12/21/2004 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 12-21-2004 RTA. They indicated interest in a three-month extension which the RTA Board of Trustees did consider and did approve. In the RTA report for 2003 and in a letter from George Dixon III, president of the RTA Board of Trustees, dated June 24, 2004, Mr. Dixon indicated regarding future plans that a new southwest garage would be built at an estimated cost of $11.3 million. That is the garage that is supposed to go into the industrial parkway area for which the city purchased land some years ago. It is inconceivable that there was a sudden change in their plans to all of a sudden eliminate the garage and try to absorb the NOMBL system. Resolution 2004-201, which will be considered under suspension of the rules today, contains two Whereas clauses that talk about negotiations regarding the possible acquisition of the North Olmsted Municipal Bus Line by the authority or a renewal of the five-year public transportation operating agreement. It is his sincere desire that we will pull out all stops to come to an agreement on a five-year operating plan. Congressman Kucinich is 1,000% behind us in this area, and he will do everything possible because he believes in the North Olmsted bus system and the Maple Hts. bus system. It's important to note that the NOMBL system is almost 75 years old. It seems that people are so willing to throw out culture and throw out tradition over the aspect of a few dollars and making the way for "progress." It is particularly discomforting when you take into consideration that 7% of the approximately $158 million operating budget of RTA is financed through subsidies from the 1 % sales tax. Of the subsidized amount, North Olmsted alone contributes roughly 10%, or about $15 million. Law Director Dubelko: 1) Regarding NOMBL, while the Mayor and Congressman Kucinich are waging their battle, it's important that the negotiating team (Law, Finance and Service Directors and the bus line management) stay at the table and keep all channels of communication open with RTA. They will do this primarily so that the residents of North Olmsted can be assured that bus service is going to be continued in this area regardless of what eventually turns out in this matter. Secondly, that all 65 of our city employees are protected while negotiations and the battle continues on. Those are the main efforts that he and other members of the negotiating team have been involved in during the month of December. Toward that end, they attended negotiating sessions on December 8 and December 15. Status reports have been provided to the Mayor and members of City Council following those meetings. 2) He has been conducting interviews for the new city Prosecutor and hopes to have a person in place by January 15. 3) Happy holidays to the President and every member of Council. Finance Director Copfer: 1) The Finance Dept. has been busy with the final appropriations for 2004. There has been some last minute shuffling of funds due to weather problems. The final transfer ordinance is before Council this evening. 2) The department has also been working on the temporary appropriations for 2005, which was reviewed in committee tonight. 3) Several training sessions with MUNIS have been held on accounts payable, the general ledger and payroll. However, our final new general ledger has not yet been received from the MUNIS conversion department. This information is needed to be able to do the 2