01/07/2003 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Council Minutes of 1/7!2003 city but instead to be the attorney for the city. In the course of writing the opinion he read again a federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals case which questioned whether, in light of the public's demand for open and honest government, city officials should be entitled to even assert attorney/client privilege regarding communications with which they make with the city attorney. He has practiced. law for 23 years, and the concept of attorney/client privilege and what it means historically in the development of common law is sacred to lawyers. Apparently, some very important people believe that there are higher values than attorney/client privilege and one of them, according to the Sixth Circuit, is open and honest government. Even so much so that the court is willing to say that there is no attorney/client privilege between city officials perhaps and their attorney when it comes to making sure that the public receives open and honest government. It is important to consider in 2003 to do things to promote open and honest government in the City of North Olmsted. We need to have more open and honest communications between all members of the administration, including himself, and the City Council. These communications, whenever possible, should be made at open meetings. There is really nothing to hide. Local government seems to work best when everybody, the Council, the administration and the members of the public know what is going on. He would also urge Council to complete the process of creating and keeping good minutes of all public meetings of every city body including Council committee meetings. He agrees with the President of Council on the issue of exploring the idea of televising Council meetings and perhaps even other bodies and commissions of the city. The city should try to plan ahead for 2003. This year, five of our seven collective bargaining agreements will terminate. We do need to begin addressing important issues regarding these contracts, and health care coverage is an especially big issue. The master plan for the Planning Commission is due to be completed by June 2004. In order to get that master plan completed and approved by City Council for June of 2004, it takes getting it well under way in 2003 . Budgeting for it is required this year and also some special attention as to what the focus of the master plan should be. As the Mayor pointed out in his report, Stearns/Crocker extension is very critical. It will have a dramatic impact on the west end of town. It may indirectly have an impact on the mall. The city records commission should meet this year, especially in light of all the discussions we had on public records issues in 2002. The public records commission is an administrative responsibility. The two vacancies on the city's Fair Housing Board should be filled, and the board should meet in 2003 to address any fair housing issues and needs that the city may have. The city's organizational chart should be comprehensively reviewed and appropriate legislation requested to insure that there is accountability for the existence of every city position, bargaining and non-bargaining. Council is urged to consider passing the RFP legislation, Ordinance 2002-72. In his opinion, this is simply good government legislation. It's consistent with the Charter's apportionment of responsibility between the administration and the Council on all city contracts. He believes that Council's responsibility is to establish good procedures for the entering into of contracts, including professional service contracts. It's thereafter the responsibility of the administration to follow Council's established process and select the best contractor price-wise and quality-wise. 6