11/18/1997 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 11/18/97 Law Director Gareau: 1) At the last Council meeting, he had reported that apre-trial with ~, ;~~ respect to the declaratory judgment action regarding the zoning of Parcel E would t e place. However, Mr. Biskind's attorney requested that the pre-trial be canceled in hopes that we could possibly work something out. He had no objection to that request, but he has no idea as to what proposals are currently being put forth, if any. He has hired two experts, an appraiser and a city planner, and will be meeting with them in anticipation that at some point this issue will go to court. Should there be a settlement, it would have to be based on utilizing the property for office buildings. 2) Assistant Law Director Dubelko has been working closely with Bruce Goldstein, who is the insurance counsel in the Moran case. Many drafts of the brief has gone back and forth, and the Law Department is very much actively participating in that project. 3) We have received notice from SERB with respect to police negotiations. A list of potential fact-finders has been submitted. 4) The FOP has agreed to extend negotiations beyond January 1 when the contract expires. 5) An arbitration decision was rendered with respect to a police officer who was disciplined and given three days off, but the days were suspended. However, the FOP still appealed the decision, and the arbitrator reduced the action to a written reprimand. 6) He and the Finance Director met with the County Auditor's staff to discuss the hoteUmotel tax issue. Because of the Statute of Limitations, we are trying to negotiate the settlement down from the $336,000 figure. Because the prosecutor was not able to attend the meeting, we are awaiting receipt of further information with respect to a settlement proposal. The city has proposed that the payment be made over a period of years, and there did not seem to be an objection to that. Finance Director Burns: 1) As previously reported, we finally have received the tax exemption for the property of the golf course that is located within North Olmsted. We have now filed for the application for the refund of taxes that have been paid on those parcels. The refunds total $77,800. 2) The following ordinances on first reading tonight originated from the Finance Department: a. Ordinance 97-105 is the temporary appropriation for 1998. As in the past, it is based on essentially one third of the permanent appropriation for this year with some adjustment for things like salt and leaf pickup. b. Ordinance 97-112 is an ordinance that establishes a new penalty under the income tax provision. This penalty allows us to assess the employees, stockholders and officers of corporations and limited liability companies who fail to remit or file withholding income tax returns with the city. This is similar to what is called the hundred percent penalty that IRS can impose on withholdings for those employers who fail to pay. The basis for this is that the tax itself is a trustee-type tax in that the money belongs to the employee and the employer is the one who failed to pay over the money. c. Resolution 97-111 is legislation that the city needs to pass in order for the employees of the city to participate in the program offered by PERS allowing employees to buy their pickup portions of their pensions for prior service at a pre-tax basis as opposed to buying 2