11/06/2002 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes 11/6/2002 2) On October 17, he attended the Mayor's state of the city address at the Chamber of Commerce. He would say, trying to put things into perspective, it was a good address. With all the hard times we are facing, as a city we have accomplished some good things in the past few years and we have a lot of good projects on the table. We don't want to lose sight of that. 3) Since October I8, he has attended four budget meetings with the Mayor, directors and division heads. 4) On October 20, he issued a memorandum to the Mayor, Council and the Planning Commission regarding the 2004 Master Plan process. This is an important process as by 2004 it will have been 12 years since an update to the comprehensive plan was completed. He is encouraging Council to look at funding issues next year with respect to this issue. The city has some important economic development projects that can improve our financial picture in the next couple of years. 5) On October 22, he attended a meeting sponsored by Don Copeland to review existing procedures and consider establishing new procedures to better coordinate city services involving people who need Human Resource Department assistance. It was a well attended meeting and Don Copeland did a good job of getting that information and providing a Fooperative environment for addressing a city problem. 6) On October 24, City Prosecutor Dan Ryan argued the case of State vs. Tackett to the Cuyahoga County Court of Appeals. This was a case which involved, from the city's viewpoint, an important eviderrtiary legal issue involving DUI testing by the police. 7) On October 25, the city law clerk completed research and provided him with a memorandum regarding the status of the Adelphia bankruptcy proceedings. Adelphia has received a $1.5 billion debtor and possession loan which should enable it to continue to meet its obligations to customers and municipalities until a reorganization plan is completed and submitted to bankruptcy court. We were unable to find out when that reorganization plan will be submitted to the court. As far as he knows, we should continue to receive the franchise fees. (Finance Director Copfer noted that those fees are usually paid in arrears, and we should receive the next payment in early November.) 8) On October 28, he provided legal opinion No. 18 in response to a request from Council member Gateau. This opinion discussed corporate procedure for establishing non- bargaining unit positions within the classified service of the city's Civil Service and the rights of classified civil servants. 9) On October 28, he attended a Civil Service Commission meeting regarding scheduling promotional examinations for the Fire Chief vacant position. Before Council this evening, is legislation to approve the hiring of Ramsey & Associates to administer the test. If everything goes according to the probable timetable established, we should have a new Fire Chief on board in January. 10) On October 31, he attended a health care committee meeting arranged bythe Director of Personnel and Administrative Services. Department heads and union reps were invited. It was a good exchange of information on health care issues. This is another one of those important issues, both from the standpoint of health and safety of the city employees and also for budgetary reasons. Hopefully we will get some of the health care costs in line to help with the budgetary problems. 11) On November 1, he received correspondence from the Westlake law director regarding a proposed amendment to the Council of Governments agreement relating to 4