08/06/2002 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 8/6/2(102 Dan Butkiewicz, 6033 Brook Circle, said he wanted to discuss a safety issue-the '„~,,,. drainage ditches around the BartonBradley soccer fields are normally cleared out each year by the city right before the July Fourth tournament. This year, due to cutbacks and the reallocation of who is responsible for the ditches, there is a crew now totaling three men who are taking care of all the drainage ditches. Spraying is going on right now for the West Nile Virus. Without these ditches being taken care of, and probably others around the city, there is a real problem. The soccer fields are being regularly cut by crews during this dry spell when nothing is growing. When he talked to the crew about taking care of the ditches, they said there were only three of them and they can't get it all done. They came to see the situation and cut down a couple of vines on one of the trees that were hanging near the ditches. That was about a week and a half ago, and he hasn't seen them since. This is a safety issue around the city. The city used to take wonderful care of this. Fortunately, we don't have a lot of water running right now because that is a major drainage throughout the area and it would be a real disaster as a harvesting place for mosquitoes. He hopes this can get done-it doesn't take that much time. Dennis Lambert, 25057 Carey Lane, said this is nothing new~udget crunches have been going on for some time. Governor Taft is facing one right now. Jimmy Dimora is having problems on the county level. He has concerns about the comments about the Finance Director because the Finance Director is nothing more than the messenger. She doesn't have decision making regarding how the city is run-that is done by Council and administration. He has recommended many times that the Council take a close look at the budget line item by line item. When you appropriate money to be spent, you can bet somebody is going to spend it. You need to hold the purse strings-starting with Council and responsibility on to the Mayor. Has been fond of the Mayor and has supported him in the past, but he thinks he is getting some bad advice. It's something he has to look to internally within his administration. He sees a lot of people here tonight with union shirts on. He has a feeling the Mayor has an administration that doesn't deal well with the unions. Because of the inexperience of some of the directors, he thinks there are some problems that need to be addressed but must be done positively. This starts with the library and how it was configured. Some valuable tax-generating land was used when some less impacting land could have been used. We're going to lose revenue from that and other areas. Some cities are surviving in this crunch, one of them is Westlake. They have an aggressive building program going on right now along CrockerBassett. This city needs to get on board and start generating some revenue. Council needs to take a close look at where they can save money before they appropriate money. The Mayor has to start getting some good advice from some directors. Larry Krudy, Service Department employee and president of AFSCME 2681, wished to address Council and the Mayor about concerns. They urge Council not to vote for any budget that calls for personnel cuts. As one gentlemen pointed out, ditches aren't being taken care of because there are only three or four employees cleaning out ditches. During the last week or so, department directors have found about $600,000. Hopefully, they will look further to see what they can find without personnel cuts. Also, attrition has taken place. In the Service Department, there have been at least three employees lost. The city cannot afford to let more people ga. In the bottom line, the residents will suffer. 15