Council meeting of April 14th, all present except the Mayor. He emailed that he had another commitment. The first order of business was to address the Mayor's veto of two ordinances that Council passed last meeting. After careful consideration, I voted along with 5 members to set aside the vetoes and to move forward with (1) Ordinance 2018-19, that is in the best interest of the residents for Council to formally establish employment positions in the City of Willoughby Hills that are sufficient to accomplish the objective of orderly and proper administration of the polices and ordinances of the City of Willoughby Hills, and to eliminate others that are not needed.
The Mayor's solution to raise ambulance fees was considered a few months ago and rejected. Raising taxes and fees is his easy way out. I don't agree with charging more and becoming the highest fee–highest taxed community when other solutions are available and the city certainly has these options. While “painful” to some, this is the prudent way to spend city resources. Good and proper management always finds a way to deliver in well run organizations. Sometimes organizations need to tighten their belt and set priorities. Council has Roads, Police and Fire/EMS safety as top priorities. The City is currently without a Law Director, due to the negligence of the Mayor to appoint only one rejected applicant since the September resignation of the former director, who then sued the city and lost his case demanding taxpayers pay for his indemnity over a potential malpractice claim. Not having legal counsel is troubling as was noted in the Recreation committee meeting just prior to the Regular Council meeting. A city has numerous legal issues and needs competent, impartial advice. Keep in mind, Council still would likely hire a labor specialist so, by law, Council acted to defend taxpayers against potential action by the newly formed union by the Mayor's Secretary and other administrative staff, over their demands. The veto was set aside on (2) Ordinance 2018-21 by a vote of 6-1. Both the Finance Director and City Engineer had no formal report. I asked to be sure that the 2018 budget was filed timely with the County, as required. We were told it was. I reported on the Planning commission meeting in committee reports, regarding two new homes and the positive addition of a basketball gym for Aspire Fitness to go in the closed OfficeMax at Bishop/Chardon. There was a plasma donation center that wants to lease space next to Marc's and that will be referred to the Planning Committee of Council of which I am Chair, to review our current zoning ordinance, since there were significant questions as to the viability of that type of operation in that district. Left on third reading was ordinance 2018-5 since January discussed in Recreation regarding the agreement with a sports league. Council passed the amended 2018-22 to appeal the judge';s verdict in part of the Weger vs. City of Willoughby Hills case. Also, Council passed 2018-23 to reduce the fees for sewage entering the Willoughby system, in line with their recent request. Here is a link to the audio, to the meeting just under an hour: http://www.willoughbyhills-oh.gov/mtg.0412.18.MP3 Comments are closed.
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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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