Pasted below is a link to a video of the North Canton Special Council meeting followed by a Council of the Whole meeting.
Description of Video:
April 18, 2016, – Special Council Meeting followed by a Council
of the Whole Meeting:
The video covers a Special Council
meeting lasting about forty-three and one half minutes followed by a Committee
of the Whole meeting which lasts approximately one hour and fifteen minutes.
The video begins approximately five minutes before the Special Council meeting
is called to order.
Tonight’s meetings of North Canton
City Council were not expected to run much more than an hour in length for the
two meetings. The combined length of both meetings ran nearly two hours exhausting
the battery of the camera. Typically, a battery pack is brought along to handle
meetings that are expected to run long. Consequently, the last ten minutes of the meeting were
not recorded. A lesson learned by this videographer.
The agenda for the Special Council
meeting consisted of 2nd Readings for two pieces of legislation:
·
Ordinance 33-2016 – Continuing two CRA agreements.
One for LMD Property and a second for Reed Funeral Home. The agreements allow two
corporations to continue to receive an abatement of taxes on their respective
properties. LMD Realty, LTD is corporation owned by Bob DeHoff. Reed Funeral
Home is a corporation owned by Dennis Reed.
·
Resolution 1-2016 – A resolution repealing and
replacing Resolution 547-1963, which designated the City of North Canton as “The
Dogwood City.”
5:00 minutes into the video, the
Special Council meeting is called to order.
6:00 minutes into the video, North
Canton Service Director Jim Davis introduces Walsh University Professor, Dr. Michael Dunphy, and his Chemistry students
who, as a research project, are analyzing the salt content, along with other
chemicals, of North Canton storm water. This presentation ended at 20:45
minutes.
20:45
minutes into the video, Council President Peters called for “Recognition of
Visitors” and outlined the rules for speakers.
21:20
minutes into the video, the first speaker was Chuck Osborne.
Mr. Osborne's remarks to City Council can be found at the following link:
Council President
Peters wasted no time calling out that my five minutes were up. Having
literally only about 10-12 words to complete my presentation, I attempted to
complete my presentation which I did.
My remarks to City Council generally
do not paint Council in a good light and they are only too happy to make me pay
a price for my well-researched remarks. Their treatment of me has grown more
personal, hateful, and vindictive, especially under the current makeup of City Council. I am not treated equally as others who speak
before Council and that is well known to all who have ever attended a North
Canton City Council meeting. Most especially, Council's treatment of certain
individuals is harsh and unreasonable.
Council President Peters had a
melt-down at the City Council meeting of February 1, 2016, and was very
heavy-handed with a North Canton senior citizen and threatened to have the
police escort the senior citizen out of the Council Chamber. The Senior
Citizen, stunned by the hostility of Council President Peters elected to leave
out of disgust.
A week later at Council’s next
meeting on February 8, 2016, Council President Peters begins the meeting apologizing
for his own conduct at the previous Council meeting. Mr. Peter’s apology for
his conduct at that February 8, 2016 meeting can be seen at 3:18 minutes into
the video of that meeting which can be found at the following link:
Returning to the current meeting being described:
27:00
minutes into the video, Miriam Baughman addresses City Council with her
concerns on the proposed expansion of the City’s CRA Program.
31:35
minites into the video, Melanie Roll addresses City Council with her concerns
on the proposed expansion of the City’s CRA Program.
36:45
minutes into the video, Dan Fonte, a Canto resident, follows up on a request he
made to Council at a March 14, 2016, meeting asking that North Canton City
Council pass a resolution in opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free
Trade Agreement, commonly referred to as the TPP Free Trade Agreement.
38:50
minutes into the video, Council President Peters feels the need to berate me
for my attempt earlier in the meeting to finish the remaining 10-12 words left
in my prepared remarks to Council. Mr. Peters follows up his public reprimand
of me by asking if I would like to remove myself from the meeting.
I do not
know why Mr. Peters would not just move on with the meeting after the public
reprimand but he then began to bully me and me stare me down for a time, as if
daring me or calling me out. At this point, I reacted by very quickly sticking
my tongue out for a half-a-second. Mr. Peters then laughingly verbalizes my
childish action on the record and then orders me out of the Council meeting.
Mr. Peters
obviously was cocked and ready tonight to challenge me. Three times North
Canton Police had come up during the meeting and circled around outside the
Council Chamber. Clearly, Council President Peters had used his silent call
button to summon Police each time. The Police Department is just below the
Council Chambers. The Police did not see any disturbance and on each occasion
and simply returned to their department.
In my opinion, Council President
Peters was overly sensitive and overly harsh. Mr. Peters just could not stop
himself. He had to keep egging the situation further and further until he
himself overreacted and demanded I leave the Council meeting. Mr. Peters, in my
mind, misused and abused his power in this situation for no valid reason.
At this point in the meeting, I am
viewing the meeting for the first time directly from the video.
40:25 minutes into the video, the
Special Council meeting continued until concluding at 43:35 minutes.
43:35 minutes into the video, the Committee
of the Whole meeting is called to order. The agenda consisted of one item:
·
Continuing discussion of tabled Ordinance No. 32-2016,
the expanded boundaries for the Community Reinvestment Area.
On being given the floor, Marcia
Kiesling, Chairperson of Community and Economic Development, immediately motions for a vote to allow outside
speakers to address City Council.
One speaker is from CT Consultants
and I believe her name was Mrs. Hopkins. The second speaker was from Evaluation
Services and his name was Dan Miller.
45:20
minutes into the video, Mrs. Hopkins begins her presentation stating that communities
can’t afford to not put protections in place to protect older neighborhoods
Mrs. Hopkins also stated that as Planners, we must do whatever it takes to assure
that older communities remain competitive in the retail market.
Mrs.
Hopkins also told Council that many times existing housing stock can’t be retrofitted
to meet the needs of what homeowners are buying in the contemporary housing
market. Mrs. Hopkins concluded her remarks at 1:05:05 minutes.
1:05:15
minutes into the video, Mr. Dan Miller explained that his background was mostly
in appraisal work. Mr. Miller concluded his remarks at 1:32:50 minutes.
The video
concludes at 1:41:04 minutes resulting in no video for approximately the
remaining ten minutes of the meeting.
Thank you,
Chuck Osborne
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