03/03/1987 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 3/3/87 -3- Law Director Gareau reported: 1) Would like to commend Don Albenze for his diligence and dedication. Law Department was notified it had one day to pre- pare a lawsuit and have it filed with respect to the Buckeye Motel situation; in court, had less than eight hours to prepare it. Assignment was given to Don Albenze; he was in court on Friday and worked out the agreement to resolve this problem; he did an excellent job along with other people in the administration. 2) Does not usually comment on newspaper articles but would like to comtm?nt on a Plain Dealer article that said the City of North Olmsted had expended $10,000 to fight a tax appeal for Great Northern Shopping Center. This is totally and completely not factual. City of North Olmsted and the Board of Education got involved in this program a number of years ago with the Board of Education paying three quarters of the fee and the city paying one quarter. There was a $10,000 fee involved in fighting this tax appeal., therefore the City of North Olmsted paid $2,500 for attorney fees and $3,500 for appraisal fees which constitued, again, 25%. The city spent $2,500 to fight four years of a tax appeal and went from $18,000,000 to $22/$23/$24 million dollars in assessed valuation which meant hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional revenue for the City of North Olmsted. 3) Has presented the lighting expert's report on the Halleen property to their attorney; has not received a response. Expert reports: the bottom lights are totally unneeded and present an absolute hazardous glare; indicated the poles ought to be 30 feet high but in no event should the lights on the poles shine out- ward - they should shine downward. There is an absolute finding by this expert that there is light pollution; his recommendation is to increase the pole height to 30 feet; that the lights be shined downward and the lights further down on the poles be eliminated completely. With respect to the newspaper report of comments made by Halleen's attorney that the city should pay for these changes, Law Director Gareau thinks this is utterly ludicrous and would never recommend that the city pay to correct a problem which never should have existed in the first place. 4) Met with the administration and the Fact Finder with respect to the Fire De- partment; there will be a motion on the floor of council tonight regarding this subject. 5} With respect to the Mayor's report concerning the Mayors and Managers Association proposal regarding insurance and the $500 fee, would like to issue a warning. This is exactly the same way the city started out with the water lawsuit and it could very well be sucked into another situation where it would pay more than it wanted to pay. 6) Will be meeting on Thursday with a state representative regarding the proposal for distribution of tax funds; the resolution the city has adopted. There seems to be a misunderstanding as to what this resolution is saying and .Law Director will explain what he believes needs to be done to establish a new system within the county. There is some misunderstanding about getting direct funds from tTMPTA and things of this nature; basically the city is trying to establish an RTA Board that is a policy making board and one which will leave to the local districts, sub- districts, within the county, the obligation of determining the transit needs in running the transit systems. Hopes to propose some language as far as changes in the state code so as to implement the changes that are so much need to take the city transit system out of the doldrums .and so people will not snicker when they hear talk about Cuyahoga County and its Regional Transit Authority. After a brief discussion with respect to the Mayors and Managers Association proposal regarding insurance and the $500 deposit and cou~nital letter, council, by a show of hands, unanimously agreed NOT to get involved at this point. Finance Director Boyle reported: 1) Finance Department has received the figures for assessed evaluation for the city; it's a 2% increase; copies of the report will be sent to all members of council.