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 followed by a Special Committee of the Whole Meeting, held on Monday, May 23, 2016.
Description
of Video:
May
23, 2016, – North Canton City Council Meeting followed by a Special Committee
of the Whole Meeting:
The video covers a North Canton City
Council meeting lasting approximately one hour and 40 minutes immediately
followed by a Special Committee of the Whole meeting that lasted approximately four
minutes.
The meeting is called to order about
two minutes after the video begins.
The meeting began with a prayer by Senior
Pastor Eli Klingensmith of Zion United Church of Christ, followed by the Pledge
of Allegiance.
At 4:40 minutes into the video, Council President Peters takes
attendance by having the Clerk call the roll. All seven members of Council
answered roll call.
The agenda for the City Council meeting
consisted of legislative votes on the following ordinances:
·
Ordinance No. 37-2016:
2nd Reading to increase the salaries of top level exempt employees, specifically,
Director of Administration, Director of Finance, Director of Law, and City
Engineer.
·
Ordinance No. 38-2016:
2nd Reading to increase to four weeks, the number
of weeks of allowed vacation for top level exempt employees, specifically,
Director of Administration, Director of Finance, Director of Law, and City
Engineer.
·
Ordinance No. 32-2016:
1st Reading to expand the boundaries of the City’s
Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) as well as the term and percentage of taxes
abated.
·
Ordinance No. 40-2016:
1st Reading to approve, confirm, and accept a
perpetual public fire hydrant on the site of the proposed Walther Café on
Applegrove.
·
Resolution No. 3-2016:
A resolution designating the Dogwood tree as the City’s
official tree.
5:30 minutes into the video, Council
President Peters outlines the rules for visitors who wish to address City
Council. Mr. Peters specifically states that there would be no discussion
between speakers and members of City Council during what is termed Recognition
of Visitors on the agenda and generally referred to as “Public Speaks.”
16:40 minutes into the video, Councilmember
Griffith fails to observe this directive given by President Peters immediately
preceding the Recognition of Visitors.
Six City
residents addressed City Council:
6:15 minutes
into the video, City resident Melanie Roll speaks in opposition to the proposed expansion of the
City’s CRA tax abatement program. Mrs. Roll reads prepared remarks on behalf of
Miriam Baughman who was unable to attend.
9:45 minutes into the video, City
resident and former member of North
Canton City Council Chuck Osborne reads prepared remarks in opposition to
Council legislation to expand the City’s CRA tax abatement program.
15:00 minutes into the video, City
resident Ronald Jeskey addresses his concerns about two issues. First, regarding
traffic noise and speeding in the vicinity of his residence on the corner of
Glenwood and Woodland. The second issue was his opposition to the City’s CRA abatement
of property taxes. Mr. Jesky was very unhappy that multi-millionaires would be
given abatements on their property taxes un the proposed expansion of the City’s
CRA program.
19:40 minutes into the video, City
resident Glenn Saylor came forward to speak at the podium. Before Mr. Saylor
began his remarks, he pointed out to President Peters that Councilmember
Griffith was indeed out of order and that he too needed to comply with the
stated rules that Council will not engage in any discussion with speakers.
In recognition that next Monday is Memorial
Day, Mr. Saylor reminded members of City Council of the extreme sacrifice of military
veterans who fought in the Korean War in 1950.
25:10 minutes into the video, City resident
Larry Tripp questions Council’s actions regarding the proposed expansion of the
City’s CRA tax abatement program.
29:05 minutes into the video, City
resident Rod Covey presents remarks to City Council.
34:45 minutes into the video, Council reads and votes on
Ordinance No. 37-2016.
36:45 minutes into the video, Council reads and votes on
Ordinance No 38-2016.
38:30 minutes into the video, Council reads Ordinance No.
32-2016.
This is the CRA legislation that has generated a great deal
of discussion on Council and so much opposition from citizens and most
especially, a great deal of concern from all affiliated with the North Canton
City School District.
Councilmember Doug Foltz votes against reading the proposed
ordinance. Councilmember Domonic Fonte abstains as he has a conflict of
interest due to the fact that he is a Real Estate broker and he would benefit
in the passage of the legislation.
Councilwoman Keisling leads off the discussion which last until
1:20:40 minutes into the video when Council moves ahead with its first reading
in spite of the fact that important terms of the abatements have not been
finalized.
Councilwoman Marcia Kiesling makes between some very
interesting and revealing remarks at the following points in the video.
·
43:20
minutes into the video, Mrs. Kiesling is obviously defending Mr. DeHoff and
DeHoff realty when she expresses her disfavor that I singled out a Mr. John
Arnold, as a lobbyist for Bob DeHoff. Mr. Arnold has attended at least three
City Council meetings in which the CRA has been discussed and spoke twice in
support of the CRA legislation. I simply stated that as a member of the DeHoff
Development Team along with beth Borda, that he should be required to publicly
reveal that DeHoff Realty is his employer and that he very likely will benefit
financially from passage of the CRA legislation.
·
44:15
minutes into the video, Mrs. Kiesling reveals that Bob DeHoff called her.
·
44:45
minutes into the video, Mrs. Kiesling states that the homes in North Canton are
not what we want. I will leave Mrs. Kiesling statement for viewers of the video to
decide its meaning.
·
45:30
minutes into the video, Mrs. Kiesling states that in a phone conversation Bob
DeHoff has offered to pay the North Canton City Schools $10,000 per year to aussage
the loss of the $127,500 in property taxes he would have had to pay to the City
Schools.
·
46:45
minutes into the video, Mrs. Kiesling states Mr. DeHoff doesn’t have to give
the schools anything, that he is not required to do anything.
From my vantage point, and solely my opinion, I would have to
say that Marcia
Kiesling is
spearheading this legislation through City Council to benefit Mr. Bob DeHoff
and Mr. Bill Lemmon.
Mr. Foltz again votes NO and Mr. Fonte abstains just prior to
the 1:20:40 minutes mark when the discussion ends and the ordinance receives
its first reading.
The approximately 42
minutes (between 38:30 minutes and 1:20:40 minutes) of discussion on the CRA
property tax abatements is very informative and well worth watching.
What strikes this videographer is the ease at which this
Council so casually and irresponsibly talks about handing out tax revenue
desperately needed by the North Canton City Schools.
1:00:05 minutes into the video, Glenn Saylor speaks out from
the audience in appreciation of the pleading by Councilmember Doug Foltz to curtail
the terms of the tax abatements being proposed. Mr. Saylor’s remarks prompt
some spontaneous applause in the audience.
Law Director Tim Fox prods Council President Peters to note, for
the record, that Mr. Saylor was out of order.
Councilmember Foltz continues to plead for less generous
benefits after Mr. Saylor has left the Council Chamber.
1:20:45 minutes into the video, Council
reads and votes, on an emergency, to approve Ordinance 40-2016.
1:22:50 minutes into the video,
Council reads and votes on Resolution No. 3-2016.
1:24:30 minutes into the video,
Council Reports begins. At this point, everyone seated at the dais is allowed
to make remarks on the record.
1:41:38 minutes into the video, the
council meeting is adjourned.
1:41:40 minutes into the video, the Special Committee of the
Whole is called to order.
The sole item on the agenda was a
discussion of an ordinance to advertise and receive bids for the City’s Garbage
contract.
1:45:38 minutes into the video, the
Special Committee of the Whole is adjourned.
The video continue to run until
1:55:20 minutes.
Chuck Osborne
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