Regular Council Meeting Thursday, February 5, 2004 Mayor Dave France called the meeting to order. Roll Call: John Synodinos present, Dr. Robert Price present, Dave Smith present, Robert Martin Sr. absent, Matt Parise present, Thomas Bottorf present. Officials: Mayor Dave France present, Solicitor Christopher D. Becker present, Clerk Treasurer Mike Payne present, Administrator none. Moment of Silence Pledge of Allegiance Reading of Minutes Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by Dr. Robert Price to approve the minutes from the January 22, 2004 Meeting. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 5-0. Robert Martin Sr. arrived at this point in the meeting. Persons Appearing before Council. Gary Folden, representing WODA Development Company, explained why WODA needed another resolution passed by the Village to support the Meridian Green Phase II project. Robert Martin Sr. asked when the project would be starting. Gary Folden said he believed they hoped to start construction in the Spring. He said that the second phase would be built next to the Phase I construction site. Robert Martin Sr. asked if the construction would be put out to bid. Gary Folden said that he was not sure about this. Matt Parise asked if WODA had any site maps for Council to review. Gary Folden said that he did not have any with him, but that the other people representing WODA should be arriving shortly and they could address these types of questions. Robert Martin Sr. asked if WODA had approached the Village Planning Commission on their building plans. Mr. Simmons (who just arrived), from WODA, said that WODA would be following whatever guidelines were required by the Village. Reading of Ordinances and/or Resolutions Chris Becker explained that he would like Council to begin to have 3 readings on all resolutions, but in this case because of the timing Council may wish to suspend the rules for the 2nd and 3rd readings of the Resolution for WODA. Matt Parise suggested that next time the developers should bring this type of request to Council in plenty of time to have the resolution read at 3 separate meetings. Resolution 2004-03: A resolution to support WODA Development was read for the 1st time. Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by John Synodinos to suspend the rules for the second and 3rd reading of Resolution 2004-03. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 6-0. Resolution 2004-03: A Resolution to support WODA Development was read for the 2nd and 3rd time. Motion by John Synodinos, second by Matt Parise to accept Resolution 2004-03. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 6-0. Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by Dave Smith to go into executive session to discuss insurance litigation matters and a personnel salary issue. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 6-0. Motion by John Synodinos, second by Dr. Robert Price to return to regular session. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 6-0. Reports, Announcements and Communications Mayor France read the 2003 Annual Police Report. Mayor France read the January 2004 Police, Magistrate and Building Inspector Reports. Mayor France announced that Village Offices would be closed on February 16, 2004 in observance of President's Day. Mayor France discussed the fact that Council members were encouraged to attend an upcoming leadership conference but due to limited budget funds he said they should only attend 1 day of the conference. Mayor France read off the revised Committee assignments. He said he hoped that the Committees would meet regularly and set goals to achieve. Administrator Report Mayor France said his goal was to have an Administrator in place by the 1st meeting in March. He said that when the process had reduced the candidates to 3 individuals, Council would become involved in the selection process. Old Business John Synodinos said that he would like to have a hard copy of minutes before the meetings rather that just an e-mail of the minutes. Mayor France said that e-mailing the minutes saved paper. John Synodinos said that since Council already had rules dealing with Council members using profanity he did not see any need for Mayor France's additional rules discussed at the previous meeting. He also said that he did not like the idea of having to ask for permission to leave the Council floor during meetings. Mayor France said that Council Members did not have to request permission, but when a member did leave the Council area he would call for a recess. John Synodinos said that he would like to have the Village's water Attorney, Dennis O'Toole come and discuss the status of the current water contract issues. Mayor France agreed that the matter had been at a standstill for quite a while. He said the Village currently had a contract on the table with the county. He said that he would like the Village to look at all the facts on the issue. He added that he thought the water and sewer commission (Solicitor, Administrator and Attorney O'Toole) should continue to deal with the issue. John Synodinos said that he would like to have MS Consultants come and give Council an update on their work for the Village. Perry Pool reported that MS Consultants were nearly done with their work. Matt Parise said that he also would like Dennis O'Toole to come before Council and discuss the water situation. He said at a minimum Council needed to discuss with Mr. O'Toole the $600,000 amount that might have to be paid to Steubenville. He said that if the Village was going to make a payment of this magnitude they should a least discuss this issue with Attorney O'Toole first. Mayor France asked Chris Becker to arrange for Dennis O'Toole to meet with Council on this issue. Robert Martin Sr. asked Mayor France if he had already narrowed the candidates to 3 individuals for the Administrator's position. Mayor France said that so far he had only sent out an e-mail or contacted the candidates by phone to let them know the salary range. He said this process had eliminated some candidates who were not interested in this salary. Robert Martin Sr. said that he knew of at least 1 candidate who had not received notification of the salary requirements. He said that Mr. Corabi who had applied for the Administrator position and was in the audience had not received the salary information. Mayor France said that it was possible that he had missed notifying one of the candidates about the salary range. He then told Mr. Corabi (verbally) the salary range for the Administrator position. Mr. Corabi, confirmed that he had not previously been notified about the salary range. Mayor France said he would follow-up in written notification form to Mr. Corabi about the salary range. Matt Parise said that he would like to make sure that Mr. Corabi's resume was included with those that got reviewed by the selection committee. Mayor France said that the selection committee would be looking at all the resumes. Dr. Price said that he had read in previous minutes that a water study with Mingo had been discussed. He asked about that and also about the proposed contract with the County. Chris Becker said that the negotiating team had determined that having the County take over the Village's water and sewer system was the best situation for the Village. He said that negotiations with any entities had been put on hold until after the election had taken place. He said that he was now getting the impression that Council was now leaning toward purchasing bulk water from the County. John Synodinos said that the Mingo idea had been determined to be too expensive. Robert Martin Sr. brought up the topic of buying water for the employees that was discussed at the previous meeting. He said that he had done some research and found that the water at the Village building sometimes gets stagnate and contains bacteria. After a brief discussion it was decided to increase the ordinance for the amount allowed to be spent for on Village employees for water, coffee, and incidentals. Motion by Robert Martin Sr., second by John Synodinos to increase the amount allowed to be spent annually for food, water and coffee for Village employees to a maximum of $1500.00. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 6-0. Robert Martin Sr. asked Mayor France if a locksmith had been hired to come and change the locks in the building. Mayor France said that all lock in the upstairs had been changed except the front and side doors. He said that the reason was that confidential information sometimes was in those side rooms. Matt Parise said that personnel and other confidential items should be placed in locked cabinets and not left lying around. Chris Becker said that he would research whether all Council members should have access to all parts of the building. Robert Martin Sr. said that he spoke to Mr. Blackburn at Indian Creek High School regarding the taping of the Council Meetings. He said that Mr. Blackburn had been dealing with a personal matter and that there was also a concern about being able to tape in the summer months. Mr. Martin said that he had been told by Indian Creek representatives that he did not have the authority to discuss this matter because the Mayor had made a call to the school telling them that he did not have the authority. Mayor France said that Mr. Martin Sr. could discuss anything he wanted, but did not have the authority to make decisions regarding this matter. Thomas Bottorf said that he wished Mr. Blackburn would have come to Council to explain why the meeting were not going to be taped as previously arranged, beginning in January. Robert Martin Sr. said that because of a death in the family of Mr. Blackburn and the fact that the meeting had been changed in January without notifying the school they had not been able to address Council on the situation. Council members all agreed that they would still like Indian Creek students to still tape the meeting and that some other solution would be used to deal with the summer meetings. Matt Parise asked the status of the light posts on Grove Street. Mayor France said that another proposal had been received by Cattrell Electric for this project. Perry Pool brought this proposal up to Council to review. Mayor France called for a 10-minute recess. Robert Martin Sr. said that he would discuss this proposal with Cathrell Electric in the next few days. It was decided that the situation regarding the truck bid for the street department would be discussed at the next finance committee meeting. Matt Parise said that he would like to see all future bids opened at Council Meetings. Chris Becker said that here was no legal reason why these bids could not be opened during Council meeting. Thomas Bottorf suggested that Mike Payne be made part of the water negotiation team, since he had access and knowledge of the dollar amounts involved and the team currently was missing a member because of the void in having an Administrator. Mike Payne said that he would not be available during the daytime hours to do this because he had a full time job during that time. Matt Parise suggested that Council first vote on the contract submitted by the County. Robert Martin Sr. said that it did not make sense to him to start negotiations back up when the Village was close to having an Administrator in place. Matt Parise said that he would like to see Council set up a Saturday workshop to discuss the water situation, he also said that he would like to have a copy of the proposed contact between the County and the Village. Mayor France agreed that a Saturday workshop made sense, since the water situation was the most important issue before Council. John Synodinos said that he agreed that a Saturday workshop made sense after Council could spoke to Dennis O'Toole. Chris Becker discussed his legal opinion regarding the sanitation landfill expense issue regarding Braddon Enterprises. Robert Martin Sr. said that Mr. Freshwater had agreed to have his attorney look at this contract. Chris Becker said that it was his opinion that the Village was obligated to stay with Braddon Enterprises until contract ended next year. Matt Parise questioned whether the Village could negotiate a lower rate during the rate reopener time period of the contract. Chris said that the Village was currently in the rate re-opener period of the contract and the Braddon would more that likely come back with a higher rate for the last year of the contract. Matt Parise suggested that Mayor France or Chris Becker write a letter asking Braddon Enterprises for a rate decrease based on the fact that other companies were offering lower rates. Chris Becker said that he would be getting in touch with Braddon on this issue. New Business Dave Smith asked whether Council needed to adopt new rules of Council or re-adopt the existing rules. After a brief discussion, Motion made by Dave Smith, second by Robert Martin Sr.to adopt the existing rules of Council for 2004. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 6-0. Matt Parise said that he did not nee to continue to receive copies of work orders from Perry Pool. He said that he would rather receive a 1 or 2 page summary of all work orders each month. He said he spoke to Perry Pool on this matter and he said he could provide this type of summary. Mayor France agreed that the summary would be provided each month instead of copying all the work orders. Matt Parise asked that if the Village's sludge truck is being used by the County who is liable for the insurance and repairs. Perry Pool said that the Village was using one of their trucks, so that it was a trade-off situation. Chris Becker reminded Perry Pool to tell his employees that when damages occur to Village homes that employees should not admit liability of the Village. Mayor France said he would meet with Bruce Snider and Perry Pool to discuss the issue of borrowing trucks. Matt Parise questioned a $75.00 payment made out to a Village employee that was a reimbursement for schooling regarding reducing points on his driving record. He said he was opposed to reimbursing an employee for attending a DUI school. Mike Payne said that the previous Administrator, Gary Folden, had authorized this payment and therefore the Village was obligated to reimburse the employee. Matt Parise asked who had authorized employees to leave early on a day last week due to inclement weather. Mayor France said that he had authorized this because of the safety factor. Matt Parise said that to be fair to the other employees he would like to pay those employees overtime for the hours they worked when the office employees had been sent home. Chris Becker said that the Mayor was within his authority to allow employees to go home and that Council was within its authority to grant extra pay to those employees who remained at work. Dave Smith asked if the employees who stayed and worked received their regular pay. Mayor France said yes, they did. He said that Council needed to decide whether to award these employees overtime for those hours. Mike Payne suggested that the motion to pay those employees for working after the office employees were sent home be in the form of additional accrued time instead of overtime pay. Motion by John Synodinos, second by Matt Parise to award the employees who continued to work after 1:00PM until quitting time additional accrued time for each hour they worked after 1:00 PM on January 27th. Discussion on Motion Chief Laman said that although he appreciated the gesture by Council he did not wish to give his employees any extra for working past 1:00 PM that day. John Synodinos agreed to amend his motion to exclude the Police Department. Dr. Price agreed that the Mayor was within his right to allow the Office Employees to go home early that day. Vote on Motion: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price nay, Dave Smith nay, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf nay. Mayor broke the tie with nay vote Motion was defeated 4-3. Perry Pool said that he would have Hamilton and Associates come to the next Council meeting to discuss a filtration issue. Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by Dave Smith to approve the budget line items and fund transfers as prepared by Clerk/Treasurer Mike Payne except for the 3 transfers regarding the truck purchase. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 6-0. Motion by John Synodinos, second by Robert Martin Sr. to pay bills as funds become available. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 6-0. Motion by John Synodinos, second by Robert Martin Sr. to adjourn. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith yea, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 6-0. Next regularly scheduled meeting would be February 19, 2004 at 7:00 PM. Mike Payne, Clerk/Treasurer Dave France, Mayor