02/05/1997 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 2/5/97 ~ identified as already having been brought to the attention of the city are as follows: street ,~,. repair for Grace Avenue, Mildred Avenue, which includes West 232 and West 230 south of Lorain Road, Gladland Avenue, Allendale-Carey Avenues; ADA compliance for Old Town Hall, Springvale Country Club and North Olmsted Parks and Recreation Department. These projects and others which have been submitted to Mr. Copeland will be reviewed by the Intra-Governmental Relations Committee at 7 p.m. on February 10. Legislation will be prepared and presented to Council for the meeting of February 18 concerning the projects that are chosen. Because of the application deadline of March 3, suspension of the rules will be requested. 2) With the help of the Mayor, the committee had scheduled a meeting with CEI to discuss Resolutions 96-195 and 96-196. However, since that meeting had to be canceled, he would like to discuss the legislation following the CDBG public hearing on February 10. (At this point, Mayor Boyle commented that he thought that a meeting with CEI had been scheduled for Thursday, February 6. Mr. O'Grady said that he would be attending the public hearing on the storage of radioactive waste at 7 p.m. Thursday. A lengthy discussion ensued between Mr. O'Grady, Mayor Boyle and Mr. Bohlmann as to the date for the meeting with CEI. It was decided that Mr. Bohlmann would contact the representatives from CEI to ask whether they could meet at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday so that Mr. O'Grady could then attend the public hearing which begins at 7 p.m.) AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION Dennis Lambert, 25057 Carey Lane, spoke on the issue of amending the Charter to provide for a department of utilities, which would include the sewer plant as well as a possible concept of purchasing electric power. Mr. Lambert has discussed this issue on other occasions. It is his understanding that the issue is in committee. Mr. Lambert distributed literature from Citizens Action regarding CEI rates. The information showed that in the Cleveland area 750 kilowatt hours cost $99.51 as opposed to $53 in central and southern Ohio. He feels that CEI's rates are too high and mentioned that pending Ohio House Bill 653 will allow for more competitiveness in the buying and selling of energy. He noted that CEI is opposed to the bill. Mr. Lambert further commented that he felt it would be a more efficient accounting method if the city separated the utilities, currently the sewer plant, from the Service Department. He feels it would be better if these funds were not co-mingled and the City Council could see "broken down figures" as opposed to larger figures. Mayor Boyle commented that the Wastewater Treatment Plant is under the Director of Public Service, but there is no co-mingling of dollars or people. There is a separate staff at the sewer plant, and they are paid out of an enterprise fund. The plant equipment is purchased out of the Sewer Revenue Fund and the service equipment is purchased from other funds. The Service Department employees are paid out of the General Fund, Street Maintenance Fund and Motor Vehicle License Fund. There is no co-mingling, and City Council does see the separate broken down figures for the sewer plant and the Service Department. He noted that Council would not legally be able to move monies around from a public utility. The Mayor does agree that CEI's rates are high. He is aware of HB 653 and also of a PUCO ruling which currently applies only to the Toledo area. He is not certain that the use of "retail wheeling" would get us to the 5 I _