Pasted below is a link to a video of the North Canton Council of the Whole meeting held on Monday, May 2, 2016.
Description
of Video:
May
2, 2016, – North Canton Committee of the Whole Meeting:
The video covers a North Canton
Committee of the Whole meeting lasting just under an hour in length. The meeting
is called to order approximately one minute into the video.
Following roll call, Council
President Peters calls for a vote to excuse Councilmember Marcia Kiesling as
she was absent. This is Councilmember
Kiesling’s third meeting absence. Mrs. Kiesling has also failed to attend
meetings of Council on February 8, 2016, and on March 7, 2016.
The
agenda for the Committee of the Whole meeting consisted of the following for
legislative action:
• Emergency legislation to increase the
salary and vacation allowance for of exempt employees. These are employees who
work at the pleasure of either the Mayor or City Council.
• Emergency Resolution authorizing the
Mayor to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the North Canton
Police Department and the Stark County’s Sheriff’s Office to support the Stark
County OVI Task Force.
• A presentation on the City’s response
to mitigate impact of flooding from the Zimber Ditch.
• Legislation authorizing expenditure of
$3,000 in donated funds for the purchase of trees.
1:50 minutes into the video, Council
President Peters, as Chairperson of the Personnel and Safety Committee,
introduces proposed legislation to increase the salaries and vacation
allowances for the City’s exempt employees. The specific positions initially
targeted for the increase in compensation levels are depicted in the following
table.
The discussion on the proposed increase in compensation levels ultimately was expanded to include all exempt employees. The Clerk of Council position was clearly one of the additional exempt positions mentioned but there are several other exempt positions in the City. It is my understanding that the two clerks in the Mayor’s office and the Director of Economic Development are exempt employees.
I might add that any
increase in salary would not reflect the added sixteen percent in pension
contributions paid on behalf of the employee by the City. For example, an
exempt employee making $100,000 annual actually receives $116,000 per year. The
extra sixteen thousand dollars is the City’s contribution to that employee’s
pension.
In the Mayor’s State
of the City presentation just a week ago, if memory serves me correctly, income
tax collections for this year are down from last year.
With City Council’s
plans to expand the City’s Community Reinvestment Areas (CRAs) thus increasing
the number of tax abatements going to Corporations and multi-millionaires, one
has to wonder how the City is going to survive financially.
The proposed
increases in compensation levels to employees who work at the pleasure of
either the Mayor or City Council was the significant topic of the
meeting.
I might add that
there was no mention of the nearly forty-four percent raise in the cards for
North Canton Law Director Tim Fox. And I might add that Mr. Fox did not utter a
word the entire night. Perhaps he did not want to bring any attention to his
proposed hefty raise.
16:20 minutes into
the video, Chairperson Peters discusses the proposed Emergency Resolution noted
earlier.
17:25 minutes into
the video, Ward 4 Councilperson, as Chairperson of Street and Alley makes a
presentation an update to Council on the Zimber Ditch and the City’s flood
mitigation efforts. Mr. Fonte concludes his presentation at 43:25
minutes.
43:25 minutes into
the video, Chairperson Dan Griffith discusses his proposal to authorize
expenditure of $3,000 of donated funds for the purchase of ornamental
trees.
44:50 minutes into
the video, Council President Peters asks to amend the agenda to allow
Councilmember Cerreta to propose that the Dogwood tree serve as North
Canton's official City tree. Mr. Cerreta made this proposal in
anticipation of the upcoming 3rd Reading next week to remove
the North Canton tagline as “The Dogwood City” given that there was some
citizen opposition to removing the "Dogwood City” tagline.
47:20 minutes into
the video, Chairman Peters again amended the agenda to allow Councilmember
Foltz to update Council on Park and Recreation issues.
57:20 minutes into
the video, the Council meeting was concluded.
The video ends at
the one hour mark (1:00 minutes).
Thank you,
Chuck Osborne
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