Regular Council meeting Thursday, August 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. present, Matt Parise present, Thomas Bottorf present. Officials: Mayor Dave France present, Solicitor Christopher D. Becker present, Clerk Treasurer Mike Payne present, Administrator Walt Ziemba present. Moment of Silence Pledge of Allegiance Reading of Minutes Motion by Robert Martin Sr., second by Dave Smith to approve the minutes from the July 15, 2004 regular Council Meeting. 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 Dr. Robert Price to approve the minutes from the July 27, 2004 Special Council meeting. 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 Robert Martin Sr., second by Dr. Robert Price to approve the minutes form the July 29, 2004 Special Council Meeting. 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. Persons Appearing before Council Charlene Trimiar, who own property at 148 Orchard Street. Ms. Trimiar said that Village employees had turned on the water at her property by mistake in March of this year, and over 1 million gallons of water had destroyed her property. She said that after the incident she spoke to the Mayor who said that the Village would take care of the water damage. She said she also spoke to an insurance adjuster from the Village's insurance company who said they would take care of the damage. She said that she has no place to live because of this damage to her property and that the claim has still not been settled. Walt Ziemba said that he had contacted the insurance company's adjuster about this situation but he was out of town this week. He said he then contacted the Village's insurance company representative, Debbie Hukill, who said she would try to expedite this claim. He said that it was unclear why Ms. Trimiar was getting the run-around on this situation. Dave Smith asked if any disciplinary action had taken place toward Village employees who had let this happen. He also inquired what steps had been done to prevent this from happening again. Walt Ziemba said that the procedure had been changed for turning water service on to include having the resident sign off at the time of having service turned on. He said that in the past the employees would turn the water on after listening for a big rush and would turn it on if this sound was not heard. Robert Martin Sr. reminded Ms. Trimiar to make sure all of her bills were turned in to the insurance company. Matt Parise asked Ms. Trimiar if the house was insured. Charlene Trimiar said she had not yet insured the property. Thomas Bottorf assured Ms. Trimiar that the Village's insurance company would take care of the situation. John Synodinos advised Ms. Trimiar to have her attorney look over any settlement offer before she signed off on the claim. Jonette Lazasz, representing Schwedeman Agency, discussed with Council the Health Insurance quotes that she had prepared for them. She said that the quotes that she had presented were not estimates but were firm numbers that the Village would be paying if they accepted the proposals. Robert Martin Sr. said that he would like to see Jonette come back to discuss the quotes in more detail. Thomas Bottorf said that Council Members would be reviewing the quotes they had over the next few weeks. Reading of Ordinances and/or Resolutions Ordinance 2004-19: An Ordinance amending section 1157.08 regarding fencing guidelines was read for the 1st time. Ordinance 2004-20: An Ordinance to place delinquent water fees on real estate taxes was read for the 1st time. John Synodinos asked the Solicitor if the landlord was responsible for these debts in rental situations. Chris Becker said that the landlord is responsible in most municipalities, but he would talk to Gary Repella about how the City of Steubenville handled this situation. Motion by Robert Martin Sr., second by Dr. Robert Price to suspend the rules for the 2nd and 3rd readings and declare Ordinance 2004-20 and emergency. 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. Ordinance 2004-20: An Ordinance to place Delinquent water fees on property taxes was read for the 2nd and 3rd times. Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by Robert Martin Sr. to approve Ordinance 2004-20. 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. Ordinance 2004-21: An Ordinance to place delinquent sewer fees on property taxes was read for the 1st time. Motion by Robert Martin Sr., second by Dr. Robert Price to declare Ordinance 2004-21 an emergency and suspend the rules for the 2nd and 3rd readings. 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. Ordinance 2004-21: An Ordinance to place delinquent sewer fees on property taxes was read for the 2nd and 3rd times. Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by Dave Smith to approve Ordinance 2004-21. 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 Dave France read the July 2004 Reports from the Magistrate, Police Department and the Building Inspector. Administrator's Report Walt Ziemba opened the only bid submitted for a 1996 Ford Police Cruiser. The bid was submitted by Mr. Waderker from Brilliant for $302.00. Council discussed whether they had to accept the bid for the cruiser since it was lower than the market value of the vehicle. Walt Ziemba said that no minimum amount had been published in the bid advertisement. Vote on accepting the bid for the 1996 Ford cruiser. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith nay, Robert Martin Sr. nay, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf yea. Motion passed 4-2. Walt Ziemba opened the bids for the sand blasting required at the sewer plant. The following bids were received: 1) AGK Restoration located in Canfield $16,300 2) Colonial Painting located in Boardman $44,950 3) BIS Fireproofing in Chester, WV $44,882 4) Roubas Painting in Roubas, PA $18,250 5) Quality Coatings in Campbell $21,466 Motion by Matt Parise, second by John Synodinos to accept the bids as read and to authorize Walt Ziemba and Bruce Snider to accept the lowest and best bid for the sand blasting and to report back to Council which bid was accepted. 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. Walt Ziemba discussed the idea of installing shelves at the new street garage to hold barrels and tires. He told Council that he had a quote from D.C. Cardinal for the amount of $5,358.21. He said that this company was the only one he knew of that installed these type of shelves and that the Village had experience dealing with this company previously. Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by Dave Smith to hire D.C. Cardinal to install shelves in the new building at a price of $5,358.21. 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. Walt Ziemba discussed the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation meeting he recently attended, including ideas for awarding employees for good lost time records. Walt Ziemba discussed a proposal by Bruce and Merrilees to replace the loop sensors at Springdale and Main Street in the amount of $2,085.00. Chief Ed Laman said that the light at this intersection was the responsibility of Cross Creek Township. He said that the Administrator needed to check the lights at the Fernwood and also the Leonard Avenue intersections because they were not working properly. Walt Ziemba said that he and Chuck Antill were checking on getting a company to handle the maintenance of the Village's elevator. He said that so far they had received quotes from Schlinder Elevator at a monthly fee of $82.00 and repair costs of $162.00 per hour, and from a second company Otis Elevator at $50.00 per month and repair rates at $134-215 per hour. Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by Matt Parise to authorize Chuck Antill and Walt Ziemba to accept the best rate available to the Village for elevator maintenance after they finalized their review of the companies. 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. Walt Ziemba discussed the two providers for Workers Compensation services. Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by Dr. Price to accept the Workers Compensation TPA proposal of Steve Gelety for a period of one year in the amount of $1,500. 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. Walt Ziemba said that the Village crews were in the process of handling the repair of various street potholes and driveway repairs. Walt Ziemba said that he was still waiting on the cost estimates for Christmas light timers. Walt Ziemba said that the Village had received a revised invoice from MS Consultants for their work. Matt Parise said that he felt there was still 5 hours in question on their revised billing for time in April when their final report had been issued in March. Dave Smith asked if the Administrator could ask them for details on the April time billed. Walt Ziemba said that the April hours could have been follow-up phone calls. Thomas Bottorf said that he thought that the Administrator should follow-up on this billing. Mayor Dave France thanked Matt Parise for his review of the MS Consultants bills and the large savings on the final bill that he had discovered. Unfinished Business Walt Ziemba said that he had given a list of the lots involved at Sam's Way to the Solicitor in order to help determine which lots should be assessed. He said that the plans for the road construction should be in next week and then he would like to schedule a pre bid construction meeting. Chris Becker said that he did not had a map of the area but his impression was that any property that did not abut the road would not be assessed because those property owners did not benefit. Matt Parise said that there were 15 lots on Sam's Way that would have access to the road. Chris Becker said he would speak to Attorney Mike Calabria about the number of lots to assess. Matt Parise said that there lots on the left side of the road that would also benefit from the road improvements. He also said that the assessment costs and lots to assess needed to be submitted to the County office by the second Monday in September in order to be included in the 2005 tax rolls. He thought that a public hearing should take place on this issue on the fourth Monday or close to that date. Chris Becker said that he would follow-up on the lot question on Friday. Robert Martin Sr. said that if property owners were concerned about being assessed they should have been coming to meeting held over the past year. Motion by Matt Parise to hold a special meeting on Thursday, August 26, 2004 at 7:00 PM to discuss the Sam's Way assessment situation. Motion died for lack of a second. Walt Ziemba discussed the possible solutions for dealing with the complaint by resident Mike Chappel on Troy Place. He said that the had not yet discussed any of these solutions with the Village engineer yet. Matt Parise said that he was opposed to the Village going on to private property even if an easement was granted. He said if the Village started doing this others would request and expect this from the Village. Matt Parise said that he felt that Attorney Dennis O'Toole had double billed the Village and the County for time when he was representing both clients in Water litigation matters. Chris Becker said that Dennis O'Toole may have billed each client the full rate for representing each entity. He reminded Council that they had waived the conflict of interest in matters pertaining to the lawsuit by Steubenville against the County and the Village. He said he would ask Dennis O'Toole about how his firm billed hours when they represented both clients. Walt Ziemba said the would also follow-up with Jack Gilmore on how the County was billed for those hours. Mayor Dave France said that he had hand delivered the letter to the County Commissioners regarding the Village's commitment to purchase more water from the county if the telemetry system was purchased. He said that Commissioner Delatore asked if the Village would reimburse their costs for the telemetry system if they did not recoup their investment. Walt Ziemba said that according to the Power Company the Village did not have anything remaining at the Riesbeck location from the original purchase of a transformer for Community Days. He said he would try to follow-up on this with the Power Company. New Business John Synodinos asked for an explanation on signs that were put on the water and clerk treasurer office not allowing Council Persons inside. He wanted to know why the signs were put up and where the Mayor got the authority to put up the signs. Mayor Dave France said that he put those signs up for the good of the Village. He said that people were walking off the street and going in the Offices. Chris Becker said that there was no specific reference in the statutes that say the Mayor could do this, but that the Mayor, Clerk/Treasurer and one other position have executive power over certain items. He said that if the Mayor and Clerk Treasurer do not agree than the other would have to live with this decision. He said he did not know the reason behind this decision to put these signs up, but the Village should come up with a municipal access policy. John Synodinos said that he and Robert Martin Sr. had agreed to have Matt Parise represent them to look over Village Bills. He said that it was childish of the Mayor not to give a reason for his decision to put up these signs. Mayor Dave France said he would rather not get into a discussion of the individuals involved in this situation. Robert Martin Sr. said that there should be some sort of middle ground involved in this situation. Mayor Dave France said that an offer was made to let Matt Parise review all the Village bills in the conference room of the building. Robert Martin Sr. said that Council persons should not have restriction like the one imposed by the Mayor. Matt Parise said that he had to ask Carol Kennedy and Dee Petrella to come in to the Conference room several times when he had questions on the bills and that was not helping their productivity. He said that he felt it was a personal attack by the Mayor to exclude Council Persons from going into the Water and Clerk Treasurer offices. Dr. Robert Price asked how many hours a week Matt Parise was going into the offices. Matt Parise said that he only spent about 1 ½ hours each week in the offices. Thomas Bottorf said that Council Persons needed to respect the employees who work in the offices and set up a time with them when it was convenient to meet. John Synodinos suggested that maybe the Mayor would be willing to rescind his decision to restrict Council persons from these offices. Mayor Dave France said that if Council members were willing to respect the employees who work in the offices, then he would meet with the individuals involved on Friday and let Council know his decision on the matter. John Synodinos asked if a vote by Council could be taken to rescind the Mayor's action. Chris Becker said that the Village needed to establish a policy on building access. He said the policy needed to be uniform and that he would research to see if he could find some sample policies. He said that in answer to Mr. Synodinos question he answer was, maybe. He said that part of the problem of this situation was the building's layout. He also added that he did not have time to work on non-legal issues such as this type of situation. Mayor Dave France said that he would get with the parties involved and discuss this situation. Dave Smith said he would like to throw out the idea of some sort of recreation for Wintersville, such as a pool. Mayor Dave France said that the Village really could not afford the costs for a pool, but that maybe a recreation district could be formed with other Townships. Robert Martin Sr. suggested placing a 15-year levy on the ballot to have funds for a pool similar to that in Mingo. Robert Martin Sr. said that residents were asking about having a cleanup day in the Village and that he would like to have a cleanup day in August while Perry Pool still had summer help. Motion by Robert Martin Sr., second by John Synodinos to have cleanup days in August. Discussion on Motion Matt Parise said that here was no easy way to have households pay for this type of service. He said that since the Village had recently received inheritance tax that could be transferred to the Sanitation fund to pay for this service he was in favor of it. Dave Smith said that he was under the impression that the Village would have a Manpower problem in having this service in August, due to vacations. Walt Ziemba said that it was more of a shortage of drivers than a shortage of people. Thomas Bottorf said that the Sanitation Committee had discussed the cleanup day situation previously. He said that options were discussed but that the last decision that was discussed was to wait until next year since no funds from the rate adjustment would start coming into the sanitation fund until later this year. Matt Parise said he had full confidence that the street superintendent could work this service into the schedule. Vote: John Synodinos yea, Dr. Robert Price yea, Dave Smith nay, Robert Martin Sr. yea, Matt Parise yea, Thomas Bottorf nay. Motion passed 4-2. Matt Parise said that prior to his term as a Council Person the improvements for the Leonard Avenue Building had been approved by Council (to help convert to a meeting place for senior citizens). He said the building looks bad and he would like to get bids to turn this into a center for seniors. Matt Parise said that he had informal discussion with Mayor Mucci of Steubenville who seemed interested in negotiating a settlement of the lawsuit regarding the $600,000 owed to the city for water capital improvements. Chris Becker said he would discuss this matter with Dennis O'Toole. Matt Parise asked if there was an update with the employee buyout situation. Walt Ziemba said that he had not talked to Larry Cornell since he went to Columbus to talk to PERS about retiring. Matt Parise said that he had problems with employees not turning in itemized receipts when they purchased meals on Village business. He said that receipts are being turned in, but with no itemization, it is not possible to know if alcohol was purchased. Motion by Matt Parise, second by Robert Martin Sr. to have the Administrator change the handbook to reflect the change that an itemized receipt must accompany any request for meal reimbursement. 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. Thomas Bottorf said that the Finance committee had met and had discussed the procedure for paying bills. Motion by Thomas Bottorf, second by John Synodinos to have the Administrator, Police Chief or in the case of recurring bills (Utilities, loan payments, etc.) the Clerk Treasurer approve all Village Bills before presenting them to Council at meeting for review. The bills should be available at least 15 minutes prior to the Council Meeting and should be approved and initialed by at least one Council Person prior to paying the bills except in the case of payroll related items and emergency situations. 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. Chris Becker asked Council to approve a two-year agreement between the Village and Jefferson County to allow for appointment of attorneys for indigent clients who appear in the Wintersville County Court. 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. Chris Becker explained to Council that beginning in 2005 Ohio Law no longer allowed municipalities to collect income taxes for income from Subchapter S Corporations unless the subdivision placed the issue on the ballot and it was approved by the voters. Chris Becker said that the Village was required to pay $274.00 in contempt of court charges because requested documents had not been copied in time for the hearing on the suit brought by Gary Smith. He said that he would take blame for this not being done on time. Chris Becker said that he had received notification from Gary Smith's Attorney John Mascio that his client would drop his lawsuit of the Village would pay his attorney fees. Motion by Matt Parise, second by John Synodinos to reject the offer to settle the lawsuit of Gary Smith by paying his attorney fees. 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 Matt Parise to approve the transfers as presented by the Clerk Treasurer. 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. For the Good of the Village None. Motion by Robert Martin Sr., second by Matt Parise 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 regular scheduled meeting is 7:00 PM on August 19, 2004 Mike Payne, Clerk Treasurer Dave France, Mayor