01/20/2004 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 1/20/2004 resigned and was reappointed when it was learned that residency was not required. At that point, he specifically made a point of saying that he thought residency should be an issue that should be very relevant to the boards and commissions. It is his opinion that board and commission members should live in North Olmsted, absent some sort of unique circumstance such as an architectural background or a specific characteristic for membership on a board or commission. Councilwoman Kasler, chairperson of the Finance Committee: 1) A joint Finance and Public Safety meeting was held on January 8. In attendance were Finance Committee chairman Kasler, member Limpert, Public Safety chairman Miller, member Nashar, the President of Council, the Police Chief, the Finance and Safety Directors, Police Officer Wagner, and canine Officer Rico. The two committees joined to discuss increasing the Police Canine Unit from two dogs to three. The Chief of Police informed the committees that his effort to obtain the third dog was to have a dog on each of the shifts for the purpose of officer safety, increased drug and other patrol and savings in overtime in this unit. These units have become increasingly in demand in this city as well as in our country as a whole and increasingly diverse in training. In addition to drug dog training, our first two canines aze trained in human tracking and evidence recovery. They are an asset to law enforcement and to the community. The purchase of a dog is $9,000, which is a reduced cost from what it is to most fast-time purchases. There is a potential additional cost of $6,000, which is paid in $2,000 increments at various times as needed to outfit a used police car to house the dogs on patrol. The financial issue discussed was whether money was appropriated for this purpose. In the temporary budget, money was appropriated to HoteVMotel Tax, which is used for the purpose of providing police and fire equipment. There were sufficient funds in the police portion of this temporary appropriation to purchase the third dog, which purpose arose rather quickly with the necessity to make a quick decision to order a dog to preserve a better price and to obtain the dog immediately rather than wait a year for another to be trained. It was the desire of both committees to discuss this purchase, and both committees were satisfied following the discussion the purchase was a wise ane for the safety of our residents and one which is provided for within the police equipment budget. Part of the money to equip the cars will come from the Law Enforcement Fund, which can only be used for such explicit purchases. After a complete and detailed discussion of both financial and safety issues, the committees approved of the decision to purchase a third canine for North Olmsted. 2) The Finance Committee met on Tuesday, January 13. In attendance were chairman Kasler, members Gazeau and Limpert; Councilmen Dailey, Nashar, McKay and Miller; the directors of Finance, Safety and Law. Agenda items were as follows: • Ordinance 2004-1, which is an ordinance creating new Section 137.03 of Chapter 137 of the Administrative Code entitled "Department of Law" in order to authorize the Director of Law to settle certain small dollar claims of or against the City of North Olmsted. As the law stands right now, there is no authorization for anyone to settle claims; and, therefore, all claims, no matter how small, go to Council for approval. This ordinance is a matter of housekeeping and efficiency in government and states that the Law Director is authorized to settle any claims filed against the city which do 7