09/16/2003 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 9/16/2003 6) On September 8, he issued legal opinion 2003-7 which addressed the issue of separation of powers between Council and the Mayor's office. This was a difficult legal issue which was generated as a result of Ordinance 2003-29, and he spent a lot of time on it. It was his opinion that, based upon the Charter duties of the chief executive and the duties of Council, which are also very extensive, that with respect to this particular ordinance it went a little bit too far and did intrude upon the Mayor's area of responsibility in the Charter. He will take some responsibility for that legislation also since it was drafted in the Law Department. 7) On September 5, he issued a memorandum dealing with the subject of nepotism. Under Ohio ethics law, a city supervisor cannot be in a supervisory position over immediate family members who also work for the city. This is based upon a 1998 opinion of the Ohio Ethics Commission. 8) Regarding Landmarks Commission appointments, he has issued memos to the Mayor and Council. Council has one appointment, and the Mayor has three. We have had holdover appoirnments since January, and we are getting to that point where we need to have permanent appoimmerns. Per the Charter, we have a first tier level of qualifications where we need preservation-related professionals to serve on the commission. That apparently is a difficult thing to find. At the directors' meeting, the Finance Director suggested that perhaps we take another 30 days to make a last effort and try to reach out in the community a final time before we go forward and start making appointments. If we cannot find those preservation-related professionals, we will then move on down to the next tier of qualifications and bring on people that have an interest in architectural history and historical architecture. 9) Condolences to Bryan O'Malley whose step-father passed away this weekend. 10) Recently, former Service Director Joe Comgan passed away. Joe Corrigan was the city Service Director from 1978 to 1985. He was a very good man and a dedicated service director. He was a person who was fiercely loyal to his mayor, and he did his best as the service director to serve the City of North Olmsted well. 11) He received correspondence from an attorney representing Cold Harbor, one of the contractors on the library project, regarding extra compensation. A meeting was held at City Hall today to discuss it with the attorney and representatives from Cold Harbor. This doesn't affect the quality of the work going on, but it is simply an issue of contract interpretations. 12) On September 15, he sent a draft of a contract for the pool bleacher furnishing installations to Recreation Commissioner DiSalvo. That contract will be executed shortly, and the work will be done in the month of October. 13) He may have some recommendations coming to Council regarding the small contract ordinance which Council passed earlier this year. (The ordinance that authorizes the Mayor to spend up to $2,000 without Council authorization.) There have been some issues come up regarding implementation of that and what Council's intent is. One of the issues that was brought to his attention relates to accepting grants or making applications for grams. The intent under that ordinance would authorize the Mayor to sign the contract if it's not expending any dollars to apply for grants. The Finance Director has brought to his attention that oftentimes, when making application for these grants, the city is bound to conditions that Council may not desire the city to be bound to. Also, if `~""" the city applies for one grant and gets it, it may preclude the city in some fashion from