President of Council Marjorie Harlow called Council to order on April
16, 2008, at 7:00 p.m.
The governmental body and those in attendance recited the pledge of
allegiance. Mrs. McNear gave the invocation.
Mrs. McNear took roll call. Present were Council members Danbury,
Diehl, Galster, Squires, Vanover, Wilson and Harlow,
The minutes of April 2, 2008 were approved with seven affirmative
votes.
COMMITTEE AND OFFICIAL REPORTS
Charter Revision - Mr. Bush introduced the members of Charter Revision, Julie Matheny,
Judy Simmons, Ernest Jackson and Ed Knox. The committee has been meeting to discuss
housekeeping issues that have been brought to their attention by the Finance
Director/Clerk of Council and Administrator. Each of you has received copies of some of
the proposals that have been discussed with existing verbiage followed by proposed
verbiage for review.
Mrs. Harlow stated we will pass these on to Rules and Laws
Civil Service Commission – Mr. Potts said they met April 3. The commission wrapped up
all phases of testing for the position of Property Maintenance Inspector and has submitted
the names of the top ten candidates to the Administration. The annual Civil Service Report
of Activities has been submitted to the State Board of Review.
Mayor Webster said we have gone many years without Charter Revision even convening and I
would like to say thanks to these people for getting together and bringing some of these
things to fruition and especially for attending the meeting tonight.
Rules and Laws - no report
Finance Committee - no report
Planning Commission – Mr. Vanover reported Guitar Center at 644 Kemper Commons was
given approval of façade and renovation change. Building signage at Pictoria Tower was
approved for Prexus Health with the provision that there would be place for future signage
on the other two sides of the building.
Board of Zoning Appeals – Mr. Danbury said an applicant at 1081 Ledro Street had put
up a privacy fence. The fence company put the posts on the outside of the fence. The Board
voted to allow the variance. A request for approval of a replacement shed two feet from
the property line was also approved. The third applicant asked for a utility building two
feet from the property line. Mr. Okum said it looked like the applicant could be building
this into his neighbor’s yard. He asked the applicant to have it surveyed and to come
back at the next meeting. The applicant did not want to do the survey or move the shed to
five feet from the property lines. The board voted 3-3 on the variance and it did not
pass.
Board of Health – Mr. Squires reported a local establishment has had a serious
problem with mold which has been remediated. However, there is some concern that the roof
has not been adequately repaired. The new sanitarian position has been offered to Ella
Jergens. The 6 Star Award has been finalized and will be passed out to the ten winners. A
letter has been sent to The Boulevard concerning the fine and right to appeal of their
smoking violation. The Health Department has $17,700 in grant money from the Public Health
Infrastructure grant; Pan Flu and Cities Readiness Initiative to be used for emergency
type issues.
Veteran’s Memorial Committee – Mr. Wilson stated AllState Insurance Company
Foundation gave us a check for $500 for the fourth year. The golf committee met to go over
issues concerning the golf outing on June 11. We are collecting money for hole
sponsorships. We have a major sponsor, a Mulligan, a 50/50 raffle, at least one hole
sponsor, Charlie’s Throttle Stop on Dixie Highway in Fairfield.
Mr. Osborn said the event is sponsored by TEC Engineering who donated $4,000.
O-K-I – Mrs. McNear said the majority of the meeting on April 10 was spent on
regional transportation, in particular, the Ohio Rail Development Commission, which is a
long term initiative.
Mayor’s Report – Mayor Webster said we will be planting a tree at the Community
Center for Arbor Day on April 25. I would like to announce that tomorrow I am cutting the
ribbon for a new company in the City, Kehoe Financial on Boggs Lane. Prexus is taking
about two-thirds of the top of Pictoria Tower with the hopes of taking the remaining third
in the not too distant future.
Clerk of Council/Finance Director -
no report
Administrator’s Report – Mr. Osborn reported David Butsch, Public Works Director
has accepted a position in Fairfield and will be truly missed in Springdale. There will be
an open house for David on May 2, 1 to 3 p.m.
Law Director’s Report -
no report
Engineer’s Report – Mr. Shvegzda said the SR 4/Crescentville Road project is out
to bid. We are reviewing some paving problems on the Kemper Road Phase III project. The
contractor will be dealing with CSX to resolve some of the punch list items around the
tracks. The SR 4 continuous lane at Glensprings is slated to start in 2009. Crescentville
Road improvements at SR 747 also is to begin in 2009. Those four projects show outside
funding of just under $7 million. They are about a week behind on the wall construction
for the Veteran’s Memorial. The memorial is scheduled to be complete overall in
September with the statue installation to take place in spring 2009. The signal poles will
be replaced on the SR 4 southbound lane addition project. That will be submitted for
funding through OPWC this September. The plans for the 2008 street program will be out to
bid in early May with construction starting mid June.
COMMUNICATIONS
Mrs. McNear read a letter dated April 1st addressed to Mr. Osborn:
“Enclosed you will find a copy of Time Warner Cable’s 2007 annual report. This
information provided is pursuant to the franchise agreement with your community. If you
have any questions please feel free to contact me directly at 489-5906. Pamela McDonald,
Vice-President of Government Affairs and Public Affairs”. This will be in my office
if anyone would like to see it.
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE - none
ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS
Public Hearing
ORDINANCE NO. 16-2008 “AMENDING THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF SPRINGDALE,
OHIO, TO AMEND VARIOUS SECTIONS OF CHAPTER 153 OF THE SPRINGDALE ZONING CODE”
Mr. Galster said a lot of this is in relationship to garage sizes and shed sizes in
relationship to lot sizes, household domesticated pet care facilities in certain zoning
districts such as General Business And General Industrial. There is a minor change to PUD
for promotion of watershed protection. There’s a change that handles the amount of
time storage unit
pods can be in someone’s driveway. If you overpark a development then you have to put
in so much square footage of landscaping into that parking island.
Mrs. Harlow asked does 153.480 also apply to dumpsters that are delivered?
Mr. Galster replied that’s not covered here because that is not storage area.
Mayor Webster said I’d just like to commend Planning Commission for addressing the
issue of oversize garages and sheds. For far too long we’ve had owners on some of
those oversized lots take the issue before BZA and it puts everybody in a very delicate
position. The owner has all this land and wants to build something larger than Code
allows, and it seems ridiculous to say no, but how do you say yes to those and no to other
people. I think this is a great solution to the problem and had we had it on the books
over the years we probably would not have had some of the larger structures that we have
now because people would have understood the Code and adhered to the Code, and not tried
to get a variance through BZA.
Mr. Vanover made a motion to adopt and Mr. Squires seconded.
Ordinance 16-2008 passed with seven affirmative votes.
ORDINANCE NO. 19-2008 “AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CLERK OF COUNCIL/FINANCE DIRECTOR TO
ENTER INTO A RELEASE AND SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT WITH THOMAS GUASTELLO FOR THE ACQUISITION OF
A TEMPORARY CONSTRUCTION EASEMENT AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY”
Mr. Vanover made a motion to adopt and Mr. Wilson seconded.
Mayor Webster said I’m glad to get this behind us as we spent a lot of money in legal
fees but when you look at the makeup of the composition of the $8800, we’re paying
$265 for 536 square feet of sod. That’s fine but then we’re going to pay $2,174
to water said sod. We need to get this taken care of and move on but oh, boy.
Mr. Schneider responded we had a lot of strong negotiations here and the owner insisted
that certain things be compensated. We look at the total dollars. The State of Ohio
thought that was a reasonable payment for what was needed and we wanted to move ahead. We
did the best we could.
Mr. Osborn stated it was a very contentious negotiation. It was not a matter of this
gentleman agreeing to this amount of money right off the top. He wanted considerably more
money and we would have expended a lot of dollars had we had to file condemnation and go
to court, etc. While some of the components of the settlement may seem excessive if you
look at it in terms of what the potential outcome could have been, I think it was a good
decision to settle and move on.
ORDINANCE NO. 20-2008 “AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CLERK OF COUNCIL/FINANCE DIRECTOR TO
ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH HCC LIFE BENEFITS CORPORATION TO PROVIDE FOR STOP-LOSS
INSURANCE AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY”
Mr. Galster made a motion to adopt and Mr. Vanover seconded.
Mr. Parham said I directed a memorandum to your attention on our health insurance renewal
rates whereby I attempt to outline our health insurance situation and the renewal rates
for contract year 2008-2009. Ordinance 20-2008 covers the stop loss carrier and Ordinance
21-2008 covers the third party administrator. You’ll see in the memorandum that
2007-2008 has not been a very positive year for us. To date we have expended $1.4 million
in claims costs. At the same time, we have not pierced into the layers of the stop loss or
the re-insure.r.. Even when we have not pierced their layer there is still a substantial
increase of thirteen percent for our specific stop loss premiums being proposed for
2008-2009 as well as an eleven percent increase in the annual aggregate number. When you
have a smaller group of lives there are a limited number of re-insurance markets that are
out there. We have been examining other opportunities from they looking at different types
of insurance programs or joining a health insurance cooperative. We don’t typically
have employees leave our employment until it’s time for retirement and that’s a
good thing. Unfortunately, as we get older health related situations come up and this is
where it hits us. At the same time we have had our TPA go out to the re-insurance market.
We received three bids. One showed a sixty-four percent increase over our existing rates.
The other was about a thirty percent increase. Even at these numbers I would recommend
that for the stop loss coverage that we accept the new rates of $65 a month for single
contracts and $147.42 a month for family contracts; and for our aggregate protection of
$6.06 per employee per month. The TPA (third party administrator), UMR, has gotten into a
pattern of proposing two-year lock in rates. In 2006 they presented us with our rates and
did not have an increase in 2007. However, the network of HealthSpan which UMR administers
for us came back with an increase of 25 cents per employee per month. This year HealthSpan
has remained flat and UMR has asked for a fifty cent increase which is a two percent
increase for administrative rates. I recommend both of these ordinances.
Ordinance 20-2008 passed with seven affirmative votes.
ORDINANCE NO. 21- 2008 “AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CLERK OF COUNCIL/FINANCE DIRECTOR
TO ENTER INTO AN ADMINISTRATIVE AGREEMENT WITH UNITED MEDICAL RESOURCES (UMR) AS THE THIRD
PARTY ADMINISTRATOR OF THE CITY’S SELF-FUNDED HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM AND DECLARING
AN EMERGENCY”
Mr. Vanover made a motion to adopt and Mr. Galster seconded.
Ordinance 21-2008 passed with seven affirmative votes.
OLD BUSINESS
Mr. Danbury stated you need a permit for most of the work you do in Springdale. If you are
not sure, call the Building Department. If you get a permit you find out what our codes
are, and by getting one ahead of time you are going to avoid a lot of unnecessary expense.
The Board of Zoning Appeals is not a rubber stamp. We are not going to just let you keep
what you did. If you build something and we find it is violation, you may be required to
take it down at your cost and redo it, and that could be very expensive. We don’t
charge for residential permits but there is a $50 fine if you do the work without one.
Mr. Danbury continued Reds Day is coming up Saturday. Two police officers judged the
essays that the elementary school children wrote. Nine students will be able to walk out
on the field with the ball players before the game. The winners are Andrew Emerson, Noah
Torlop Larkin, Timmy Burdine, Serenity Taylor, Ciara Foster, Cassidy Snider, Ashlyn
Finney, Philip Burke and Hannah Glenn. Rachel Rickerd will throw out the first pitch.
Mr. Osborn said most of our residential building permits are free. There are certain
improvements such as additions that do require a fee.
Mr. Vanover said sometimes there are fees from outside agencies such as IBI who does the
electrical inspections.
Mr. Vanover stated I have heard a lot of accolades for the new improved Tri-County Mall
where BJ’s, Krazy City and Ethan Allen are on the corner.
Mr. Parham asked for another extension for police officers negotiations. Council approved
the extension.
NEW BUSINESS
Mrs. McNear stated we have a liquor license transfer request from
Snooker’s Billiards and Sports Café to Tri-County Golf Ranch LLC. There were no
objections.
MEETINGS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Opening Day
-
April 26
Housing Committee
-
April 22
Planning Committee
-
April 29
Board of Zoning Appeals
-
May 20
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE -
none
UPDATE ON LEGISLATION STILL IN DEVELOPMENT - none
RECAP OF LEGISLATIVE ITEMS REQUESTED -
none
Council adjourned at 8:10 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Kathy
McNear
Clerk
of Council/Finance Director
Minutes Approved:
Marjorie Harlow, President of Council
__________________________, 2008
City of Springdale Council
April 16 2008