10/19/2004 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Council Minutes of 10/19/2004 ,,,~: highly recommends to Council and members of the administration the leadership training sponsored by the Cleveland State Levine College of Urban Affairs. Duane Limpert, 4921 Berkshire Drive, chairperson of the committee in support of the fire levy. The levy (Issue 58) has been endorsed by the Sun Herald and will be endorsed by the Westlife. The current Station No. 2 was built to house three firemen. We now have five firefighters there and the potential for even more. Staffing is an issue because of space. This is a step in the right direction. There is good news in that a .5 mill levy for old sewer debt is coming off. The .4 mills for the proposed new fire station will actually be a decrease of .1 mill. We can continue progress and not have to pay higher taxes than we have been paying. Don Pangrac, 23470 Sharon Drive, is all for a new fire station. However, there are no drawings of what the station is going to look like and there aren't concrete numbers as to what the fire station is going to cost. He is concerned about giving the city a blank check. When the city plans projects, it needs to do a better job on homework and come to the taxpayers and have some idea as to what this facility will look like. Councilman Limpert answered that there has been a lot of homework done. There have been basic estimates given on the cost for land acquisition and for the basic type of building based on structures recently built in other communities. It would not be fiscally responsible to spend $100,000 to $150,000 to get concrete, solid engineering estimates and architectural work before it is approved by the voters. We do have solid estimates. The $4 million will be enough to cover it. If we do not spend that much, there will be a pay down of the bonds. There is a prime piece of property picked out that we think would be ideal. If something were to change, we could move to a secondary property. The property will affect the shape of the building. The Chief, Assistant Chief and Safety Director have been involved in gathering the information. Safety Director Jesse came forward and said he would send to Mr. Pangrac all available information, which includes a tentative floor plan and budget numbers for various items. Councilman Miller commented that he had twice asked the Mayor, once under public records law, for records that the Mayor may or may not have for discussions he had regarding acquisition of property with the client of his law firm. He has not received those records and is concerned the Mayor may have worn at least two hats in approaching the client of Musial &Musial law firm and also representing the city as the Mayor for a proposed site of the new fire station. He asked the Law Director whether he could represent Council in a lawsuit to demand those records. Law Director Dubelko said he had some discussions in executive session about this some time ago. He did talk to the Mayor and provided a memo to Council which outlined his discussions with the Mayor regarding land acquisition, which was essentially nobody was promised anything. He believes the administration has done due diligence in looking at the need for a new fire station and what it would cost to construct a new fire station to serve the city's purposes along with some related equipment. The next step is up to the voters. If the voters approve it, there is going to be a long public process involving the designing of it and approving it through the various boards and commissions and finally approving it through City Council. Even the site itself is not a lock at this stage-there are probably any 12 ~. „~;~ f. , i