MINUTES OF THE REGULAR STRONGSVILLE COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON JUNE 20, 2005 IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER 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 Clerk of Council certified that the meeting had been posted according to the requirements of Ordinance No. 2004-273. ROLL CALL: Present were: Council Members: Patrick J. Coyne Joseph C. DeMio Raymond L. Haseley Michael J. Gallagher Michael J. Daymut Clerk of Council: Absent: Administration: Mayor: Law Director: Finance Director: Service Director: Economic Development Director: Chief of Police: Interim Chief of Fire: Communications & Technology Dir.: City Engineer: Building Commissioner: Recreation Director: Leslie J. Seefried James A. Kaminski Mark A. Roth, III Thomas P. Perciak Kenneth A. Kraus Donald C. Batke Joseph M. Walker Eugene P. Magocky Charles W. Goss Robert Moody John Bedford Ken Mikula Anthony J. Biondillo Stephen F. Kilo Motion was made by Mr. Daymut and seconded by Mr. DeMio to excuse Council Members James A. Kaminski and Mark A. Roth for just cause. All members present voted aye and the motion carried. COMMENTS ON MINUTES: The Minutes of the Regular Strongsville Council Meeting held on June 6, 2005 were approved as submitted.
June 20, 2005 Page 2 APPOINTMENTS AND CONFIRMATIONS: Mayor Perciak Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight s a happy night here for a lot of reasons and one of the reasons is our own Father John Miceli. Father John, you want to come on up? Mrs. Miceli, you want to come up with Father John? Come on. (Applause) Mayor Perciak First of all, I think Chief Goss would like to say a few words before we proceed with a Proclamation and a gift here for Father. Chief. Chief Goss Thank you, Mayor. Though the work of a chaplain goes on almost exclusively in private, so if you re not one of the people that have actually benefited from one of the little miracles that Father John has been doing for us for the past five years, you ll have to take my word on just how special the chaplain service that he s given our community has been. Let me explain it this way. If you re a police officer on the street and you re at the scene where someone s been critically injured or critically ill and they need emergency medical treatment, that officer will do the best they can, knowing a little bit about first aid, but one of the most welcoming sights that that officer can see is the arrival of the paramedics because when they get there with their case and they know really what to do and they re professionals at that, what they do makes the difference often between life and death. And for the last five years it s been kind of the same case for people who have been in their darkest deepest hours of pain. We go to calls where people have just learned of the loss of a loved one or some other very serious emotional crisis and the officer will be stumbling through trying to do the best they can. But for the past five years when Father John has arrived, he s arrived and given kind of emotional first aid to people and he has a gift, he is able to touch the hearts and souls of these people and fill them with some kind of hope and faith, which kind of does things that we ve never been able to do on our own. So, on behalf of all the officers that you ve helped and all of the community, I want to thank you, Father John, and say one other thing, though, before I do. You know, when you give your shoulder to people during those times, you share in their grief a little bit and you share that pain a little bit and that takes a personal toll on you, so it s not just the calls at three or five in the morning that we ve been doing on a regular basis or calling on his day off and sending him out to the field or to a hospital or to a home, but also the little personal toll that that takes on you after all, you re a human being too and I know that that cuts deep when you share in people s pain. So thank you very much, Father John. (Standing ovation by the assembly) Chief Goss We had this made for you, Father John, this is a traditional chaplain s uniform that we had shadow-box framed, along with a letter from the White House which has been hand-signed by the President thanking you for your volunteer service. Father John Miceli Thank you very much, thank you.
June 20, 2005 Page 3 (Applause) Mayor Perciak Father John, before we let you speak here, first of all, the lady to Father John s immediate left is Father John s mom; I think she deserves a round of applause because (Applause) Mayor Perciak - she became quite a familiar face here around St. Joseph s Church. So we re happy that she s able to be here tonight with her son. Father, we have a little Proclamation from the Mayor s Office and it reads this way: Father John Miceli has been a beloved member of St. Joseph Church parish, as well as the entire community of Strongsville; and Whereas, Father John joined the ranks of the Strongsville Police Department in May of 2000 serving as the Police Chaplain; and Whereas, he has unselfishly volunteered his time, receiving calls from the Police Department at all hours of the day and night; and Whereas, he has responded to personal residences, hospitals, motor vehicle accident scenes and surrounding cities in response to incidents of trauma and tragedy; and Whereas, Father Miceli, putting his own emotions aside, has met with grief stricken individuals lending support and compassion, offering a shoulder to cry on; and Whereas, he has been an inspiration, not only to those who directly benefited from his intervention, but also to all members of the Strongsville Police Department; and Whereas, Father has become a friend who will remain in the thoughts and hearts of those who have worked with him at the Strongsville Police Department. Therefore, I, Thomas Perciak, Mayor of the City of Strongsville, do hereby declared today, June 20, 2005, as Father John Miceli Day. Father John Miceli Thank you very much. (Applause)
June 20, 2005 Page 4 Father John Miceli Thank you very much. I first wanted to say thank you to the late Mayor Ehrnfelt who began this with me five years ago and to Mayor Perciak for your continued support and to you, Chief Goss, you have been just an incredible friend and leader of this community and of the Police Department, I am very grateful to you and your support and for allowing me to cry on your shoulder every once in awhile, too. And to the members of the Police Department and Fire Department, you guys are really amazing, wonderful people who do a great job for our City, and I look out for you all the time and pray for you every day and I really appreciate all that you do and the dangers you face on a daily basis, so thanks to all the members of the Police and Fire Department. This is really very humbling for me, I really don t want anything or expect anything, I did this just out of the need to want to help those who serve our community and to take a little burden off of them so that they don t always have to carry and shoulder all of that pain and grief. It hasn t always been bad; I have married a few officers and baptized a few babies, so that has been a great connection as well. And to you, Cindy, for all the great work you do for the department. And, Chief, I want you to know that I m always available, I m only five miles down the road in Brunswick I m not sure if I want to help out that department yet, I might but I m always available, I m just a phone call away and I d be happy to continue to do whatever I can for the good people of the City of Strongsville. So thank you very much and may God bless all of you. Thank you. (Standing ovation from the assembly) Mayor Perciak Thank you, Father John. And I d like to thank the parish community of St. Joseph s for being here tonight to help us honor Father John, we appreciate all you ve done to support him. I know I thank you, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, my family thanks you also, Father. *** Mayor Perciak Something very special is happening also this evening. For the first time in many, many, many years three firefighters will take their Oath of Office. Chief, would you please come up? Our Interim Chief, Bob Moody. At this time, Mayor Perciak and Interim Chief Moody participated in the swearing in of three new firefighter/paramedics to the Strongsville Fire Department. After giving a brief biography of each new member, Mayor Perciak administered the Oath of Office respectively to: Christian J. Flaherty, Joseph E. Wantz and Joseph A. Agresta. (Applause) ***
June 20, 2005 Page 5 Interim Fire Chief Moody recognized the second class of eleven community members who completed twenty four hours of training for the Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT). As each CERT Team Member was individually recognized, they were respectively presented with a Certificate of Completion by Mayor Perciak and Interim Chief Moody. The second graduating class of the CERT Team includes the following Strongsville citizens: Patricia Bruening, Leslie Greissing, Eva Hadgigeorge, Denise Hutton, Kathy Kornaker, Rand Lennox, Sandy Lopatka, Gene Neale, Steve Polanski, Sharon Sutherland, Denise Weaver. Interim Chief Moody And, again, thank you all. (Applause) Mayor Perciak This is a happy day for our community and for everybody, not only the Administration but Council Members; one, that we were able to bring Father John Miceli here and thank him for all he s done for us. That is just a great thing and, Charlie, thanks, we appreciate all you ve done to put this together for Father John. Next, it isn t often that we get to swear in three brand new firefighters/paramedics. Ladies and gentlemen, they deserve a round of applause. (Applause) Mayor Perciak I am sure our community is happy that there are three more firefighter/paramedics, and I m sure our Council agrees. And, lastly, our new eleven CERT Team members, we appreciate that you re extending yourselves and doing for others. This is some of the things that Father John always would talk about in some of his homilies over there as to what you can do to help others, and he would always get up there and say it s, you know, what s coming from inside. And, Father John, I m picking some of your words, but everybody, the community is proud of you, they deserve a round of applause. Thank you so much. (Applause) Mr. Haseley If you folks have a party or want to go out and celebrate, why, feel free to do so, you don t want to stand here or sit here and be bored all night. Thank you. I wish I could go with them. ***
June 20, 2005 Page 6 PUBLIC HEARING: Ordinance No. 2005-20. AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE ZONING MAP OF THE CITY OF STRONGSVILLE ADOPTED BY SECTION 1250.03 OF TITLE SIX, PART TWELVE OF THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES OF STRONGSVILLE TO CHANGE THE ZONING CLASSIFICATION OF CERTAIN REAL ESTATE LOCATED AT 21211 DRAKE ROAD (NORTHERN PORTION OF PPN 394-12-009 AND PPN 394-12-005) IN THE CITY OF STRONGSVILLE FROM PF (PUBLIC FACILITIES) CLASSIFICATION TO GI (GENERAL INDUSTRIAL) CLASSIFICATION. (City initiated) 1 st rdg: 2-7-05. Unfavorable recommendation by Planning Commission 5-12-05. 2 nd rdg: 5-16-05. Council President Haseley opened the Public Hearing on Ordinance No. 2005-20 and invited anyone wishing to speak IN FAVOR of the Ordinance to approach the podium and address Council at this time. (There were no comments in favor of the Ordinance.) Mr. Haseley then invited anyone wishing to speak IN OPPOSITION to the Ordinance to come forward and address Council at this time. (There were no comments in opposition to the Ordinance.) Hearing no comments in regard to Ordinance No. 2005-20, Council President Haseley declared the Public Hearing on said Ordinance closed. Mr. DeMio Ray. Mr. Haseley Yes. Mr. DeMio Can you just get me another copy of that plan, or that request? Mr. Haseley Yes. Mr. DeMio Is there any plan attached? Can you just it s okay? Mr. Haseley Sure. Ordinance No. 2005-21. AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE ZONING MAP OF THE CITY OF STRONGSVILLE ADOPTED BY SECTION 1250.03 OF TITLE SIX, PART TWELVE OF THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES OF STRONGSVILLE TO CHANGE THE ZONING CLASSIFICATION OF CERTAIN REAL ESTATE LOCATED AT 21211 DRAKE ROAD (SOUTHERN PORTION OF PPN 394-12-009 AND PPN 394-12-008) IN THE CITY OF STRONGSVILLE FROM GI (GENERAL INDUSTRIAL) CLASSIFICATION TO PF (PUBLIC FACILITIES) CLASSIFICATION. (City initiated) 1 st rdg: 2-7-05. Favorable recommendation by Planning Commission 5-12-05. 2 nd rdg: 5-16-05. Council President Haseley opened the Public Hearing on Ordinance No. 2005-21 and invited anyone wishing to speak IN FAVOR of the Ordinance to approach the podium and address Council at this time. (There were no comments in favor of the Ordinance.)
June 20, 2005 Page 7 PUBLIC HEARING Ordinance No. 2005-21 (cont d): Mr. Haseley then invited anyone wishing to speak IN OPPOSITION to the Ordinance to come forward and address Council at this time. (There were no comments in opposition to the Ordinance.) Hearing no comments in regard to Ordinance No. 2005-21, Council President Haseley declared the Public Hearing on said Ordinance closed. REPORTS OF COUNCIL COMMITTEES: BUILDING CODES AND CEMETERY Mr. Roth: Absent. No report. FINANCE Mr. Gallagher: Thank you, Mr. Haseley. No legislation before Finance this evening, but I d like to thank Mr. Coyne, Daymut, yourself, Mr. Haseley, and Mr. Kaminski for attending my Finance Committee last week. We went over some rather interesting proposals for the City financially and, also, Mr. Batke for attending, and I think we sent from my committee to Mr. Kaminski s committee a recommendation and hopefully then to the Mayor. And, Mayor, I spoke with you about that and hopefully we can take a look at that information and possibly move on it. And that s all I have. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Anybody have any questions for Mr. Gallagher? (None) INDUSTRIAL/COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Mr. Daymut: Thank you, Mr. Haseley. Industrial/Community Development did meet this evening and gave favorable recommendation to Resolution 2005-143. I d like to report that our breakfast meeting of Thursday, June 9 th, was a huge success, we had about 130 people there. As usual, we do appreciate our sponsor; in this case, it was Dr. Jeffrey Viscomi from Docere Physicians gave a short presentation, as did Ron Bender from Euthenics, he s president and CEO, and he discussed widening of Pearl Road from Shurmer south to Boston Road. And our guest speaker was not able to make it, but a Mr. Joel Warden, he is the Deputy Director for Tax and the Assistant to the Director, Bill Wilkins, from the State of Ohio, gave an excellent presentation. We are planning our next breakfast for September. We have been in touch with Ohio State and we will start our Business Retention and Expansion residential survey very shortly. Our next meeting will be here in Council Chambers next Monday, June 27 th, at 7 p.m. That s all I have this evening, Mr. Haseley. Thank you very much. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Anybody have any questions for Mr. Daymut? (None)
June 20, 2005 Page 8 PLANNING, ZONING AND ENGINEERING Mr. Haseley: Planning, Zoning and Engineering met this evening with the following recommendations: Ordinance 2005-122, place on second reading, set for a public hearing 7/18 and refer back to committee; Ordinance 2005-132, recommendation is to suspend and adopt; Ordinance 2005-133, recommendation is to suspend and adopt; and Resolution 2005-140, likewise, suspend and adopt. That finishes my report and I ll be glad to field any questions if there are any. (None) PUBLIC SAFETY Mr. Daymut: Thank you, Mr. Haseley. Public Safety did meet this evening and gave favorable recommendation to Ordinance 2005-129, Ordinance 2005-130 and Resolution 2005-141. Public Safety did meet Monday, June 13 th, at 6 p.m. in the Community Meeting Room of the Ward 1 Fire Station. At that meeting we met with again the Strongsville City School s Safety Committee to continue our discussion with reverse 911 emergency notification. We will, hopefully by our next meeting, have a recommendation back to Council and have that in place hopefully by the end of the summer. At that same meeting we did discuss the COPS grant. It was understanding that we had not received confirmation, but I am happy to report that I think we are going to be entitled to that COPS grant and that will allow us to hire five new police officers in the City of Strongsville. We were too late for our vehicles, our thirteen new vehicles, but we will have those hopefully in September through the state purchase program. Firemedics, as you know, we swore in three today and that is what we hope is the beginning of at least hopefully three more perhaps this year and next year and a total of twelve over the next few years. Again, a special thanks to our Community Emergency Response Team, the volunteers that have taken time out of their busy schedules and will help to provide for the safety and security of the residents of Strongsville. And, lastly, we discussed the Ward 4 Fire Station. We had several slide presentations of stations that were visited and, as you know, we are out for the RFP for architects, I believe that will be in the paper again Thursday and we look forward to moving ahead on that with as much input as we can have from Mr. Gallagher. We appreciate all your support on that and all of Council. Our next meeting will be July 11 th at the Community Meeting Room of the Ward 1 Fire Station on Webster Road. That s all I have this evening, Mr. Haseley. Thank you very much. Mr. Haseley Thank you, Mr. Daymut. Anybody have any questions for Mr. Daymut? Mr. DeMio Very briefly, Mr. Haseley.
June 20, 2005 Page 9 Mr. Haseley Go ahead, Joe. Mr. DeMio Actually, it s for the Chief of Police, if I may. Mr. Haseley Go ahead. Mr. DeMio Okay, thank you. Chief, I received a couple phone calls, it may sound a little silly but the phone calls are regarding the ice cream trucks in our community. What is the status of how they re supposed to get permits and what does a resident do if they feel a little uncomfortable and know that they don t have a permit? Can you share that? I ve asked a few people to listen tonight because I surprisingly got a couple phone calls. I must admit my son did participate in buying ice cream, though, from a truck, so there you have it. Chief Goss Mr. President, Mr. DeMio. In order for someone that wants to run an ice cream truck in the City of Strongsville, they have to get a street vending permit, which is a little bit different than a solicitor s permit. But in order to do so they need to come to the police station and fill out an application, we review it, we review the ordinances with them, and then there s a small license fee and then they could be licensed. Our street vending permit ordinance, however, is one of the toughest around and it would require things such as a second adult on the truck to make sure that the truck is clear of pedestrians, they are forbidden from using any amplified sound and there s some pretty tight restrictions on the ordinances, but there is a licensing process that they could be issued a permit. If a resident would like to file a complaint or has concerns, they can always call us and just remain anonymous and we ll respond as if they had identified themselves. Mr. DeMio Chief, how about this. Would you just get back to me if you could, with the Mayor s permission, to give me the folks that have listed for permits in the community, the public records, if you would, if that s okay with you. I believe that the resident that asked about the permit, if you will, was given a hard time. And the reason they approached the ice cream truck was because of the way the kids were running, understandably, getting excited, running in front of the car, running in back of the van or whatever it was, so. And I want to let you know that the phone calls came from The Woods, Crystal Creek and Pine Lakes, the three areas I got the phone calls from. So if that helps you. And I know at least one of the three that called me did call the Police Department as well. So if you can have roll call explain those and remind those to the duty officers, I d really appreciate that, if that s okay with the Mayor. Mayor Perciak Absolutely, it s public information. Mr. DeMio Okay, thank you. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Anybody else have anything for Mr. Daymut? (No comments)
June 20, 2005 Page 10 SOUTHWEST GENERAL HEALTH CENTER Mr. Gallagher: Thank you, Mr. Haseley. Thursday I have a meeting at the hospital and I ll be in attendance for Mr. Taylor s first board meeting, don t want to miss that. That s all. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Anybody have anything for Mr. Gallagher? (No comments) PUBLIC SERVICE Mr. Kaminski: Absent. Mr. Haseley Mr. Kaminski is not in attendance this evening, so I ll handle his report. Ordinance 2005-134, recommendation suspend and adopt; 2005-135, recommendation is suspend and adopt; Resolution 2005-142, likewise, suspend and adopt. If there are any questions, I ll try my best to answer them. (None) RECREATION/SENIOR AND FAMILY PRESERVATION Mr. Coyne: Thank you, Mr. Haseley. The Recreation/Senior and Family Preservation Committee has no ordinances or resolutions this evening. I d like to report our youth baseball is in full swing and doing very well. We have the most ever in our community participating in our program, which is an excellent sign. I d also like to thank Steve Kilo for all his hard work in lighting the two fields at Volunteer Park. I received a number of favorable comments regarding that and so we re thankful for that. And I would like to pass on my congratulations to the forty young people who have been named to the Strongsville Youth Commission. My understanding is that they expanded the Youth Commission this year to accommodate all the number of qualified applicants who applied and I think that s excellent and we re appreciative of all their efforts and the mentors. If there s any questions or concerns, I ll be more than happy to try to address them at this time. Mr. Gallagher Mr. Haseley. Mr. Haseley Mr. Gallagher.
June 20, 2005 Page 11 Mr. Gallagher Mr. Coyne, I just wanted to make note; if you were interested or willing to be a mentor with the Youth Commission you can call Mr. Coyne, Mr. Kilo or myself, we d be more than happy to set you up there. It s a wonderful organization and they do some fantastic work here in town. But they do need mentors no age limitation, I think one mentor last year was well over seventy five years old and she had a wonderful time, so we can use your help if you re interested. Thank you. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Anybody else have any questions? (None) SCHOOL BOARD Mr. Roth: Absent. No report. UTILITIES, RAILROADS AND FRANCHISES Mr. DeMio: Quickly, 2005-101, basically, it s a lighting expert that we re going to have in town, it s going to be a little more cohesive, put everything together so we have proper standage with the Police Department, so on and so forth, and it s up for suspension and adoption. And not on the docket, but we talked about it in caucus tonight, was the Westwood and Prospect left hand turn light, which we will address after widening of 82 is fully completed, and Mr. Mikula will be addressing that after that is done and that s good news. Also, if our Clerk could note the action requests regarding 19578 Fair Isle Way, Mr. Smalley, all action requests that apply to that address that have to do with the lighting system and the railroad crossing at 82 and Westwood, if you could kindly forward them back to Mr. Walker and Mr. Mikula, as well as the Mayor, to see if any of those issues have changed at all. I will explain in more detail to the directors if they d like to call me tomorrow, it s just a very long story that s been taking about five or six years of our life on this issue. So I promised the resident I would bring that up tonight and certainly he s watching and I thank you, Mr. Smalley, as I always do. Thank you. That s all I have, I ll field questions otherwise. Mr. Haseley Anybody have anything for Mr. DeMio? (No comments) RULES AND ORDINANCES Mr. Haseley: Council-As-A-Whole met this evening, again, with the following recommendations: Ordinance 2005-136, suspend and adopt; Resolution 2005-137 and 2005-138, recommendation is to suspend and adopt; Resolution 2005-139, suspend and adopt; and Resolution 2005-144, recommendation is suspend and adopt. If there are any questions, I ll be glad to try to help. (None)
June 20, 2005 Page 12 Mr. Haseley (cont d) Rules and Ordinances. I met with the Law Department this morning to make sure that all the rules and ordinances were in proper legal form and I will ask our Law Director to verify that. Mr. Kraus Mr. President, all resolutions and ordinances 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, I have several announcements this evening. First of all, Monday, July 4 th, is Independence Day throughout the United States and here in Strongsville. We will have a fireworks display at Foltz on the soccer fields and it will begin at dusk. I would like to thank the twenty six businesses from Strongsville who have contributed so very generously to pay for this event. It s a nice event and we are promising a fantastic grand finale this 4 th of July. Next announcement I have, I was very pleased to participate in the 70 th anniversary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars here in Strongsville, Post Number 3345, on Saturday. If you see any of our veterans, extend to them congratulations. Veterans from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, the Iraq Conflict and many, many vets that have been crippled and handicapped because of the wars were present there. It truly was a moving afternoon and we want to congratulate the VFW here, our Post here in Strongsville, for a great time and what I really want to thank them for is the time that they afforded to our veterans that are less fortunate today. Another item I would like to talk about this evening is we ve had some inquiries as to the City as to any type of special financing that may be available to our residents who are asked to fix their sewers. As always, this is opened up to any bank throughout the City; as a matter of fact, we encourage other banks to step forward. At this time, Parkview Federal, who has an office here in Strongsville, has made a program available and it s a home equity line of credit and, but what they will do is they will fix the rate at 5-1/4% for a five year term and the loan amounts can be anywhere from $2,500 to $10,000. There are no penalties, no set up fees, no annual fees, and the underwriting process will be very quick, they ask only that you bring in your last pay stub. So anyone having questions on that and would like help or feel they need permanent financing for this now, mind you, this is a fixed rate at 5-1/4, that s three quarters of a percent beneath prime right now just please contact the branch manager at Parkview Federal here in Strongsville, they re at Drake and Pearl Roads and I am sure Barbara will be happy to help you. And, again, I encourage the other financial institutions in town to step up if they wish to offer a similar type program to assist our residents. And I would like to extend a special thanks to Senior Vice President Bill Harr, a resident of Strongsville, for putting this program together for our residents, should they need that program.
June 20, 2005 Page 13 Mayor Perciak (cont d) And then, moving along, as we continue to grow our corporate base here in Strongsville, I m pleased to announce another major company moving into the City of Strongsville. DHL Express, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post AG, DHL is a global market leader in international express air and ocean freight, overland transportation and logistics. They will be located in the former Van Dorn DeMag building on Mohawk Drive. Ladies and gentlemen, they re going to bring with them 125 new jobs and they will be ready for business on July 1, 2005. We welcome them into our business community. Again, thank you, Mr. Magocky, for your work on that and to the Industrial Development Committee. You can see that good business brings good business and we re very, very happy that they are going to utilize this building that s been standing vacant -- it s a 77,000 square foot building over there on Mohawk Drive. So, we welcome them and wish them much success here in the City of Strongsville. That concludes my report. Mr. Haseley Thank you, Mayor. Anybody have any questions for the Mayor? (None) FINANCE DEPARTMENT Mr. Batke: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. This evening, in addition to my normal housekeeping recitation, I have some additional items I would like to report on. But I think what I d like to do is just do away with the housekeeping measures first, so, to that end, let me just state that funds will be available on this evening s agenda for any of the ordinances and resolutions requiring certification that are up for adoption this evening. In addition to that, Mr. Chairman, as you know, at the last Council meeting City Council adopted legislation authorizing the City to issue bonds to retire short term notes that are due at the end of this month. That legislation authorized up to $6,950,000 in bonds to be sold to retire those notes. Last week Mayor Perciak, Gene Magocky and I had the pleasure of taking a trip to Chicago to meet with our folks at Moody s Investors Service. Moody s was gracious enough to invite us in to explain the City s financial position with the hopes of maintaining our current credit rating, which is listed as AA, which, as I believe you know, is the second highest credit rating a municipality can have. AAA is the highest, we re at AA. Moody s looked over all of our financial information, all of our economic development information, and issued their report. This evening I provided each member of Council with a copy of their analysis and if you would, I would like to just read a few excerpts from that report that I think are of interest to the City. And one of the items Moody s listed was that, Moody s believes that despite recent deterioration of the City s cash position as a result of consecutive operating deficits, recent action taken by City management should improve financial operations, resulting in a restoration of financial reserves. Going forward, City management has taken important actions to address the continued financial deterioration, including a rollback of income tax credit from 100% to 75% of the two percent effective last year, which is expected to generate an additional $4 million in annual revenue.
June 20, 2005 Page 14 Mr. Batke (cont d) The City also successfully passed a fire levy renewal actually, it was a fire levy replacement which will reduce the need for general fund support for safety operations. City officials have also taken several expenditure saving actions, including consolidation of recreation operations, wage freezes for Fiscal 2004 and an early retirement program that has been eliminated. The Fiscal 2005 budget shows a year end cash balance of $2 million, but that is expected to be significantly stronger given budgeted positions that have not yet been filled, well, we filled a few of them tonight, so that s a good thing, and there are others that we have that may not be filled until later on this year. I think one of the significant things that they said here was, While significant budgetary actions are expected to have long term financial benefits, the rollback of the income tax credit is currently scheduled to expire at the end of Fiscal 2006. With this expiration the City could again face significant budgetary challenges in Fiscal 2007 if further steps to maintain structural balance are not taken or significant revenue growth does not occur. Failure to implement permanent and long term corrective financial actions to maintain positive financial operations or an inability to meet projective positive financial results could weaken the City s general fund position and could pressure overall credit quality. I think with all of that being said, the fact that we maintained our AA rating will be beneficial to this City; we re looking to market these bonds tomorrow and we re looking for a favorable interest rate in the market because the market is in such a situation that we should get a viable interest rate on this bond issue. Thank you. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Anybody have any questions for Mr. Batke? Mr. Gallagher Mr. Haseley. Mr. Haseley Mr. Gallagher. Mr. Gallagher And I thank you for that report, Mr. Batke. This is part and parcel of what we ve been trying to do here as a Council and through the Finance Department, and our main goal was to protect our bond rating, which we obviously did I don t know how close it was, but we did, and that was a major concern of ours throughout last year and the year previous. We have much work ahead of us, we have a lot of financial hurdles that we still have to overcome, as we ve been told, and I look forward to meeting these challenges with Mr. Batke, the Administration and the rest of Council. This is a time to act to put our financial house in order and I fully expect that we ll be able to do that with everybody s cooperation. And, once again, thank you, Mr. Batke. Mr. Haseley Thank you. Anybody else? (No comments)
June 20, 2005 Page 15 LAW DEPARTMENT Mr. Kraus: Yes, thank you, Mr. President. The Law Department is pleased to announce that the transaction for the sale of the former Drake Road recreation facility has been consummated; the City received a check for $650,000, the funds that were called for by the purchase agreement, without any offset for costs or expenses. Possession of the property was transferred over to the purchaser. I would like to thank particularly Directors John Bedford, Steve Kilo and Joe Walker, who assisted in connection with the final consummation and implementation of that transaction. The Law Department is further pleased to report that in the litigation that has been pending in the Common Pleas Court known as Mario D Amico versus The City of Strongsville Civil Service Commission that the Common Pleas Court recently entered a summary judgment in favor of the City of Strongsville, dismissing the case against the City and taxing costs against plaintiff D Amico. Of course, as with respect to any decision of the Common Pleas Court, there is a period of thirty days within which the other party has an opportunity to file an appeal of that matter. We will keep Council and the Mayor advised of any further developments in that particular matter. With respect to the Visconsi litigation, we can report that on June 7, 2005 Judge Corrigan of the Common Pleas Court executed and journalized a final judgment entry in that particular matter. The City will proceed through the Administration to administratively implement and follow through with all of the requirements of that particular judgment entry, which serves as a final disposition of the Visconsi litigation. And, finally, Mr. President, I can report that the City, through the Mayor s office, recently received a formal communication from Adelphia Communications Corporation advising the City of Strongsville that a transfer will take place from Adelphia Cable to Time Warner NY Cable LLC, which is the Time Warner entity. They are requesting that the City, through its legislative authority, which is the City Council, approve formally that particular assignment. As you are all familiar with the fact that this would have to be accomplished through formal legislation and certainly prior to submitting that type of legislation to this Council, the Mayor has directed the Law Department to put together an appropriate letter responding to their request to do two things, essentially, number one, to ensure that they meet all technical requirements consistent with the existing franchise agreement and, secondly, with respect to the Strongsville Codified Ordinances, which spell out in thoroughly comprehensive detail requirements when a franchise agreement is sought to be transferred from one entity to another, and then, secondly, with respect to that letter or communication, there are a number of items that the City will be seeking to negotiate or renegotiate with the new cable entity. Director John Bedford has been involved in the process of putting together those requests. We will certainly keep Council advised as this communication goes out to Time Warner and as, hopefully, we receive a prompt response from them prior to our presenting any legislation to the Council. That concludes my report, Mr. President.
June 20, 2005 Page 16 Mr. Haseley Thank you. Anybody have any questions for Mr. Kraus? (None) AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION: Mr. Haseley Okay, we ve come to the portion for Audience Participation. First one on the sign-in sheet is Mr. Monin. Greg Monin, 11634 Emerald Edge Place, Strongsville Thank you. My name is Greg Monin and I live at 11634 Emerald Edge Place here in Strongsville. Thank you for your time. I was asked by some fifty members of our community to represent them, as opposed to them all trying to jam in here at the same time in one evening. What we did was put together a group of questions, which I believe you should all have a packet of in front of you if Mr. Daymut has handed them out. Mr. Daymut s going to hand them out now. I thought this would expedite the matter. Since there were so many questions, what I tried to do is generalize what the feelings of the community are. First of all, on May 20, 2005 the City Building Commissioner sent a letter to over 60 residents of Forest Park threatening jail and $1,000 a day fine if they did not completely replace not repair their private sewer system. Needless to say, the residents have a wide variety of questions for the City of Strongsville. I m submitting copies of these questions from residents and will summarize in general terms those questions which we would like to have answered by next Council meeting. Now, these questions are really directed to both the Administration and Council. First of all, why did the City choose to send such a threatening and confusing letter to so many of its constituents as the first information the residents received? Attachment A, the first page of the memo, threatens $1,000 per day fines and six months in jail in the letter from the Building Commissioner. I think any of you that received that would probably be a little upset yourselves. Number two, did the City review the URS report for consistency and accuracy? There were wrong addresses, wrong names, wrong storm sewer locations. At least one resident with one to three gallons per minute, which, incidentally, is visually estimated, according to the Engineer, at least one resident with this one to three gallon flow got a letter, while another, several others, in fact, with the same flow, did not. No test period was told not to run water. Obviously, them running water drawing baths, flushing toilets, emptying washing machines, any of the above, would have an effect on the amount of water flowing into the sanitary -- that water, of course, would look clean. Some homes were tested using hydrant water, which is, of course, higher pressure, and some were done virtually using their own garden hoses. Engineers in the community questioned if scientific testing standards were perhaps missed. Number three, why, out of all of the developments in Strongsville, was Forest Park chosen? On several occasions residents were told it was because the corrugated plastic elephant hose used for storm drains in Forest Park was inferior, even though it was code at the time and continues to be used by the State on highway projects because it s known for its durability. Number four, why were we not allowed to fix the problem, rather than replace the entire system? If you have a leaky foundation, you don t tear down the house and rebuild it.
June 20, 2005 Page 17 Greg Monin (cont d) - The problem as stated in the URS report may well be fixed by, A, in fact, their own suggestion, detaching downspouts, B, clean roots from existing storm drains I personally did this with two next door neighbors, both of those houses passed; we didn t even know the test was going to be done, we just happened to be cleaning the drains last summer. Number five, where does a resident, often a widow, an I think the Mayor might have answered part of this this evening, they can take out a loan, but where does this person get $3,500 to $7,000 to replace drains that may well already be fine? Estimates received by the residents thus far are between $3,700 and $6,950 to do this work. Number six, what happens if everyone complies and it doesn t fix the problem? We ve been told on several at numerous meetings that there are no guarantees. We could have more work to do going forward, and more residents may be involved going forward. So these are the questions that I bring you, I don t necessarily expect an answer this evening, although I would certainly them, but we would like to have some answers by next Council meeting. The residents are concerned, obviously they re scared, they re threatened, they don t feel very good about the whole situation. Mr. Haseley You ve still got ten seconds. Greg Monin Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Daymut Mr. Haseley, I ll use that. Mr. Haseley Okay. Mr. Daymut Mr. Haseley, if you would. And thanks, Greg, I appreciate it. I meeting with the residents of Forest Park, you know, it was agreed at that time that they would present something to Council because they do it s my understanding they do want to comply. But the very nature of the letter that went out, it gave them a short time period to do that; I know the Administration has indicated they re willing to work with each and every individual. But they really need to understand and have answers to these questions, I was not able to do that and I m not so sure that we can answer all of the questions, but I think an attempt by the City to at least get the answers to the residents would be appreciated, at least by my residents in Forest Park, and I d like to thank them; very good group of people to work with and a very unfortunate set of circumstances we find ourselves in. Thank you, Mr. Haseley. Mr. Haseley Thank you. This report will be gone over by the Administration, I m sure. As to when you re going to get an answer, that I can t answer; we re the legislative branch, not the administrative branch. But I m sure they will answer what they can here. Next one on the list is John Mueller, or, I think that s what it is. John Mueller, 11636 Emerald Edge, Strongsville Good evening, Council. I m interested in complying, but I have a problem with it from the very start. This test that was done by this company was not done properly on the very first step. The very first step, they come to the house, they re supposed to knock on your door and tell you not to run water. Nobody ever knocked on my door.
June 20, 2005 Page 18 John Mueller (cont d) - I m a second shift person. Around eleven o clock, I m getting ready to go to work, I m taking a shower, I have the washing machine going, I m usually running the dishwasher, getting ready to head out the door. Nobody knocked on my door and said don t run water and the next thing I get is a letter stating that I have a five to eight gallon water flow going through into the sewer, uphill, because all my gutter pipes go back towards the ravine, I m not hooked into the sewer at all. So they re telling me my water either ran under my foundation to the middle of the drive where my sewer line goes out and leaked into the sewer, and it s not the case. Nobody at the meeting that I was at in Forest Park said anybody ever knocked on their door that very first time to say don t run water, so there was not a chance for anybody to pass that test if they were home that day because pretty much everybody s doing something during the day in their house flushing the toilet, running the dishwasher. The test is unfair, and we ve been told that we cannot have a retest, there s no retest involved here, so that s what I m here asking is, I feel we should have the right to a retest. The City spent a quarter million dollars doing this and the company you gave the contract to did an inferior job. You should be getting your money back from that company. It s not our responsibility, they gave out the contract, they done the job, it wasn t done right. It s their job to do it right. Let them retest it. The company that did the test did it wrong. It s not your fault, it s their fault. Point it out to them, say you didn t knock on the doors, step one, tell people not to run water. And a lot of other people would have passed the test. And a lot of people are laying a lot of money in to put in new lines for something that s nothing more than a dishwasher running and a toilet flushing and we have no options, is what we re being told. And the next thing s going to be the sewer, we re going to reline the sewer, it s going to be more money thrown at us, and it just is highly unfair. I need a chance to be retested and I need to be told not to run water. And I ve never been pushed around like this this bad, had a finger in my chest saying you will do it or else, since my old man was alive. I didn t like putting up with the WW II attitude when I was an eighteen year old kid and when I went to Vietnam I was so damn happy they gave me a gun because I was able to cure that problem. But you re not allowed to push people around when they ve misspent the money. You ve given the money to a company that didn t do the job. Go back and make them give us our proper reports, make them run it the way it should be run, if you ask for something to be done. You asked them to find a problem and damn it, they found a problem with everybody they tested, that was exactly how it went. We need a problem and here it is. Forest Park is a problem, choo, these boys all fail. Well, God bless you, you ve taken a bath and because of that, you fail. You flush your toilet, you fail. It s very unfair. You really need to go back and look at this. It s not the residents, it s not the City, it s the company you hired. Let s get this company to do the job they were hired to do. That s unfair to the residents. And I thank you for your time, gentlemen, have a good night. Mr. Haseley Thank you, John. George Heinish.
June 20, 2005 Page 19 George Heinish, 12224 The Bluffs, Strongsville Name s George Heinish, 12224 The Bluffs. I ve been here before and it s always nice to see all these smiling faces. It s also somewhat of an education when I listen to the swearing in ceremonies; I couldn t help wonder if all of the gentlemen that I m looking at took the same oaths when they took their office, to uphold the laws of the City of Strongsville, the Cuyahoga County and the State of Ohio. At any rate, so much for that. The last time I stood up here I handed out a couple of letters that kind of outlined one of several problems that we re experiencing and, oddly enough, it s with water and with drainage and with land that doesn t want to stay where it should stay. Thanks to Mr. Biondillo, we had a meeting. Thanks to Mike Daymut and Joe Walker, we had a meeting. I put together kind of a summary of that meeting and I would like to impose for just a minute or two to give Mr. Perciak, our Mayor, if you d pass that through please, the results of that meeting. Now, so that I can be on record, Falling Water Road I think was well named because that s exactly what happens, water is falling off the road, contaminating our pool, causing mudslides. So one of the things that s covered in the communication that I handed you is the open items on hill erosion, which is the chief contamination factor of our pool. So the number two item on that letter is pool conversions and what happens when the hill slides down into the pool. We also have a nice little bottleneck that s being fed by over, I m told, 200 acres of City property and several newly developed businesses, so creek erosion is the number three item in that letter and since the walls that were built by Ledgewood residents are on both City and Ledgewood property, I think you ll find some interesting thoughts there, too. Finally, some time ago, since I live on The Bluffs, we started out with a problem with the paving, the tree lawns and the sidewalk construction, which, according to the blueprints of the State of Ohio, should have a drainage system under it. After a considerable amount of looking and surveying, we discovered seven streets where we need some help. So, like everybody else that came to this meeting to talk about water and talk about the disposition of it, I have the same message to pass on. And I might also apologize to the Mayor since my printing is not the best in the west, my wife used to type letters like that, but, unfortunately, I lost her, so I have no typist. But if you have any questions about my scribbles, please feel free to ask, I m always at home being a retiree, wondering which part of my house is now going to be affected by water, whether it s elephant trunk, downspouts, or water coming from the City street. Joe Walker, there s a huge crack in the road in front of my house where the tar is no longer there and I would just love to show you and the Mayor, over a cup of coffee, what it has done to my walls in my utility room. I think my five minutes are up, so thank you very much, gentlemen and the lovely lady over there. Mr. Haseley Thank you, Mr. Heinish. George Heinish - And good night. Mr. Haseley John Brasdovich and Linda Lamb.
June 20, 2005 Page 20 John Brasdovich, 13513 Albion Road, Strongsville Good evening, John Brasdovich, 13513 Albion Road. Linda Lamb, 13513 Albion Road, Strongsville - Hi, and I m Linda Lamb, 13513 Albion Road. I m here again before Council regarding the Pine Lakes Crossing location of where Rosalee will come out onto Albion Road, shining headlights directly onto our house. At the last Council meeting we presented you with more pictures and now that Mr. Lipovits has finally put the stakes out there to mark the road, which we ve been asking him to do for months, the pictures show the headlights will shine directly on our master bedroom, bath and kitchen. The April 8, 2004 Engineering Department Report required Mr. Lipovits to adjust the road so that the headlights don t light up our house. Minutes from the January 27, 2005 Council Meeting show Mr. Kolick says that the preliminary overall development plan, you originally had some questions about the home across the street, that s us, and that you learned from the developer in caucus that night that they ve made some arrangements to shield the headlights from the roadway going into that house, that being our house. I m guessing the arrangements that he was referring to there is the landscape mound that he proposed to put in our yard to block the headlights. In those same minutes, Mr. Biondillo says he wants to make it clear to the applicant from a building standpoint that you are going to require the improvements, including landscaping, at the entrance of this area to shield any lights coming out are going to be in place before you issue any permits. My question is this: Did anyone come out to the site to verify the landscape mound that Mr. Lipovits proposed to put in our yard will, in fact, block the headlights? It may look good on paper, but the pictures we gave you at the May 2 nd and June 6 th Council meeting show that it will not. John did a little cut and paste, which is what he passed out to you there. We took a copy of the plan that Mr. Lipovits presented, did a little cut and paste, and that shows a little more closely where that road is actually coming out in relation to our house and how those headlights are going to shine on our house. Now, instead of any kind of response as to what will be done to fix the headlight problem, we received a certified letter on June 10, 2005 from Fred DeHoff in the Building and Engineering Department telling us the gravel driveway addition that we installed on May 5 th must be concrete and we have fourteen days to either remove the gravel or apply for a driveway permit. We did apply for that permit on June 16 th, just for the record. You know, you re right on top of making sure that this homeowner complies with parking area improvements, yet the developer across the street doesn t seem to have to comply with Engineering Department requirements or even something as simple as putting out the markers in the road to mark the road, that we asked him to do months ago and Mr. Daymut said that he had asked him to do for us so we could see exactly where the road was going to be put. When he finally did put the markers out there the end of May, he did that by stepping it off, not actually measuring it out with a tape measure. Again, this will not John Brasdovich Unbelievable.