Warren, Ohio. M I N U T E S REGULAR MEETING WARREN CITY COUNCIL September 11, 2013

Warren, Ohio M I N U T E S REGULAR MEETING WARREN CITY COUNCIL September 11, 2013 CALL TO ORDER PLEDGE/INVOCATION OFFICIALS The regular meeting of Warren City Council was called to order by President of Council Bob Dean in Warren City Council Chambers at 7:00 PM, 141 South Street SE, Warren, Ohio. Councilman Colbert opened the meeting with a moment of silence for the victims of the September 11 th attack and the Safety Forces followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Colbert, Valesky, Sferra, Rucker, Dippolito, Novak, Brown, Bartholomew,, Dean PRESENT: Mayor Franklin, Director Cantalamessa, Treasurer Homlitas, Law Director Hicks ABSENT: Auditor Griffing DEPARTMENT HEADS PRESENT: Police Chief Merkel, Acting Fire Chief Williams, Brian Massucci, Mike Keys, LeeAnn O Brien, Paul Makosky ABSENT: Bob Davis, Bob Pinti, James Black, Chris Stephenson, Tom Gaffney, Lisa Mazzochi, Tom Angelo MOTION-ACCEPT PREVIOUS MINUTES Motion Colbert, second Saffold to accept the minutes of the previous meetings but dispense with the reading of the same. VIVA VOICE: 10 YES, 0 NO. Motion passed. REPORTS MAYOR MAYOR FRANKLIN: Thank you Mr. President. First I d like to welcome all of the Council Members back from their enjoyable recess. I m sure you had a great time and getting ready to get back to work and we re ready for you to get back to work as well. So welcome back and that s the end of my report. No, no, one thing just a takeoff on what Councilman Colbert said. This is a sacred day in our history. And I d also just like to thank the Fire Department for their services this morning commemorating 9/11. Thank you Mr. President. LAW DIRECTOR TREASURER MR. HICKS: Thank you Mr. President. No report. TREASURER HOMLITAS: Thank you. No report. 1 P age

DIRECTOR DIRECTOR CANTALAMESSA: Thank you Mr. President. I d just like to echo the Mayors comments in reflection of September 11 th as well as to piggy back on his other comments about welcoming Council back. Good to see everyone back happy and healthy and ready to get back to it. Thank you Mr. President. DEPARTMENT HEAD REPORTS FIRE DEPARTMENT ACTING CHIEF WILLIAMS: Thank you Mr. President. Thank you Mayor and Director for mentioning that. I just wanted to bring up; today at 9:50 9:58 when the south tower fell it was twelve years ago we had a ceremony in our Fire Department and we vowed to do that every year since then and we have. And we had a moment of silence. It was a short ceremony but I appreciate the words. And we ll continue to do that for our brother who were lost; everybody that died that day. But our three hundred and forty three brothers that were lost in New York City on September 11 th, 2001. Thank you. September 11, 2013 SUMMARY OF CORRESPONDENCE There was no correspondence this evening. PUBLIC SPEAKING Janet Hazlette, 168 Kenilworth, Warren, Ohio 44483. She spoke on the WRTA Busing. Jennifer Campbell, 260 Butler, Warren, Ohio 44483. She spoke on the SALSA Program. Joan Sullivan, 671 Mercer St. NE, Warren, Ohio 44483. She spoke on City Central Plans. James Taylor, 1270 Salt Springs Road, Warren, Ohio 44481. He spoke on the safety of our roads, the bike trail and texting and driving. Jeffrey Ruckman, 430 Summit St., Warren, Ohio 44483. He spoke on bar noise, community disturbances and criminal activity in neighborhood. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE COMPLETE CONTEXT OF THE ABOVE SPEAKERS AND ANY COMMENTS THAT WERE MADE ARE RECORDED ON CD ON FILE IN THE CLERK OF COUNCIL S OFFICE. STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS WATER POLLUTION MR. SFERRA: Thank you Mr. President. All Council Members received a letter that I sent to the Mayor and to the Auditor about the Storm Water Board. It s something that s been overlooked and I take responsibility being Chairman of the committee that I didn t know this. But now that I do know this and Mayor I will be appointing two members next week and look forward to you to appoint three members. 2 P age

The reason I held off; I sent a letter it s been over three weeks to the Auditor s Office asking for financial information and I actually put my phone number down there if there was any questions. And I don t think myself or a citizen; I think the Law Director will back me but when we ask for public information you should give it in a prompt manner. But three weeks is totally unacceptable to the public and totally unacceptable to me and I will not tolerate this. I will call the Auditor s Office tomorrow and try to catch him in-between vacations. But when I ask for information and Council asks for information and the public asks for information they should receive it. So with that Mayor I look forward to your three members; I ll appoint the two. But hopefully I will get that information promptly and then the Storm Water Board is at public hearing, public meetings and discuss everything, where the money is being spent in storm water, how many people, what they are using the money for, what the projects are that they are intent on using them for. I think that s something we should with the flooding that s going on around town the Storm Water Division I know when I started it the Storm Water People spent every day, every day and there was twelve everyday flushing every outlet in the city. It took them a year to get around. And when they were done they started again. And when I helped push this that was one of the selling points of it. We want to do it. It is not being done now. And that s why hopefully the Board will be able to get the answers to this for their satisfaction and to the public s satisfaction. Thank you. STRATEGIC PLANNING MR. BROWN: Thank you Mr. President. Monday morning Mr. Yancey, Mr. Lepro and myself met with the Mayor concerning the Eleven Point Program. We are responsible for the various programs. The people of the various programs are being asked to send a written report in on their progress and we ll be meeting every six months instead of quarterly. And I just wanted to report that. Thank you. LEGISLATIVE MR. COLBERT: Thank you Mr. President. I also put in a public request for information. In the next couple of weeks I will give the Director a few weeks to gather this information for the purpose of legislative research. As you ve seen in the news we had a slew of cost effects. Whether it be from businesses, (inaudible) houses, to vacant houses to occupied houses. A few months ago the Legislative Committee held a meeting in reference to a piece of legislation to try and curb some this activity. The State has a piece of legislation that they have amended. Within that State legislation it requires salvage yards to keep one years worth of records of who they are buying from. That date will end on September 28 th. It started last year on September 28 th. The purpose of this Council s legislative research I wish to request a copy of that so that we can get a good idea of exactly what it is that is being turned in; in an effort to not to overburden the average citizens who is just trying to put a couple of extra dollars in their pocket. Thank you Mr. President. 3 P age

HEALTH & WELFARE FINANCE MRS. RUCKER: Thank you Mr. President. I d just like to report that this past Monday the Kinsman House had an outstanding Gala. Thank you to everybody that attended it. It seems as though there is an outreach of people who want to see this beautiful home restored. And so the committee will be going forward. And with that Mr. Valesky, President of the Heritage Center will talk more about that. But along Millionaires Row on Mahoning Avenue it seems to be a successful season all around. The summer season for Packard Music Hall was outstanding and continues. Please look at their calendar for the events that s going to go on for the rest of the year, the Fine Arts Council had people from Akron and Canton and Cleveland coming to Good Summer Series for Noon in the Park and also for their Jazz Series and the Amphitheater as well as you know the River Walk is always outstanding. I think they even had more people in attendance. And so when we see the when we think about the value in ourselves we have to look out and see how other people see us and this year we saw a number of people come from near and far to come to our Amphitheater area, Packard Music Hall and enjoy themselves. And so I m just reporting an outstanding year all around. Thank you Mr. President. MR. NOVAK: Thank you Mr. President. The Finance Committee met yesterday at 4:00 PM in the Caucus Room. We reviewed the Agenda for today s meeting. There were no recommendations made. I would like to announce that if we are agreeable with this that next Wednesday at 5:00 PM will be the next Finance Meeting on the three bond issue pieces that were on the agenda for yesterday s meeting. That will be discussed. So if it is agreeable for everyone the Administration is available. So next Wednesday at 5:00 PM the three bond drafts. PRESIDENT DEAN: And just so the Clerk can make note would you indicate those you d like to have present? MR. NOVAK: The usual suspects. PRESIDENT DEAN: The usual suspects? Would you name them Mr. Novak. MR. NOVAK: All members of Council, Mayor, Director and can we have someone from the Auditor s Office. MAYOR FRANKLIN: And the Law Director LAW DIRECTOR HICKS: You don t need me. MR. NOVAK: All other interested parties. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT MISS SAFFOLD: Thank you Mr. President. The Community Development Allocation Committee met today and I have to say Councilman Flask was also a part of that meeting. We met today to hear from the various non-profit organizations who will be requesting funding for 2014 and we will be summing that up tomorrow with another meeting. And we are hoping to allocate over $150,000 dollars to these non-profits. Thank you. SPECIAL COMMITTEE REPORTS No reports. 4 P age

LEGISLATON FOR SUSPENSION AND PASSAGE DRAFT 3364 TEMPORARY EASEMENT ON PARKMAN ROAD MOTION-SUSPEND An ordinance for the purpose of granting the Director of the Ohio Department of Transportation a temporary easement of right-of-way for the Parkman Road Phase 3 Project. Mr. Bartholomew requests the Clerk to read Draft 3364 in title only. Motion Bartholomew, second Saffold to suspend the rule requiring three readings on Draft 3364. MOTION-PASSAGE Motion Bartholomew, second Saffold to pass Draft 3364 as an emergency. REMARKS No remarks. PASSED ORD. 12476/13 10 Yes, 0 No. Draft 3364 is now Ord. 12476/13. DRAFT 3365 TOTERS AND ROLL OUT CARTS An ordinance for the purpose of authorizing the Mayor and the Director of Public Service and Safety to enter into contract(s), without bidding, with Toter Incorporated for the purchase and acquisition of up to two thousand three hundred fifty two Toter EVR II 96 Gallon and/or 64 gallon pre-embossed Roll out carts, and spare parts therefor, for the city s Environmental Services Department, and declaring an emergency. Mrs. Rucker requests the Clerk to read Draft 3365 in title only. MOTION-SUSPEND Motion Rucker, second Dippolito to suspend the rule requiring three readings on Draft 3365. Flask NO: Saffold 5 P age

9 Yes, 1 No. Motion passed. MOTION-PASSAGE Motion Rucker, second Novak to pass Draft 3365 as an emergency. REMARKS No remarks. PASSED ORD. 12477/13 10 Yes, 0 No. Draft 3365 is now Ord. 12477/13. DRAFT 3366 GUARD RAIL UPGRADES FOR FY 2014 An ordinance for the purpose of authorizing the Director of Public Service and Safety to enter into agreement(s) with the Director of the Ohio Department of Transportation, and any other agreement(s) and/or contract(s), which may be necessary or useful for the D04 Guard Rail Upgrade Project FY2014; PID 95448, and declaring an emergency. Mr. Bartholomew requests the Clerk to read Draft 3366 in title only. MOTION-SUSPEND Motion Bartholomew, second Saffold to suspend the rule requiring three readings on Draft 3366. MOTION-PASSAGE Motion Bartholomew, second Saffold to pass Draft 3366 as an emergency. REMARKS No remarks. PASSED ORD. 12478/13 10 Yes, 0 No. Draft 3366 is now Ord. 12478/13. 6 P age

DRAFT 3367 An ordinance for the purpose of enacting Chapter 786 ( clothing Donation CLOTHING DONATION Containers; Recycle Bins ) of the Codified Ordinances of the City of AND RECYCLE BINS Warren, and declaring an emergency. Mr. Bartholomew requests the Clerk to read Draft 3367 in title only. MOTION-SUSPEND Motion Bartholomew, second Novak to suspend the rule requiring three readings on Draft 3367. MOTION-PASSAGE Motion Bartholomew, second Saffold to pass Draft 3367 as an emergency. REMARKS MR. VALESKY: Just for clarification. This ordinance is not just the clothing donation bins. It also includes all the recycling bins throughout the city; even the ones provided by Trumbull Geauga. MR. BARTHOLOMEW: Yes. MR. VALESKY: Thank you. PASSED ORD. 12479/13 10 Yes, 0 No. Draft 3367 is now Ord. 12479/13. DRAFT 3368 An ordinance for the purpose of authorizing the City s Director of MAHONING VALLEY Public Service and Safety, on behalf of the City of Warren, to PROPERTY SPECIALIST enter into a written agreement to acquire a limited public easement LIMITED PUBLIC with the Mahoning Valley Property Specialist, LLC AKA Mahoning EASEMENT Valley Properties Specialist, LLC, and declaring an emergency. Mr. Bartholomew requests the Clerk to read Draft 3368 in title only. MOTION-SUSPEND Motion Bartholomew, second Brown to suspend the rule requiring three readings on Draft 3368. 7 P age

MOTION-PASSAGE Motion Bartholomew, second Brown to pass Draft 3368 as an emergency. REMARKS No remarks. PASSED ORD. 124780/13 10 Yes, 0 No. Draft 3368 is now Ord. 12480/13. DRAFT 3369 An ordinance to revise the Codified Ordinances by adopting current replacement CODIFIED pages and declaring an emergency. REPLACEMENT PAGES Mr. Colbert requests the Clerk to read Draft 3369 in title only. MOTION-SUSPEND Motion Colbert, second Saffold to suspend the rule requiring three readings on Draft 3369. MOTION-PASSAGE Motion Colbert, second Saffold to pass Draft 3369 as an emergency. REMARKS No remarks. 8 P age

PASSED ORD. 12481/13 10 Yes, 0 No. Draft 3369 is now Ord. 12481/13. LEGISLATION FOR SECOND ING DRAFT 3363 ESTABLISHING COMPENSATION OF ELECTED OFFICIALS An ordinance for the purpose of repealing Section 155.12 ( Establishing the compensation of Elected Officials ) of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Warren, and declaring an emergency. Mr. Flask requests the Clerk to read the title on Draft 3363 and place it into second reading. MISCELLANEOUS MR. NOVAK: Thank you Mr. President. I would just like to thank some of our departments over the recess faced some very difficult situations with walkaways from some of these homes that were filled with garbage, debris, animal feces, flees. It s hard to believe people would leave a house like that. But Cindy Gorse and Marlin Bartholomew and I will probably be having a meeting and other Council Members. And also our Environmental Services Department was shouldering the removal of this trash and debris and I mean unbelievable things. I mean we re talking refrigerators, (inaudible), food. But our department is shouldering it. Because sometimes generally there is no one to bill. So they re absorbing the cost of that to get the homes cleaned and get them looking presentable in the neighborhood. So I d just like to thank those folks that had to deal with that and know we ll be continuing doing that. So thank you Mr. President. MR. BROWN: Thank you Mr. President. I d just like to remind everyone tomorrow a great day in our athletic history. A statue of Paul Warfield from Warren G. Harding and the Hall of Fame; the Football Hall of Fame in Canton. His statue will be unveiled tomorrow at 6:24 PM. And they also play Massillon. But if you could be down there at six tomorrow and show some appreciation to Paul Warfield. Thank you Mr. President. MR. BARTHOLOMEW: Thank you Mr. President. A fairly simple formula of what constituents want from the City is clean, green and safe. Starting from the last one forward the city under Chief Merkel started a Street Unit and also some of the outside agencies that Chief Bowers initiated over the last year or so have really taken hopefully some of the crime off the streets, some drugs off of the streets also. And I think the people of Warren have really accepted the change coming to the City. And I d like to thank Chief Merkel for that too. In the way of green between the AG, demolitions and the hard work through a lot of the neighborhoods, Greggs Gardens led by Dennis Blanks and some of the other neighborhood associations and the work of the Engineering Department in the Parks and that the city is really taking a turn and looks better also. And I d like to thank the people involved in those too. 9 P age

And lastly clean. I d like to thank all of my fellow Councilmen for passing the new legislation on the clothing donation bins and the recycling bins to go hand in hand with the outdoor displays and the sign ordinances. If anyone s taken a trip down 422 coming from Niles or outside the City down Niles that corridor looks one hundred percent better than it did three months ago. I d again like to thank the Engineering Department for handling that so far. I know we had some conversation with the Mayor and some other concerned business people. And I m sure we ll be doing that in the next week or two (inaudible). Other than that like I said, this is the formula. I think we re on the right track or the right path for that and I d just like to thank everyone involved in helping make the city a better place than what it was just two years ago. Thank you Mr. President. MR. FLASK: Thank you Mr. President. Keeping on the theme of clean I d like to thank the Director. Saturday I was taking a ride through my ward and I was going down Briar Street and the one house that had some garbage cans that were dumped in the front yard and spreading in the neighbor s yards and the streets. I contacted Ali Bashir and then contacted the Director and the Director contacted Sanitation. Fortunately they were already out that Saturday back over to dump those cans for us so we could finish cleaning up in their commitment to keeping our neighborhoods (inaudible). I d also like to thank the Kenmore Neighborhood association. They had a block party this past weekend. And it was successful. But their efforts in what they do in their neighborhood and bringing their neighbors together but also supporting the businesses in the area that saw fit to give quite a few donations for that party. So thank you very much. Thank you Mr. President. MISS SAFFOLD: MR. COLBERT: Yes thank you. The 6 th Ward and the City of Warren lost a wonderful community activist a few weeks ago. Her name was Hortense Nichols. She died unexpectedly in her sleep. And for those of you who attend these meetings she often sat in that last row back there and she wore a hat. It was a tremendous loss for me personally. But I would just like to say when you see people you never know if you re going to see them again. So let them know that you appreciate them. Tell people that you love them and give them a hug. It won t hurt anybody. Thank you. Thank you Mr. President. This last week I read in the paper I actually spoke at a community group I saw some of the shots that were taken for our sign ordinance. I was at a community group meeting and an individual asked the same question. I am one hundred percent in support of our sign ordinance. I work for a company that put some of those signs up and I can tell you myself personally some of those signs we take better care of than others. With that said in an effort to try and clean up the city and I m just trying to make the City look better I am requesting that two signs be taken down. Those two signs are the Welcome To Warren signs that are located on West Market and Parkman Road entrance ways. They are horrible. They are a disgrace to our city. They are the first things that people see when they come in from the west. Beautiful flowers have been planted underneath them. But we cannot give that as a representation of our city. If we re going to hold the citizens accountable we have to hold ourselves accountable. 10 P age

And I think I speak for myself and the residents of the Westside since they are 7 th Ward that we would like those signs removed until we put in plans or put in place the plans to replace these signs; which looks like it s going to be coming in the next year. So I would respectfully request Director that we ask the Operations Department to take down the current signs. If they need to put them up with the metal signs they can make down there if it s a legal thing that where we have to have the city label fine. But these signs are just despicable. And it should not be a representation of our City. So I m asking that in a hurried fashion that we could move on that until we can get the money from this grant to be able to put up the new signs. Thank you Mr. President. MR. VALESKY: Thank you Mr. President. Actually there is a lot of thanks to go around. But we ve been because of the time I want to focus on the one that is dear and near to my heart and that s the Kinsman House. I d like to thank the Kinsman House Gala Committee; which was Chaired by Helen Rucker for all of their efforts in bringing the even the fruition. I wanted to thank all of the members of Council who gave of themselves and also attended the event. It was a great success. I also wanted to thank the City Operations Department for all of their great help in getting the facility and the grounds ready for the event. And I need to make this public. I got to thank them gals from the Warren Junior Women s League because they did a fantastic job of putting this together. And if it wasn t for them it wouldn t have happened. It was a wonderful success and it just shows that what we can do as members of our Community as Warrenites if we come together, have conversations, put our minds to it, a little bit of elbow grease we can make it happen. But we are very privileged that we even have the Kinsman House but also have a preview of the upcoming moving; which is Warren the Re-telling. And if you get a chance to see the trailer of the movie; which you can actually see it on YouTube. It s called Warren the Re-telling it will actually give you some hope for the City and where we re going. And it shows you that we do have the method to make it happen. I m seeing a lot of heads nodding out there. When I look out there in the audience every one of you put forth a great effort to turn the city around or you wouldn t be here. You care. And I care about the city right along with you. And I want to thank all of you for what you have done to help us turn the city around. And I have and if I can believe me, there is a lot of people I need to thank about the Gala. And If I haven t mentioned their names I just want to say I thank everybody that was involved in helping put this thing on. That being said, I have one request. And it has something to do with the Kinsman House. The Kinsman House is located (inaudible) in our community (inaudible) between our commercial district, downtown, our historic downtown and our Amphitheater. I listened to the young lady talk about Central City. (inaudible). Perception is everything. I was at a meeting at the Wean Foundation and listened to all of these people talk about how they are going to change the city. And I m just thinking to myself if you want to change the city move here. Because most of the people that were making comments about the city don t even live here. 11 P age

And one of the things we need to do; and that s all of us is we need to stop referring to the central(inaudible) as area fifty-one that we (inaudible). We need to turn that page today and quite referring to that section as area fifty-one. Because you know what? It s not fun. And people live there and they take pride in their home. And I m with them. And you re right ma am. We need to stop discounting your neighborhood. If you weren t proud of your neighborhood you wouldn t live there. And thank you for all of your efforts and I really like the garden (inaudible). MR. SFERRA: MRS. RUCKER: Thank you Mr. President. Just quickly; I d like to recognize Councilman Steve Papalas. He s from Niles and he s been around about as long as I have. Gotta be long to serve (inaudible) Councilman in Niles. But it s good to see you this evening. Thank you Mr. President. A couple of things. Number one on September the 24 th at 5:00 PM following the Finance Meeting I would like to have a meeting with Health and Welfare to discuss the Golf Course. And of course everyone with any concerns and any issues that anyone has or any new things that they d like to bring to restart this discussion on what we re going to do with the golf course for the rest of the year. A particular thing happened a couple of weeks ago. Recourse in the paper about businesses and homes being stripped of their copper. And I talked to the Director following a couple of conversations. And I just want to say publically that when citizens see people that you don t know at a location, at a business or at home taking wiring or removing it anything like their air conditioners or anything call the Police. It just seems to me that these people were in one particular location for an entire week. And several citizens saw them but they said they thought they were doing something over there or hanging out over there. But here they were causing thousands of dollars worth of damages to business owners. So make that phone call. If it s nothing it s nothing. But sometimes it is something and it is ok to call. So please do it. Mr. Bartholomew. I have one question because I m not clear on 3367. I ask you yesterday about notifying someone to talk about whether the County was going to be included in the their containers, are they going to be monitored. I was hoping that you were going to be speaking to the County. So your department the Engineering Department or between you can somebody let them know. Just give them a notification that this is going to happen. Most of these other places are out of town and I don t know how they are going to know. I think this needs notification that they re going to have extra fees and you know I always hate when I find out that the laws are violated. So if somebody could notify the businesses I certainly would appreciate it. And that s it Mr. President. Thank you. PRESIDENT DEAN: Thank you Mrs. Rucker. Just briefly if I may foir years ago I was appointed to the African American History Cultural Museum by Governor Strickland and then last year re-appointed by Governor Kasik. Some of you have heard me mention at one time that I was going to try to get approval to do a Vietnam African American Vietnam Era Memorabilia Contributions Wing. The ground has been broken in Washington D.C. And now I have the go ahead to do that. 12 P age

We have a website which is: basecamp@africanamericanvietnameramemoriabiliacontributions.com. And that website allows those who have items that they would like to contribute or would like to participate to simply go online and list those items and at some point there will be a person will contact them to arrange to either engrave them, see that they are picked up and delivered first of all to Wilberforce here in Ohio and eventually to Washington D.C. Retired four star General Lloyd Newton, myself and Chief Master Sgt. Edwards right now are co-chairing that committee and we re just going to work as hard as we can to make sure that happens. I mentioned one time there was a veteran sitting here; a lot of you see him. And if he hadn t told me one day about his experience in Vietnam and coming back to Hawaii and volunteering to go back and walking around with a bunch of scrap mill inside of his head and both arms none of us would have known his story. There are a lot of guys who have come back who don t tell their stories, who don t talk about those kinds of things. And that should not be left out of the history books, it should not be left out of our museums and we re going to try to make sure and do our best that they are included. Thank you all. Mrs. Rucker? MRS. RUCKER: What was the website? PRESIDENT DEAN: It is - basecamp@africanamericanvietnameraveteransmemoriabiliacontribusions.com. MRS. RUCKER: Mr. President. One more thing in the back I d like to rescind my request to Mr. Flask about 3363 to have a meeting because we had ample time to talk about it at the Finance Meeting. MOTION FOR ADJOURNMENT - 7:58 PM Motion Sferra, second Novak to adjourn the meeting at 7:58 PM Bob Dean, President of Council Brenda E. Smith, Clerk of Council 13 P age