05/16/2000 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 5/16/2000 does not think it would be ramming it through. She would like to see it passed tonight. Councilman O'Grady: • The President of Council did in fact ask that Council consider suspension of the rules. His position as one of the sponsors is that it would not be the thing to do for the reason that people put out "stuff' that is not very honest, very nice. One of the things they said was that the Council was going to "ram" through something. That is ridiculous. Council has been at this for more than a year, and they (ABC) has been invited to every single meeting that was held. To go ahead with suspension of the rules would give them some justification for making some negative comment. He does not think it is worth it--it can wait two more weeks. There are some people in the audience who do not agree with the ordinance (non-union people), and that is okay. It is good and okay for honest and honorable people to disagree. A friend of his in the back of the room, Jack Boss, does not agree with it. That is okay. Mr. Boss spoke at the committee meeting yesterday and said he is in complete disagreement with the tactics used by ABC, and that he didn't approve of it. If he had anything to do with it, it wouldn't have happened. Keep that in mind, and make sure that we are treating each other courteously. Thanks to Larry Orlowski who spoke earlier. He spent time with him as he created his portion of the ordinance. In response to Mr. Ross, there is a group of people putting out the "stuff' that says, "On Tuesday, May 16, at 8 p.m., North Olmsted City Council led by Thomas O'Grady is set to ram through 99-54 that will cost the residents of North Olmsted millions, ultimately raising your taxes while filling the pockets of O'Grady's special interest group." After that was printed, a lot of people have volunteered to be his "favorite special interest group!" His children among them! (When asked by Mr. O'Grady, Mr. Ross said he did not personally have anything to do with that ad.) Mr. O'Grady said that, at the committee meeting yesterday, Mr. Mitch DeDante from ABC admitted that he had contributed to the ad. Mr. DeDante is not here today. Last night, he asked Mr. DeDante what proof he had that Council was dishonest and misusing tax dollars, that they were engaged in taking bribes and giving kickbacks. Mr. DeDante said he really didn't have any proof of it, it was just his opinion. Mr. O'Grady asked why Mr. DeDante would take his opinion and place it in the newspaper as if it were fact. Mr. DeDante does not care about the citizens of this city. He does not care that a child in a school thinks that one of his teachers is dishonest. He does not care about the elderly and people on fixed incomes that might read this and worry whether City Council is going to raise their taxes. Mr. O'Grady feels Mr. DeDante is dishonest, dishonorable and a disgrace and so is this "garbage.'" Councilman Kasler: • As she said in the meeting last evening, the phone calls that were made with reference to these articles/literature were quite disturbing. When she returned those calls, and once the people received the facts and were told what Ordinance 99-54 was, they were, to a person, in agreement and appreciation of the fact that the Council has proposed such an ordinance. This is not about PLAs, it's about integrity. Up until last evening, she had chosen to disregard, not respond and not to dignify it. However, 11