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COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER I d like to welcome all of you to Massillon City Council for Monday, August 6, 2007. We have in attendance with us this evening: Mayor Francis Cicchinelli, Auditor Bill Hamit, Law Director Perry Stergios and Parks & Rec. Superintendent Kenn Kaminski. 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. 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. Thus giving a roll call vote of 8 present. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Alright, I will mention that neither the myself nor the clerk has heard from Mr. Townsend. Mr. Bryan, we need a motion? COUNCILMAN BRYAN Okay, I move that we excuse Councilman Townsend, seconded by Councilman Manson. COUNCILMAN MANSON Oh, there he is. COUNCILMAN BRYAN Withdrawn. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER The motion is withdrawn. The roll call will reflect 9 members. We’ll give Mr. Townsend a moment because we’ll call on him for the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance whenever you’re ready Mr. Townsend. 2. INVOCATION COUNCILMAN TOWNSEND – Gave the invocation for tonight. 3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE COUNCILMAN TOWNSEND – Chairman of the Rules, Courts and Civil Service 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. 88 2007 BY: ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE Authorizing the Director of Public Service and Safety of the City of Massillon, Ohio, to enter into an agreement with A J Diana Sons for the disposal of leaves, and declaring an emergency. COUNCILMAN MANSON We discussed this at last week’s committee session. This is basically a routine how will I say it we’re re-signing a contract just like we had last year with them. They’re going to come and pick up the leaves that are at our composting sites. The cost will be $20,000.00 to the city. If there’s any questions from any of the council people I’ll try to get them answered I’ll get the mayor or somebody to answer them otherwise I’m going to ask to waive the rule tonight and move this forward. COUNCILMAN MANSON 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. 88 – 2007 WAS PASSED BY A ROLL CALL VOTE OF 9 YES. ORDINANCE NO. 89 2007 BY: FINANCE COMMITTEE Making a transfer in the 2007 appropriation of the 1206 Muni Motor Vehicle Fund, of the City of Massillon, Ohio, and declaring an emergency. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY Ordinance No. 89 – 2007 is a transfer back from liquidated purchase orders $162,548.00 we’re going to transfer from 1206.435.2750 to 1201.435.1865. If you have any questions the auditor is here and he can come up and answer our questions. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY moved for suspension of the rules and passage, seconded by Councilman Bryan. The rules were suspended by a roll call vote of 9 yes. ORDINANCE NO. 89 – 2007 WAS PASSED BY A ROLL CALL VOTE OF 9 YES. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER You’ll notice our Council Clerk’s speaking softly tonight its allergy season and I appreciate her being here wrestling through this. ORDINANCE NO. 90 2007 BY: FINANCE COMMITTEE Making certain appropriations from the unappropriated balance of the 1206 Muni Motor Vehicle Fund, General Fund, Waste Management Grant Fund, Home Health Fund and the Capital Improvement Fund, for the year ending December 31, 2007, and declaring an emergency. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY There are multiple sections to Ordinance No. 90 – 2007. Section 1 is we’re going to appropriate the money we just transferred $162,548.00. In section 2 lists where we’re going to appropriate those dollars $60,000.00 will go to police overtime account, $25,000.00 police comp account, $19,937.35 to fire comp account, $16,000.00 to fire overtime, $14,912.40 to workers comp, $8,357.00 to new fire equipment, $3,000.00 to an account entitled city hall services and contracts. Section 3, lists we’re going to appropriate from the waste management grant fund $27,000.00 for recycling services. Section 4, is to appropriate from the home health fund $12,000.00 to home health services and contracts, $5,000.00 to home health supplies and $1,800.00 to home health travel. Those are to pay the bills for the health department through 2007. Section 5, we’re going to appropriate from the capital improvement fund $6,353.68 for services and contracts and this is for repairs to our fire department engine. If there are any questions I can try to answer those for you. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY moved for suspension of the rules and passage, seconded by Councilman Bryan. The rules were suspended by a roll call vote of 9 yes. ORDINANCE NO. 90 – 2007 WAS PASSED BY A ROLL CALL VOTE OF 9 YES. 7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 8. PETITIONS AND GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS LETTER FROM OHIO DIVISION OF LIQUOR CONTROL REGARDING A NEW LIQUOR LICENSE FOR WINE N GOLD LLC 821 AMHERST NE MASSILLON OHIO 44646 LETTER FROM OHIO DIVISION OF LIQUOR CONTROL REGARDING A TRANSFER OF LIQUOR LICENSE FROM BP PRODUCTS NORTH AMERICA INC DBA BP FOOD MART 5967 2711 LINCOLN WAY E & GAS PUMPS MASSILLON OHIO 44646 TO GIANT OHIO LLC DBA GIANT 425 2711 LINCOLN WAY E & GAS PUMPS MASSILLON OHIO 44646 COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Thank you, taking the second one first that one I believe is in your ward Mrs. Catazaro-Perry. Do you have a copy of that (It is, yes I do) and the first one we feel that there’s an error on the address 821 Amherst is a residential property, 921 Amherst is a former drive thru next to Krauss’. But this is the way it came through on the application and through the Board of Liquor Control. So we will notify them that we feel that there is an error and then they’ll take it from there. COUNCILMAN MAIER Yeah, I was kind of wondering about that too. But… COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER We looked it up in the city directory we did have someone from another city department phone today that they thought that was an error and it does appear to be. 9. BILLS, ACCOUNTS AND CLAIMS 1. INDEPENDENT - $747.26 COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Councilwoman Catazaro-Perry? 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). MAYOR SUBMITS MONTHLY PERMIT REPORT FOR JULYNE 2007. COPY FILE COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Alright, we need a motion to accept the auditor’s report and we’ll invite the mayor forward. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY I move that we accept the auditor’s report for July 2007, seconded by Councilman Bryan. Roll call vote of 9 yes to accept the auditor’s report. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Alright we’ll invite the mayor forward to address council. MAYOR CICCHINELLI – At various times the past several years we have had several large developments that have taken place in our city. We have an opportunity to work with a developer on another project and I wanted to briefly outline council at first give a little history lesson on the area where we’re talking about and then I do have Bradley Goldberg who is a representative of the development company is in the audience and I will introduce him. But at various times we’ve had developers approach us for economic development projects and Mr. Goldberg’s company Visconsi Company Limited came into city hall and questions us about Genshaft Park. Just so everyone knows January 1983 I’m to give just a little quick history lesson. January of 1983 the size of our city was around 9.5 square miles in 1983 we annexed about 488 acres which included the land where Genshaft Park and Massillon Marketplace would eventually be constructed. That was over 20 years ago, 24 years ago to be exact. In 1984 an annexation took place of 922 acres including where land where the Nova Technology Park was constructed and that took a period of time actually was late ‘87 through the ‘90’s for Nova Technology Park to fill up. Then the Legends Golf Course would be constructed in those areas. I bring those two dates to you to sort of inform you basically that was the area of the city at the time. In January of 1985 after those annexations the city was around 12 square miles. In 1984 then Genshaft Park opened and like I mentioned Nova Technology Park then with A.R.E., 3-D, Emsco, US Chemical and Plastics etc located in those areas. In 1995, the Legends of Massillon opened first phase, August of ‘95 the citizens of Massillon bought into a plan to revitalize and redevelop our entire parks and rec. program by increasing our city income tax 3 tenths of a percent. That passed and you’ve seen a lot of major improvements in our parks system since that time. In 2001, Massillon Marketplace opens so the land where Massillon Marketplace is located was annexed in 1983 not developed until 2001. Today the City of Massillon’s very close to being 19 square miles. So you can see that we’ve almost doubled the size of the city and the south Massillon area has really changed dramatically because now the city’s limits extend further from where in the ’83 Genshaft Park was the southern boundary now the city boundary goes all the way south of Navarre Road and actually touches the Village of Navarre. So you can see considerable number of acres have been annexed since that time. I bring all that up to you so you can understand that because of this geographical change of the city potential is created for economic development projects in areas where or near where you wouldn’t even consider selling property. But because of all of the development and the major job creations in that part of town maybe we have to look at whether Genshaft Park or the facilities that are located at Genshaft Park be relocated to a different park within the city. It might become more valuable another words. Business people in the private sector do that constantly and I think its good proved business for government to do it. So tonight I’m going to bring to you a proposal to sell Genshaft Park and relocate the softball complex to the community park along State Route 241. I’m going to ask that the entire community park then be renamed after the Arthur Genshaft an individual Arthur Genshaft who was an industrialist that really got the ball rolling when his company Superior at the time acquired that land where Genshaft Park sits. There are some hurdles that need to be overcome the city and when it built Genshaft Park got approximately $82,000.00 from the State of Ohio from the Department of Natural Resources. That money came from the U.S. Department of Interior. So now we have to deal with the state government and the federal government to sign off on the selling of this property. So we have to look at the restrictions that are in that deed and the restrictions and the selling of the property and get through that. We also have to design and relocate the softball complex to coincide with games and all the softball leagues that take place at Genshaft. So we have to make sure that the individuals that play there have a place to play when before we actually sell the land or construction starts I should say on any new development. It might come as a surprise to you that why are we really talking about this well I think we have to look at strictly as a business decision. I do feel that there is bureaucracy that we have to go through as I mentioned before. But I think we can get to the light at the end of the tunnel here if we all work together. I am requesting that we do sell the property to Visconsi they are the ones that actually approached the city concerning this parcel. So we did not actively seek to sell the property. However, in order to conduct business properly we did get an appraisal it was completed here this month or late last month July. It was for $1,900,000.00 the Visconsi Company are willing to pay the city $3,397,440.00. So it’s a considerable amount higher than the appraisal its’ $200,000.00 an acre. Again, business decisions are made all the time and I think the more government acts like business the better it is for everyone. Plus economic development will take place we have stated many, many, many times that Massillon is becoming a center of retail development and that south Massillon area continues to be a very hot market with not only Massillon Marketplace, the new Menards and that’s 45 acres south of 30 and potentially this 17 acre tract with the additional retail. I think it certainly goes well for the future of retailing in the City of Massillon. I would like to introduce at this time if I may Bradley Goldberg who is here in the audience which is just a few brief comments. Brad? BRAD GOLDBERG – I’m a acquisition specialist for the Visconsi Companies we based out of the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. I also want to pass out some material you can read on your own time about the company. But I did want to take some time to introduce myself how Massillon came to the radar screen and also tell you a little bit about the company. I’ve been with the company for about 9 years before that I was a real estate broker in the retail end. All I did was when was the acquisition work I helped the developers about 9 years ago. I was brought into the Visconsi Company and I travel the United States looking for large tracts of commercial land to build and develop retail for a variety of tenants as small as Walgreen’s Drug Store which were the preferred developer for Ohio to as big as a million square feet power center malls. The Visconsi family we’re actually a third generation family privately held shopping center development firm. First generation was come in the ‘20’s was a brick layer started building retail shop space post World War II brought his son up into the business and his son actually teamed up with the Jacob’s Brothers and the time we were JVJ Jacobs Visconsi Jacobs and then in the late ‘80’s we were actually the fourth largest mall owner in the country. In the early ‘90’s has they started these estate planning at the death of one of the Jacob brothers they decided it was time to sell off the malls. We sold off the malls and we are now just the Visconsi family and we are developing shopping center space throughout the United States as a private open area shopping center development. The closest thing I think that we own to here would be the plaza at Chapel Hill in Cuyahoga Falls which you may have read about we often win numerous awards for our landscaping esthetics that we put into our shopping centers. Because of our history in the business we’ve been fortunate enough that we are hired by tenants to go in and seek out development opportunities for them on a national basis and we go and we build for tenants. How Massillon came to the radar screen is there were a couple of tenants that expressed interest in what they do is they track other stores sales and they know that the Wal-Mart and the Lowes that these stores do well and the sales are increasing. Some of these retailers asked us to investigate an opportunity that may be available to them in the Massillon Market and as soon as drove into the market spending an hour in the market I right away identified the ballparks as a natural retail site that’s definitely being under utilized. So we did our homework we did site plans to make sure that GLA’s and the square footage that we need in order to offer the city the generous price that we’ve come up which isn’t a number that comes out of thin air we know we can afford to pay for dirt we know what it takes to build the building and what the tenant can afford to pay in rent. We come into a market to build and develop shopping centers and we hold onto the shopping centers for a long time. What does that mean to the city we’re around to fulfill the commitments we make to the city when the project’s developed? We often like to look at a project as if there’s a saying about we like looking at our shopping center projects as if they were our home. We like to be proud of them we go the distance and we won in the packages I provided a newsletter on purpose because in the last couple of years we’ve been awarded numerous awards for landscaping and also retails have given us awards in regards to our architecture and quality of building. Those packets I’ll hand out tonight so we’re excited we can’t wait to get started on the project and we just hope that the council will support us in putting a project together on that site. So I don’t know if you guys have any questions. MAYOR CICCHINELLI – Before we take questions I would like to say as far as if the city decides to sell this we are recommending the administration is recommending to go through the CIC so that will eliminate the need for competitive bidding. Economic development projects like this do qualify for going through the CIC and I think as you can see by these numbers that it is a pretty good figure that they’re offering for the property. And the appraisal does say that if you look at the appraisal which any member of council can look at it; it does say that. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Do we have enough for all the council members is anyone short (well we’re one short) alright and if you’d send about three extra so that we have copies for our records. Thank you. Someone had a hand up or a question. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY Mayor, you had made a comment and I jotting notes down quickly that the appraisal was $1,300,000.00 did I get that… MAYOR CICCHINELLI – No, $1,900,000.00. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY Okay, now my question then goes to Mr. Goldberg because I wrote down that you’re willing to pay $3,397,000.00? (Correct) But the appraisals only $1,900,000.00. BRAD GOLDBERG – That’s correct and what it is you know the lands appraised on its existing use right now. But we look at when you build a retail you’re unfortunately you’re always forced to overpay and our number reflects you know I look at it as lender unfortunately or if I was to look at it that to put a building on there and all the infrastructure costs that go into that and it’s the cost of what we’re willing to do to buy a piece of property that’s not for sale and my years of being in the business Visconsi never bought a piece of property that’s been for sale. We don’t want to get into negotiations with the city we know it’s a number that the city would benefit greatly from it would cover the cost of relocating the fields with some extra cash we want to make it a win, win. So our tenants can afford to pay the rents and that’s a benefit to the city and that’s why we took that approach and that’s why the number is so much greater than the appraised value. COUNCILWOMAN CATAZARO-PERRY And then Mayor the plan for these proceeds do you have a thought of where you’d like to place that those dollars or…? MAYOR CICCHINELLI – We’ve kicked that around we are in the process of reorganizing parts of our parks and recreation department. You are going to be getting another proposal from the administration within the next couple of weeks on another issue. These dollars like Mr. Goldberg said we have to relocate the softball complex so first things first. The dollars there will be spent some of the money that we get will be spent to pay for that. Again, this is very preliminary and that’s why we’re bringing it to you now we have kicked around some ideas in order to expedite the process because we don’t know how long its going to take to get through the federal and state government. But what we want to do is get a plan in place to take the community park and it’s the part of the community park that was acquired as a second phase and its fronts right onto 241 and we think its about 40 acres and we think its an excellent, excellent location for something like this. It would take the entire 40 acres but we have to of course get a land architect to design it and look at but we estimate we’ve sort of in our mind estimate what that will be and hard to say. But the money will come out of that. I would ask council to take part of the proceeds around $400,000.00 okay and put it in our economic development fund for economic development for the general city. You know these dollars are regenerated back in to attract industry business to our community the rest of the money the bulk of the money will be put within the parks and rec. department call it what you may it could be a special fund established it could be a capital improvement fund it could be whatever we all desire, but you know something like a rainy day fund there’s even talk of with the amount of money we’re talking about to possibly go get like a cd, a federal cd which would then the interest alone might pay for the bond payments that are due for capital improvements within the park or a large portion of it which then frees up other income tax revenues for other things within the park system. I mean this thing can really snowball into something very positive for the city, the residents here both recreationally, economically through more development but also financially because it takes the department and puts it on pretty firm standing. I think that’s the big picture that we’re trying to do. But that’s all Mrs. Catazaro-Perry, that’s all conjecture and discussions but I think we want to try to tap the potential and maximize the investment with the bulk of these funds other than well other than about $400,000.00 will go into the park and rec. department. We are I know Mr. Stergios is in discussions with the Visconsi attorney they would like to proceed as quickly as possible so we’re sending this trial balloon up to see what the citizens of Massillon have to say about it and that’s why it was done here at a council meeting and there’s a lot of work that has to be done, but we want to proceed I’m sure Visconsi wants to proceed and you probably will have some legislation to consider at the next meeting. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Thank you, Mr. Mayor. MAYOR CICCHINELLI – Well, there’s one other thing… COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Go ahead. MAYOR CICCHINELLI – Well, Mr. Maier, has a question? COUNCILMAN MAIER Up in community park is there undeveloped land or we talking (Yes, its there) okay I didn’t know how much was undeveloped up there. MAYOR CICCHINELLI – Well, if you look at a map of the city it’s the part just adjacent that falls south its adjacent to Route 241 its one of the parcels that we had purchased. COUNCILMAN MAIER So we wouldn’t be moving anything that we already have we’re just adding? MAYOR CICCHINELLI – Right, but we are with the nature preserves adding additional parks but and this also affords the opportunity to do that at a later date with those kinds of dollars who knows. But point is it really helps the department solidify its position financially. COUNCILMAN MAIER Thank you. MAYOR CICCHINELLI – If there aren’t any other questions if not there’s one other item. Thank you, Mr. Goldberg, we’ll be in contact. In announcing a propose project like this we also want to look at some other things in the downtown area. So my second economic development proposal to you as you can see if you look at your cash report in the economic development fund we have received a partial payment for one of the grants for the nature preserve. If you notice that number has increased here the last couple of weeks so we have gotten some monies and the auditors office then put those dollars back in to the appropriate accounts. We want to do something for our downtown area at the same time that we talk about all this retail development within the city limits of Massillon. We also would like to do something to entice business back into our downtown. What I’m proposing is to take about $20,000.00 of those dollars and come up with a program which we still haven’t come up with it yet but this is just an idea and a concept. I’ve discussed this with Mr. Mang as chairman of the CD committee and we would grant or give $1,000.00, $2,000.00, $3,000.00 grant whatever the case might be to retail businesses that want to relocate into our downtown. This does a couple of things it gives an opportunity to bring additional business downtown but also gives the opportunity to encourage more development downtown by filling in some of the vacant storerooms that exist especially on Lincoln Way but even on the side streets. We will come up with a regulations that I think we need to come up with a program and how it operates and then report back to you I’m going to ask Mr. Mang to serve with Aane and I to come up with those regulations I mean we’re just not going doll out dollars we’re going to have to come up with regulations and how to do it. So I just want to let you know if you approve of the concept that greats if you don’t approve of the concept let us know. But any expenditure comes back to this body anyhow so we’ll make sure of that. But I think its important we approve grants for other things this is an opportunity to put some money back into our downtown central business district and also encourage development. Thank you. 11. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Next Committee meeting will be Monday, August 13th starting at 5:45pm. I’ll remind everyone now that Labor Day is coming up September 3rd will be a holiday council will be held on Tuesday, September 4th. 12. RESOLUTIONS AND REQUESTS OF COUNCIL MEMBERS COUNCILMAN MAIER Yes, I have two things. This Thursday at 6:00pm will be the 9th I guess the Discount Outlet down on First Street has given notice to the residents that there’s going to be an informal question and answer thing down there going on in reference to what they want to do down there. They’re posting that for some zoning changes and some other things. It was brought to me by one of the residents who’s wanting to let council know that we’re going to have that. One other thing on a somber note I probably could have done this at the beginning of the meeting but I attend Rathynia Buttermore’s funeral today she was a 15 year student with the Massillon City Schools and I would like to see if we could just have a moment of silence for her she fought a battle of cancer for 15 years and was taken since the last council meeting. So if we could just have a moment of silence I would appreciate it thank you. COUNCILMAN BRYAN I just have one thing. I know everyone’s received notice but I don’t want anybody to maybe not get it or miss it. I think everyone in attendance would be interested we’ve gotten notice that also on August 9th at 2:30pm there will be a dedication of the Eric Taylor Memorial at the memorial on Cherry NW which is right by the recreation center. Gary Mead, President of Henderson Lodge #105 FOP has invited us to attend a short ceremony there again at 2:30pm on Thursday. 13. CALL OF THE CALENDAR – TABLED FROM JULY 2, 2007 ORDINANCE NO. 69 2007 BY: HEALTH, WELFARE & BLD REGULATIONS COMMITTEE Amending CHAPTER 351 “PARKING GENERALLY” of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Massillon, Ohio, and enacting a new Subsection 351.21 “FRONT YARD PARKING” and 351.22 “OFF-STREET PARKING IN RSIDENTIAL DISTRICTS OR ANY PARCELS USED FOR DWELLING PURPOSES” of the CHAPTER 351 ‘PARKING GENERALLY”, and declaring an emergency. COUNCILWOMAN FERRERO Thank you. First of all, I want to thank all of the citizens of Massillon for all their input and their concern about this ordinance. This has certainly gone on for a lengthy period of time as you have all known and we have gotten negative, positive all kinds of feedback from everyone. We have sat around here at this table for weeks, months and discussed this. As chairman of this committee I do not agree with the way this is written I do not believe that the police should be the ones that enforce this and I strongly oppose the ordinance for that reason. I also don’t think it should carry a $100.00 fine and I strongly oppose the ordinance as it is written for that reason. But I have given my word to the citizens of Massillon that I’m going to put this ordinance up for a vote this evening and I intend to do that. So without further ado I intend to bring Ordinance No. 69 forward for a vote Mr. President. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Is that a motion? COUNCILWOMAN FERRERO It is. COUNCILWOMAN FERRERO motioned bring Ordinance No. 69 – 2007 forward for a vote, seconded by Councilwoman Catazaro-Perry. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Is there any questions, comments or discussion? COUNCILMAN MANSON – Yes, I guess my discussion is certain parts of this I totally agree with Mrs. Ferrero. I even said it in the newspaper I objected I felt it should be the code enforcement I had a problem with the $100.00 fine. I don’t know how we can handle this Mr. Peters and I had a lot of discussions this week and Mr. Peters had a lot of problems with the fine. He has talked to the law director about maybe amending this ordinance and trying to take care of these some of these concerns. There were a couple of things in there we didn’t allow anything for special events one that came up was about side yard parking. Still if its side yard parking and its on a corner lot its not permitted there’s some things that I think need cleared up. I know Mr. Peters has an amendment that he would like to propose I told him if he would include the code enforcement as the first step in this process that I would support him in his motion as far as lowering the initial fines or fees or whatever it would amount to. The problem is our law director says he can’t he doesn’t have the time or he can’t handled the part about the code enforcement he’s worked on the other stuff this week. I need a little help I guess from the rest of my legislators maybe Mr. Bryan, Mr. Gamber, yourself is there a way that we can handle this and put these amendments into this ordinance and move this thing forward tonight? COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER First of all, at this point, we’re inviting comments and discussion by any council member. Any piece of legislation can be amended if it’s a simple matter we can do it on the fly it’s a little bit more complicated my suggestion is always to take a recess and however long the recess takes that’s fine I would rather not tie up council time trying to make complicated amendments and find that we’ve made an error. COUNCILMAN MANSON – Could I make one comment? COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Sure. COUNCILMAN MANSON – This is our last official action I believe on our agenda tonight. So we would not be talking about a lot of extra time being added to this tonight. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Alright, now those are your comments and we get everyone else’s opinion we’ll come back to see if anyone would like to do what you’d like to do. Mr. Bryan? COUNCILMAN BRYAN – First of all, what I was gong to say about the ordinance itself. Although people have been criticized for taking so long to birth this thing there are good arguments on both sides of it I think. I’ve gotten lots of emails this week from people explaining their plight when for a couple of weeks out of the year they have suddenly four cars at their house and no place to park and they can’t park on the street and gotten you know a lot comments. I don’t agree with all of them but there are I believe arguments on both sides of this thing and even if I don’t agree with some of them people have a right to their opinion and I think their opinions that they honestly hold as being important. The fact that its taken us a long time I mean we could be ridiculed for that that’s fine you know in the end I think I would like to support the ban because I believe if you have a community where you want to move the community forward and encourage people to move to your town and encourage new businesses to move into your town that you have to try to do what you can to make the town look better. Same reason we have downtown concerts and we try to enforce our building and maintenance codes and all the others things that we do just to make the town look better. One the other hand I had and always have had some of the same concerns as Mrs. Ferrero has about having the police department enforce this thing and about the $100.00 fine those two things I just don’t agree with. So if there was a way to cure this ordinance and make it more palatable I wouldn’t mind taking a little extra time to do that. Now on another point, we have a motion and a second we don’t have to do anything about right now but we have a motion and a second to pass this thing. So at some point the chair’s going to have to deal with that you know as far as procedurally that’s all I wanted to say. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Procedurally if amendments offered the amendments are acted on first and then the amended ordinance is voted on. I might mentioned further to answer Mr. Manson’s question if you look at the title of this ordinance this is Chapter 351 which is parking generally and at least off the top of my head if you want to turn this over to the building department I would suggest this probably is a building regulation rather than a parking violation. But that’s where we’ll get the law director’s opinion if we decide to take a recess later. Are there other comments? COUNCILMAN MANG – This piece of legislation is now just before us there’s been no action taken. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER This is the third reading, Mr. Mang. COUNCILMAN MANG – I understand that. But what the procedures we just had was to bring it forward. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Exactly. COUNCILMAN MANG – Okay, so this piece of legislation nothing has occurred discussions can be held and amendments can be made without anything. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Absolutely, as I say any amendment that’s offered that’s properly moved and seconded we will vote on those amendments as they come up. COUNCILMAN MANG – Question, I would like to hear the proposed changes that Mr. Peters has proposed. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Alright, we could someone else had their hand up over here? Mr. McCune? COUNCILMAN MCCUNE – I want to reserve a space for my comments but I’ll let Mr. Peters or Mr. Manson make their points. COUNCILMAN PETERS – My proposed amendments, my personal proposed amendments which I have not kept a secret are to reduce the penalty from $100.00 and a minor misdemeanor to a basic parking ticket. As in my amendment that I am proposing it would be $5.00 and they have two business days to pay it and then it will go up to $10.00. That was my first proposed amendment, the second one was the exemptions in it bring this provides in this section short term parking on grass area in the front yard should be permitted for washing and cleaning of vehicles, parties, reunions and special events. Those are the two amendments that I proposed and that I have spoken to a lot of you about. I know that Mr. Manson and Mrs. Ferrero and Mr. Bryan I guess Mr. McCune because he opposes the whole thing. But that’s okay I know he’s got his opinion. This is what I haven’t discussed with anyone I just I’m like Mrs. Ferrero I want this thing to end, but I don’t it to end so that we make a bad decision. I’m starting and I’m not changing my mind I still believe that the police are the ones to enforce this, but if I can bring 8 votes to the table and vote for this thing and have that kind of backing just because we have the building department enforce it I say we amend that also. But that’s not up to me that’s up to the other 8 members of council. Those are my two proposed amendments and with all due respect to Mr. Manson and Mrs. Ferrero and I do respect their opinion a lot and Mr. Bryan. I think that’s something that we have to look at. COUNCILMAN MANSON – Could I make a motion that Mr. Peters, Mrs. Ferrero and the law director go and take a brief recess and they go to the conference room and see if they can arrive at some compromise to bring back to us. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER I would entertain a motion for a recess after everyone’s had an opportunity to make comments. We do have a version of the amendments that Mr. Peters has suggestion at the time that we would go to recess I’ll pass one of these out to everyone. I honestly don’t see no need to go back into the other room we can just be in recess right here and continue the discussion. COUNCILMAN MANSON moved to take a recess to further discuss the changes, seconded by Councilman Peters. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER We are officially back in session after recess. Mrs. Ferrero, we’ll turn the floor back over to you as chairman of the committee. COUNCILWOMAN FERRERO – Well, I just recently, I just passed out some papers that just came to me just this evening after I was inquiring about some things and then this letter was brought out to us from Chief Williams. I know its my committee and I wish I was very sick tonight and wasn’t here. But I am going to withdraw my motion and we’ll vote to table this for two weeks. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Your original motion has been withdrawn would you make a new motion with a specific date? COUNCILWOMAN FERRERO moved to table Ordinance No. 69 – 2007 until August 20, 2007, seconded by Councilman Manson. COUNCIL PRESIDENT GAMBER Because this is third reading this ordinance either has to be voted on yes or no or it may be tabled. So we now have a motion to table we need a roll vote please? Roll call vote of 6 yes, 3 no to table Ordinance No. 69 – 2007 until August 20, 2007. Ferrero, Mang and Townsend voted no. ORDINANCE NO. 69 – 2007 WAS TABLED UNTIL AUGUST 20, 2007. 14. THIRD READING ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS .SECOND READING ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS 16. NEW AND MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS .REMARKS OF DELEGATIONS AND CITIZENS TO MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA 18. ADJOURNMENT COUNCILMAN TOWNSEND – I move that we adjourn, seconded by all.
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