03/21/1995 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 3/21/95 Dennis Lambert, 25057 Carey Lane, originally came to speak on the sewer issue. Mr. Lambert feh the problems under discussion boil down to one issue: money. He had previously commented about the financial condition of this community and where he believes the community should be in dollars because of the massive influx of money coming from commercial development. Mr. Lambert found Mr. McKay's report on the investment in wages of several large compaaues, Moen for example, to be interesting. He said the report, `lies in the face of the comment made that a lot of the jobs in this community are minimum wage jobs." Mr. Lambert earlier made the recommendation that Council take a more active part in the budget process. He believes the dollars to do most of the projects will be found m the budget. With regard to the sewers, six months ago he raised the issue of regionalizing the sewer district. He said that Mr. Nashar had also touched on this issue two weeks ago when he asked about regionalizing the sewer di~rict. Mr. Lambert contends that, when answering the question, Mayor Boyle talked about joining the Regional Sewer District, which is a totally different issue. He is not ~ggesting joining the Regional Sewer District, but he does feel that the city sewer district is a "white elephant." He would like to see the sewer district regionalized so that all the communities that are using it share in its gains and its losses, thereby getting North Olmsted out from under the total responsibility. Mr. Lambert said he believed the sewer rates could be subsidized through the General Fund. Mayor Boyle made the following comments on Mr. Lambert's discussion: With regard to the question of the number of minimwn wage jobs to higher paying jobs in the city, the income tax revenues received from Moen jobs only amounts to 3% of the total. Mayor Boyle said he believed Mr. Nashar had spoken about the Regional Sewer District. Also, the sewer district is not what Mr. Lambert thinks. He explained that the sewer district served North Olmsted and only a portion of Fairview Park and Olmsted Falls. Mayor Boyle said that the Fairview Park sewer rate is changed annually--a fact that Mr. Lambert should know as a former Councilman from Fairview Park. The North Olmsted rates are not the highest rates--Olmsted Falls does have a smaller rate per MCF but does have a $15,000 special assessment. Also, North Royalton has a higher rate than North Olmsted and is not doing the sewer work that this city is doing. Indeed, he is not aware of any other city doing the extensive sewer work that is being done in North Olmsted. The storm that occurred last August caused flooding in Fairview Park, Bay Village and We~lake but not in North Olmsted. We fixed the flooding problem, and now the bills must be paid. Mr. Lambert said he had no complaint about the quality of service on the sanitary sewers, but he is concerned about the rates. Mr. Mdler interjected that Mr. Lambert's suggesrtion to look for "lost money" is not new to the Council. Council has a worksheet, appropriations and month-to-month statements, and next Saturday each member will be afforded the opporhmity to sit down with the Fiancee Director and go through the budget line by line to try to find any "lost money." Also, each department head has been instructed to scrutinize his/her budget to find areas where cuts can be made. Every resident will benefit from the thorough going-over of the budget. He is impressed with residents who come up to City Hall and fight for their services. They should be commended for not being "quitters." Council Members are not "quitters" either; they are out to do what is best for the city and are attempting to innprove the city far in advance of what has been done by prior administrations. Mr. Lambert replied that he is pleased that this is being done and would encourage its continuance. He feels that 10