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COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER I d like to welcome all of you to Massillon City Council for Tuesday, February 20, 2007. We have in attendance with us this evening: Mayor Cicchinelli, Auditor Hamit, Law Director Stergios and Terri Argent from our Health Department. On the wall to your left are agendas for anyone who wishes to follow the meeting. Also under item #5 on the agenda is where the public can speak on any item that appears on the agenda and then under item #17 is where the public can speak on any item that does not appear on the agenda. I d also like to remind anyone with a cell phone please turn it off or turn it very far down. We also have in the audience a young man from Jackson High School government class Nick Steiner. 1. ROLL CALL Roll call for the evening found the following Council Members present: Tim Bryan, Kathy Catazaro-Perry, Jayne Ferrero, Chuck Maier, Ron Mang, Paul Manson, Dave McCune, Donnie Peters and Tony Townsend. Thus giving a roll call vote of 9 present. 2. INVOCATION COUNCILMAN MCCUNE – Gave the invocation for tonight. 3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE COUNCILMAN MCCUNE – Chairman of the Public Utilities Committee led those in attendance in the Pledge of Allegiance. 4. READING OF THE JOURNAL COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Madame Clerk are the minutes of the previous meeting transcribed and open for public viewing (THEY ARE) Are there any additions or corrections to the minutes. If not the minutes stand approved as written. 5. REMARKS OF DELEGATIONS AND CITIZENS TO MATTERS ON THE AGENDA 6. INTRODUCTION OF ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS ORDINANCE NO. 26 2007 BY: PARKS AND RECREATION COMMITTEE Authorizing the Safety Service Director to advertise/receive sealed bids and enter into contract for chemicals and fertilizer needed for The Legends of Massillon Golf Course. COUNCILMAN BRYAN Each year we approve an ordinance similar to this one just allows our safety service director to advertise and receive sealed bids for chemicals and fertilizer for the golf course COUNCILMAN BRYAN moved for suspension of the rules and passage, seconded by Councilman Maier. The rules were suspended by a roll call vote of 9 yes. ORDINANCE NO. 26 – 2007 WAS PASSED BY A ROLL CALL VOTE OF 9 YES. ORDINANCE NO. 27 2007 BY: FINANCE COMMITTEE Authorizing the Safety Service Director to advertise/receive sealed bids and enter into contract for various items needed for the various departments within the city. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY Ordinance No. 27 is going to allow the Director of Public Safety and Service to go out to bid advertise and receive bids for the street, wastewater treatment plant and the golf course and miscellaneous items that the departments will need throughout the year. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY moved for suspension of the rules and passage, seconded by Councilman Peters. The rules were suspended by a roll call vote of 9 yes. ORDINANCE NO. 27 – 2007 WAS PASSED BY A ROLL CALL VOTE OF 9 YES. 7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS - NOTHING 8. PETITIONS AND GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS LETTER FROM OHIO DIVISION OF LIQUOR CONTROL REGARDING A TRANSFER OF LIQUOR LICENSE FROM THOMAS B GALLION DBA TEE CEES MAIN STREET MARKET 2304 W MAIN ST MASSILLON OHIO 44647 TO MARSHS MAIN MART LLC DBA MARSHS MAIN MART 2304 MAIN AVE W MASSILLON OHIO 44647 COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Mr. McCune this is very routine, but do you have a copy of this? (Yes, I do.) 9. BILLS, ACCOUNTS AND CLAIMS 1. INDEPENDENT – $49.00 COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY I move that we pay the bill, seconded by Councilman Bryan. Roll call vote of 9 yes to pay the bill. 10. REPORTS FROM CITY OFFICIALS A). POLICE CHIEF SUBMITS MONTHLY REPORT FOR JANUARY 2007. COPY FILE 11. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Committee meetings will be next Monday, February 26th starting at 5:45pm. Anything from the committee heads any resolutions, any requests? COUNCILMAN MAIER Yes, I have asked Officer Meade to prepare a list of tow truck information that we were going to look at for the first meeting in March. I would like to discuss it at the next committee meeting there’s been a few glitches and I would like to bring those up so everyone knows what’s going on. COUNCILMAN MCCUNE – I’m going to have the trades and labor people in here to talk about a PLA, everyone’s aware of it you’ve had an opportunity to look it over. We’ll begin that process at the next work session. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Alright, I would suggest you both coordinate with Mr. Bryan so we know roughly who’s going first, who’s going second. COUNCILMAN MAIER I won’t have any people here so it’ll just be a written report. RESOLUTIONS AND REQUESTS OF COUNCIL MEMBERS 13. CALL OF THE CALENDAR - NOTHING 14. THIRD READING ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS ORDINANCE NO. 11 2007 BY: STREETS, HIGHWAYS, TRAFFIC AND SAFETY Vacating a portion of a certain public alley located between Tremont Avenue SW and Lincoln Way West running east/west between 6th Street SW and 5th Street SW. COUNCILMAN PETERS I’m going to ask that we table this until the next work session. COUNCILMAN PETERS moved to table Ordinance No. 11 – 2007 until the next work session, seconded by Councilman Townsend. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER You mean the next council meeting? COUNCILMAN PETERS Yes, table it until the next council meeting and we’ll discuss it at the next work session. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER tabled until March 5th. Roll call vote of 9 yes to table until March 5th 2007. ORDINANCE NO. 11 – 2007 WAS TABLED UNTIL MARCH 5, 2007. RESOLUTION NO. 1 2007 BY: HEALTH, WELFARE AND BLDG REGULATIONS Authorizing Law Director to enter into professional legal services contract on behalf of the city related to claims against several lead-based paint and lead manufactures in order to remediate the hazards of lead to the city. COUNCILWOMAN FERRERO Tonight we’re going to be voting on this resolution and at our work session everyone was interested in what some static’s from the health department. I think you may have all received that today on your email and had a chance to look that over. Mrs. Argent is here from our health department if you have nay questions. Also at our last work session our law director gave us a little bit of information that he felt was important and some guidance as to what he would maybe recommend that we do. So he is here with us as well; so if anybody has any questions for either of those people. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY Mrs. Argent can I ask you a few questions about your spastics and how you feel about the city of Massillon as far as do you think our citizens are in jeopardy of having lead poisoning in their homes. What is your recommendation? TERRI ARGENT – Well, Jayne called me about a week ago and asked me to look into the lead issue get some facts together and come before council because you may have some questions. So I’ll admit I was feeling one way about this and when I started digging into the facts and the statistics and everything about the dangers of lead I’ve done a complete 180 and turned around on my thinking about this. I didn’t realize how high the lead danger was out there until I started getting into the data and everything. The first fact, you have your lead fact sheets that we all of council got those. Just from the 2000 census 82% of the homes in Massillon were built before 1979 which means most of those unless they’ve been remediate probably have lead risks and hazards attached to them. You can go on and on down the lead fact sheet and I went over this with the Board of Health this afternoon and they’re pretty much in agreement with me if there’s something that we can do or we need to do to help the community and especially help the children who usually need to be tested they need to be tested between the ages of 1 and 2 for lead poisoning then we should do it. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY Would you clarify for council Jayne had asked me last week at the work session about you know children being tested and I learned myself today that children that are on Medicaid are mandated to be tested. TERRI ARGENT – Yes, its required by law to check children between the ages of 1 and 2 if they receive Medicaid. It’s required either by the health department or if they go to a doctor by a doctor, but they have to be tested. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY But insurance its not mandated is that correct? TERRI ARGENT – Actually it is because we’re in what’s called a high risk area they go by zip codes that was determined by the OSU Department of Biostatistics. Because we are in a high risk area all children between the ages of 1 and 2 should be tested. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY Only in homes that were built… TERRI ARGENT – No, everyone at 44646 and 44647 is required to be tested. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY Thank you, I needed that clarified for myself. COUNCILMAN MANSON Yes, first of all you’re saying they should all be tested? (Yes, its required.) Okay, who pays that cost right now as it stands? TERRI ARGENT – Well, if they come to the health department that’s a free test we pay for that it’s about $10.00 for the lab test itself. If they go to doctors sometimes its covered now if they’re on Medicaid its probably covered by Medicaid or if they have health insurance it will be covered by health insurance. COUNCILMAN MANSON Okay, then I have another question. Number 6 on the lead fact sheet it says “Stark County Regional Planning Commission estimates 1999 total average cost per housing unit for lead controls and abatement was $12,893.00, 2001 Massillon Community Development abated 9 homes have we done any since then? TERRI ARGENT – We have and I don’t have those numbers I put the 9 in there because that’s the most we’ve ever abated in one year. COUNCILMAN MANSON Where does come from? TERRI ARGENT – That comes from the Stark County Community Development from the Regional Planning Commission. They turned in an application for lead control grant in 1999 I didn’t go completely through all the stages for approval but they did turn in a grant and from the grant application is where I got a lot of those statistics. COUNCILMAN MANSON Do you know if there’s been any lawsuits by say a government entities against these lead companies in the past? Do you have any knowledge? TERRI ARGENT – No, I don’t just what I read about Rhode Island. That’s all that I know of. COUNCILMAN MAIER Yes, do you know if the lead problems are coming all from paint or are there other issues out there? TERRI ARGENT – There are other sources that lead can come from. The number one that when we test and when we abate the homes the number one problem we see is lead paint. There’s also lead from when we used to use leaded fuel. A lot of lead is found in the soils a lot of times along major roadways like Route 30 that kind of thing when you get a major highway. You can also get lead from roofing materials a lot of times contain lead in the past, antique toys still contain lead paint. I can give you a whole list but that’s… COUNCILMAN MAIER Isn’t it true that there’s probably lead plumbing in quite a few of the homes in Massillon. TERRI ARGENT – It’s possible I have had a call in to the water company to see about those pipes and they haven’t returned my calls. COUNCILMAN MANG Yes, do you know if the you refer here only to the housing that was done. Do you know if any of the ones that have been tested in the city of Massillon of course you wouldn’t be able to tell where the lead came from. I mean you wouldn’t if was lead that may have been from gasoline from streets or highways or whatever. Is this I see you have a total of $970 now was that our cost or was that the cost for 2001 was this $970? TERRI ARGENT – No, what the $970 is that’s the cost of when you have a child with an elevated blood level that’s an estimate of the cost. (For one child?) Yes, its about $40 for lab tests on that child, nursing and consultation if they show a high elevated blood level is about $330 and then for the actual lead hazard inspection of the home it runs about $600. COUNCILMAN MANG Okay, so what has been our cost then? TERRI ARGENT – That is our cost if they don’t have any insurance. COUNCILMAN MANG What has our health department had to provide out of our pocket? Another words we’re talking about $970 but you’re telling me that’s what it is to test a child and nursing and consultations. Now what has our cost been? TERRI ARGENT – Well, the $40 if they have insurance their insurance pays for that if they don’t the health department pays for the $40 for that. COUNCILMAN MANG Alright, so how much has the health department paid to date? TERRI ARGENT – I don’t have that figure. COUNCILMAN MANG Has it been a large amount? TERRI ARGENT – You mean per year or child or… COUNCILMAN MANG Well, I guess our figures here are based on 2001 and you know have we in the last 5 years or whatever has it been a cost to the city health department a $1,000.00 or $10,000.00 or $20,000.00 or … TERRI ARGENT – Well, for the last 5 years it’s probably been I’m just going to have to guess it’s probably been maybe $100. COUNCILMAN MANG So the actually cost to our department as far as you know has been about $100? TERRI ARGENT – Yes, that’s a guess, but I don’t have that figure with me. COUNCILMAN MANG Thank you. COUNCILMAN MCCUNE I would like for our law director to please come forward. Mr. Stergios, I would just like for you to share with the public since we are on the air ways tonight what you shared with us at the work session last week in regard to this lead paint issue. COUNCILMAN PETERS And I won’t yell at you this time. LAW DIRECTOR STERGIOS – You have to, what part I guess is… COUNCILMAN MCCUNE Well, I guess how do you feel personally or in your position about going forward with this case? LAW DIRECTOR STERGIOS – Well, I think it’s a contentious issue and it’s a tough call. I mean it will definitely impact if we go forward with it I think it will impact on the time that employees of the city have to spend with regard to the case itself. I also feel that in spite of that consumption of time that it you know is something that is important to the community at large that if there is something here that we should be compensated for or should pursue to protect our children or if we believe that it will protect our children and enhance our community that we should do it. But I think I also said I don’t get a vote on it either and you know it will have an impact from time consumption of with regard to employees. I think Terri might have said it perfectly she might have thought one thing but when she started looking I think she decided something else that the potential to benefit us as a whole out weighs the consumption of time or cost of employee time to get involved in it. But nothing’s a sure thing its just because we get in it doesn’t mean that and all the attorneys the one thing they did agree on is the case in Rhode Island started in ’99 and its still going on today regardless of what side you’re on. We might all be gone by the time this case is concluded. So but it is a tough call. COUNCILMAN MCCUNE Would you say that overall that should this case come to a positive outcome that our involvement and the time spent would be minuscule for the benefit for the people that we represent? LAW DIRECTOR STERGIOS – Well, that’s a hard question to answer, but my gut reaction would be I think it would be. COUNCILMAN MCCUNE Thank you, I have no further questions. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY Mr. Stergios, do you know why we’re not including any of the plumbing companies in this? You know, I didn’t realize that lead was in our pipes as well until I started reading up on it and I was just wondering why are we just looking at Sherwin Williams and not the plumbing manufacturer. LAW DIRECTOR STERGIOS – I can’t answer that I can say that there are a number of different paint companies that are included in it. Its just I think Sherwin Williams has been the lead defendant in them all. But I can’t answer at to why the plumbing people are not included. COUNCILMAN PETERS Mr. Stergios, in a calm manner tonight I will reiterate what I said last Monday at the work session and I’ll give you a chance to answer this. Is it indeed a fact whether or not the City of Massillon enters into this agreement and the lawsuit goes forward with the other cities that doing it. Do you really believe that we will not benefit just because we not in the lawsuit? LAW DIRECTOR STERGIOS – Yes. COUNCILMAN PETERS And why would that be? LAW DIRECTOR STERGIOS – I mean because we’re not… COUNCILMAN PETERS If everybody in the United States did not sue the tobacco companies and they won that suit and yet people that wasn’t in the suit still benefited from it. I guess is my theory. LAW DIRECTOR STERGIOS – I don’t I mean I don’t know if that’s true or not but I know that Ohio was in the tobacco lawsuit as a state is my recollection. But you know… LAW DIRECTOR STERGIOS – I can’t answer that I don’t know if we’re mixing apples and oranges or not. I really don’t know. COUNCILMAN PETERS Well, okay, that’s fine at least you tried. LAW DIRECTOR STERGIOS – Fair question. COUNCILMAN MANSON I guess my question’s somewhat the same. If we would vote no on this and not take part in the lawsuit if there was a ruling favorable to these cities at a later date could we come back in and file our own suit or participate in another suit maybe with some of these other cities that have chosen to sign on to this. LAW DIRECTOR STERGIOS – That might largely depend on what happens in the legislature with regard to the legislation where they tried to prohibit cities from having or even participating in this type of claim when under a public nuisance theory and that’s up in the air right now also. So I mean it could go either way. COUNCILMAN MANSON But if that ruling goes against the cities then its not going to matter then right? LAW DIRECTOR STERGIOS – They’ll still be fighting about it. No matter who loses would be appealing it’s a very difficult question to answer with any certainty other than there’s probably a distinct possibility of if you stay out of it and the rest of them win you’re not you potentially may not benefit in any way. Unless somehow you know anything can happen maybe the paint companies will still come to the table and you know as they said they’ve been trying to do things to help the health departments and help track children. Again, you get into factually disputes as to what’s been done and what hasn’t been done in the past and we don’t want to get into that here again tonight. But and I’m not saying it as to if we don’t get in well I don’t know. I think that would be a risky way to look at it that if they win later on you might be able to benefit. But that’s my own opinion. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY Mr. Stergios, I just have one more question after what you’ve just said. If we don’t go in the lawsuit this time and they win why couldn’t we file at that time? LAW DIRECTOR STERGIOS – One of the reasons is who knows what’s going to happen with this fight in the legislature as to whether it’s even a viable claim right now. Second is the passage of time always makes things even more difficult down the road or they may get a new legislature in and legislate it out of existence. Again, you just don’t know what will happen year to year. I mean it’s like gambling I guess if you take your chances at maybe it will still be a viable claim in a year of five years it’s very impossible for any of us to say I think. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY Mr. President, I also wanted to see if the Mayor would come up and tell us his thoughts on the lawsuit. COUNCILMAN MAIER Yes, I just had a kind of follow up question with the law director. I guess if paint is not the only lead product in the city that’s could be a hazard why don’t we sue the petroleum industry and the plumbing industry and all that stuff. I guess to single out one just is a little confusing for me. So… LAW DIRECTOR STERGIOS – Well, I think the litature and what we do know shows that its predominantly comes from lead paint used in homes and that is what was presented to us and I didn’t really make that decision that is what came and I felt an obligation to give it to you guys to see what your thoughts were on whether to proceed or not. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Is there anything for the law director? Mr. Mayor, we’ve had a request for you to come forward. MAYOR CICCHINELLI – As all of you know I did sign the legislation request normally I would be opposed to any kind of litigation or any kind of lawsuit because I do feel that we’re hear in 2007 and believe me this is going to go on and on and on and on and the legal bills will be increasing. I do however share Terri mentioned as far as the children I think we somewhat have an obligation at least at the beginning for the betterment of our community to look at it and to participate in the lawsuit because of the amount of homes within our community that have this kind of paint. You don’t know what’s going to happen once you file the lawsuit. So I think you all know that and even by passing this legislation there’s still I believe and I’m not an attorney I’m sure Perry’s going to have to answer this but time that we could decide to drop it. I was a little concerned and I did share this with Perry with Akron as to why they one of the original initiators of the idea why they have pulled out and getting some feedback on that. But its actually just it’s a percentage game and if you’re going to go into court its going to be hard to decide who’s going to prevail. But I do think that we’re obligated for our citizens. COUNCILMAN MCCUNE Mr. Mayor, in the statistics it says that 82% of the homes in Massillon were built pre 1979 which is a significant portion of the housing in Massillon. I don’t know you won’t know the exact answer to this, but would you feel that it would be safe to say that 82% a large majority of that would be even pre-1955 homes? MAYOR CICCHINELLI – It would be hard I mean we could find that information out for you. Remember the statistics that Terri has reflects the 2000 federal census which that information was gathered in 1999. Since that time there’s been quite a few housing units built, but it hasn’t skewed the numbers that much. So yeah, I think the percentage would of course increase if you go back into the 50’s and you’d still have 20 some years. I do think that those numbers are probably pretty accurate. I mean you can look at the housing statistics that I provide to you, you can look at that and see the number of housing units that have been built. So the other point I would like to make and I know I received one phone call from a business person and it did it stopped and made me think as far as whether we want to even pursue this. Because one of things that I think we prided ourselves in Massillon is we are not we’re very business friendly and we’re not anti-business and we certainly don’t want to do anything that’s counter productive to our economic development policies. I had to sort of think about that and how this is portrayed in our community. I think I’m over that; I mean sometimes it’s necessary to go to court that’s what government is all about. So… COUNCILMAN BRYAN – When their done asking the Mayor questions I have thought of a question I would like to ask Mrs. Argent. I thought I heard you say that all children had to be screened? TERRI ARGENT – Yes, the children in our two zip codes have to be screened between the age of 1 and 2. COUNCILMAN BRYAN – Oh, between the ages of 1 and 2. TERRI ARGENT – Yes, sir. COUNCILMAN BRYAN – Okay, because I’m reading here on your statistics that last year 820 children were screened and three were found to have some blood levels above what they’re supposed to get rechecked. So understand between certain levels then you have to test them again in six months and then over certain other levels then you have to do the home inspections. Is that right? TERRI ARGENT – That’s right. Some of the children that we actually test when they’re young we follow them for years. We follow them clear up to six years of age and that’s just to make sure that the lead is getting out of their system and things are getting taken care of the way they should be. But between 1 and 2 they have to be tested the health department does test them between 1 and 6. COUNCILMAN BRYAN – The year before in 2004 there was just one child that had any elevated lead in their blood and the year before that there was 7 and then we don’t have the records from 2002; 4 in 2001. So they’re not as a percentage wise they’re less than 1% of the children tested which is I don’t know what percentage of all the children between 1 and 2 actually get tested. I suppose… TERRI ARGENT – 1.9. COUNCILMAN BRYAN – Do you get most of the children tested? TERRI ARGENT – Yes, what it is the doctor actually sees more than we do at the health department. We only see usually Medicaid and lower incomes. So the doctors are the ones that most of the times I would say not always but recommends testing. Now we would like to see of course its all a matter of money we would like to see a lot more children get tested, but the doctors what they have to do is they have to recommend testing to the families and then we find a large number of families don’t go through with the testings we don’t know why. So one goal at the health department is always to try to get more kids to come in to get tested but that can be difficult. A lot of people too tell us that they’d rather not get tested though it’s required so we do it but they’re worried about what’s going to happen if their landlord finds out if the child has high blood levels what’s going to happen. There’s a lot of fears out there about it. COUNCILMAN BRYAN – My last question then is has to do with the funding for this $900 that you say it costs per child that has the high blood levels. Is that city funding or do you get the Ohio Department of Health funding for that? TERRI ARGENT – No, that would be our funding from the health department. Now sometimes the lead hazard inspection the $600 that’s down there sometimes HUD pays for some of that or all of it if you know depending on the income of the family. But the $40 lab test the health department pays for that and the $330 nursing consultation and education that’s basically what the nurses do that’s salary funds and that kind of thing. So the city pays for everything up to the $600 depending on whether or not HUD will accept that as a payment or not. COUNCILMAN BRYAN – The Ohio Department of Health has a goal of pretty much eliminating lead poisoning by 2010 is that right? (Yes) What do you think about that do you that’s a realistic goal are they going to be able to achieve that because that’s just three years from now? TERRI ARGENT – That’s for the numbers that we get coming in the health department if we can increase that again you’re looking at money. We don’t have the money for abatement it costs about this is an old figure $12,893.00 to abate a home. Where does that money from without grants possibly or some other place where does that money come from to abate those homes? Until the lead in those homes is abated you’re still going to see children being infected and you know being contaminated with lead. So it’s hard to say when it’s going to happen; but you’ve got to have a goal. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER We’ll start at the right and go around one more time. Mr. Mang? COUNCILMAN MANG Yes, I guess I misunderstood something. It’s not mandatory that these kids be tested is that correct? TERRI ARGENT – No, it is it’s required by law for anyone in those two zip codes to be checked between the ages of 1 and 2. COUNCILMAN MANG Okay, where did we determine how do we know that every child is being tested? TERRI ARGENT – We don’t. We don’t the statistics we have are the children… I’m sorry… COUNCILMAN MANG Okay, so any other words when they go to school does it is it something that they have to check off that I was tested for lead? (No.) So it’s not mandatory then? TERRI ARGENT – It’s mandatory but it’s not regulated. COUNCILMAN MANG I guess I don’t follow that part. If its not regulated it’s very difficult to say it’s mandatory. So the figures that we have really are based on kids that have been tested voluntarily. TERRI ARGENT – Right or they go into the doctor or they come into the health department and we test them. COUNCILMAN MANG They go into a doctor or whatever. So we don’t really know if there’s 500 more or a 1,000 more out there one way or the other. We don’t know that. All we know that this is the number of children that have either gone to a doctor or who come to the health department. (That’s right.) Thank you. COUNCILMAN TOWNSEND – The 14 children that were found to have elevated blood levels do you know which area they came from? TERRI ARGENT – That’s from, no, that’s from Massillon, but there is a map on the I’m trying to think where I got from on the census that show the lower income areas and that tends to be where the higher numbers come from. But, no I don’t know exactly where those are from. COUNCILMAN PETERS When did the testing become mandatory what year? TERRI ARGENT – I don’t know that. I don’t’ have that with me. COUNCILMAN PETERS So we all could have it. (Oh, yeah.) Oh, boy. COUNCILWOMAN FERRERO The one thing that I wanted to ask about was on your lead fact sheet; number 7 where you said that the total cost to Massillon Health Department would probably be about $1,550.00. Can you just elaborate on that just a little bit just to explain that what I think this means that you’re saying that the total cost that we would encumber as a department would be $1,550.00 if we were part of this lawsuit? Is that correct? TERRI ARGENT – Yes, that’s just a rough estimate I did as far as salary and time. I’m figuring it would take us about a week and a half to copy all of the files that we have and that also the Canton Health Department has. I put that on here because we do contract the Canton Health Department for the home inspection and they have a person qualified for that. So to copy all of Canton’s files that pertain to Massillon and our files and then its Canton charges $.10 per page for copies and for our own files and the price of paper I came up with about $1,550.00 for the actual work to get this case prepared. COUNCILWOMAN FERRERO Thank you. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY Mrs. Argent, just to piggyback Jayne’s question then. What about going to court what about depositions, what about you know time to support the lawsuit? TERRI ARGENT – I have never done that before so I don’t know how long that will take. I can’t guess that figure, I don’t know. COUNCILWOMAN FERRERO Okay, well, I know for one that I have read mounds of paperwork and I thank all the people that have come and presented their case to us. I will be voting yes on this at this time. COUNCILWOMAN FERRERO moved to bring Resolution No. 1 – 2007 forward for passage, seconded by Councilman McCune. RESOLUTION NO. 1 – 2007 WAS PASSED BY A ROLL CALL VOTE OF 7 YES, 2 NO. PETERS AND MANG VOTED NO. .SECOND READING ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS ORDINANCE NO. 16 2007 BY: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Rezoning a tract of land from RM – 1 Multiple Family Resident to B – 1 Local Business. The applicant is Andrew Oser. COUNCILMAN MANG Second reading, public hearing will be March 5th at 7:00pm. This is for the rezoning of parcel of land between 21st Street SE and 22nd Street SE for multi family to B-1 local business. ORDINANCE NO. 2 – 2007 WAS GIVEN SECOND READING. ORDINANCE NO. 18 2007 BY: ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE Authorizing Safety Service Director to advertise for and receive sealed bids and enter into contract with the lowest and best bidder for the Harsh Avenue Sanitary Sewer Relocation Project. COUNCILMAN MANSON Yes, we had a lot of discussion over the last two weeks on this. This is a portion of sewer that would be under the new athletic building to be built upon Massillon High School, Washington High School. The only question I’ve had so far is do we have any other sewer line problems in the city that needs attention right now. Last Friday I talked to our engineer he came in one day last week and we discussed that. Mr. Mang, you asked the question and he said that he has nothing that he feels is hot or hot button problem right now. So my intention is they want to get this out to bid and they want to get this building moving so my intention is to waive the rules this evening and bring this forward for a vote. COUNCILMAN MANSON moved for suspension of the rules and passage, seconded by Councilwoman Ferrero. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Seconded Mr. Mang? COUNCILMAN MANG No discussion please. The only comment would be in fact we have other situations that do pose a problem to us and have posed a problem to us that this body feels also that those need to be corrected and we will find the money to do those. In absence of the engineer being here I take your word that he doesn’t feel we have anything, but my vote of course would be the thoughts that this council also would support something of that would require some sewer work that has caused us some problems. COUNCILMAN MAIER Yes, I would like to abstain from voting on this ordinance because of the connection with my employment. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Alright, we’ll get to that when the discussion is finished. Is there anyone else’s comments or questions? COUNCILMAN MANSON The only thing I’d like to say again is Mr. Mang, I talked to him Friday and that was exactly what I asked him and I asked him to look and if he had anything to get it to me if he couldn’t be here. I feel confident there’s no problems I don’t think the Mayor is there any sewer problems out there that you know of? COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Mr. Manson, would you like to call the Mayor forward? COUNCILMAN MANSON Sure. Do you know of any hot problems as far as sewers in town or anything that we need to relocate or anything right now? MAYOR CICCHINELLI – As far as hot issues, no, Mr. Mang, my suggestion is if there are any areas within your ward or within the city that you feel should be brought to the administration’s attention please do that. I was participating in that conversation with Mr. Manson and Mr. Dylewski and Mr. Manson asked him specifically “are there any urgent sanitary sewer problems urgent projects that need immediate attention” and he said “no”. COUNCILMAN BRYAN – I move to excuse Councilman Maier from voting on the ordinance due to his employment with the school district, seconded by Councilman Manson. Roll call vote of 8 yes to excuse Councilman Maier. Roll call vote of 8 yes to suspend the rules. ORDINANCE NO. 18 – 2007 WAS PASSED BY A ROLL CALL VOTE OF 8 YES. 16. NEW AND MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS COUNCILMAN MANG Yes, I’d like to ask the Mayor to come to the podium please. You have no idea what this is about? Out of my hand here is something I think it’s very worth wild and I think council should be aware of from PIRHL. I think maybe it would be nice if you elaborated on how this happened and how we were good fortune to be able to proceed with the project that had the full support of council back in January? MAYOR CICCHINELLI – Yeah, Mr. Mang was referring to a letter that you all should have received concerning a multi family development for senior citizens scheduled to be built within the city. If you remember there were two applications one was for multi family and the other was for single family different companies. The single family project which was Ballinger Estates II with 30 more additional single family housing was approved; this project was not approved. What this is actually telling you is they’re going to re-file again. So they just wanted to let council and the administration know they’re intent. They’re going to file for state tax credits and the Ohio Housing Finance Agency and I’m sure if this body would at the proper time if need be pass another resolution in support of it. But that’s what this senior project is all about they’re going to re-file and then later on in the year it’ll be determined whether we get, they get approval for these 60 units. They’re to be located off of Walnut Road close to the head start facility. That’s the site that was chosen; so this is just sort of a re-application. COUNCILMAN MANG Thank you, Mr. Mayor. COUNCILMAN MAIER Yes, I’d like to have the Mayor stay up there. As chairman of police and fire I see we’ve got a letter here reference to ambulance service in town. I was wondering if you could comment on this for us. MAYOR CICCHINELLI – Yes, there was a meeting this morning concerning this issue and I think everybody in agreement felt that the issue here most importantly is making sure all of our citizens and all the businesses within our corporate limits receive the same type of service. As all of you know we did experiment a little bit and we actually decided to include another ambulance company and primarily what we did and what we said was that they would cover the west side of our city and then the present company that has been providing this service for the citizens for a long time would do the east side. That’s basically it and I say that because there’s some overlap. But anyhow, what we would like to do is sort of step back from the situation because we don’t want issues like this to be misunderstood by our residents specifically. What I mean by that is with the Tremont Bridge closed down we want to make sure that the city is adequately covered especially that one or those one or two inner southwest neighborhoods. The goal here is to improve service if we can and so what we’re going to do is we’re going to keep the same system in place as it is now it will give us additional time and Mr. Maier and/or Mr. Peters will be involved with the formation of a committee to study the issue even more. It’s because we just want to make sure that we are doing the appropriate thing. The legislation that was passed by council recently it does give the administration a little bit of lee way in ironing out any wrinkles within the program. But the issue most importantly and or other things that came to our that we were made aware of that we did not know were going on. We believe in the American way of free enterprise and competition, but we don’t want to get into a situation where our citizens are sort of put in the middle. So what we would like to do is continue the same system. The letter that the chief wrote is pretty self explanatory as to what the procedures that are to be followed and that’s really all I’ll say. These are the proper procedures when there is an emergency the 9-1-1 system should be utilized and any variation from that as you can see Chief Burgasser and the administration has problems with that. So that all being said gives us time to work through the kinks and I think we’ll have something that would be beneficial to all concerned. We and I know both ward councilmen on the west side I know a lot of the residents like the idea of having that ambulance service there and that’s why we implemented it there. But we need to fine tune some things and its our goal to come up with a system that all residents have the same system. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Is that it? COUNCILMAN MAIER That’s pretty much it. Thank you. MAYOR CICCHINELLI – Can I say one more thing concerning the Tremont Viaduct? We passed out I know that’s an issue that a lot of us are concerned about. We passed a letter around earlier to give you a little idea Keith Dylewski our city engineer attended a meeting again with our county engineer and the county of course is the lead agent on this project. We’re going to do everything humanly possible to get that $.5 million dollars to $700,000 put back in the budget. It was taken out and we know with the change in Washington sometimes that happens. So we’re going to do everything possible to get those dollars reinstated. He does give you alternative if that isn’t going to happen one alternative is OPWC we’d prefer or he’d prefer not to do that county engineer. I also include just for your information the data sheet that will be sent to Washington from the county and that gives you all the details. So there are no questions as to the amount of the project or the details of the project. But we want to see this through as quickly as possible and I think we’re on the right track. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER I see a questioning look. Does everyone have a copy of this letter? MAYOR CICCHINELLI – Yeah, they all should have a copy. COUNCILMAN PETERS I went through all my mail I don’t have a copy of that. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Memo, City of Massillon Engineering Department... MAYOR CICCHINELLI – I passed them out earlier I’m sorry Mr. Peters, I don’t know what happened. Does everyone else… COUNCILMAN PETERS I really don’t I went through all my stuff and its not in there. MAYOR CICCHINELLI – Are you sure you didn’t spill coffee on it? COUNCILMAN PETERS I’m not sure of that. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Who does not have a copy of this memo? COUNCILMAN PETERS Dave had two. I’ll accept your apology now. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Everyone else has one? MAYOR CICCHINELLI – There they go they just haven’t gotten around yet. Okay, there we go. COUNCILMAN BRYAN I’m not sure I understand what our city engineer is saying here. He says “the potential exists…” let me back up “as for the timing, we could know relatively quickly if we will receive the request or it may take several months”. So it could be quickly or could be months; then he says “the potential exist that the project could be delayed for a period of approximately six months. Our only other option would be to apply for Ohio Public Works Commission for the funding. So if we do get the federal funding it could be help up for six months. Is that what he’s saying and if we have to go to OPWC it could be longer than six months? MAYOR CICCHINELLI – What he’s saying is in dealing with the federal government on earmarks its hard to say when they would actually take the issue up. The point being and this has been sort of the delay we’ve had a plan all along and we were trying to minimize the city’s exposure and that means city would not have to participate financially in this we were successful. That included a grant from the federal government which Congressman Regula got it was taken out. We don’t know if that action can be reversed quickly. What we mean by that we’re going to make contact the group’s going to make contact to reinstate it in a bill that will then hopefully be passed. So the reason he’s a little he doesn’t he was carefully how he worded it was because it might be the earmark might be put back in quickly or it might take a little to do that. We would like to have the dollars paid for by the earmark as previously proposed. But if that’s not going to happen then the other option is OPWC which the county really doesn’t want to do. But again, the goal of this administration and I’m sure this council is to minimize our exposure and that’s what we’ve been doing. We had a plan it was ready to go, but then with the changes in Washington and the cutting back of the budget that’s what happened and these kinds of projects were taken out of the budget all across the country. So we’re going to attempt to get that back in but that might take more time than what we think. So that’s why he was a little sketchy in how he wanted to word it because it might not take that long to get that put back in. It might take a little longer if it takes too long then we have the alternative of going to OPWC. That’s really what he’s talking about. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Are you finished Mr. Bryan? (Mmmm) Mr. Townsend, you have a question for the Mayor? COUNCILMAN TOWNSEND – Yes, I have something. Back in the summer there were four homes scheduled to be demolished back in July or August. I spoke with Mr. Saracena last week and he said that he ran out of funds. I’m not sure what he meant by that considering that it was stated that the homes were going to be torn down no matter what. So one has been torn down which is on 16th Street, but we still have one on Edwin SE, 11th Street SE and Lawton SE. MAYOR CICCHINELLI – Yes, we keep in mind, the monies that pay for demolition come out of CDBG so we’re in the fiscal calendar not a regular calendar. That means dollars run from June to July okay, and that I’m sorry July to June and that means the dollars start coming in summer. In fact, we just went over that list again with our building department we only have around $3,500 left in demolition. We have requested additional dollars or will request additional dollars for CDBG you’re going to see that in the budget that we’re going to propose to you shortly and that will take care of some those homes, Mr. Townsend. But it’s our policy that we do not tear homes down immediately because in some cases they can be saved. When all else fails they get knocked down. We don’t tear a lot of them per year, but yes, those homes as well as three or four other homes are on the list and the monies there’s only $3,500 left to do that. I understand we tore one of them down in the fourth ward and we intend on tearing the rest of them down when monies become available and that will be later on this year. .REMARKS OF DELEGATIONS AND CITIZENS TO MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA 18. ADJOURNMENT COUNCILMAN MCCUNE I move that we adjourn, seconded by all.
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