North Canton Residents and Anyone Having Interests in the Business of North Canton City Government:
Pasted below is a link to a video of the North Canton City Council meeting held on Monday, July 11, 2016.
Description
of Video:
July
11, 2016, – North Canton City Council Meeting:
The video covers a North Canton City
Council meeting lasting approximately one hour and seven minutes.
Soon after the video begins (2:10
minutes), Council members return to the chamber and President Peters makes a
motion to come out of Executive Session that had started at 6:15 p.m.
Executive Sessions of City Council
are not open to the public and, thus, no video recording is available.
After the vote to come out of
Executive Session, Council President Peters makes a motion to adjourn the
Special Council meeting.
According to the agenda, the purpose
of the Executive Session was to discuss the employment of a public employee and
discuss a dispute involving the city that is the subject of imminent court
action.
Why the Council agenda for July 11,
2016, called for a Special City Council meeting for the sole purpose of
conducting an Executive Session when an Executive Session could have been
conducted at the regular City Council meeting that followed, shows there is NO
understanding of North Canton’s City Charter or City ordinances with regard to
Council’s meeting procedure by the Council Clerk, the City’s Law Director, or
members of City Council.
There was no reason for a Special
Council meeting!
None whatsoever!
That statement will become even more
meaningful as one watches the video of the meeting.
The
Agenda for the July 11, 2016, Council meetings can be found using the following
link:
3:05
minutes into the video, Council President Peters calls the regular City Council
meeting to order and asks Councilmember Mark Cerreta to give the Opening Prayer.
This is followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
4:00 minutes into the video, the Council Clerk is asked to
call roll. All seven members of Council answer to roll call. Mayor Held was
absent.
4:15 minutes into the video, and
before the Council meeting got
underway, President
Peters announced that former North Canton Law Director Roy Batista had passed
away over the weekend (on Saturday) and after offering his condolences asked
for a moment of silence of all in attendance.
6:10 minutes into the video, Council President Peters recognized
retiring Finance Director Karen Alger with a plaque and wished her well in
retirement. It was all hugs and kisses
from city officials to Mrs. Alger. The well wishes for Mrs. Alger continued
until 12:25 minutes into the video.
At this time, I pan to the lobby in the back of City Hall.
12:30 minutes into the video, Mr. Peters calls for Recognition
of Visitors. This is also referred to as “Public Speaks.” Generally, President Peters lays out strict
rules to be followed during public speaks, but apparently he dispensed with his
weekly recitation of rules for speakers before Council.
There was
but one speaker to address City Council:
12:40 minutes into the video, city resident M.J. Albacete addressed Council and reported his dismay and unhappiness that he had not received a reply back from city Council regarding his annual grant request for funds to finance art projects that he provides for local school-age children each school year.
Mr. Albacete states that he submitted
the grant request to the city on December 18, 2015, and to date, had heard
nothing from the city on his request. Mr. Albacete is concerned that the new
school year is fast approaching and North Canton City Council has not responded
to his request.
I might add that Mr. Albacete has received
grant funds from the city, annually, for a number of years and that he has been
able to teach geometric art creations to local school-age children with that
funding. Typically the monies have come from recycling money refunded to the city
from the Stark, Tuscarawas, and Wayne County Joint Solid Waste District.
While Mr. Albacete spoke, I panned
back to the lobby behind the Council chamber. If you look closely, one can see
a North Canton Police Officer standing by in the lobby closely watching the Council
meeting.
This is a relatively new occurrence.
I can only presume this is courtesy of Council President Jeff Peters.
In this frame of the video (looking
back to the lobby) one can see the soon-to-be- appointed Finance Director,
Laura Brown in the lower right corner of the frame.
17:40 minutes into the video, the legislative portion of the
Council meeting began.
Under “Old Business,”the first agenda item was Ordinance No
42-2016. The ordinance was up for its 3rd and final reading. Council
President Peters called for a motion and a second to be read by title only for the third reading
of Ordinance No. 42-2016.
Councilmember Cerreta made the motion and Councilmember Foltz
seconded it. All seven Council members voted to read the ordinance by title
only.
Council Clerk Bailey acknowledged the vote to read the
legislation, remarking herself that this was the third reading of Ordinance No.
42-2016.
After Councilmember Fonte explained the legislation, he made
a motion that Council pass the legislation and Councilmember Kiesling seconded
the motion. Council members, in traditional unanimous fashion, voted to pass
the legislation.
At 19:05 minutes into the meeting, Council President Peters
called for a motion to “Suspend the Rules of Council” for three readings for
Ordinance No. 42-2016.
Member Griffith made the motion and Kiesling seconded it to
suspend the rules requiring three readings.
WHY?
Why the motion and vote to suspend the rule requiring three
readings of the legislation when this was the third reading of Ordinance No.
42-2016?
The requirement that legislation receive three readings is
described in Section 2.05 of the North
Canton City Charter.
This Charter requirement, which is incorporated as a Rule of
Council as well, had already been complied with. It was listed in the agenda for
the third reading. Council President Peters and Council Clerk Bailey both
repeated that as the legislation came up for a vote.
Why didn’t Law Director Tim Fox speak up and advise Council that
there was no reason to “Suspend the Rules” requiring three readings on this
piece of legislation?
Council President Peters repeated his mistake a second time
asking for a “Suspension of the Rules” requiring three readings when Ordinance
No. 46-2016 was brought up for a vote. Per the Council agenda for the meeting,
Ordinance No. 46-2016 was listed for a third reading.
24:04 minutes into the video, Council President Peters called
for a motion and a second to read, by
title only, the third reading of Ordinance No. 46-2016.
Councilmember Griffith made the motion and Councilmember
Cerreta seconded it. All seven Council members voted to read the ordinance by title.
Council Clerk Bailey acknowledged the vote to read the
legislation, remarking herself that this was the third reading of Ordinance No.
46-2016.
After Councilmember Griffith explained the legislation, he made
a motion that Council pass the legislation and Councilmember Cerreta seconded
the motion. Council members, in traditional unanimous fashion, voted to pass
the legislation.
25:25 minutes into the video, Council President Peters calld
for a motion to “Suspend the Rules of Council” for three readings for Ordinance
No. 42-2016.
Member Griffith made the motion and Cerreta seconded the
motion to suspend the rules requiring three readings.
Again, the question is WHY?
Does anybody not realize that by virtue of the fact that the
legislation is already receiving its third reading and that there is absolutely
NO reason to invoke a “suspension of the rules” requiring three readings?
Obviously, no one at city Hall understands what they are
doing!
HOW SAD FOR THE CITIZENS OF NORTH CANTON!
26:10
minutes into the video, President Peters turned over the meeting to
Council-member Griffith regarding the appointment of the city’s new Finance
Director.
In
his opening remarks, Mr. Griffith states that staff in the Finance Department are
anxious for a new department head and he, Griffith, agreed that it was way past
time for the appointment of a new Finance Director.
I
would certainly agree. Former Finance Director Karen Alger announced her
intention to step down on March 28, 2016. Mrs. Alger’s last day was the end of
June, and Council was only now about 11 days later going to appoint a new
Finance Director.
After
what Mr. Griffith described as a very rigorous process, he recommended the
appointment of Laura Brown as North Canton’s new Finance Director.
A
question I have was this decision arrived at during the previous Executive
Session? After all, that was one of the topics of the Executive Session held
earlier.
After a
unanimous vote by Council (31:40 minutes into the video) to appoint Ms. Brown,
she graciously responded from the audience to the vote of confidence by members
of Council.
Councilwoman
Werren humorously asked, when is Ms. Brown starting?
The question
of when Ms. Brown will assume her Finance Director duties was not answered.
32:45 minutes
into the video, Council moved on to new business to discuss newly introduced
legislation for a first reading.
Five pieces
of legislation came up for a vote, with three pieces passing on an emergency.
Ordinance No.
47-2016 was the first piece of legislation that was discussed and it was given
its first reading.
33:50 minutes
into the video, Ordinance No. 48-2016 was discussed. It was passed on an
emergency on its first reading.
36:10 minutes
into the video, Ordinance No. 49-2016 was discussed. This legislation would
change North Canton Zoning Code to allow residents to park on a prepared
surface in front of their homes and allow use of up to forty percent of the
front yard for a residential parking surface.
I urge
residents who want to preserve the orderliness and value of their properties to
contact their Councilperson and speak against this proposal.
Councilmember
Werren (37:30 minutes) showed her lack of knowledge of the legislative process
regarding legislation affecting zoning when she inquired about passing
Ordinance No. 49-2016 on an emergency. Practically all members of Council, in
unison, told her that cannot be done.
Mrs. Werren
has been on Council for nearly FOUR YEARS!
Apparently
Mrs. Werren is a slow learner in her legislative roll as a member of City
Council.
40:00 minutes
into the video, Ordinance No. 50-2016 was discussed. It was passed on an
emergency on its first reading.
42:00 minutes
into the video, Ordinance No. 51-2016 was discussed. It was passed on an
emergency on its first reading.
The
legislation called for the expenditure of $325,000 to replace a large culvert
that runs on the east side of Price Park. city Engineer Jim Benkos gave a seventeen-
minute presentation to Council to explain the project. The presentation runs
until 59:20 minutes into the video.
1:01:30
minutes into the video, the legislative portion of the meeting concluded and
Council reports began. At this point, city officials seated at the dais were given
time to present remarks on any subject of their choosing.
-
Councilmember
Fonte asked if Maple Street Commerce, the owners of the Hoover District,
could make a presentation to Council on the timeline to finish the renovations
that have been on-going for several years.
Mr.
Fonte characterized the Hoover District activity as “that mess across the
street.”
-
Stephanie Werren
offered praises to the City’s Code enforcement office for their efforts regarding
abatement of nuisances in the City.
-
Marcia Kiesling
talked about the 4th of July races and how much fun they were.
-
Dan Griffith
offered praises to the North Canton Jaycees regarding the 4th of
July fireworks and the music as well as praises and thanks to many others.
-
Mark Cerreta did
not have much to comment on.
-
Doug Foltz
queried the city Engineer about the city’s street paving project for this fall.
I do
not understand why the city waits until snow is flying in the air every year before
the paving of streets begins in North Canton.
-
Jeff Peters
discussed the concerns raised by M.J. Albacete who spoke during public speaks.
Mr. Peters explained that it was possibly his oversight in not responding to Mr.
Albacete’s grant request.
-
Law Director Tim
Fox at 1:11:01 minutes in the video addressed the weekend death of former Law
Director Roy Batista and provided a little history of Mr. Batista’s service to
the city of North Canton.
Mr. Fox noted
for the record that on September 14, 2003, the Repository did a detailed story on Mr. Batista when he retired as
Law Director for the second time.
-
City Administrator
Mike Grimes commented on his experience working with Mr. Batista. Mr. Grimes then
gave an update on Dogwood Pool reporting that the diving board was installed
and available for use and that the slide was installed but is awaiting
installation of a waterline before it is open for use.
There was no
report of the added cost to tap into the water service line for the pool to
provide water for the water slide. Mr. Grimes also reported that the water
temperature at the pool has been warmer.
At a June
27, 2016, Council meeting, Mayor Held revealed
that the Dogwood Pool complex itself now has inadequate electric service (as a
result of the $850,000 upgrade) and consequently, the pool heater cannot
operate at full capacity.
This will require a new electric service entrance and additional
expenditure of tax dollars on top of the $850,000 reportedly spent to date to
correct.
Mr. Grimes also commented on the retirement of former Finance Director
Karen Alger.
1:18:25 minutes into the video, Council
President Peters made a motion to move the August 15, 2016, Council of the
Whole meeting to the same night as the August 22, 2016, Council meeting.
The motion was approved by a unanimous vote, thus giving
members of Council an extended summer recess.
1:19:16 minutes into the video, the Council
meeting was adjourned.
The video continued to run until 1:26:13
minutes capturing post-Council activities.
Thank you,
Chuck Osborne
