Pasted below is a link to a video of the North Canton City Council meeting held on March 28, 2016.
Description of Video:
March 28, 2016 – City Council Meeting followed by Special Committee
of the Whole Meeting:
The video covers a Council meeting
followed by a Special Committee of the Whole meeting for the City of North
Canton. The Council meeting concludes at 1:12:30 minutes. The video of the two
meetings combined lasts nearly one hour and fifty-five minutes.
The video begins with the Council meeting
being called to order and last this portion of the video lasts nearly fifty
minutes.
2:50 minutes into the video, a Hoover
High School’s Engineering Instructor and two students spoke to Council about
their recent win at the Buckeye Regional Robotics Competition recently held in
Cleveland.
15:10 minutes into the video,
Council President Jeff Peters announces that a proposed Ordinance No. 32 – 2016
would be tabled. This is proposal to expand the City’s Community Reinvestment
Area (CRA). The idea has generated a great deal of discussion on Council and has
caused concern among City residents. During the “Public Speaks” portion of the meeting
four City residents raised concerns about the proposed expansion.
16:30 minutes into the video, City
resident Chuck Osborne spoke out in opposition to the proposed expansion of the
CRA in the City.
At Council’s meeting of March 14,
2016, Director of Permits and Inspection brought to the attention of Council
that the average age of homes in North Canton was 72 years old. The concern
with the CRA is that rather than targeting the older homes for tax assistance,
that the legislation will allow reductions of property taxes for construction
of new homes as well. Consequently, someone could build a new home in North
Canton and NOT be required to pay ANY property taxes on their new North Canton
home for as long as fifteen years.
North Canton has had some pockets
in the City designated as CRAs for several years but I did not know they also
included new construction. I learned last night that a home built on Harmon
Street approximately five years ago qualified for the abatement of property
taxes under previous legislation for a CRA.
It should be quite obvious to
anyone that future abatement of property taxes for construction of all new
homes in North Canton will have a devastating financial impact on the North
Canton City School District.
The discussions of this proposal over
the last two Council meetings shows how little City Council understands this
topic and further, that there is a great deal of misunderstanding and
miscommunication on all of this.
21:40 minutes into the video, City
resident Glenn Saylor speaks to City Council regarding his concerns with the
proposed expansion of the CRA.
26:50 minutes into the video, City
resident Melanie Roll speaks to City Council regarding her concerns with the
proposed expansion of the CRA.
30:10 minutes into the video, City
resident Miriam Baughman speaks to City Council regarding her concerns with the
proposed expansion of the CRA.
34:05 minutes into the video, the current
President of the North Canton Jaycees, Colin Riley, addresses City Council and
urges continued support from the City for the Jaycees.
38:30 minutes into the video, three
individuals speak in support of assistance for designated areas in the City for
Community Gardens. This same group spoke to City Council two weeks earlier on
March 14, 2016, on the topic.
41:30 minutes into the video,
Council votes on three pieces of legislation.
Ordinance No 23-2016 – 2nd
reading to seek bids for contracting out Dispatch Services for Police
and Fire Departments.
Ordinance No 26-2016 – Passed on an
“Emergency” a two-year management agreement to have the North Canton YMCA manage the
City’s Dogwood Pool.
Ordinance
No. 27-2016 – Passed on an “Emergency” an increase in rates for
season memberships and daily admissions
to the City’s Dogwood Pool.
47:48
minutes into the video, Council reports are made by members of Council and
Department heads.
58:15 minutes
into the video, Director of Finance Karen Alger begins her report. Mrs. Alger
reports that tomorrow is the last day for one of the employees in her
department who is retiring. Totally unexpected, Mrs. Alger announces her
retirement as the City’s Director of Finance. I apologize that my video did not
capture her on camera at the moment she announced her retirement.
1:00:20
minutes into the video, Director of Administration Mike Grimes begins his
report acknowledging Director Alger’s announced resignation and then remarks
that he is still working setting up streaming videos of Council meetings. Mr. Grimes
briefly updates Council on his efforts to solicit bids to outsource dispatch
services and alludes to the fact that some services to citizens will be lost if
that proposal is implemented.
1:03:00
minutes into the video, Mayor Held begins his report by wishing Finance
Director Karen Alger well in her departure. Among several comments, Mayor Held
announces the creation of a Main Street Advisory Committee to be headed up by
Councilmember Mark Cerreta. The committee will be composed of two additional
members of Council and two members of his administration.
1:12:30
minutes into the video, the Council meeting is concluded and the Special Committee
of the Whole meeting begins.
Chairman of
Community and Economic Development Marcia Kiesling had two legislative
proposals on her committee.
The first
ordinance discussed in her committee was to continuing existing CRA agreements
with two businesses.
The second
ordinance was a continuation of the discussion to expand the boundaries of the City’s
CRA. Mrs. Kiesling heard from Eric Bowles that the North Canton City School District
officials have some very grave concerns with the proposed expansion of the City’s
CRA.
As I stated
above regarding the discussions on the proposed expansion of the City’s CRA, it
is quite apparent that members of City Council have little to no understanding
of how the CRA program functions and of the financial implications it has for
the City and the City’s School District. Councilmember Mark Cerreta brings this
fact out into the open in his remarks at 1:16:00.
1:25:45
minutes into the meeting, Councilmember Dan Griffith asks, do we really need
incentives for new construction? Mr. Griffith points out that a new house is
being built on Ninth Street and no tax incentives were needed there.
Mr. Cerreta
raises the same argument stating, people are buying homes in North Canton. Why
should we give incentives to build new homes?
1:26:40
minutes into the video, Director of Economic Development Eric Bowls uses as an
example a new house that was recently built on Harmon Street as an example of
why City Council should include CRA incentives for new construction.
The owners of
this new house received a 100 percent abatement of property taxes for twelve
years.
North Canton
and City Schools cannot survive when policies like these are put in place. Why
should residents pass the next school levy knowing City Council is handing out
abatement of property taxes for individuals who can afford to build a brand new
house?
It is property taxes that fund our
City schools! The discussion on CRA abatements of property taxes is very
informative and would be well worth watching.
1:40:00 minutes into the video,
there is an explanation for the need for approval of an easement for a sewer
line given by Councilmember Domonic Fonte.
1:40:55
minutes into the video, there is informative discussion of planned improvement
on East Maple Street for what is called Westgate at Walsh University.
1:51:40
minutes into the video, the meeting is concluded. The video runs for
approximately four minutes and ends at 1:54:56 minutes.
Thank you,
Chuck Osborne
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