05/08/2002 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 5/8/20(12 of the school district and particularly on behalf of the students, he thanked Council and the city administration for having the foresight in investing as they have in the young people of North Olmsted. Don Pangrac, 23470 Sharon Drive. • He asked the Mayor what progress had been made on water rate reduction. Mayor Musial answered that he has several people in mind who he will appoint to the water rate reduction task force. The water rate task force group from the suburban Mayors & Managers Association is moving rather slowly but is going to have a meeting in the very near future. Mr. Pangrac expressed concern about this issue as he first brought it to the attention of the Mayor in 1998. • On the school levy issue, Mr. Pangrac asked how Council can justify their position in holding city employees' salaries to 3% or less when Council supported a school tax increase which promotes salary increase of 6+%. He believes atwo-class society is being created in the community. The older, poorer people in the community will be forced to move. Mr. Nashar noted that he had stated he would seriously hold the line on salary increases for next year to 3% or lower. Mr. Limpert said he felt very justified in supporting the school issue, but it is not the responsibility of Council to review the school's contract with their employees. He feels that support for the school levy was in the best interest of the city because, if the school system is below par, it will dramatically affect our city's services and revenues as the more affluent families who can afford to move will do so. Mr. Gareau explained that Mr. Pangrac should be addressing the school board with his concerns of the possibility of a two- tiered system and a disproportionate burden on senior citizens. Mr. Pangrac said he was trying to make the point that he thought Council members were getting involved in support of the school policies by publicly supporting and putting their names on literature distributed by the schools. He would not have a problem if the support was done only with someone's name, but he feels including the title of "Councilman" causes a problem. Also, he suggested that Council give strong consideration to prohibiting employees of the school system from holding public office. Mr. O'Grady said, from his own perspective, he did not see a conflict with being a teacher and a public official. Also, the Law Director felt there was no conflict. He stated that some of the numbers presented by Mr. Pangrac were distorted as the teachers don't have 6% raises, but they do have step increases and increases for additional qualifications. The city also gives these types of increases. Mr. Pangrac disagreed that the numbers were distorted and said he had done a study of the salaries and there had been 13%, 8% and 7% increases. Mr. O'Grady said that the blame for the school funding problems should not be put on teachers or administrators. The problem is with the way schools are funded in Ohio where the burden is put solely and squarely on the shoulders of property owners. This system is discriminatory because it is based upon the property values as to the quality of the education in each system. It is a school funding system that has been declared unconstitutional. There are only six states in the union that have property owners paying for schools and then ask those property owners to pass their own tax increases. It is a terrible system, and he has been in contact with our state legislators about this problem. Mr. Pangrac noted that the City of North Royalton, with a similar sized school system, 7