04/04/2000 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 4/4/2000 reviewing the bill that was submitted to the court asking that the city be required to pay attorney's fees. 2) At the BZD Committee meeting where the sign code was discussed, the Chamber of Commerce and their experts indicated that we would have comments from them by last Tuesday for a meeting to be held on April 6. We did not receive those comments. We did receive some notations late Wednesday, and we finally received some proposals from them last Friday. As a result of not having received that information in a timely manner, he prevailed upon Council to change the meeting date to April 10, which has been done. He would suggest that a court reporter be hired for the meeting on April 10 so that, when we finally do pass an ordinance, we at least have some sort of a record where findings were made. We could draw upon that record if we were ever challenged some time in the future regarding litigation of the sign code that is eventually passed. 3) The Moran case has been pending in federal court, and many things have been happening in the last several weeks. Over the past three months, he has resisted greatly the insistence on the part of St. Paul Insurance Company to settle that case. He has been unhappy with St. Paul Insurance Company in the past on their quickness to hand out money which includes the city deductible. He has been very vociferous with respect to the settlement of that case. And, as a result of that, they have opted to exercise their rights under their policy and turn the defense of that case over to the City of North Olmsted. They did that last Friday knowing that the close of discovery was the 14~' and knowing that depositions were scheduled for all of this week. As a result of that, he has contacted St. Paul Insurance and has indicated to them that, if in fact the city tenders the deductible amount, he will file a lawsuit against St. Paul Insurance Company on behalf of the city for breach of contract and will pursue a bad faith claim. He is displeased as to the way this case has proceeded when we have had counsel for a year and a half and have done no discovery. It is inexcusable. Mr. Nashar questioned Law Director Gareau on the need to hire a court reporter for the April 10 BZD Committee meeting regarding the sign code. Law Director Gareau said the purpose of this meeting is to present expert testimony, which is different from the last meeting. He feels it would be a good idea to have a record of the dueling experts so that, when the day is done, we will have exactly what everybody said. This is just his suggestion, and it is up to Council to make the decision. President Saringer said it would be her recommendation that Council take the Law Director's advice. Mr. O'Grady made a motion in support of the Law Director's suggestion to hire a court reporter for the BZD Committee meeting of April 10. The motion was seconded by Mrs. Kasler and unanimously approved. Law Director Gareau will make the arrangements to hire the services of a court reporter. Finance Director Copfer: 1) As Council requested, she met with a resident and employee who had attended the budget hearings. They discussed various issues regarding the city's self-funded insurance plan and the fees that were charged by our TPA. The gentleman she spoke with was to send her more information upon which he was basing his opinion. When that occurs, she will report to Council. 2) The Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio has announced that they are adopting a temporary one-year employer contribution rate rollback. From July of 2000 2 ...t~rktt+:nee~ni5!t2Kikti4~l/r..' ...... ~ ~..x.-.. ._.~Prri .. ... j®resas ,