A Special Council meeting was held last night with only item for business was to pass the 2018 budget. Council was blessed with a devotional, a Holy Thursday prayer led by Pastor Dan Delembo from Willoughby Hills Calvary Assembly Church. This was a very fitting acknowledgment of the most Holy week for Christians. The date of our meeting was unavoidable as the city budget is due to state and county government laws to be filed by March 31st of each year.
Council moved to Executive Session for purposes that are allowed by state law; pending or imminent litigation. It is unfortunate that our city has to endure attacks from special interests but Council has a duty to protect you, our taxpayer's funds and keep the city moving forward. That meeting lasted about an hour. Audio link to the opening:http://www.willoughbyhills-oh.gov/mtg.0329.18-Pt-1.MP3 After returning from that session, Council held public portion to hear from residents. While a couple people seem to resort to political and personal attacks, most members of the public gave thoughtful comments on the budget. Roughly half the people spoke in favor of this compromise budget and thanked Council for their hard work half wanted to have it changed to fulfill other needs. Council Vice President Plecnik , Council woman Laura Pizmoht and I all made comments prior to voting regarding the budget. Good budgets are compromises that first and foremost are balanced; we cannot plan to spend more than we take in. Next is to assign priorities. I and others on council have been clear after listening to our residents and business owners that Roads, Police and Fire & Rescue safety are the City's top priorities. I commented that those are the things that only city government can provide therefore it is a mandate. Other services are nice to have and certainly desirable, but not imperative. The largest budget item in a large service organization like a city is salaries and benefits. Therefore, when significant cuts are required, unfortunately that impacts personnel. You cannot find enough saving by not buying equipment. Our city has had an increased population of seniors, and 911 calls for EMS have risen dramatically. Funding to our Fire and EMS have been reduced and that trend cannot continue or lives will be lost. Passing this budget redirects funds from administrative support staff to hiring firefighters and paramedics to increase staffing level in our department to six. As a community, we need to do more but that is a good first step in the right direction. Salting and plowing roads for driver's safety is another priority. If your son or daughter were to be seriously injured or worse, die after hitting a tree because their car slid off an un-salted, un-plowed road how would you feel? With this funding level adjustment, the city should be able to pave two additional roads, like Somrak and Jennie along with Red Fox and Kennelly this year. These are some of the worst roads in our city according to our city engineer. I will hold a Service meeting soon to discuss the exact plan for this year. Shifting about $300,000 to fund roads and firefighters not only this year but ongoing years will help keep the city on track to be the best it can be. Improving the quality of life for our residents and attracting good business to come here and to stay here will help us as residents to support our tax base that provide for these essential services. Economic development remains a problem that frustrates our Council. Having a massage parlor (now closed thankfully) and gambling storefronts this administration allows does nothing to help our image. A proposal to open a blood plasma donation center will be on the next Planning and Zoning meeting agenda next Thursday, April 5, at 7pm. I invited the public (and you my reader) to attend to voice your opinion. I do not believe that a center that preys on poor, desperate people to sell their blood is a positive in our community, and certainly does not support the kind of vision I see for our future. Audio link (42minutes) http://www.willoughbyhills-oh.gov/mtg.0329.18-Pt-2.MP3 City Budget is always the biggest and most important business a city council has to consider. Thursday March 22nd a finance meeting was held prior to the regularly scheduled council to discuss the 2018 spending in detail.
The acceptance of a business to move into Willoughby Hills through an incentive tax abatement was the first matter addressed. I am glad to announce that Hospice of the Western Reserve will locate as much as 4 million dollars in payroll here in our city. They will occupy a significant portion of the Chagrin North building on Chardon near SOM in a space long vacant. Council has the ability to attract this type of economic activity through our manner of exercise clause prescribed in our Charter, just like Council has the ability to create legislation when the Charter is silent on a particular matter. We welcome Hospice of the Western Reserve to Willoughby Hills! I am trying to work with our Mayor and Finance Director to close the gap the Mayor proposed that spend almost $300,000 more than we are projected to take in. Council asked for cuts or a plan to balance the budget. The administration returned a proposal that cut some areas. Regrettably, their only significant cut was to the position of law director. However, that is not possible until the Mayor proposes someone to fill the role that at least 4 members of Council will confirm. Our Charter’s requirement was changed by voters in 2008, under this current Mayor’s commission. He has failed to deliver. I strongly urged him to work with Council to create a consensus and stop suing the city so we can save on legal fees. Our city cannot operate effectively without legal advice. And competent advice is not free. Budget cuts There are some cuts for administrative niceties like travel and discretionary spending. I was surprised the Mayor wanted to table a new plow truck until next year. I will check into the need in more detail. Council refused to consider cuts for things like pool subsidy and the very small appropriations for a couple recreation programs. Our resident’s families and children don’t need to suffer because of administrative bloat. We need serious savings in administrative overhead so we can pave more roads, hire firefighters and paramedics to save lives, and keep police patrolling our streets working to fight crime. This is the clear and adamantly stated goals that I and the vast majority of Council have promised to deliver, and we will. The regular Council meeting had 6 pieces of legislation to consider. The acting city prosecutor ordinance will be held back due to the current Willoughby Hill city prosecutor suing the city in which he works. The next matter is a memorandum of understanding with the sports league. This was referred in January to the chair of our Recreation Committee of Council who has called two meetings but cancelled them both, and has failed to attend the last two council meetings, including last night. I was informed after the meeting the Councilman Hallum emailed our clerk that he will not attend the Special Meeting called for next Thursday to pass the budget, which is the most important business a city council has to do in a given year. I asked the Mayor if the signups for the baseball season have been impacted, or is there a problem without a current operating agreement. He could not answer the question. This is beyond frustrating for us. The budget ordinance was read a 3rd time. A routine ordinance to align city ordinances with Ohio Revised Code was passed in an urgent manner due to potential liability on income tax issues. We passed the earlier mentioned ordinance for the incentive to Hospice of the Western Reserve. A Resolution to recognize city resident Aiden Johnson on the attainment of Eagle Scout was passed. He is a bright young man who has a great future ahead of him. Safe meetings Council meetings need to be a place where residents feel safe and free to participate in civil discourse. A certain city employee seems to incite people to disrupt council meetings as well as speak out from the back row. I recognize that decisions like budget cuts affect city employee’s personal economy and their paycheck. However, decisions that council makes are for the betterment of the residents we serve, not to the betterment of excessive salaries and perks. I have heard back after the meeting that several residents were deeply concerned of the outbreak and disrespect that a certain employee and a resident displayed by acting out. When I am told that a resident went out to buy MACE today because she felt threatened it causes me great concern. I urge the Mayor to demand that a city employee must either restrain themselves and act civil or do not attend these meetings. Council passed unanimously, a motion to request the Mayor remove a member of the Recreation Commission duties due to his inappropriate behavior and language at the Mayor’s political event, a town hall, toward a resident, a mother with her family present, and public official. I witnessed this personally and was appalled. We can do so much better as a community than to have these issues. In other work... Today, along with Council President Fellows and Councilwoman Pizmoht, I met with a representative of the Cleveland Restoration Society at the Maplegrove Grange. We discussed the historic nature of the building and how our city can continue to preserve it and recognize other worthwhile property around our city. I walked the cemetery after they left and urge you to take a look as well. Please feel free to give me suggestions as to how we can improve the place we honor our city’s departed residents. We will meet again in Special session on Thursday March 29th at 7pm. The audio below is a large file, it was a two hour meeting, and did not include the preceeding hour-long Finance meeting. http://www.willoughbyhills-oh.gov/mtg.0322.18.MP3 |
Dave's Notes from the MeetingsThis is an effort to keep my constituents informed, check this page for updates. Archives
January 2020
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