12/05/1989 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 12/5/89 -2- 3) With respect to the Sunset Memorial Case that was pending before the Court of Common Pleas, Judge Nugent reversed the city council and uniquely remanded the case back to the Board of Zoning Appeals for further hearing. The issue had been brought up at a special meeting of council and that, for some reason, became the issue of the case: whether the council had a right to overturn the Board of Zoning Appeals' ruling at a special council meeting without notice to all the people in- volved. The court said the city could not review the issue at a special council meeting and if it was reviewed at a regular council meeting, council had to give notice to the people who originally received notice before the Board of Zoning Appeals. This is now back to square one; the Board of Zoning Appeals must hear the case all over again. 4) Had pretty much expected an adverse ruling in the Court of Common Pleas with respect to the Private Detective Case. Law Director had requested the court to declare the statute unconstitutional with respect to prohibiting the city from charging a registration fee. This case is now before the Court of Appeals and will be pursued; feels it is important that local self-government is upheld and it makes no sense to have the state legislature tell the city that it cannot charge a f ee in this type of situation. 5) If council recalls, there was a problem with school guards being paid un- employment compensation during the summer months. Because the Law Department was unsuccessful in getting this overturned in the court system, the Law Director has filed an application with the Bureau of Employment Services to have the school guards' position declared to be seasonal, which would mean they would then be exempt from receiving unemployment compensation during the summer. A hearing was to be held on Monday, however, Law Director Gateau called the Board of Review and asked to simply submit a brief; that was done. Law Director called the Board's attention to a recent Ohio Supreme Court case which shed some new light on this issue. Is hopeful that the Board of Review will, in fact, declare that a school guard's position is seasonal and anyone not working in the summer should not be entitled to unemployment compensation. Finance Director Boyle reported: 1) Noted .that it is important .that the city win the unemployment case just reported by Law Director Gateau since the city does not operate like private businesses do with respect to unemployment. The city pays that directly; if an employees files and it is granted, it comes out of the General Fund as opposed to private business where the money is paid into a fund and is then dispersed at the state level. 2) The State of Ohio recently passed a school income tax; there are five school districts where this tax is in effect right now. There are seventeen more dis- tricts where the tax becomes effective January 1, 1.990. None of these, right now, are in this area. The tax rates range from ~~ to 1~~. Finance Director can fore- see in the future where school districts around North Olmsted, if not North Olmsted itself, might enact such a tax. The law states that an employer is responsible fpr withholding the tax from an employee living within a taxing school district as opposed to a city income tax where it is withheld based on the home of the employer. If this happens, the city could end up with a tremendous payroll problem since it would involve programming, a lot of record keeping, etc., because a school district is not necessarily within the boundaries of a city. This is not going to happen in the next year or so but council should be aware that it can occur down the road. 3) Finance Department has received special assessments, in the amount of $39,725, for the second half of 1988; $38,700 directly associated with special assessments, $450 for delinquents, a little over $400 for penalties and a little over $100 in interest for half a year. A special assessment bond is coming up for the Industrial Park road; has been in contact with Squire, Sanders and Dempsey as well as a couple of underwriters since the the bond will probably have to be sold by May. Would like to visit Moody's since it has been about five years since they have been shown the city's finances and projections for the future; this has do be done periodically to maintain bond ratings. '.