05/15/2001 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 5/15/2001 opinion regard to time either way. His recommendation is that we wait and study what's going on at that crosswalk. Resident Mr. Ryan commented his wife parks in the vicinity, of Pine School and leaves the car to drop off their grandchild who needs medical care and assistance getting in and out of the school. He asked why we are looking to expand the zone and change the hours. He asked if there had been any accidents that precipitated these changes. He complained of harassment to the residents who drive their children or pick them up at Pine School. Mrs. Kesler commented that in fact convenience of the residents is an issue and is something that should be considered. There was a recommendation -made by Mrs. Kesler that the committee recommend adoption of Ordinance 2001-55, this was voted down by the committee with Mrs. Kesler voting for it, and Mr. Limpert and Mr. O'Grady voting against. The Safety Committee does not recommend approval of 2001-55. As a note, there is amendment necessary to Ordinance 2001-55 and following the committee reports, Mrs. Kesler will be making that recommendation and the ordinance will go back on as amended on second reading. 3) A second Safety Committee meeting occurred on May 14. Present were committee members O'Grady, Limpert and Kesler, members of Council McKay, Dailey and Saringer; Mayor Musial, Directors of Safety, Service and Personnel; numerous residents. The topic for this discussion was the STOP program in the City of North Olmsted. The STOP program is designed to put additional police on the street with no direct expense to the city taxpayers. Mrs. Kesler commented that this program had led to a reduction in accidents. The comment was made that there have been a few more tickets, but this program is not tied to the overtime of police officers. Further, she commented that no onus is placed on police officers to write tickets. Mr. O'Grady commented in opposition to those thoughts. The idea that the STOP program is now credited with reducing accidents, he feels is perhaps a bit misleading. There's been a continuous downward trend in accidents actually over the last ten years, specifically since 1994 through 2000, with the exception of the year1998. But since 1994 to 2000, every single year in the City of North Olmsted there's been a reduction in traffic accidents. To say that the reduction in the year 2000 is due to the STOP program he thinks is a little bit difficult to support. There was no STOP program in 1995, 1996, 1997, or 1999, yet there were reductions and there continue to be reductions in accidents. With regard to the idea of a few more accidents, in 1998, 2,856 tickets were written in the City Of North Olmsted. In the year 1999, 4,380 tickets were written. In the year 2000, there were 7,095 tickets. That does not include 9,378 tickets written in 5 months of 2000 by the STOP program Comments from residents followed, with one speaker commenting that "tickets are being written left and right," "it should have been a warning," "it would have been a warning perhaps if it wasn't for the STOP program" Comment was made, "They're watching ya." A resident asked would overtime be cut if there were not enough tickets written? The same resident commented that, when he went down to fight his ticket at the courts, the North Olmsted docket is so locked up that it takes several hours just to get a court date. He mentioned that a police officer commented to him, "That's why I'm here, to write tickets." Another resident came up to contest the idea that no tickets that were written were undeserved. This gentleman was driving down the street as an officer had pulled someone over. The officer directed him to go by him. When he did, the man crossed left the center to make sure he didn't run into the police officer. He was given a ticket for going left of center. This ticket was dismissed by the prosecutor. There were comments 4