11/16/2009 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Regular Council Meeting Minutes 11-16-09 Page 6 own neighborhood. That's pretty significant. Mayor Rinker is not aware of any other neighborhood that has done it in quite this fashion, certainly in our community. Mayor Rinker shared with Council, last week he was at a Mayors and Managers monthly meeting and we have a lobbyist, Tim Cosgrove, an attorney at Squires Sanders. The Association engaged him probably about seven or eight years ago really to represent the interests of the Mayors and Managers Association down in Columbus on various things. He gives us regular legislative updates. Both the Niehaus and Grendell Bills were synopsized in his report to us. He can relate back to you that there is now a Committee. This is something that even two or three months ago, the Association was only looking on the fringes of this. Mayor Hruby of Brecksville heads up that Committee. He knows that there has already been some dialogue between our end of the State and Columbus. Mayor Rinker expects to find out a little bit more about that. Mayor Rinker may be putting in a word for Mayfield Village. Mayor Rinker knows that Linda Butler is talking about getting some videotape to send down to some of these Committee reports. Very candidly, the grassroots effort that's reflected in Senator Grendell's Bill is probably sending a signal. Our expectations are that everything that he's looking for in the Bill likely is going to run into a fair amount of opposition, but if there is one area that Mayor Rinker thinks we will be successful in or certainly focusing upon, it's the fact that even though we may not change the general laws of the State, because that's really where the lobby started in 2004 was to be able to say that local control is just too fragmented and it's not manageable across the State. Because there is a State energy policy, that's the kind of thing that we can't really expect is going to change, but how they tied it up is something that is very significant. In a nutshell, Mayor Rinker's impression of Niehaus'. Bill is that everything still is a feta accofnpli. It may improve notice in other things, but it's still a done deal. In the Grendell Bill, if there's an opportunity, it's going to be to impress upon legislators that some type of intervention, some ability of local government at least to have a say in advance of the issuance of the permit would be ideal. Mayor Rinker thinks in terms of the mechanism, that certainly to him is an area that we ought to be striking for. It's something that is part of the message that Mayor Rinker wants to deliver. Mayor Rinker hopes that is something that you all agree would be something that could be very practical, very useful. We will certainly forward the petition, the message that it delivers, our ordinances, and we have already written letters. These are the kind of things where the grassroots effort if it is going to have an impact, Mayor Rinker is sure it will. You are to be commended for doing things on your end. We will try to do things on our end as well. Thank you. Another thing. Unfortunately, don't shoot the messenger. NEORSD, the regional sewer district, you may be aware when you get your water and sewer bill, they are the sewer component of everyone's bill. In the last two years, there has been a large scale requirement for all municipalities, a11 government in the area, to start complying with Federal and state regulations on water pollution control. Long story short is, NEORSD has moved into this area and probably