07/07/1987 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Meeting of 7/7/87 -2- 1988 and $413,500 in 1989. There is $16 million to be divided between 940 munici- palities. 13) All of council has received a letter from Rec Complex Manager Tom Fattlar in regard to the Rec Complex roof, Presichnt Saringer commented on Mayor Petrigac's report with respect to scheduling a meeting with Westlake concerning Columbia Road relocation. It was her impression that Westlake was to contact her about a possible meeting; the City of North Olmsted has nothing to gain and the Transportation Committee felt that Mayor Petrigac should meet with the Mayor of Westlake. Law Director Gareau reported: 1) Has finally reached an agreement with the Fire Fighters; all litigation that was instituted as a result of being unable to agree, has been resolved, dismissed. Would expect to have an agreement in legislative form at the next council meeting. 2) Through these summer months, has been negotiating with AFSCME on a once or twice a week basis; negotiations are proceeding as expected. 3) In the past six months has reported that part of the city's Risk Management Program includes a $50,000 deductible; a number of cases have come up during this period. One case involved the Rec Center where there was a slip and fall in the lobby; case was tried to an arbitration panel after being referred to the panel by a judge; demand in that case was $25,000 and the arbitration panel came back with zero so the city's first experience in conducting a self-insurance program is obviously successful and no funds were paid. They do have a right to appeal the decision to the court and then beyond, however, any time the Rec Center has a function and no fee is charged, the City is absolutely exempt from liability. This accident occurred during a Hockey Tournament and no fee was charged. If medical expenses or hospitalization. is paid by Blue Cross and if lost wages were reimbursed, under Ohio Law, when a person sues a municipal corporation, he is not permitted to collect twice; city is seeing some advantaages under the Tort Reform Act dealing with what is called collateral source in injuries. Un- fortuantely insurance companies have not reflected this in the premiums they are charging; it really helped because in this case there was a claim of almost $2,000 in out-of-pocket expenses for both lost wages and medical expenses. 4) Has developed opinion with respect to the ordinance being introduced by the Mayor relative to the lottery tax; would be happy to discuss this issue whenever council wishes. 5) Burger King has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. Finance Director Boyle reported: 1) City has received a $13,300 refund from RITA for collection fees for 1986 taxes. This brought the cost to $131,639.11, an increase over the 1985 fee. Fees are based on an equation that involves the income to North Olmsted, the income to the agency, transactions for the city and transactions for the agency. The city's transaction count was approximately 62,000, a drastic increase. Finance Department is currently questioning both the trans- action count and the related refund because Director Boyle feels the cost should have been lower or there was a problem in the 1985 count. 2) Has requested, through the Board of Regional Income Tax, that a count and a dollar amount of delinquencies be periodically sent to both mayors and councils of all cities serviced by Regional Income Tax Agency. Now, only the Tax Admin- istrators are privy to th is information; believes the mayors and councils of municipalities should have a handle on delinquencies and the cost of same. 3) Was informed last week, by the City of Cleveland, that their annual audit has determined that the cost of billing should increase from $2.25 to $2.72. Was then informed on Monday that this was a bad figure and they are going through another audit. More than likely, in September, the residents of North Olmsted will realize an increase in their sewer/water bills based on the cost of producing that bill - probably in the area of $2.75/$2.80 - a 50~ increase or so per bill. ~, ~~~~. .