03/24/2004 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Special Council Minutes of 3/24/2004 that we are short of a corrections officer resulting in a potential liability issue, which Safety Director Jesse insisted at that meeting does not exist. Another financial matter is that a $60,000 police officer is being paid to come in and work a $35,000 position, which does not seem financially responsible. That issue will probably be raised again, but was not accepted by the administration at that time. The Mayor provided some final figures on other issues, one being $24,000 for City Hall ADA, doors and ramps. To create a streetscaping plan, $25,000 is needed-$15,000 from the General Fund and $10,000 from economic development. It was Council's initial request that all of it come out of economic development, but the decision was to split that. The Mayor requested $8,000 for work on the road in North Olmsted Park behind the pavilion. However, that was later withdrawn and has been taken care of. Mr. Copeland request $11,500 for the remainder of the year for a Title III position, and that was added to the appropriations. Further discussion eventually took place with regard to the $40,000 purchase of three vehicles in the Service Department. Mr. Gareau asked that it not be funded until such time as there is a policy in place that restricts the taking home of vehicles. Mr. Limpert recommended that it was better to have one person using a vehicle, in that the vehicle can be better maintained if one person handles it all the time. A compromise was suggested to fund the trucks with the commitment from the Service Director that he would restrict those particular vehicles from being take-home vehicles if it would lock in the purchase of the vehicles. The committee voted 2-1 to go ahead and fund that. • A Finance Committee meeting was held this evening. Present were all Council members and several directors. Mrs. Copfer presented some changes that have to take place in the appropriations. First, the appropriations need to address the school shared income which was an increase from $250,000 to $291,000. An additional change to the appropriations took place prior to this evening, and that is there has been an increase in the fire fighter overtime line item from $200,000 to $237,000. There is an overtime pay of $2,000 added to the Clerk of Commissions for overtime that will be or has been accumulated in the interim changeover in that department and putting that position under the city planner. The issue of the Prosecutor's position was discussed. To clarify, there has been no increase in the pay but rather some of the funding will be taken out of the STOP fund. Mrs. Kasler asked for a reconsideration of the purchase of trucks at a cost of $40,000, based on the compromise motion that was addressed earlier. She believed it was one that protected assets, limited the use of the trucks, but kept newer trucks here. Mr. Limpert supported that motion at the last meeting; however, later then wrote a memo regarding Council's decision to do that and said that we should not be restricting the use of the vehicles. It's her interpretation that then the vote was taken inappropriately because there seems to be confusion. As for reconsideration on the vote of the $40,000 and, as has been done with other items in the budget, she asked that the $40,000 not be funded until such time as there is a policy in place that everyone understands. Mrs. Kasler put that amendment to the appropriations in the form of a motion. The motion was seconded by Mr. Gareau. Mr. Limpert asked to comment before the roll call on the motion. He said that his comment during the meeting when it was decided to fund the pick-up trucks was that he did not care how it was done, but the trucks were needed and he would go along with it. However, he did not feel 4