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 Council of the Whole meeting held on September 19, 2016.
https://youtu.be/PKkd3t8Ofrw
Description of Video:
September
19, 2016 – North Canton City Council Committee of the Whole meeting lasted
approximately one hour and thirty-five minutes.
The video captures pre-meeting
activity with the actual Council of the Whole meeting commencing at the 6:30
mark.
The
agenda for the September 19, 2016, meeting can be reviewed at the following link:
Council President Peters calls the
meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. After the Clerk of Council takes attendance,
President Peters asks for a motion and a second to excuse Councilmember
Stephanie Werren as she did not answer Roll Call.
This is Councilmember Stephanie Werren’s
third absence this year. Mrs. Werren has also failed to attend meetings of
North Canton Council on April 11, 2016, and on June 27, 2016.
Lack of attendance of attendance at North
Canton City Council meetings by members of Council has no impact on the $600.00
per month they are paid.
7:20 Mrs. Kiesling is given the floor
to begin discussion of Ordinance No. 52-2016. This is the discussion of the
City’s Community Improvement Area (CRA) which has been going on since April of
this year.
The City’s CRA discussions began
earlier this year in April with a proposal to expand the boundaries of the City’s
CRA to encompass nearly the entire City.
Amid a vehement outcry over several
months from City residents, including the City’s former Mayor, Daryl Revoldt, Council
backed away from the proposed legislation at a June 13, 2016, meeting and killed
the proposed legislation, labeled as Ordinance No. 32-2016.
During those discussions earlier this
year, in addition to citizen concerns that expansion of the CRA program was
very bad for the City, it was discovered that CRA property tax abatements for
new construction had been given in direct violation of previous North Canton
ordinances.
Property tax abatements had only been
authorized for remodeling.
One of the property tax abatements, for
a new residential property, amounted to $30,660. This amount will likely grow higher
over the fifteen-year term of the abatement.
The
second property tax abatement was for a forty-unit apartment complex, called
North Ridge Place, amounted to $709,549. This amount will likely grow higher also
over the twelve-year term of the abatement.
City
officials have acknowledged there are problems with the illegal abatements.
Mayor
Held has vehemently tried to distance himself from the issue. At an August 22,
2016, Council meeting, Mayor Held calls the abatement to North Ridge apartments
“STUPID” at the 45:05 mark of the video.
Mayor
Held has a lot to say about the North Ridge Place abatements. Those remarks can be
heard and seen on a link to a video of the meeting (between the 38:45 mark and
45:05 mark).
At
a September 12, 2016, meeting of Council, Law Director Tim Fox advises Council
that earlier CRA ordinances have not been certified by the Ohio Department of
Development and that prior abatements could be deemed invalid.
The
Law Director’s remarks can be seen at the following link between the 49:20 mark
and the 52:20 mark of the video.
After Law Director Fox explained the
mess that the City of North Canton has created for itself with regard to the
City’s CRA, the sad saga continues as Councilmember Kiesling explains in her
opening remarks.
Mrs. Kiesling quickly discovers that
the map describing current boundaries of the City’s CRA is totally flawed and
she tosses it aside.
It should be explained here that
Council is attempting to correct an accumulation of errors contained in
ordinances passed in 2009 (Ordinance No. 107-2009) and again in 2010 (Ordinance
No. 5-2010) with the passage of Ordinance No. 52-2016 under discussion.
The problem is that the City’s Law
Director has crafted a very convoluted piece of legislation with which to
accomplish that end.
10:45 Mrs. Kiesling mistakenly states
that applicants can still apply for an abatement after the CRA legislation is
corrected.
How
would that be possible after Council has rescinded the ordinance under which it
would have been authorized?
The CRA discussion continues until the
37:00 mark.
After
the meeting, I suggested to Council President Peters that the City discontinue
the CRA program entirely.
Surprisingly,
Mr. Peters was in agreement that the program be dropped entirely.
Of
course, Mr. Peters stated this to me off the record. Will Mr. Peters follow
through with that position?
I
urge the public to listen to the entire CRA discussion.
37:50
Law Director Tim Fox speaks to proposed legislation that is entirely out of
this world.
It
is Law Director Fox’s proposal that future Public Hearings before the City’s
Planning Commission regarding Conditional Use Permits be conducted as an
Adjudicatory Hearing.
What
this would entail are the following:
1)
Any
and all comments made by speakers before the Planning Commission would have to
be sworn in.
2)
Anyone
contesting the application under consideration or contemplating a lawsuit on
the issue before the City’s Planning Commission would be required to also have
an attorney present at the meeting.
For over
fifty-five years North Canton residents have been able to
attend
a North Canton Planning Commission and present their concerns, questions, or
opposition on an issue before the Commission.
In fact, that is the very purpose of
the Public Hearings before the Commission.
It is the desire of Law Director Fox
to turn the Public Hearing into a legal proceeding at which he alone will
preside.
In layman’s terms, Law Director Fox
wants to be the Ringmaster of a Public Hearing that is turned into a Circus for
his own edification.
A good example of a Planning
Commission meeting where Law Director Tim Fox took control of the meeting and
inserted himself into the role, in my opinion, of presiding judge, is the
December 9, 2015, Planning Commission meeting.
A
link to that video is below.
The
December 9, 2015 – Planning Commission meeting was about a request for approval
to construct a Cell Tower at First Friends Church located in the vicinity of 55th
Street and Market Street.
Law Director Fox, in effect, commandeered
the entire nearly three hour meeting.
The entire discussion on the proposed
change to North Canton’s Zoning code to conduct Public Hearings for Conditional
Use Permits as Adjudicatory Hearings should be watched closely.
Councilmember Doug Foltz is the only
member of Council who was highly critical of this proposed amendment to the
City’s Zoning Code.
Law Director Fox pushes hard for this
change for thirty minutes. The discussion on that proposal concludes at 1:21:45.
Sadly,
Council sidesteps making a decision on this proposal, choosing instead to pass
a resolution sending this issue to the Planning Commission.
1:21:45
Council President Peters amends the agenda to briefly discuss Ordinance No. 49-2016
that was tabled the previous week.
This
was a proposal to allow residents to utilize up to forty percent of their front
yards for parking of automobiles.
Council
agreed to leave Ordinance No. 49-2016 tabled permanently. Regular attendees had
vehemently opposed this proposal on two grounds.
First,
it was a very bad idea.
Second,
Council was attempting to amend the City’s Zoning Code without seeking the
guidance of the City’s Planning Commission as required by the Zoning Code.
1:31:00
Council welcomes the City’s new Director of Permits and Inspection.
1:31:20 Council votes to adjourn the meeting.
The video continues to run until 1:34:12 capturing post
meeting activities.
Thank you,
Chuck
Osborne
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