February 23, 2016 - North Canton Board of Zoning Appeals

North Canton Residents and Anyone Having Interest in the Business of North Canton City Government:

Pasted below is a link to a video of the North Canton Board of Zoning Appeals held on Tuesday, February 23, 2016.

https://youtu.be/A9B1Ori5h14

Description of Video: 

February 23, 2016 – Meeting of the North Canton Board of Zoning Appeals 

       The video covers a meeting of the North Canton Zoning and Building Standards Board of Appeals that lasted approximately one hour and six minutes. 

       The sole item on the agenda was to hear an appeal from the Montabella Homeowners Association regarding the planning Commission’s December 9, 2015 approval of a site plan, and more specifically, a conditional use permit for the erection of a wireless telecommunications facility on the property of First Friends Church located at 5455 Market Avenue. 

       The meeting is called to order 2:40 minutes into the video and ends at 1:06:00 minutes. The Board voted 4-YES, 1-NO to AFFIRM the decision of the Planning Commission. 

       Note: A “conditional use permit” per Chapter 1125.02 of the North Canton Zoning Code is defined as: 

 

       “A permit issued by the Superintendent of Permits and Inspection upon approval by the   Planning Commission to allow a use other than principally permitted use to be established within a district on a specific parcel.”  

Thank you,

Chuck Osborne

 

February 22, 2016 - City Council Meeting followed by a Special Council of the Whole Meeting

North Canton Residents and Anyone Having Interests in the Business of North Canton City Government:


Pasted below is a link to a video of the North Canton City Council meeting held on Monday, February 22, 2016.

https://youtu.be/HUFU1vKpLlY 

 

Description of Video:

 

February 22, 2016 – City Council meeting followed by a Special Committee of the Whole meeting: 

       The video covers a City Council meeting lasting about forty minutes followed immediately by a Special Committee of the Whole meeting which lasted nearly thirty-three minutes (starting at the 0:40:20 point in the recording. 

       During the City Council portion of the meeting, Council voted on eight ordinances. One ordinance received its 3^rd and final reading; two were passed on their 2^nd reading as an emergency. The appropriated amounts for four pieces of legislation that were identified totaled $2,720,000.   

       2:10 minutes into the video, Council President Peters calls for the approval of minutes from previous Council meetings despite the fact that the items did not appear on the agenda for consideration. Without amending the agenda, the following Council meeting minutes were approved: January 25, 2016 Council meeting minutes; February 1, 2016 Special Council meeting minutes; and February 8, 2016 Council meeting minutes. This is a violation of procedure and due process. 

       2:55 minutes into the video, City resident, Joseph Mulqueen, spoke during the Public Speaks portion of the meeting asking that the City’s skate park be afforded greater financial support from the City.  

       21:50 minutes into the meeting, City Engineer Jim Benekos alerts Council that incorrect cost figures were used in the 1^st reading of Ordinance No. 13-2016 and that the dollar amount of the project should be $100,000 instead of $300,000. The legislation was amended in its 2^nd reading with the corrected dollar amount.  

       26:00 minutes into the video a scan of the audience reveal a total of five (including myself) in attendance at the meeting. 

       26:40 minutes into the video, Councilmember Stephanie Werren speaks at the conclusion of the Council meeting in what is termed “Council Reports” portion of the meeting. I attended the meeting and did not understand a single word of Mrs. Werren’s report. I have listened to the video of the meeting and I still have no idea what she is saying. I will have to wait for the transcribed minutes to see what Mrs. Werren said. 

       30:05 minutes into the meeting, Council President Jeff Peters notifies Council that he has made arrangements to meet with an individual who will “take measurements” in anticipation that City Council will videotape and possibly livestream their meetings. Mr. Peters has made public remarks in a previous Council meeting that he (Peters) has consulted with his brother-in-law, Tom Wilson at Hoover High School for advice on videotaping North Canton City Council meetings. Mr. Wilson has relayed to Mr. Peters that Hoover High School’s Media Department students do not have the time to videotape North Canton City Council meetings.

       Mr. Peters stated tonight that Mr. Wilson has referred a former student to offer advice on the feasibility of videotaping and livestreaming North Canton City Council meetings. Mr. Peters said the individual’s name is John Branch and that Mr. Branch is the Director of Media at Glen Oak High School.  

       40:20 minutes into the video, the Council meeting concluded and the Special Council of the Whole commenced. 

       44:00 minutes into the video extended discussion began regarding the Dogwood Pool and the renewal of management agreement with the North Canton YMCA to manage the Dogwood Pool. 

       45:00 minutes into the video, Councilmember Doug Foltz indicates that in spite of the management agreement with the North Canton YMCA, the City still lost $41,560. Mr. Foltz states that”… the City needs to show a profit considering we are spending in excess of $750,000.” 

       I might add that the City will never be able to amortize the capital expense of renovating the pool if income fails to meet operating expenses. 

       48:30 minutes into the video shows Law Director Tim Fox injecting himself into this discussion. This issue is the role of City Administrator Mike Grimes. 

       52.35 minutes into the video City Council concludes that the City needs to negotiate a better management agreement with the YMCA than was negotiated last year. 

       55:30 minutes into the video has Councilmembers Doug Foltz and Mark Cerreta suggesting that grants and donations will be heaped on the City after the pool is back in operation. Surprisingly, Law Director Tim Fox seems to swallow the “Kool-Aid” in the discussion that “free money” will come to the City to expand the Dogwood Pool facilities. 

       Some people are 'dreamers' and some people are realists. I choose to be the latter. I do not believe there will be grants or donations of money to expand the Dogwood Poll facilities.  

Thank you,

Chuck Osborne

 

February 8, 2016 - City Council Meeting

North Canton Residents and Anyone Having Interest in the Business of North Canton City Government: 

Pasted below is a link to a video of the North Canton City Council meeting held on Monday, February 8, 2016.

 

https://youtu.be/fFx9lhSFTiI

Description of Video:

February 8, 2016 – City Council Meeting: 

Councilwoman Marcia Kiesling was absent at the Executive Session and the Council meeting.

The video covers a City Council meeting lasting about one hour and eighteen minutes. The video opens with Council adjourning from an Executive Session (held behind closed doors) that lasted slightly over one hour.  

North Canton City Council considered 21 pieces of legislation. Eleven ordinances were passed on an “Emergency” and one ordinance was tabled. As best as can be determined, at a minimum, City Council appropriated in excess of $5,824,000 among the twenty ordinances that were enacted into law. 

The ordinance that was tabled (Ordinance No. 6-2016) was a proposal to change the Rules of Council that would have discontinued a decades old fixed schedule of four Monday night meetings a month in exchange for a meeting schedule that would allow Council to meet when they so desired.  

Another change to the Rules of Council that was also tabled was a proposal to place cumbersome restrictions on videotaping of City Council meetings. 

Interesting points in the video can be found at: 

3:18 minutes into the video, Council President Jeff Peters begins the meeting apologizing for his conduct at the previous Council meeting held on February 1, 2016. 

7:10 minutes into the video, Council President Peters states that the Mayor and members of Council will no longer be allowed to respond to citizens who speak at Public Speaks. 

8:15 minutes into the video, Miriam Baughman is the only citizen to addresses City Council at Public Speaks. 

15:45 minutes into the video, Law Director Tim Fox attempts to explain how emergency legislation is implemented in municipal legislation (as best as I can hear as Mr. Fox is another individual who is hard to understand).  

17:00 minutes into the video, Councilmember Stephanie Werren explains her Ordinance on Animals and Fowl and gets herself fouled up in attempt to persuade Council to pass her ordinance on an emergency. Law Director Tim Fox attempts to explain the legislative process to her. 

21:10 minutes into the video, Council President Peters calls for a vote to table Ordinance 6-2016. 

58:30 minutes into the video, Councilmember Werren appears to lobby for changes in Council rules  stating “…she wants to do things differently to make things more efficient (paraphrasing as it is very hard to understand what she is really saying). 

1:05:30 minutes into the video, Council President Peters retracts statements he made at last week’s Council meeting when he said residents can speak every Monday night at Council meetings. The promise by Peters that residents could speak at every meeting was quoted in a February 2, 2016, Repository story titled, “North Canton City Council walks away from schedule, video changes.” 

That promise lasted less than a week. Further it begs the question, WHY was Ordinance No. 6-2016 even on the agenda when a week ago, Council President Peters said that the proposed changes to Council rules would not change and video restrictions would not be imposed? 

1:06 minutes into the video, Law Director Fox explains the purpose of a Special Council meeting in an attempt to rebut past criticism of the quantity of Special Council meetings that have been convened by Council over the last year. Mr. Fox further implies that City Council has been holding more meetings than required. The rebuttal by Mr. Fox falls flat in that last month (January), City Council only met on two of the required four Mondays of the month. And that has been the general pattern of Council for more than a year. Rules of Council call for Committee meetings the first and third Monday of each month and Council (Legislative) meetings the second and fourth Monday of each month. Council is frequently getting off schedule holding either a Committee meeting on a Council night or a Council meeting on a Committee night and simply calling the meeting either a Special Committee meeting or a Special Council meeting. All of this in violation of the current Rules of Council and City Ordinances. The schedule of Council continues in confusion as Council cancelled next week's regularly scheduled Committee meeting.  

How is this true? Council only met two of the four Mondays in January. For February, they have already announced they do not plan on having a meeting on the third Monday in February. By that count, North Canton City Council has already missed three regularly required Monday night meetings and we are only midway through the second month of the year. 

1:10 minutes into the video, Mayor David Held compliments Council President Peters for tabling the proposed meeting schedule changes as well as unrestricted videotaping of City Council meetings. 

Thank you,

Chuck Osborne

 

 

 

 

 

January 25, 2016 - Council of the Whole meeting followed by a Special Council meeting

North Canton Residents and Anyone Having Interest in the Business of North Canton City Government:

 

Pasted below is a link to a video of the North Canton City Council meeting held on Monday, January 25, 2016. 

https://youtu.be/6eN395pevgU

 

Description of Video:

 

       The video covers a Committee of the Whole meeting lasting about one hour and sixteen minutes followed immediately by a Special Council meeting which last one hour and ten minutes (starting at the 1:15:40 point in the recording). 

       The Council of the Whole covers discussions of 22 proposed ordinances beginning with a proposed change in Council rules that would allow Council to meet when they so desired as opposed to the fixed schedule four meetings a month that has been the practice of North Canton City Council for decades.  

       Also introduced was a proposal to place cumbersome restrictions on videotaping of City Council meetings. 

       At the 1:15:40 point in the video, the Special City Council meeting begins and several City residents address City Council during public speaks at the beginning of that Special Council meeting.

 

Thank you,

Chuck Osborne