01/07/2003 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 1/'//2003 further in the future the bus garage which will become vacant when RTA builds a new garage at the west end of town. ^ Pending city litigation. At the present time, there is none for which the Law Dept. is responsible to prosecute and defend. One of his goals was to attempt to get ahead of the curve on some issues facing the city, provide good advice to minimize the need to go to court or defend the city in court. From that viewpoint, the department was successful in 2002. The Springvale golf carts lease case was settled after just one appearance in court on a basis that was advantageous to the city. Some old cases involving the city Law Department were resolved in 2002. The EPA consent decree was terminated in 2002, and a lot of credit goes to former Law Director Mike Gareau and former environmental engineer Dennis Long. The Parcel E case ended not so well in 2002, but it did come to a conclusion. The Park-N-Ride appropriation cases began and ended in 2002. They were handled effectively by Assistant Law Director O'Malley. In addition to reimbursing the city for the cost of the land and all the court related costs, RTA paid an administrative fee to the city of approximately $15,000 which went to the General Fund. ^ Unf nished business in 2002. Apologies to Council members Nashar and Miller who each have several requested pieces of legislation pending. Two other pieces of u~nished business include changes in the community access ordinance and the issue of right-of--way legislation in light of the changes in state law that occurred in the latter half of 2002. Monies collected by the Law Director during the year proceeding: The only monies that physically passed through the Law Dept. in 2002 were in the form of a check in the amount of $804, which was collected from the Great West Casualty Company regarding damage done by a motorist to a pedestrian signal on the corner of Barton Road and Lorain. As noted above, the Law Dept. was responsible for collection of some monies from RTA in connection with the Park-N-Ride. Also, in other matters such as tree lawn repairs in North Park Estates, the Law Dept. was responsible for invoking the bond which caused the surety to expend dollars to do tree lawn work the defaulting contractor failed to do. The city was saved significant dollars in the golf cart litigation. Other matters to promote good government and welfare in the city: When he took office a year ago, he indicated that, as the Law Director, it is not his role to be a policy maker or a partisan on city issues. It is difficult to make proposals that would comprehensively address everything he has seen, witnessed and experienced this year but he does have some general recommendations. First, it is most important to promote more open and honest government in the City of North Olmsted. Recently, the Mayor asked him to provide a formal legal opinion on the relationship between the Law Director and the Mayor, between the Law Director and Council and between the Law Director and the Fire and Police Depts. Legal opinion 2002-21 discusses the function of the Law Director in municipal corporations as not a personal attorney for the Mayor, nor for Council, nor for different departments in the