February 16th, 2016 Council Minutes
Once approved, a link to the official council minutes will be at the bottom.
COUNCIL MINUTES
February 16, 2016
St. Clairsville City Council met in Council Chambers on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 with the following present
Jim Weisgerber, Council President Terry Pugh, Mayor
Mark Bukmir, Council 3rd Ward Tom Murphy, Planning & Zoning Administrator
Linda Jordan, Council-At-Large Lindsay Piccolini, Recreation Director
Beth Oprisch, Council-At-Large Richard Myser, Law Director
Mike Smith, Council-At-Large Cindi Henry, Finance Director
David Trouten, Council 4th Ward Jeff Henry, Police Chief
The meeting was called to order by Council President Jim Weisgerber
SWEARING IN: Law Director Richard Myser administered the Oath of Office to recently appointed Council-At-Large member Michael Smith.
MINUTES
Minutes of the February 1, 2016 regular meeting were distributed to Council. A motion to accept the minutes of the February 1, 2016 meeting was made by Linda Jordan and seconded by Beth Oprisch.
Roll Call Vote
Bukmir Yes
Jordan Yes Smith Abstain
Oprisch Yes Trouten Yes
Roll Call Vote: Four (4) Yes One (1) Abstain Zero (0) No Motion Approved
CITIZENS HEARING: There were no Citizens present who wished to address Council
REPORTS
Service Director, Dennis Bigler – Not Present
Mayor, Terry Pugh
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Welcome aboard Mike and Congratulations
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We have established a list of trees that have to be removed and the first large one was taken down last week it was also on Main Street by Sugar Street. It was an effort by an outside contractor taking it down and the Electric and Street Departments cutting it up and moving it. We had to shut Main Street down for a period of time. Again I want to thank everybody and as the weather breaks we will be through contractors and our own personnel going around and taking out a number of these dead trees or trees that are safety hazards both along the streets of St. Clairsville and some along the Biketrail.
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I received this past week a notice from our Commissioners that the County burial assistance program is being changed. I want to notify Council of a directive that was received from the Belmont County Commission of action taken to revise the Belmont County Burial assistance program. This program was always handled by the Belmont County Jobs & Family Services which would cover up to $750. As of January 20, 2016 a journal entry with a motion made by Commissioner Favede and seconded by Commissioner Coffland, voted on and passed by the Commission that from February 1, 2016 when a deceased person is found in a township or a municipal corporation and the body is not claimed for a private interment the Township or the Municipality will be responsible for burial and marker where the person’s legal residency is at the time of death. I just want to mention that it is going to be a hardship or could be a hardship on St. Clairsville as well as the other Municipalities in this County. The fact that the Jobs and Family Services has overseen this for many years and the fact that St. Clairsville is losing more and more local funds from the State and the County and yet the County continues to reap the financial rewards from the oil and gas I just feel that it is something that should remain their responsibility.
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We have a Civil Service Commission in St. Clairsville and first of all I would like to thank Linda Jordan for serving on it and because she has a new position she had to give up her old position. Betty Lynn Hanlon also served on this Commission as well as Mike Kasper. I would like tonight to nominate two individuals for these positions and have your approval. One term is for three years, to which I would like to nominate Perry Jones. A motion to appoint Perry Jones to a three year position on the Civil Service Commission was made by Linda Jordan and seconded by David Trouten.
Roll Call Vote
Bukmir Yes
Jordan Yes Smith Yes
Oprisch Yes Trouten Yes
Roll Call Vote: Five (5) Yes Zero (0) No Motion Approved
David Trouten: What is the Civil Service Commission? Mike Kasper: We administer testing for our City employees. When we need a new person for any of the departments we administer testing. The test is advertised in the paper and is open to anybody. You take the test, the test is graded on an impartial basis there are so many people from that list that have interviews with Dennis and the Mayor and they choose from people who score highest on the test. Mayor Pugh: It is established by Charter. Mike Kasper: We hire an outside firm that deals with these tests a lot. It is kind of costly and I think we should be starting to do the testing our self and come up with our own questions that suit our own needs. We are working through that process right now. A lot of the questions are very hard. It is a test of common sense in the beginning and when you get toward the end of the test it personalizes it for the position that is open. David Trouten: So the commission administers the test and gives the results. Who is on the Commission right now? Mayor Pugh: Just Mike. There should be three. Beth Oprisch: Betty is no longer? Mayor Pugh: Betty’s term is up and she is no longer physically capable of coming up here. She is in her 90’s now. She was very active but has had some health problems. David Trouten: Are these paid positions? Mayor Pugh: Yes. David Trouten: What is the compensation? Mayor Pugh: It is $300 a year.
Mayor Pugh: The second individual I am recommending for the six year tern is Ernie Schlatt. A motion was made by Linda Jordan and seconded by David Trouten to appoint Ernie Schlatt to a six year term on the Civil Service Commission.
Roll Call Vote
Bukmir Yes
Jordan Yes Smith Yes
Oprisch Yes Trouten Yes
Roll Call Vote: Five (5) Yes Zero (0) No Motion Approved
Mark Bukmir: The thing with the burial Mr. Mayor is there any way we can contest that is it just written in stone and we just have to deal with it? Mayor Pugh: It is written in stone but I wasn’t pleased about it. Richard Myser: I got the same notice and number one I was shocked and number two I was disappointed that the County Commissioners have been doing this for many years. They have taken the responsibility of paying the burial of indigents in our County through the Job and Family Services. They are now throwing that responsibility on not only the Cities but on the Municipalities, the Villages and the Townships. First of all we are getting less and less money and we are having to take on more responsibility and this is just one more responsibility they are tacking on us. The Ohio Legislature passed a Law in 2007 authorizing them to be able to do it. They didn’t do it until now. Mark Bukmir: Then my next question is say a small village, they don’t have a lot of money and they can’t pay for those poor people’s burial. David Trouten: It is going to hurt them more them us. Richard Myser: We fortunately don’t have many indigents I don’t assume but some of the smaller communities and townships that could really hurt them.
David Trouten: It will probably affect the towns that can least afford it. Beth Oprisch: Do we know how much that cost the Jobs and Family Services on an annual basis? Richard Myser: That I don’t know. The only information we have is that the local Funeral Homes have agreed to take care of it for a charge of $750 per person. Linda Jordan: Did they give reason for that move? Mayor Pugh: I think the reason was for the County to save money and they also dictate there must be a marker with a name, date of birth and the date the individual passed. I think the County has an indigent cemetery. Jim Weisgerber: It is out on Rt. 331. I am not happy about that either.
Police Chief, Jeff Henry
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I turned my January report in to the Mayor’s office. Anybody can see it there.
Finance Director, Cindi Henry – No Report
Planning & Zoning Administrator, Tom Murphy
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There will be a Planning Commission Meeting, March 21st at 6:00 p.m. in Council Chambers. The item on the agenda is the Preliminary Plat of the St. Clair Commons subdivision. It is only the preliminary plat. Additionally the Preliminary Plan for the proposed senior living facility is also on the agenda. Equity the developer is requesting that the Planning Commission recommend the Preliminary Plat approval to City Council. This will be the public hearing for that. All Council Members are welcome to attend. Mike you probably don’t know but you are on the Planning Commission as the Council Representative. Prior to that meeting anyone can stop in if they have any questions. One thing Equity did ask and it is not something that Council has to do but they are asking if the Planning Commission at that meeting does approve and recommends to full City Council to approve the preliminary plat and plan, we can draw the Ordinance up on an emergency basis but you do not have to pass it on an emergency you can just have a first reading. Beth Oprisch: I thought Equity was coming back two weeks ago. I did think they were coming back in relation to the TIFF. Mayor Pugh: I said last week that the TIF Attorney would be here tonight. I guess he had another commitment so what we are doing is trying to put together in the very near future a meeting with just the TIF Attorney in the evening. We all want this meeting to take place so we know what is going on with the TIF. This will be a special Council meeting, a work session. We will not take any action. It will be just a presentation and then Council will have an opportunity to ask any questions. We will try to pin it down for two weeks at 7:00. We will get back with you on the day.
COUNCIL COMMITTEES
Finance, David Trouten
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We had a Finance Committee meeting tonight. That was my first meeting as head of this Committee. The big thing we talked about was that the new software is working well and we have reconciled our bank statements for the first time in a long time. The old software was not good. We have talked for a couple of meetings about having reports to the Council. We are going to start doing that. Cindi kind of wants to know specifically what kind of breakdowns we want so if anyone has any input tell me or tell Cindi. I have some ideas that I will give her also so we can start getting some reports.
Utilities, Frank Sabatino – Not Present
Police, Mark Bukmir: No Report
Street North Side, Jake Olsavsky
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Davis Trouten: North Market Street has been patched
Street South Side: Linda Jordan – No Report
Safety, Beth Oprisch: No Report
Building & Grounds, Mark Bukmir – No Report
Planning Commission, Mike Smith – No Report
Fire District, Frank Sabatino – Not Present
Recreation, David Trouten
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The next Rec. meeting is going to be February 22nd so I hope to have a report after that but Lindsay is here and she may want to let us know a few things that are going on
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Lindsay Piccolini, Recreation Director: Things are going very well but we have a couple of things that are kind of exciting that we are working on. The first one is we are working with Premier Bank to do a Scholarship Fund and once they figure what amount they want to contribute it is going to be very neat. It is not going to be just for people who are in need of assistance. I think there are a lot of people out there who have three or four kids and money is tight so we are opening it up to a lot of different people. It is not going to be down to just one or two demographics and she is working on finalizing it and she will let us know. We are hoping that people will take advantage of that and hope that it cycles around each year.
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We also are almost done with our Concert scheduling so we are working on sponsorships. We have had some hopeful discussion with people and we are going to start having some meetings hoping to get a lot more community involvement. The concert series is a really fun thing that the city offers but I still don’t think we are reaching all the people we can reach so we are trying to reach out to business and hope they can bring some people in to enjoy it.
Park District, Linda Jordan
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They did not have a meeting due to lack of quorum.
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I did get a copy of the flyer they are working on but they still want to change some of the wording. I will pass it around when I get the corrected copy
ORDINANCES & RESOLUTIONS:
Law Director, Richard Myser:
We had scheduled the third reading of Ordinance No. 2016-10. We had the first reading on January 19th and the second reading on February 1st. I thought we were going to have the third reading tonight and pass it. This is the Ordinance to approve the TIF financing for the St. Clair Commons. If we are going to have a special work meeting perhaps we would want to put off the reading. David Trouten: I thought that was the plan, we were going to vote in March. Mayor Pugh: I was under the impression that after it was read the second time there was a waiting period for thirty days and that is why it wasn’t going to be read as well as a chance for Council to become more familiar with the TIF. Richard Myser: Then we will put the third reading off until the next regular meeting. As far as I know nobody has mentioned to me that we need to go into Executive Session and I have nothing further.
NEXT MEETING:
The next meeting will be held on Monday, March 7, 2016 at 7:30 in Council Chambers
There being no other business to come before Council a motion to adjourn was made by Mark Bukmir and seconded by David Troouten.