CITY OF ROCKY RIVER

JULY 14, 2008

Regular meeting of Council was called to order by Mr. Moran, President of Council, at 8:03 p.m. in the David J. Cook Council Chambers.

Council Members Present: Mr. Hunt, Mr. Shepherd, Mr. Mylen, Mr. Furry,

Ms. Arabian, Mr. Moran

Absent: Mr. Long

Administration: Mayor Bobst, Mr. Linden, Mr. Thomas

Law Director: Mr. Bemer

Press: Ms. Macho, Mr. Saylor

The meeting was opened with the Pledge of Allegiance.

MOTION:

Moved by Mr. Moran, seconded by Mr. Mylen, that the reading of the minutes of the Legislative meeting of June 23, 2008 be waived, and that the minutes be accepted as submitted.

Vote: Hunt - aye Shepherd - aye Mylen - aye Furry - aye

Arabian - aye Moran - aye

6 ayes 0 nays PASSED

Moved by Mr. Moran, seconded by Mr. Mylen, that the reading of the minutes of the Committee-of-the-Whole meeting of July 7, 2008 be waived, and that the minutes be accepted as submitted.

Vote: Hunt - aye Shepherd - aye Mylen - aye Furry - aye

Arabian - abstain Moran - aye

5 ayes 0 nays 1 abstain PASSED

MAYOR’S REPORT:

Mayor Bobst thanked the community members and the civic organizations and their volunteers for a great “River Days”. Even with the rain, we were able to move several events indoors and the Chamber was very pleased at the record turnout in terms of sales with Taste of River and Buy River. Three-on-three basketball was moved into the gymnasiums and the tournament was able to be completed.

Mayor Bobst one again extended her thanks to the civic organizations and the City departments that plan such a key role, the safety forces, the recreation department, senior services, service garage. She said that she does not think that there is one area of the City that isn’t touched by “River Days”. Sunday was a great day and the Mayor thanked the members of Council for their ability to serve pie very efficiently. There were 320 pieces of pie provided to residents and we could have used even more pies. The “Fat Chants” concert was great and the weather was beautiful.

The Mayor said that a very surprising event was the Antique Appraisal Fair. There had been a lot of promotion through the Library and it made it into the Plain Dealer’s great things to do over the weekend. Prior to opening, about a quarter to one and every place was filled with very interesting objects. It was very successful and we will engage them again next year, but will move to a larger venue.

The Mayor said that it is so great to see our residents gathering and enjoying one another’s company. The tag line that has been put together for “River Days”, Create and Celebrate Your Memories, is exactly what happened over the weekend. Long standing residents of the City were very excited to see other current residents and former residents that they haven’t seen for a while and for the young families there were a lot of memories being created with all of the activities that had been planned. The Mayor again thanked everyone for their involvement in making it such a successful weekend. She said that we are already planning for next year.

The Mayor, Safety Service Director Linden and MacKay Engineering met with ODOT representatives last Friday, July 11^th, Gary Bennesh and Dale Schiavoni along with the individual that is coordinating our entire project. It was a very productive meeting. The Engineers are putting together some cost analysis and that will allow us to develop the timeline. The first round of drawings have been submitted and the engineering is all being evaluated by ODOT. They are going to get them back to us and we have a very tight timeline. We may decide to go forward with the project in two phases, but she has asked to have it finalized by August so that we can communicate with all of our residents, business owners and property owners regarding that. Once we have all of the details we will let Council know. It was a very productive meeting and a very necessary one.

David Hartt and Alisa Duffy Rogers of D B Hartt were in last week. They are working on updating the Development Code. We had great representation from all the Boards and Commissions and City Council. We will convene again in September because it will take DB Hartt some time to develop those sections of the Code that we had general agreement on and really work out some of the details that are so important to all of us. The Mayor said that she believes that we can have general agreement on what needs to be updated and how it needs to be updated, but the details are where we really need to focus, so it should be sometime in September that they will get back to us.

National City Bank had a ribbon cutting last week and as a part of that celebration has presented 3 checks to local community organizations. The first check was presented to the Rocky River Junior Women’s Club, the second to the Education Foundation and lastly a $500 check to our Senior Center to be used in part for our transportation program and then for general use by the Senior Center. We extend our thanks to them and it was a wonderful event.

Mayor Bobst announced that on August 4^th at 6 p.m. at the Civic Center, RTA will be holding a public meeting to present some information about scheduling and rates. It is probably a cut back on scheduling and an increase in rates according to what has been in the newspapers over the last week or so. It is a very important meeting for our community.

The no right turn on red from 7-9 and 2-4 signs have been placed throughout the City. The signs are in school zones and will be enforced when school resumes in late August.

We have joined the Northeast Ohio Safety Council. It is an organization that we can participate in and through our participation enjoy a discount in our Workers Comp premium. Our cost is about $414 to participate in the Safety Council and they have informative programs that they provide on a monthly basis that several of our Directors will be attending. The Mayor said that she will be attending some of the programs along with the Director of Human Resources and for that we will receive a 2% discount on our premiums and there will be an additional 2% discount if we reduce the severity and frequency of our injuries by 10% or more. The initial 2% cost savings will save us approximately $5465. The Mayor commended Sue Whitman, the Director of Human Resources, who has been following up on this. There are several safety councils, but this particular one has very good programming that meets our individual needs as a municipality.

Letters have gone out to residents regarding our 2008 Paving Program. Hopefully, each council member has received a copy of the letter if it pertained to your ward. Letters went out to the residents on Jameston, Struhar, Christenson Estates, Gasser and Cottonwood.

Friday there was an article in the Plain Dealer regarding the reform of Cuyahoga County’s Government. Governor Strickland along with several legislative leaders picked 9 individuals in Cuyahoga County to work as a panel to study options for the reforming and restructuring of county government. They will be forwarding their plans and recommendations to the State Legislature and the Governor by November 7^th. Hopefully, everyone has seen the list of individuals that will be participating; the former Mayor of Shaker Heights, Judy Rosin, Bruce Akers the Mayor of Pepper Pike, Jerry Hruby, the Mayor of Brecksville, Louis Stokes, Ernest Wilkerson, Kathleen Barber, Jim McGonagle, former Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge, and David Abbott who is part of the George Gund Foundation. A few months ago Tim Hagan had presented this to the State Legislature. The Legislature wanted to study this and requested that a panel be convened. The Mayor said that they are also looking at regional government and county government throughout the State and that is going to be a separate entity. She would like City Council to be aware of this and we should see some things moving forward over the next couple of months.

Mayor Bobst announced that Councilwomen Arabian won 1^st place in the 5K run on Sunday. The Mayor said that it is not a surprise to any of us but we are proud and pleased.

Mr. Furry had a question regarding workers comp. He asked if we were in a managed group prior. Mayor Bobst said that we did not join the NEOSC for a group rating this is only for a reduction in the premium. It is a safety council. We are part of the Ohio Rural Water Authority which is the pool that we are involved in.

Ms. Arabian said that she was the last participant in the dunk tank at River Days. She said that Mr. Hunt was next in line but the rain came and it had to be closed down. She suggested that Mr. Hunt be the first participant next year. Mr. Moran said that there were so many events taking place this past weekend, the Antique Car Show, River Days, Rocky River Little League, the Yacht Club Regatta and it was great to see the City pulling together and he knows that a lot of people found out about these events through our local newspapers. Mr. Moran thanked Sarah Macho from the Sun News and Ben Saylor from the WestLife. He said that he wanted to thank both Sarah and Ben and he also wanted to thank their newspapers because a lot of times people find out what is going on in the City by the advertisement in the paper. He said that the City has the e-updates etc. that we think we are getting the message out but sometimes the newspaper is the way that they get that message. He said that it really helps our community and we would like to say thank you for getting the message out and for helping us celebrate “River Days.”

Ms. Arabian said that she had some out of town guests from the D.C. area that were in town for her bridal shower. She said that they came to “River Days” and they were amazed at the number of children running around enjoying the wonderful activities. She said that they wished that their children were with them to participate. She said that was a nice compliment to the City of Rocky River.

LAW DIRECTOR’S REPORT:

Mr. Bemer said that Ordinance 88-08 is on the agenda tonight. All of our contracts are expiring at the end of this year, Service, Police, and Fire. We have had a significant amount of experience over the years through Dave Matty, as well as the fact that we are entertaining a new Health Benefits Coordinator, we though it best that we maintain some of the experience in order to allow a very thorough and organized transition. In that light, both the Mayor and he agree hiring Dave Matty would be a wise decision for all concerned and we present that for your consideration tonight.

COMMITTEE REPORTS: NONE

COMMUNICATIONS / ANNOUNCEMENTS : NONE

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION: NONE

NEW BUSINESS:

ORDINANCE NO. 88-08 BY THOMAS J. HUNT

AN EMERGENCY ORDINANCE HIRING DAVID J. MATTY OF RADEMAKER, MATTY, McCLELLAND AND GREVE TO REPRESENT THE CITY IN NEGOTIATION MATTERS INVOLVING COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS WITH UNION MEMBERS OF THE FIRE DIVISION, POLICE DIVISION AND SERVICE DIVISION

1^ST READING

Mr. Hunt said that he would like to hold this ordinance and discuss it at the Committee meeting next week, and he appreciates Law Director Bemer’s input on it based on some questions he has had from other Council member.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS: NONE

ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS UNDER CONSENT:

ORDINANCE NO. 84-08: BY DAVID W. FURRY

AN EMERGENCY ORDINANCE APPROVING THE PLACEMENT OF AN EROSION MITIGATION REVETMENT LOCATED WITHIN A LAKE ERIE SUBMERGED LAND LEASE ADJACENT TO PERMANENT PARCEL NO. 302-01-004 AT 22744 LAKE RD., ROCKY RIVER, OHIO

1^st READING

Mr. Furry said that this is just a submerged land lease that needs local approval. The State approval has already been obtained to build to protect this property. This ordinance was discussed last week at the meeting of the Committee-of-the-Whole.

ORDINANCE NO. 85-08: BY MICHAEL W. MYLEN

AN EMERGENCY ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SAFETY-SERVICE TO PURCHASE JANITORIAL SUPPLIES FROM RESOURCE AT A COST NOT TO EXCEED $30,000

1^st READING

Mr. Mylen said that this is a housekeeping issue. Director Linden provided us with a comparative analysis that was in our packets this week. The total cost of the lowest bid was about $1,900 lower than the next lowest bid that we selected. This ordinance was discussed last week at the meeting of the Committee-of-the-Whole.

ORDINANCE NO. 86-08: BY THOMAS J. HUNT

AN EMERGENCY ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH METCALF & EDDY OF OHIO, INC. FOR CONSULTING SANITARY ENGINEERING SERVICES FOR THE ROCKY RIVER WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $24,840

1^st READING

Mr. Hunt said that Superintendent Harrington attended last week’s meeting of the Committee-of-the-Whole to discuss this piece of legislation. Metcalf & Eddy has a yearly contract for consulting at the Waste Water Treatment Plant. They have worked with Mr. Harrington at the Waste Water Treatment Plant for a number of years. Mr. Hunt said that based on Mr. Harrington’s experience there it no reason not to execute the contract for the upcoming year. The $15,000 of the $24,840 total is essentially an emergency reserve and does not necessarily have to be expended unless there consulting services are desperately needed

ORDINANCE NO. 87-08: BY THOMAS J. HUNT

AN EMERGENCY ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO A TAX-SHARING AGREEMENT WITH THE CITY OF AVON AND VARIOUS OTHER MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS IN CUYAHOGA AND LORAIN COUNTIES FOR THE PURPOSE OF SHARING IN TAX REVENUES GENERATED IN THE JOINT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ZONE LOCATED IN AND AROUND THE CITY OF AVON AT INTERSTATE 90 AND NAGEL ROAD

1^st READING

Mr. Hunt said that this ordinance is essentially a safety net that will protect the City from any loss of revenue that would be generated by the proposed interchange at I-90 and Nagel. We are among 13 west side communities to enter into the agreement that was approved by NOACA in October. This is really a formality to have the City execute the agreement so that it would be in place should God forbid we have to recoup any losses.

This ordinance was discussed last week at the meeting of the Committee-of-the-Whole.

Moved by Mr. Moran, seconded by Mr. Furry, that the rule requiring that the 4 ordinances of the Consent Agenda be read on three separate days be suspended and that the ordinances be placed upon their passage:

Vote: Hunt - aye Shepherd - aye Mylen - aye Furry - aye

Arabian - aye Moran - aye

6 ayes 0 nays PASSED

Moved by Mr. Moran, seconded by Mr. Mylen, for the passage of the four items of the Consent Agenda. The information was presented last week and there are no questions regarding Ordinances 84-08, 85-08, 86-08 and 87-08 as read:

Vote: Hunt - aye Shepherd - aye Mylen - aye Furry - aye

Arabian - aye Moran - aye

6 ayes 0 nays PASSED

MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS: NONE

As there was no further business by members of Council, members adjourned at 8:28 p.m.

James W. Moran Mary Ventimiglia

President of Council Assistant to the Mayor