Pasted below is a link to a video of the North Canton Planning Commission meeting held on Wednesday, April 6, 2016.
Description of Video:
April 6, 2016 – North Canton Planning
Commission meeting:
The
video covers a North Canton Planning Commission meeting that lasts approximately thirty-seven
minutes and commences approximately two minutes before the meeting is called to
order.
Per Section
3.07(2) of the North Canton City Charter, the City’s Planning Commission is
composed of five voting members and two- non-voting members. The City’s
Director of Administration and a selected member of Council are mandated to
serve as non-voting members and are required to attend all meetings of the
Commission.
Councilmember
Marcia Kiesling is Council’s selected member to attend all meetings of the City’s
Planning Commission. Typically, Marcia Kiesling fails to attend meetings of the
Planning Commission and tonight was no exception.
The
Planning Commission was missing its Chairman, Dennis Flechtner, for this
meeting and so the meeting was conducted with only four members present, with
Vice-Chairman Tom Serra filling in for the absent Mr. Flechtner.
The announced
meeting agenda for the Planning Commission meeting consisted of one item for discussion:
·
A request by
IRG/Maple Street Commerce to vacate two City streets – specifically:
-
A portion of
Orchard Street NE, from Witwer Street to Hower Street.
-
A portion of
Orchard Street NE, from Orchard Street to Main Street.
3:00
minutes into the video, Vice-Chairman Serra states the first order of
business is the approval of
the minutes of the Commission’s last meeting held back on December 9, 2015, and
makes a motion for approval of the minutes.
Recently
appointed member of the Planning Commission member,
Gary Fry expresses some
reservations in approving the minutes as presented explaining that the minutes
of the previous meeting may not be complete in terms of his participation at
that meeting.
4:40
minutes into the video, Mr. Fry makes a motion that the vote to approve the
minutes as presented be tabled.
I applaud Mr. Fry for his actions.
I
detail this in my description of this video because the rules of order were
not followed at this point in
the meeting.
When
there is a motion made on the floor, proper procedure calls for another member
to second the motion. If the motion is seconded, the Chair restates the motion
saying, “It is moved and seconded to ….”
At
this point, members have the right to debate or discuss the motion.
When
the discussion is finished, the Chair puts the motion to a vote stating, “All
those in favor say ‘Aye.’” Those opposed say ‘No’.”
This
did not happen. The rules of order for voting on a motion that had been made were
not followed.
North
Canton’s Law Director, Tim Fox, was in attendance and at one point offered some
advice to Mr. Fry on how he could review the audio of the meeting for needed
corrections. Sadly, Law Director Fox failed to provide any guidance to
Commission members to assure procedural rules were followed in the meeting.
In regards to the request to vacate portions
of Orchard and Witwer, the
Planning Commission had previously
ruled against vacation in an earlier meeting several months ago.
19:40 minutes into the video, input from residents in
opposition to the closure of the two streets began. Brian Foltz, an East Maple
Street resident, spoke in opposition to the vacation of the requested streets. Nick
Gang, a Hower Street resident presented his concerns followed by Chuck Osborne.
33:25 minutes into the video, Vice-Chairman Serra asks for
a motion on the requests to vacate. Commission member Jerry Geib makes a motion
to vacate portions of the two streets and member Gary Fry seconds the motion.
36:10 minutes into the video, Vice-Chairman Serra repeats
the motion now before the Commission and calls for a roll call vote. The vote
was unanimous, 4 – 0, to recommend that Council vacate the streets as
requested.
37:00 minutes into the video, the meeting is concluded. The
video continues to run until 37:50 minutes.
Thank you,
Chuck Osborne
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