President of Council Kathy McNear called Council to order on June 6, 2007
at 7:00 p.m.
The governmental body and those in attendance recited the pledge of
allegiance.
Mr. Knox took roll call. Present were Council members Danbury, Galster,
Harlow, Squires, Vanover, Wilson and McNear.
The minutes of May 16, 2007 were not available. Mr. Knox stated in
reviewing the minutes of April 4, 2007, it was noted that Ordinance 22-2007 had had an
emergency clause added but the minutes don’t reflect that. To correct that we put the
right information in there.
Mr. Danbury made a motion to adopt and Mr. Wilson seconded. The motion
passed with seven affirmative votes.
COMMUNICATIONS
Mr. Knox read four communications:
“Thank you for your letter and City resolutions against HB 154 and
SB 117. As you know, HB 154 was introduced on April 17. This bill would abolish
Mayor’s Courts and create community courts. I am supportive of Mayor’s Courts
and will continue to watch the progress of this bill. If it comes to the Senate I will be
sure to express your thoughts and mine to my fellow senators. Substitute Bill 117 (cable)
was voted out of Senate with a vote of 29-4. I voted in opposition to the bill in both
committee and on the Senate floor. I believe there are provisions in the bill that still
need to be dealt with. Substitute Bill 117 has now been sent to the House of
Representatives for consideration. You may want to convey your concerns to Representative
James Raussen (which we did). Please feel free to contact my office further regarding this
or any other State issue. Robert Schuler, State Senator, Seventh District”
“Thank you for your letter containing the resolutions from the
City of Springdale. At this point in time I am neither for nor against the bills that you
find yourselves in opposition to. In regards to HB 154 it’s my understanding that
Representative
Wolpert is still meeting with interested parties to modify his bill (Mayor’s Court).
As it is currently stated I am generally opposed to the bill unless it goes through
dramatic changes and in this case I would be happy to keep you aware of these editions.
Senate Bill 117 has generated a lot of interest from our district in both agreement and
opposition. In following this bill through Senate I have found that the bill has undergone
changes that the media has not publicized. Because of this I have included the most recent
version of the bill which is now Substitute Bill 117. Please feel free to look at this
version and let me know how you receive it. I would be happy to continue to be in contact
with you as this bill progresses. Thank you again for alerting me as to where your support
lies on these bills. I will keep your thoughts in my mind as I continue to advocate for
the community. Jim Raussen, State Representative, 28th District”
“I received the resolutions adopted by the City of Springdale
regarding the City’s opposition to HB 154 and SB 117. I appreciate your concern for
these issues. Please note that I appreciate the work being done by Ohio’s local
governments in keeping our communities well governed and safe. As you are likely aware, HB
154 was introduced by Representative Larry Wolpert, a Republican of Hilliard on April 17,
2007 and assigned to the House Judiciary Committee. Furthermore, Substitute Senate Bill
117 was passed by the Senate on May 9 and is now being heard in the House Public Utilities
Committee. Please know that as this bill continues to move through the legislative process
I will work towards the best possible solution for all Ohioans. Be assured that as both of
these bills are discussed in the House, I will be mindful of the City of Springdale’s
concerns. Again, thank you for sharing these resolutions with me. If I can be of further
assistance, please contact my office. John Husted, 37th District, Speaker of the
House”
“Thank you for your resolution opposing SB 117, the cable
television competition bill. I received a number of such resolutions. Because they all
read similarly I hope you will forgive me sending you my recent e-mail to Delhi Township
by way of response. It is simply untrue that you will be losing fifteen to twenty percent
of your cable franchise fees under this bill.” (Mr. Knox said, If you remember,
Representative Raussen said there had been changes made. One of the changes made was after
we made this letter. So in fact, we will still lose three to five percent which is an
appreciable amount of money.) You will continue to get five percent of the cable
companies’ revenue from providing cable service and from cable ad sales revenue
(which is not entirely true because we would not be receiving five percent from the
shopping networks.) You would not get the franchise fee or late payments by customers or
home shopping network or maintenance repair work fees or fees on fees, five percent times
the revenue plus five percent fee. But I very much doubt that you get this now, or if you
do, it is insignificant in nature. In fact, I believe your cable revenues would go up, not
down, because you would also get the franchise fee on any phone company’s cable
service that may develop. In other words, where now you only get franchise fees from one
cable provider, this bill offers the chance to collect money from many without you doing
any work at all. (I find this really strange because how many people are going to have two
different cables coming into their house.) For communities like yours which are fully
served by cable, concerns about build out to serve rural and low income areas makes no
sense. Concerns about the loss of public access TV makes little sense to me either. Of the
two access channels that are grandfathered, the bill requires that at least two remain in
the basic tier of basic services. Many of the local communities who have now written to me
don’t have more than two such channels anyway. Nothing in the bill affects your
ability to regulate your rights-of-way and the bill expressly allows you to audit the
franchise fee payments at least once a year. Frankly, I doubt that many area communities
audit even that frequently. For those reasons I think the benefit of fostering
competitions in the cable company monopoly far outweighs any negative in the bill. Bill
Seitz, Majority Whip, State Representative, 30th House District”
Mr. Knox said if I may comment to that one, we can audit anyone of the competitive cable
companies at our expense once a year. Once the audit is complete, if we don’t agree
with it, then we have to go to the Director of Commerce and the Director of Commerce will
have to find that there’s reason to go to the Common Pleas Court, and then we’d
have to go to court to get anything we didn’t think was correct, which as they well
know, if they don’t take at least fifty percent of the money it wouldn’t be
worth it to us. This is so loaded on the side of cable companies it is absolutely unreal.
I’m still working on what the bill still has and anyone who would like a copy, I will
be happy to make it for them.
Mr. Danbury said when you shared this information with us two months
ago, two things I believe were in your fact findings, were a new provider would not pay
any franchise fee.
Mr. Knox replied not to us. They would pay $2,000 to the Director of
Commerce and in case of an addition to that they would pay $100. The way it is written,
the Director of Commerce must come back to them within ten days saying they didn’t
like the application. If you introduce something on December 23rd, how do you think your
staff is going to get done with those within ten days.
Mr. Danbury said so the City won’t get franchise fees.
Mr. Knox replied we will get fees almost equivalent to what we are getting from
Time-Warner. But in order to get those fees, even ignoring the audit situation, we have to
determine how much each cable company owes us, and then tell them. Right now Time Warner
does a very truthful and honest method of computing this and just sends us the money. If
this goes through we will have to do all the mathematics and send a letter to them.
Mr. Danbury said you talked about the ability to regulate rights-of-way. He’s saying
that nothing in the bill affects your right to regulate rights-of-way. That’s not
what I understood.
Mr. Knox responded that’s true now. Substitute Bill 117 removed those clauses. So
many municipalities found offensive that they just took it out.
Mayor Webster said Bill Seitz makes no mention at all of where he comes down on the
Mayor’s Court issue. I think just the tone of his letter is pretty evident of how he
feels on the issue. I think it’s very refreshing to hear that Bob Schuler sees both
issues the way we do. I have had a personal conversation with Mr. Raussen and I know that
he is not in favor of doing away with Mayor’s Courts. He’s very adamant about
that but at the same time, he realizes that there are some small communities that take
advantage of the fact that they can set up speed traps in their communities and balance
their budgets on speeding tickets. That’s wrong and that’s the energy that feeds
this whole issue. I think there has to be some middle of the road resolution there. It
makes no sense to anyone that you would do away with a court the size of ours or Blue
Ash’s or Sharonville’s, but something should be done about these little burgs
that balance their budgets on the backs of speeders. I think the cable thing is probably a
done deal but I think the Mayor’s Court issue is DOA.
Mr. Vanover asked did you all receive this Walter and Haverfield LP? It’s in
reference to Bill 117. It points out some of the weaknesses. Despite amendments and
substitutes in Bill 117 there are still serious problems with the bill. Senate Bill
Substitute Bill still permits incumbent cable operators to abandon current franchise
agreements even without competition without violation of the Ohio/US Constitution. It
legalizes redlining or cherry-picking.. The banking institute has been criticized,
chastised, fined and penalized on redlining to no end and I can’t imagine that they
would allow another utility to operate in a like manner. The revenues are included in the
franchise calculation fees. They still fall short of what many of the municipalities
receive today. It still severely limits your ability to audit franchise fee payments and
it allows some PEG channels to be moved off the basic tier and they may be reclaimed if
they are placed on the upper tiers by the cable providers. It terminates all franchise
based funding for public education access and allows cable operators to terminate all
institutional networks’ obligations under the current franchise at the end of the
franchise or January 1, 2012, whichever comes first. It fails to provide for appropriate
local enforcement of customer service standards.
Mr. Vanover said I got an e-mail from TVforyou.com which is one of the supporters in the
advertising campaigns pushing this and they’re still not truthful on what the actual
bill is. They’re playing a game of semantics and that irritates me.
Mr. Knox said it’s very unusual for me to receive a call from a resident but one
called giving us full support in both of these endeavors (opposing those two bills.)
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE - none
HOMETOWN FAMILY FOURTH -
- Parks & Recreation
Greg Karle stated we have an exciting new event planned for the 4th of July. There were
concerns about crowd control and public safety. It was no longer providing the desired
goal of a wholesome, fun family-oriented even. We are eliminating the gambling, rides, and
vendors. Hometown Family Fourth will be a one day event beginning at 6 p.m. on July 4th
and conclude with the fireworks around 10:30 p.m. We do encourage families to come early
to swim in the pool and picnic. We will have traditional picnic games such as cornhole and
horseshoes. We will still have fund raisers, and food and soft drinks will be available.
Sharon Casselman said this is not a reformat. This is a new event. It will focus on family
activities and the community. We hope to have unique activities such as free face
painting, hair painting, sand art, tattoos, stilt walking, hot air balloon rides, bounce
houses, living Vietnam Veteran Statue and a band. We have taken on a very ambitious
marketing plan. There are activities every day for forty days.
Jackie O’Connell said we wanted to make sure everyone knew this was a new event. We
printed a new logo. We knew we had to get the word out and I think we have accomplished
that with the Forty Days to the Fourth. Some of the activities we have are Sneak Peek
Monday. Every Monday we have some entertainment that will be at the event come in for an
hour. Thursday is button-up Thursday. If you wear your button Thursday you will be able to
enjoy a free perk, such as a hot dog or free day at the pool. Fridays are Free Friday
Fourth Freebie days. The first Friday we gave out the wrist bands. Saturdays are Free
Family Fun Days at the Pool. We will have different activities on the six Saturdays before
the 4th. We usually have a game, an activity and a craft. On June 26 we are having BYOB
(bring your own banana) for a free banana split. Wednesday is free coffee day.
Gregg Karle said the entire department is involved in making this event happen. Please
support us. Also on the agenda for this summer are the women’s softball tournament
7/21 & 7/22, yard sale on 8/11, Cincinnati Civic Orchestra on 8/5, Springdale Summer
Cruise In on 8/25 and Taste of Springdale on 9/15.
Mayor Webster said I don’t know how successful this will be but you guys have done a
tremendous job. Also, the Veteran’s Memorial Golf Outing will be on September 12 at
Walden Pond.
HAMILTON COUNTY PARKS
-
Al Winstel
Mr. Winstel reported we started with a new format for our
visitor’s guide and The Evergreen, our activities newsletter that comes out every
three months. We have a relatively new program called The University of the Great
Outdoors. It is oriented more towards physical activity, canoeing, kayaking, salsa
dancing. There are several changes going on at Sharon Woods. They are redoing the harbor
play area. They have done some upgrading at Lakeside Lodge and we are working on a new
entrance to the village.
Mr. Vanover asked has the park district linked up with the Ohio
Department of Agriculture to get information out on the emerald ash borer.
Mr. Winstel replied we have talked to some groups and we have a poster. There has been a
lot of newspaper publicity about this. There are no magical cures or solutions. It sounds
pretty much like treat your tree forever or cut it down.
Mr. Osborn asked how long after you send the form in when you buy a
park pass until you receive the coupons.?
Mr. Winstel responded those go through a service and it takes about
four weeks.
Mr. Winstel replied we will bring it up to some groups.
Mr. Danbury asked is there any thought of expanding the bank fishing
areas? There are limited places and with a lot of people there it is not a lot of fun.
Mr. Winstel said there is a park called Campbell Lakes on the west side
of the city. That’s a relatively new place with less people. I have always been told
that one reason they control bank fishing is because of erosion. Sharon Woods has a senior
citizen/child’s area which is a wooden deck which helps with the erosion problem.
Mrs. McNear said there are incredible classes and information in the
brochure. Thank you for coming.
ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS
ORDINANCE NO. 33-2007 “AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CLERK OF COUNCIL/FINANCE DIRECTOR TO
ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH TEC ENGINEERING, INC., FOR THE PROVISION OF PROFESSIONAL
SERVICES FOR THE OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE OF THE CITY OF SPRINGDALE’S CLOSED LOOP
TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY”
Mr. Vanover made a motion to adopt and Mrs. Harlow seconded.
Mr. Danbury asked is our traffic loop coordinated with Sharonville’s closed loop
system or any of the other surrounding cities?
Mr. Shvegzda replied no, it’s not. TEC provides Springdale’s and CDS does
Sharonville’s.
Mr. Osborn stated we do collaborate with Fairfield on the Springfield Pike corridor but we
are not physically linked.
Ordinance 33-2007 passed with seven affirmative votes.
OLD BUSINESS
-
none
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Osborn said the Planning Commission on May 8 recommended some
changes to the Springdale Zoning Code relating to penalties so we would ask Council to set
a public hearing date for this issue. This is critical to our further efforts to enforce
the Zoning Code. There are other actions that we are also taking but this a core factor
because it does allow us to escalate repetitive violations beyond minor misdemeanor. Minor
misdemeanors are not citable in Mayor’s Court. They are a payout by state law so a
person can violate the Zoning Code and never have an obligation greater than a payout. In
some cases I think it is treated as a cost of doing business. We would like the ability to
ramp up repeated violations of the Zoning Code into fourth, third and second degree
misdemeanors.
Mr. Osborn continued another thing we are trying to do to enhance code
enforcement in the community is to create a hotline in the Building Department. That
number is 346-5734. We will promote this through press releases and articles in our
newsletter. In the newsletter we will have a continuing column tallying how many
violations of the Zoning Code or Property Maintenance Code have been issued to date to
show people that you are not the only one getting a letter from the City. We will also be
doing other promotions such as magnets with the hot line number on it. If someone has a
complaint, that person can call in anonymously or give their name and address if they
chose and pass an issue on to us. The phone line will be answered during business hours on
the desk of the administrative assistant in the Building Department. When that person is
away from her desk or after hours, it will go to a recording specifically set up for this
purpose and invite people to file their information with us. We would prefer that a person
leave contact information in case we need additional information or we want to get back to
the party and let them know the outcome. If a person feels uncomfortable doing that we
will investigate anonymously.
Mrs. McNear said an additional magnet stating what you need a permit
for might be helpful.
Mr. Osborn responded we could run articles in the newsletter and we
have brochures that we hand out.
Mayor Webster said this hotline came about as a result of a meeting we
had with Mr. Galster and a few other people just trying to explore ideas on how we could
strengthen the housing code. I suggested we come up with something similar to the
neighborhood watch program where we use the eyes and ears of the community to help the
Building Department become aware of deteriorated housing, vacant housing, tall grass, etc.
This may lead us to the point where we may need more building inspectors. This is just one
of the many things we are trying to do to improve the housing stock in the City of
Springdale.
Mr. Vanover asked do we have anything on the website about permits? I
think this hotline is a good idea.
Mr. Osborn said we are currently discussing the occupancy level of some
of our single family homes. It’s gotten to the point in some cases where a business
might rent a property and then house workers there almost like a dormitory approach. We
are looking at revising the Code requirements concerning occupancy loads permitted not
just on bedrooms, but the total square footage of the house itself. It is easier for us to
predict that number than it is how many bedrooms there are. That will probably be coming
before you in a month or so.
Mr. Knox reported the Beacon Hills/Oxford Hills Association held a
meeting on May 20. Dr. Richard Goetz was elected acting president. The association was
then disbanded and the money in the treasury, $1,789.91, is being donated to the
Veteran’s Memorial Committee. One request is that if there are pavers they want a big
brick.
Mayor Webster said the two biggest problems we have in housing is that
we have too many people or the house is vacant. Also, I drove around the City and made
some notations of homes that needed attention, especially grass. I was pleasantly
surprised when I turned the list into the Building Department that they were aware of
every one of the issues and they were in various states of enforcement. The hotline will
allow residents to check on the status of an eyesore in their neighborhoods.
Mr. Wilson said I was ecstatic when I learned of this check. This is
one of the larger donations we have received over the years. I want to publicly thank the
Beacon Hills/Oxford Hills Association for this donation. We will recognize them at the
appropriate time.
Mr. Vanover said the foot traffic on Chesterdale Road is non-stop and
the sidewalks are posted closed. I know at some point it actually gets shut down but
fortunately construction is staying on one side and they can bounce back and forth.
Mr. Osborn replied we are having the same situation on Kenn Road. They
are supposed to maintain one side of the sidewalk as operational at any given time. That
has not happened. For the last six to seven weeks there have been no sidewalks but we
still have pedestrians and they still cross in the pedestrian area. I checked with the
Police Chief today to see if there had been any complaints at all from the general
population of the community or the crime watch groups we have in Heritage Hills and The
Willows and there have been none. I think there will be a certain amount of people walking
across the bridge. We don’t think there is any necessity to intervene at this point
with some sort of City funded transportation system. We’ve not had any requests from
anybody.
Mr. Vanover said they have been working primarily on the east side of
the bridge and even though the other is posted sidewalk closed, it’s still untouched.
Pedestrian/motorist interface hasn’t presented a problem. At some point we know that
is going to be a problem and we can make ODOT aware.
Mr. Osborn stated we have made that point strongly to ODOT. The City
Engineer has repeated it more than once. We had a group attend a public hearing and that
was one of the focus points we had for them. We are very disappointed with their failure
to have any sensitivity to this issue. There is something called environmental justice
obligation on the part of the State of Ohio as the sponsor of the project to make
provisions for any negative impact a project would have on a protected class of persons,
low income as an example. Certainly we have people of modest means living in some of those
apartments at The Willows and we felt certain there would be an obligation on the part of
the State to do something about it. They have chosen not to take up the issue.
Mr. Vanover said the decision to close the main driveway there was
excellent. It created a little anxiety for the owners of the property there.
Mr. Osborn said the reason they did is that ODOT failed to even
approach them and tell them they were going to shut down the driveway.
Mr. Vanover responded we might want to think about posting signage at the other driveway.
Overall the flow of traffic has worked very well.
Mr. Osborn said we have had one complaint regarding the time it takes
to cycle through. I think people are showing a great deal of patience in living with this
situation.
Mrs. McNear asked I wonder if some of the foliage can be cut back as
you are driving southbound on SR 4 trying to take I-275 eastbound. Then you could see the
traffic that is coming down the hill from Forest Park.
Mr. Parham requested legislation for the next meeting for participation
in MRVMA. We do this on an annual basis to assist us with our workers’ compensation
rates.
MEETINGS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Planning Commission
-
June 12, 2007
Board of Zoning Appeals
-
June 19
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE - none
Mr. Danbury made a motion to go into executive session as a meeting of the whole to
discuss economic development and personnel matters. Mr. Galster seconded. The motion
passed with seven affirmative votes.
Council went into executive session at 8:35 p.m. and reconvened at 9:18 p.m.
Mrs. Harlow made a motion to reject the fact finder’s report on the
firefighters’ contract. Mr. Danbury seconded. The motion passed with seven
affirmative votes.
UPDATE ON LEGISLATION STILL IN DEVELOPMENT
Tax Budget
-
June 20
Zoning Code public hearing
-
July 18
RECAP OF LEGISLATIVE ITEMS REQUESTED
MVRMA
-
June 20
Council adjourned at 9:20 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Edward
F. Knox
Clerk
of Council/Finance Director
Minutes Approved:
Kathy McNear, President of Council
__________________________, 2007
City of Springdale Council
June 6 2007