01/21/2003 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 1/21/2003 were resolved in this legal opinion. The first was the authority of the Safety Director to implement improved capital improvement projects on parks and recreation grounds. The second was the requirement that City Council review and approve the cancellation of city contracts which had been previously authorized by City Council. 6) On January 20, he attended the swearing-in ceremonies for the new Fire Chief and the Recreation Commissioner. If the Mayor was in attendance, he would commend him on the process that was used to fill each of these two positions. It was good government, both with respect to the Civil Service promotional process for the Fire Chief and for the interview process which led to the appointment of the new Recreation Commissioner. Fire Chief Klecan should also be commended. He served the city as the Acting Fire Chief since October of last year when Chief Bak retired. From October until January, he performed the duties of Chief without an Assistant Chief. Also, during that period, for budgetary reasons, the Fire Dept. was down one secretary and had a retirement in the fire prevention office, which again for budgetary reasons, was not replaced. Chief Klecan should be commended for his dedicated service to the city. 7) January 21, the case of Buckeye Community Hope Foundations v. the City of Cuyahoga Falls was argued before the United States Supreme Court. This case pits the people's right to referendum in administrative zoning decisions against property owners' rights to develop their property in accordance with clearly established building and zoning standards. In Buckeye, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that a trial should go forward in the district court on the issue of whether the city's zoning referendum procedures violated the property owner's substantive due process rights. This is a very important municipal law case. It is probably a good guess that the Supreme Court, given its present conservative composition, will come down with a decision which protects the rights of property owners to develop their property in accordance with clearly established building and zoning code requirements which further legitimate governmental interests. 8) On a lighter note, the Law Director read the "Top 11 List of Things Not to Do With or To Your Law Director." (Authorship of the list attributed to the Law Director of Maumee, Ohio.) Finance Director Copfer: 1) Ordinance 2003-7 is the amended temporary appropriations to be passed under suspension of the rules this evening. The legislation was discussed last week in a committee meeting. The ordinance amends the HoteUMotel Tax Fund to appropriate $90,000 for police equipment, $75,000 of which is the cost of three police cars that need to be ordered in a timely manner. 2) The Finance Department had to send the W2 upgrade tape back to the software company three times because of various reasons. Barring any further problems, the department is on schedule to have the forms mailed by January 31. 3) The RITA subpoena program for delinquent taxpayers ended today. The RITA auditors commented that the graduated fines that the city implemented for repeat delinquent filers caught the attention of many repeat offenders. On their way out, they mentioned they would be filing in a timely manner this year, which is what we were trying to encourage. 4) The necessary transfer from the General Fund required to keep Springvale out of a deficit at year end 2002 was $17,399. 2