04/02/2002 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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" Council Minutes of 4/2/002 Colleen Conway Cooney from the Eight District Court of Appeals was concerned about equal protection for homosexuals who engage in this type of activity because they were being treated more severely under the stahrte than heterosexuals under the disorderly conduct statute. The comments he made to Council were to consider it both ways. Council should decide whether they want to increase the conduct by heterosexuals from disorderly conduct, which is ,generally a minor misdemeanor, to a first degree misdemeanor with a possible punishment of six months or to take down this conduct by homosexuals, which Judge Cooney said was unconstitutional, to a level of disorderly conduct. He did not want to weigh in more substantively than that. But he wanted to just make sure that Council understood that under the Maestros opinion this type of legislation was declared unconstitutional. There are two options. Councilman Gareau said, with respect to the piece of legislation regarding importuning, it was simply an attempt on his part to address conduct which was once illegal within the City of North Olmsted, which by virtue of an Eight District Appellate decision, would not be illegal under that specific statute. His effort was to revive that particular section so that, where once this conduct was not permitted, it still would not be permitted. It may have a broader application, but its broader application is not necessarily a negative thing. He thinks it gives the flexibility to ow Police Department as well as to our prosecutorial staff to do with these cases as they see fit and to charge under either section. That will close a gap that was created a year ago. Mrs. Kasler noted that the committee had unanimously recommended approval of both ordinances. Councilman Miller, chairperson of the Intro-Governmental Relations and Legislation; Long-Range Planning Committee: 1) The committee met on Mach 27 with all committee members present. On the agenda was the need to make Council's appointment to the Landmarks Commission created by the recent resignation of Anthony Smeraldi whose term will end on December 31, 2002. The nominee, Mr. Joseph Lang, had indicated that he would be traveling on that day and might not be able to make the meeting. All Council members agreed to waive his presence as he is well known to all of Council. Mr. Lang has been a resideirt of North Olmsted since 1976. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in History and a Master of Arts degree in Education Administration from John Carroll [7niversity. He is retired from North Olmsted High School as history/social studies teacher and department chair. He is a previous member of the Landmarks Commission. As a member of the Landmarks Commission, he organized records in the basement vault at Old Town Hall, began computerization of files and other records, computerized the Ohio Historic inventory, digitized photos of many of the homes involved, inventoried and photographed all the homes in the Butternut historic district and merrtored the SITES students placed with Landmarks Commission. The recommendation unanimously was to appoint Mr. Lang to this open seat. Mr. Miller moved that Council appoint Joseph Lang to the Landmarks Commission to complete the term ending on December 31, 2002. The motion was seconded by Councilman Nashar and passed unanimously. (Mr. Lang was asked to stand and was congratulated by all.) Councilman Gareau, chairperson of the Recreation, Public Parks and Building Committee: 1) Following up on an issue that he brought to the attention of Council 8