perseverance in this matter I don t think, doing this for ten years, I really don t think that this would have been done in the way to make the City of Strongsville whole in this matter.

5 October 3, 2005 Page 5 PUBLIC HEARING Ordinance No (Cont d): Mr. DeMio (cont d) - And I want to publicly thank you, I m sure my colleagues on Council and I know the Mayor s going to say it because he reminded me how hard you worked on this the last couple weeks, so I just want to publicly thank you, Ken, thank the two gentlemen that showed up many weeks in a row, on time, by the way, for our caucuses. If that would be okay with Ray. Mr. Haseley Absolutely. Mr. DeMio Okay. Thank you again, Ken. Mr. Haseley Is there anything else you gentlemen care to add to anything? Don Vavrus Very briefly, in an unrelated matter, I would like to announce that we have a new facility at our it s going to be at 8150 Dow Circle, I believe the Mayor has received a letter, but it s a new and improved walk-in center, it s literally right across from our old walk-in center. We ll now have two full-time customer service representatives to help, a larger area, better parking, so, and lots and lots of signs to direct our customers to a brand new location literally right across the street from our Dow Circle. So, our old building will be retained as a tech center and we thought that would be pretty good news for our subscribers and certainly for the residents of Strongsville. Mr. DeMio Thank you again. Mr. Haseley Thank you, Don. Anybody else that cares to make any statement in the affirmative? Dave Gusman, Pembrooke Oval, Strongsville Hi. My name is Dave Gusman, Pembrooke Oval. I m here in my official capacity as a school board member and the chairman of the finance committee for the school board and we want to thank both the City and Time Warner and Adelphia for diligently working through on this. The 1.8 million dollars that is at stake here is enough, just to put it into perspective, that s more than the payroll for an entire elementary school for a year, so it is very important to the district. And, again, we just want to thank everybody for keeping this on the forefront and we are in favor of this merger in light of this new information. So thank you very much. Mr. Haseley Good. You re welcome. Anybody else that cares to make a statement for approval? (No comments)

6 October 3, 2005 Page 6 PUBLIC HEARING Ordinance No (Cont d): Council President Haseley invited anyone wishing to speak IN OPPOSITION of the Ordinance to approach the podium and address Council at this time. (No comments) Hearing no further comments in regard to Ordinance No , Council President Haseley declared the Public Hearing on said Ordinance closed. REPORTS OF COUNCIL COMMITTEES: BUILDING CODES AND CEMETERY Mr. Roth: Thank you, Mr. Haseley. Approximately three, three and a half about three, three and a half years ago we sat in caucus, we met with our previous mayor, Mayor Ehrnfelt; Mr. Ody and Mr. MacLennan voiced a problem that I had voiced several times through memos and action requests about how the City created a drainage problem on the side of their home by formulating and developing a system that emits the storm water openly to the side of Mr. Ody s home and directs it towards it. With the volume, the additional volume each year and ferocity of the storm water, there has been property damage and his fence is collapsing into the creek and he s lost quite a few feet of his land. And so has Mr. MacLennan. They were promised in that caucus three years ago that something would be done about it and nothing s been done about it and they want to see something done about it. There are blocked catch basins behind Timber Ridge, Handle and Webster with trees, grass, grease, everything growing out of it, that have come to my attention and just would like to see our service department address those catch basins. Handle Road, Timber Ridge and Webster. There was a series of, I heard, five homes on Adams that received flooding in the past rain. We were going to do an investigation. Could you please give me the results of that investigation on Adams to let me know what caused that, since it was nowhere else in the vicinity, and was there a partial blockage or a blockage? You can just put that in my mailbox and give me a status on that, if you would. Still receiving calls from many residents in my area that Westwood and Prospect now and in the future get a return to the turning arrows that are much needed at that intersection. You know, and as I reiterate, with the lessening of traffic when 82 opens up, there will be an increase in traffic when the five hundred homes in that vicinity are built out. Still waiting for noise pollution problem on Fair Road and the Turnpike to be addressed.

7 October 3, 2005 Page 7 Mr. Roth (cont d) Then tonight I was presented with a Hidden Meadows problem, just before the Council meeting. And the residents on Hidden Meadows are dealing with a Mr. Kane and it s in Mayor s Court, so we re hoping and the residents are hoping that this is addressed forcefully and quickly and sternly in Mayor s Court this week. There is an area of land that was supposed to be a buffer, a natural landscaped area, it s got trash, gravel, plastic, stone, fencing, rubbish on it now, there s two trailers on it, batting cages on it, spotlights on it, and soil, maybe, contamination, from what I m hearing, in this letter, from comments before the meeting, and they re hoping that this is dealt with sternly at this week s Mayor s Court. And that s all within this committee, Mr. Haseley. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Roth? Mr. DeMio Nothing, no questions at all, I just want to make the record clear that Tony Biondillo, George Lonjak, Ken Kraus, Mayor Perciak Tony, who else is involved with Hidden Meadows? Mr. Biondillo That s about it. Mayor Perciak Mr. Gambino. Mr. DeMio And Mr. Gambino, of course, is the magistrate, so he s... all have asked us to let the process go through and let the magistrate make the decision, which may end up in many courts before it s all done. We hope and pray things can work out; the gentleman in question retained a lawyer a couple weeks ago, which then changed the flow of this particular file. It s been a long time, this Administration and the past administration Ray was the mayor at the time, too, have always worked to try to resolve this and, unfortunately, they re in Mayor s Court, I think for good, and hopefully it will all work out. But we were asked not to talk about this on the record and I just want to clarify that they Mr. Roth Well, I was asked to talk about it, so that s why Mr. DeMio Right, and Mr. Haseley Well, I don t think any of us should talk any more about it; it s in court. Mr. DeMio Right. So I just want to make sure that the record Mr. Roth Mr. Haseley, I m going to submit these pictures, if I could. Mr. DeMio Right.

8 October 3, 2005 Page 8 Mr. Haseley Well, I m well aware of it. I don t need to see them. Mr. Roth Well, give them to the Mayor s Court then to help them make a decision. Mr. Haseley Yeah. Mr. Roth The residents are submitting those pictures. Mr. DeMio Right. And I believe they ve ed those many of those items to the Mayor, as well. So, just want to make sure that the record s complete on that. Thank you. Mr. Haseley Anything else for Mr. Roth? (No comments) FINANCE Mr. Gallagher: Thank you, Mr. Haseley. There s no legislation before Finance this evening. However, I believe we ll be meeting on is it the 19 th, Mr. Batke, 6 p.m.? Mr. Batke Mr. Chairman, Mr. Gallagher. Yes, I believe you wanted to schedule that at six o clock on the 19 th in the Mayor s Conference Room. Mr. Gallagher Mr. Haseley, is that Mr. Haseley Is it six or six thirty? Mr. Gallagher Six. Mr. Haseley Six? Alright. I don t have a problem with either one. Mr. Gallagher And that ll be in the Mayor s Conference Room. That s all we have. Thank you. Mr. Haseley Very good. Any questions for Mr. Gallagher? (None) INDUSTRIAL/COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Mr. Daymut: Thank you, Mr. Haseley. Industrial/Community Development did meet briefly this evening, we have no ordinances or resolutions on this evening s agenda.

9 October 3, 2005 Page 9 Mr. Daymut (cont d) - I d like to report back on our meeting of Wednesday, September 28 th, held in the Senior Center at the Rec Center. At that particular meeting we did review our business network breakfast from September 8 th, it did receive a good review. We look forward to our next breakfast, which will be sometime in late January. We are currently looking at sponsorship for that breakfast; anyone that s interested, please call myself or Gene Magocky, and we would like some suggestions for a speaker at that particular event. We did review our residential survey, we are in the final process of completing that survey, sometime in the next few weeks we will meet with Greg Davis and the task force and we hope to have that survey out to all the residents around the second or third week of November. Gene Magocky did bring us up to date on the new businesses that are locating in Strongsville and went over the press release. We also discussed the Foltz Parkway extension, 182 acres, and we understand that the Mayor we did put out an RFP for real estate services and the Mayor is reviewing that as we move forward with the extension of Foltz there and to our 182 acres. We did broach the regional economic process, something that has been under discussion in the newspapers; we will include that in our next regular scheduled meeting, which will be October 24, That s all I have this evening, Mr. Haseley. Thank you very much. Mr. Haseley Thank you, Mr. Daymut. Any questions for Mr. Daymut? (None) PLANNING, ZONING AND ENGINEERING Mr. Haseley: Planning, Zoning and Engineering met this evening with the following recommendations: Ordinance , place on sixth reading and set for a public hearing on the 21 st of November; Ordinance , recommendation is to defeat; Ordinance , place on third reading, set for a public hearing on 11-7; Resolution , suspend and adopt; Ordinance , place on first reading, refer to Planning Commission; and Ordinance , recommendation is to suspend and adopt. I ll field any questions or take any comments. (No comments) PUBLIC SAFETY Mr. Daymut: Thank you, Mr. Haseley. Public Safety did meet this evening and gave favorable recommendation to Ordinance and Ordinance , those are both applications for financial assistance with the Cuyahoga County Safe Community Grant Program.

10 October 3, 2005 Page 10 Mr. Daymut (cont d) - Also, I d like to give a brief report on our meeting of Monday, September 26 th. It was our second meeting of the month for September. At that particular meeting we did hear from the police department, who last year received $200,000 worth of grants; this year, through Southwest Enforcement Bureau that s SEB, which, Chief Goss, I understand you head that or you are in charge of that this year, has achieved a $450,000 award for the purchase of a mobile incident command vehicle, and another $68,000 for equipment, taking it well over $500,000. Our thirteen new vehicles, we should receive those in a few weeks and we do have all the equipment in-house to equip those vehicles as soon as we do receive them. We talked about seven new officers; five we have in the Academy and I believe we ll have those available sometime during the Christmas season and we have two in training right now. As far as the fire department goes, we did finish the interviews with our architectural firms for the Ward 4 fire station. We have submitted our recommendations for the top three candidates to the Mayor, the Mayor now will negotiate with those firms for services and we hope to have that as soon as humanly possible. Our next regular meeting was scheduled for Monday, October 10 th, but since we did meet twice in September I would like to announce that we are going to cancel that meeting and we will meet in November to follow up on the rest of the matters in front of the Public Safety Committee. That s all I have this evening, Mr. Haseley. Thank you very much. Mr. Haseley Thank you, Mr. Daymut. Any questions for Mr. Daymut? Mr. Gallagher Mr. Haseley. Mr. Haseley Yes, Mr. Gallagher. Mr. Gallagher I d just like to again thank Mr. Daymut and his committee for the work they did on the fire station for Ward 4, moving it along as quickly and judiciously as they did. It was wonderful to see everybody come together, show up, have input as to where we re at, and now that it s in the Administration s hands I anticipate we ll be moving forward accordingly and closing that gap of fire service and safety for the entire town. So once again, thank you very much, Mr. Daymut. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Anybody else for Mr. Daymut? (No comments)

11 October 3, 2005 Page 11 SOUTHWEST GENERAL HEALTH CENTER Mr. Gallagher: Thank you, Mr. Haseley. Last Thursday there was a meeting of the hospital board; I was there. One point of discussion was Mr. Taylor asked permission to come before the Council at the next meeting for a presentation on support of the levy, for the renewal of the levy for the services to the City of Strongsville and the tax dollars that those provide. I told him to contact you and that you would take care of that. I also recommended maybe that Monday before the election also for a very quick, you know, kind of an extra added punch, so I ll leave that in your capable hands as to how you want to handle that. And that s all I have. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gallagher? (None) PUBLIC SERVICE Mr. Kaminski: Yes, Public Service met this evening, we discussed Ordinance , which is a permanent grant of easement for a storm drain in connection with the widening of Pearl Road; the recommendation is suspension and adoption. Also, just a quick update to the residents. Next week I ll be meeting with Joe Walker to review our snow removal process for Route 82, especially now that we have fifty percent more area to cover on Route 82 after the widening. We need to review the arrival of our new equipment, which will be coming shortly, and with that new equipment we should be able to handle that coverage, as well as additional coverage for cul-de-sacs, as well. So I look forward to meeting with Joe on that and, also, the leaf removal program. And that covers my report. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Kaminski? Mr. DeMio Just want to, Mayor, as you re aware since the widening of 82, many of us that abut that property have experienced some new members in our yards, some raccoons and some other wildlife and Mr. Walker has helped us on Abigail Lane, which is parallel to 82, and we ve trapped a couple of raccoons, an opossum, a family of skunks. The unique part is, you know, after talking to the Animal Warden, gave us an idea of what to put in the cages to trap the critters in the cage. So I come home the other night, Mayor, and I look at my table and my wife has organic apples and top-shelf peanut butter to put in there and I said, Well, why did you do the top-shelf peanut butter and the organic apples? She looked at me and she said, It could be their last meal, the last supper. So, Marie, I m sure they love you. She s going to kill me when I get home, but I told Joe Walker I d tell that story. But they ve been great, Mayor, I want to tell you, the guys come out, they ve taken care of business and, according to the one resident who viewed what they have done, they ve done it in a very humane fashion. So we thank you on Abigail Lane. And I asked my wife not to buy any more organic apples, but I m sure she will. But, thank you. Joe, thank you; tell your guys thanks.

12 October 3, 2005 Page 12 Mr. Walker I ll do that. Mr. Kaminski And, also, Ray, just one other thing. I had the opportunity this week to attend the appreciation luncheon for the service workers and I want to thank Joe Walker for a great event and, also, again thank all of the men and women of the service department for everything they do for the City of Strongsville, and I just wanted to thank you for letting me attend. Mr. Haseley Good. I ll echo that one. Anybody else? Mr. Roth Mr. Haseley. Mr. Haseley Mr. Roth. Mr. Roth Yes. Mr. Walker, I got your response back and I hear you loud and clear in regard to the Albion Oaks street lights -- I guess they put in too many. But when they took them all out, jeez, they only left two in the whole development, left. One doesn t work and two are left that work. And the wiring s there, so I guess my request is maybe to put it back into committee. They went from one every fifty feet to two in the whole development now. If we can put maybe a couple back in, one on Prairie Meadows and maybe one elsewhere deemed necessary, for safety reasons (unintelligible). Because they did think that, all the residents did think that they were going to get all those lights; when they bought and purchased the poles were there, the wiring was there. So, I d like to make a request that we put a couple back in over in Albion Oaks. That s all. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Anybody else? (No comments) RECREATION/SENIOR AND FAMILY PRESERVATION COMMITTEE: Thank you, Mr. Haseley. The Recreation/Senior and Family Preservation has only one, what I believe related, ordinance this evening and that s one that of course we hear a lot about, unfortunately, in the society that we live in today. But the ordinance that hopefully will pass this evening is an ordinance enacting a new section of our Codified Ordinances in the City of Strongsville prohibiting sex offenders on or in City owned or controlled land and buildings used for parks or recreation purposes. In light of what s happening in society today and in a number of suburbs, a number of cities such as Brook Park and Brooklyn have stepped forward and enacted such legislation and I m happy that Strongsville is going to do the same thing this evening.

13 October 3, 2005 Page 13 Mr. Coyne (cont d) - I think we need to do this to protect our young people in this community because, unfortunately, society has just changed with the internet and all types of individuals and over the past year you ve heard of all the reports not only in Strongsville, but throughout Cuyahoga County of these perpetrators and I think it s a worthwhile amendment and look forward to it benefiting the young people in our community. That s all I have this evening. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Anybody have any questions for Mr. Coyne? Mr. Kaminski Just a comment. I want to thank Mr. Coyne for bringing this legislation to Strongsville in front of Council and I ll definitely be supporting that this evening. Mr. Haseley Good. Thank you. Anybody else? (No comments) SCHOOL BOARD Mr. Roth: Thank you, Mr. Haseley. I attended the meeting at Zellers on the 29 th. The principal initiated the board meeting with a community service program over at Zellers and, let me tell you, that s what it s all about -- forming young minds to serve the community, to serve elders, to serve their fellow man. The children all went on to give a presentation of how they serve the seniors, how they raise money for the food bank, how they raised money last year for the Tsunami relief victims -- $1,044 from the children. It was very touching and what a wonderful program was presented there. Then the board said that they were going to focus on strategic planning this year. They reiterated the mission that all students in Strongsville reach their full potential. Two ways they re hoping that that ll be shown evidence is by shooting for a goal of a hundred percent reaching post secondary schools or becoming employed and a hundred percent of all our students in extra curricular activities of some sort. Those were two goals presented. November 3 rd there s a work session with us. And, let s see, it was announced that over $12,000 was raised by all the schools for the hurricane relief. And that s all I have. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Roth? Mr. Gallagher Mr. Haseley. Mr. Haseley Yes, Mr. Gallagher. Mr. Gallagher I didn t know where to fit this one in, but with Mr. Roth talking about service to the community, the Strongsville Youth Commission s second year of Ward 4 s food drive is going to be October 15 th, the pick-up s at 10 a.m. I ll be dropping flyers with the students all of next week. Last year we filled the food bank that was almost depleted with over 600 bags of actual grocery store groceries, bags full of food.

14 October 3, 2005 Page 14 Mr. Gallagher (cont d) - And this year with an extra, added One of our resident s son s a major in the military, he s in Afghanistan and he s requesting hard candy or bubble gum for the Afghan children, the majority of whom are orphaned and live in orphanages, who are out on the streets themselves, but the one thing that they look forward to when the military, the United States military comes down is candy, and he s requesting that. Mr. Catan has gratefully, yet again, provided us with a way in which we can get it to them as far as shipping. So, October 15 th, it s a Saturday, 10 a.m., you ll have bags and a note directing you on what to do and how to do it and we ll be by with the Youth Commission on that Saturday for pick-up of anything that you can give us for the food bank here in town and the candy for the Afghan kids. And that s all I have. Thank you. Mr. Haseley Thank you. One other note on the joint meeting with the school board on November 3 rd. We ve been asked that if we have anything that you want on an agenda to let them know, and I ll ask any council people that have anything that they want to see on an agenda that we can discuss, call the Council Clerk and just so state what it is, and I need that almost immediately so that they can add it to the agenda. UTILITIES, RAILROADS AND FRANCHISES Mr. DeMio: Just extremely briefly, we talked about this in the public hearing; hopefully will be amendments and the passage. As long as our Law Director does the proper amendment that he so desires, it should be in good shape. But I ll field questions of the committee otherwise, please. Mr. Haseley Alright, thanks, Mr. DeMio. Anybody have any questions? Mr. Daymut Mr. Haseley. Mr. Haseley Yes, Mr. Daymut. Mr. Daymut Joe, actually I just received this call this evening, had to do with NOPEC and Green Mountain Energy. I don t know if anybody else has received any calls. I had a couple residents who were informed that Green Mountain would no longer be their supplier for energy. I think, you know, we all agree deregulation has really failed miserably and NOPEC really has let us down with the cancellation of the agreement with Shell Oil, Shell Company for gas services and now they re negotiating with Columbia Gas; very disturbing. But this is really disturbing with Green Mountain and I ll tell you why and maybe we can get some information prior to the next meeting on this, if you can get in touch with NOPEC and we can have a committee meeting on it; the PUCO has told the resident that they ought to go to Apples to Apples to see if they can work a little better deal than would be given to them by CEI. Well, I had the opportunity to go to Apples to Apples and guess what? There is no one offering any contracts. Mr. Haseley Not today.

15 October 3, 2005 Page 15 Mr. Daymut So, just some food for thought, Joe. I understand that I just heard about this today, I m sure you re not really up to speed on it, but I think we really need to meet with the necessary parties because this deregulation you know, we all went in good faith to the ballot, we voted for NOPEC to negotiate on behalf of the residents of I don t even know how many communities, and I think really the state has failed us miserably on this whole thing with deregulation, promising that we could have a better life and lock in a good rate, and now we have every supplier canceling at their whim and not allowing the residents any type of alternative. So, if we can perhaps get some information by the next meeting and then maybe we can set up a community meeting with some of the residents, that would be good. Mr. DeMio I would only ask if the Law Director and I can have a discussion about what direction we may or may have to go, if we have a direction to go. And I don t want to, you know, open the window for something we don t a hundred percent have a channel on, you know, understanding on. Mayor Perciak Mr. President, if I may; Joe. Mr. DeMio Sure. Mayor Perciak And Mike. Mr. Haseley Mayor. Mayor Perciak The Mayors and Managers organization is working on that. Mayor Canty is the chair of that committee and, yes, we did receive several calls today at City Hall about the very topic you re discussing. The organization is working on that, they have a committee in place on that and as soon as they have a resolution to that I will get back to you. They promised at last week s meeting that it was a priority and we re all aware of what s going on. And, yes, in your mind deregulation has failed, but in the minds of the people in the energy business it hasn t and there s so many conversations being had about energy at the state level today and with all the different agencies there it s really a difficult task, so there just isn t a simple answer to your question. So, I will get you the information as I have it from the Mayors and Managers and we will Matter of fact, we placed a call again to him today because of the calls we received. Mr. Daymut Mr. Haseley, thank you and Mayor, thank you very much, we appreciate looking forward to the information. Mr. DeMio Thank you. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Anybody have anything else for Mr. DeMio? (No comments)

16 October 3, 2005 Page 16 RULES AND ORDINANCES Mr. Haseley: Council-As-A-Whole met this evening with the following recommendations: Ordinance , place on sixth reading and refer back to committee; Resolution , suspend and adopt; Resolution , suspend and adopt; Resolution , suspend and adopt; and Ordinance , also suspend and adopt. I ll handle any questions. (None) Mr. Haseley Thank you. I met with the law department concerning the legality of our rules and ordinances this evening and I would ask Mr. Kraus to make a report on that. Mr. Kraus Thank you, Mr. President. All resolutions and ordinances before the Council this evening are in proper legal form. Mr. Haseley Thank you. REPORTS AND COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE MAYOR, DIRECTORS OF DEPARTMENTS AND OTHER OFFICERS: Mayor Perciak Thank you, Mr. President; a few items. A special thank you goes out to all our residents for your patience as we continue to pave and repair our local City streets. That is coming to an end soon. Route 82 is on schedule, and that is especially good news, and should be completed at the latest by mid- November. Be assured that the road will be opened as soon as possible. The Fabrizi Paving Company assures us that they are on schedule and hope to have the section from Pearl Road west to Prospect open by the end of the first week of November and they re even trying to get that done sooner. So we thank both contractors and we especially thank the Fabrizi Paving for working with us so carefully. Also, Christmas is coming and we talk about that, and again our Town Center will become a Winter Wonderland. Letters will be mailed to all our local businesses and civic organizations requesting monetary donations. I believe the official lighting ceremony will take place the day after Thanksgiving at dusk. Also something of significant importance, again at our Senior Center we will have our All Nations Festival, which will be held on Sunday, October 16 th. Any questions regarding our festival and the foods and the price of the foods and the time of serving, you can refer those questions either to Barb Nyegran or to Steve Kilo and they ll be happy to answer your questions.

17 October 3, 2005 Page 17 Mayor Perciak (cont d) - And last, Halloween -- several calls and s coming into City Hall about Halloween; Halloween will be held on Monday, October 31 st from 6 to 8 p.m. Chief Goss assures me that the planning is well underway to provide for a safe Halloween for all of our children on our streets. Again, the times will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thank you. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Any questions for the Mayor? (None) FINANCE DEPARTMENT Mr. Batke: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Funds will be made available on this evening s agenda for all of the ordinances and resolutions requiring certification and up for adoption. Thank you. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Batke? (None) LAW DEPARTMENT Mr. Kraus: Thank you, Mr. President. Final adjustments and final review of the ballot language concerning the five ballot issues that will be before voters in the City of Strongsville this fall were made with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections; those have been finalized. To refresh you, there are three rezoning issues, there is a charter amendment and there is a one mill renewal levy for Southwest Hospital purposes that has been finalized with the Board of Elections. With respect to the litigation known as Bartos versus City of Strongsville, the City law department filed a motion to dismiss that litigation last Friday on technical grounds. That motion will be before the Common Pleas Court. The court has also scheduled a case management conference for December 6, And finally, Mr. President, we ve asked that due to the Columbus Day holiday next Monday, October 10 th, that our legislation deadline be moved back one day to this Wednesday, October 5 th. If you d be kind enough to submit and if the department directors would submit any requests for legislation by the end of business on this Wednesday it would be most appreciated by the law department and the Clerk s office. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Haseley Thank you, Mr. Kraus. Any questions for Mr. Kraus? Mr. Gallagher Mr. Haseley.

18 October 3, 2005 Page 18 Mr. Haseley Yes, Mr. Gallagher. Mr. Gallagher Mr. Kraus, we went over this in caucus, on Ordinance ; if you could as soon as possible get back to me on your review of my amendment. Short of solid legal reasoning, I think we need to go forward with that at the next council meeting, this has been sitting on the docket for quite some time and I think we need to just put it out there and let the people decide that issue. Mr. Kraus Mr. President, Mr. Gallagher. I realize that has been around for a long time, but the matter that you brought to my attention in terms of a possible or proposed amendment was just received today. It is going to necessitate some research, but we will absolutely try to get to that as quickly as possible; I just don t know that it s going to be ready for the 17 th, but I will be in communication with you as soon as we do complete some preliminary research on the matter. Thank you. Mr. Gallagher If I can help provide some of that, let me know. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Anybody else? (No comments) AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION: Mr. Haseley Alright, we ve come to the place in the agenda this evening for audience participation. I was going to comment on something, but I m going to hold back on it. First man that signed in is George Heinish. George Heinish, The Bluffs, Strongsville The name s George Heinish, The Bluffs. I think, Mr. Haseley, you skipped someone that was on the list before me, didn t you? Mr. Haseley Well, I didn t skip anybody. If the six year old that wrote this in the first line is still here, I d like to see him after the meeting. George Heinish Okay. Mr. Haseley This is not the comedy hour. George Heinish Well, I took that to be a valid signature, although I didn t know who it was. At any rate, I ll try and make it as brief as possible if you re holding the clock on me for the five minutes. Mr. Haseley I am.

19 October 3, 2005 Page 19 George Heinish Thank you. About three some odd years ago the water main on our street cut loose about five hundred feet away from my home, and Mr. Walker and Mr. Daymut and several others in this august group were tremendously helpful. Less than a month ago the same water main broke again, only this time it s only twenty five feet away from my house, but once again, it got fixed. Now, this is a common denominator. Tonight I m here, I made reference to three years ago and most recently, I ll get to the most recently reason why I m here now. As you re probably well aware, I ve been interested, as a little group of us six, to be exact, have been following various projects that the City and our neighborhood are involved in. Those four projects are The Bluffs the street I live on, and seven other streets, which Mr. Daymut and I have walked and were looking for help in improving them; hill erosion from City property, which is causing us problems; creek erosion, which involves over two hundred acres of City property, which is causing us problems; and our neighborhood facilities. Now, in the ensuing years I ve gotten to meet and work with a lot of you gentlemen and I think you re all very fine and I continually thank Joe Walker for his crew, as some of you have already done tonight. But, tonight is something different. I have one of three envelopes, which I have addressed to Mayor Perciak, so if you don t mind, Chief, would you hand that up. I say that s one of three because I m trying out a system that I guess is intended to help all of us, not only the legal eagles of the world, but also the citizens that live in the neighborhoods. So, Mayor, I thank you for your patience and indulgence in listening to this old geezer; you get it first. After you, there s a copy going to a legal firm, Wargo and Wargo, and, as you can see from what you opened up, the one copy from the Attorney General s Office is going back to the Attorney General s Office. What we re asking is please bear with us while we see how this system works. In the meantime, Mr. Walker, Mr. Daymut and all of you, thank you for your patience with this old duck, and I should also recognize Ken Mikula and Anthony Biondillo because they have been most patient. Thank you. Mr. Haseley Thank you, George. Next on the list, Bill Wittenmyer. Bill Wittenmyer, Albion Road, Strongsville Mr. Mayor, Council members, my name is Bill Wittenmyer, I live at Albion Road, and I want to take this opportunity to tell you about an experience I had this spring when I got an estimate to replace my roof, which was a tear-off, and it came to seven thousand nine hundred dollars. Roofs are expensive. Included in the work description was ice and water shield. The roofer informed me that this was a code item required by the City of Strongsville. I asked how much of that seven thousand nine hundred dollar estimate was for this ice shield and he replied in my case it was about five hundred dollars. Now, I built this house forty years ago and I never had an ice back-up problem. Now, before I continue, I d like to tell you a little bit about myself.

20 October 3, 2005 Page 20 Bill Wittenmyer (cont d) - I m a retired certified BOCA and CABO building inspector, for almost twenty years I was a senior housing rehabilitation specialist for Cuyahoga County Department of Community Development, Gene Magocky was my director for a number of years, I m certified at level one and two for weatherization inspection and estimating, I m certified by the National School of Heating and Air Conditioning, I attended a residential construction course at the Small Homes Building and Research Council in Champagne, Illinois, I ve worked in the home improvement business for five years roofing, siding, windows, insulation, that type of thing, I ve worked in various trades in residential construction for almost fifty years, I attended numerous manufacturer seminars for building products, I took many plant tours, I m a former member of the Akron Area Home Builders Association and former member of the Akron Area Heating and Cooling Contractors Association, I started the first home inspection company in northeastern Ohio twenty years ago and I ve personally inspected over three thousand attics. Now, my reason for telling you all this is that I have never, ever seen ice back-up. Now, I m not saying that it doesn t exist, I know it exists, but I ve never seen it. What I m saying is that it doesn t exist on a scale large enough to be a code requirement. An ice shield doesn t solve the problem. Most informed people will tell you that the primary cause of ice back-up is the lack of insulation and a lack of ventilation -- that s what causes the ice to begin with. There are now currently about fifteen thousand five hundred single family units in Strongsville and most of them were built before this code was passed. This means that over the next twenty to thirty years, approximately eleven million six hundred and twenty five thousand dollars are going to be taken out of this community just for ice shields, and the vast majority of it unnecessarily. Now, Councilman Daymut had his roof replaced before this code was passed and he never had a prior ice back-up problem. His house is bigger than mine; if he replaced his roof today it d probably cost him a thousand dollars more than what he paid for it. I owned a cluster home in Grosse Point Commons for fifteen years, I never had an ice back-up problem. When the association re-roofed, they had to put in the ice shields, I had to pay for it. Now, you know, I know most of you guys personally and I think you do a wonderful job up here and I think you truly have the best intentions for the citizens of Strongsville. But in this circumstance, I believe you could best serve the City by replacing this repealing this code requirement and allow the decision of ice guard to be between the homeowner and the roofing contractor, where it belongs. Now, you know if we take a survey in this room here, I guess there s thirty to forty people in this room, and I don t want you to do this, but everybody that has an ice back-up problem, raise your hand. I ll bet you nobody s hand would go up. It s not that common. So, to end this, is ice guard good, or ice shield good? Sure, it s good. It is always necessary? No. So, thank you very much for your time. Mr. Haseley Thank you, Bill. The last sign-in that we have is Charles MacLennan.

21 October 3, 2005 Page 21 Charles MacLennan, Westwood Drive, Strongsville My name is Charles MacLennan, Westwood Drive. Mayor, City Council, most of you know what the problem is and we want an answer. We went through litigation with this, there was a deal, it was never followed up on, it s been four years and this problem continues, the destruction continues. We would like an answer from you. Mayor Perciak I m sorry, sir, I didn t I heard your first name is Charles, but I didn t hear the rest of it, I m sorry. Please repeat it. Charles MacLennan Charles A. MacLennan. Mayor Perciak Okay. Sir, repeat your Charles MacLennan Mr. Roth has told you many times what the problem is. Mr. Haseley Well, I think, Mr. MacLennan, I think you better refresh all of our memories. Until you do, why, there s not much that we can do to help, at least understand your question. Charles MacLennan I beg your pardon? There s nothing that you can do to help when you created the problem? Mr. Haseley Not unless you tell us what you re talking about. Mr. Roth Mr. Haseley, this is what I described at the beginning of the meeting, how the sewer coming out of Atlantic was stopped next to Mr. Ody s house and directed open flow across this property. It s causing damage to his fence and his yard, to Mr. Ody s and Mr. MacLennan s. This has been going on for three and a half or four years. The previous administration promised, made an agreement and gave their word that they would fix and address the problem and it s still not addressed. Mr. Kaminski I have a question. Mr. Roth, have you met with Mayor Perciak on this? Mr. Roth We all met, we all met. We all met in caucus twice. Mayor Perciak In all fairness, guys, I don t remember this. I remember talking about this today to Director Walker, but, other than that, I think you mailed me or you sent me an action request, but I don t unders I mean, I ve made no commitment to you, I don t understand what the problem is because, as I see it, and this was just in a very brief review today, it s on private property. As I understand it, this is water flowing into your private creek on your properties and throughout the City, Charles, this is what happens with all creeks. Now, other than that, I can t give you any other answer.