11/20/2012 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 11-20-2012 _;, • Safety/Service Director Thomas met with department heads, Directors and Secretaries to discuss super storm Sandy. They discussed what each department did well during and after the storm. Director Thomas is having another meeting next week to formulate a policy for the future. A rough estimate of costs for the three days from Sandy is $120,000. Effective tomorrow, the city will double the brush pick-up crew. • On December 12, 2012, the city will hold the West Shore Council of Governments (COG) meeting at the City of North Olmsted. They will be hosting First Energy to discuss how service can be improved during situations like super storm Sandy. • The Civil Service Commission approved anentry-level patrol officer test for January 2013. • He thanked the Fire Dept. for their well-attended pictures with Santa holiday event, which they hosted for charity purposes. Councilman Barker asked when the extra brush pick-up would be in effect. The Mayor said it is going into effect immediately and residents should put their brush out. Director of Law Gareau: • Tonight Council has before them Ordinance 2012-119 which amends Chapter 761 Adult Entertainment Businesses in the City of North Olmsted. The activities regulated by this Ordinance are constitutionally protected First Amendment activities. Even though they are protected, the city is on good ground to adopt a licensing scheme. Such scheme would be a prior restraint on free speech. Thus, if you're going to have a prior restraint on free speech, you need to have a timely review and right of judicial review if that application is denied or if a license is revoked. The amendments that are proposed are brought forward to correct an issue with respect to the missing judicial review component for a denial of a license. The appeal process currently goes through the Safety Director, and then to City Council and to the Court of Common Pleas from there. He suggested that this Ordinance will be continued to be reviewed by the Law Dept. to make additional enhancements as they move forward. There have been rumors about an adult entertainment club coming to the city. Those are rumors. No one at the city has been contacted by anyone wanting to put this type of business in the city. • The city was awarded a $50,000 grant earlier this year to investigate housing discrimination against the Arab-American community/people of Muslim faith in the City of North Olmsted. The grant also allows for community outreach. Significant process has been made under this grant including the formation of an advisory panel to assist the city in its outreach to the Muslim and Arab community. The city's efforts were recognized at a Ramadan event held at the Islamic Center. The city and advisory panel are currently planning the last stages of the grant which would include a public report of the grant findings. • The city is moving forward in its partnership with the Cuyahoga County Land Bank. A total of six structures have been indentified for enforcement proceedings up to and including demolition due to deteriorated nuisance conditions. 2