08/16/2005 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 8/16/2005 promote better government in North Olmsted in that potential good legislators, with less than strong executive resumes, might lose votes and/or races to less legislatively qualified candidates with strong executive resumes. Finally his third concern is the directive that the debate on Ordnance No. 2005-27 is taking. In his judgment, while debate may be had over the form of the Ordinance, such debate should not cloud debate over the merits of the proposal itself: Should the City, or should the City not, continue to have an elected President of Council. If the debate on this Ordinance instead becomes one of whether this is a credible proposal to transition from anvoter-elected Council President to aCouncil-selected President, then he believes we do a disservice to debate on the substance of the proposal to eliminate the elected office of President of Council, and we perhaps may send confusing, inconsistent or even misleading signals to the electorate on this praposal. His thoughts and comments on Ordinance No. 2005-27 were delivered only from the perspective of promoting good government in the City of North Olmsted. He would like to stress and acknowledge that there certainly are valid and compelling arguments for and against this legislation. His comments, as Director of Law, should not be construed in any way as criticism of the sponsor of the legislation or anyone else who supports it. While this legislation, and the proposal generally, may have had, as he believes, its genesis in political considerations, he has no doubt whatsoever that every member of Council, when it comes time to vote on this ordinance, will act upon what he believes is in the best interests of the City in casting his vote. He only asks that they take and consider his comments for what they believe they are worth. Regarding Resolution 2005-103, Councilman Gareau inquired as to the size of the real property purchase for the fire station. During the committee process, there was repeated reference to 7 acres of land, but the acreage in the legislation is 4.31 acres. Law Director Dubelko said the city is purchasing the entire lot. If it was previously mentioned as 7 acres, that was incorrect. Finance Director Copfer: 1) The Auditor of State officially released the 2004 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). The report is available on the city's website, and her department is compiling copies for distribution to Council by the end of the week. This will be discussed at the Finance Committee meeting in addition to the financial data that was requested at the last Finance Committee meeting. That information was provided to Council this evening. 2) The June operational review will be discussed at the Finance Committee meeting. She is currently looking at the appropriations, and she is meeting with several of the divisions and departments to provide a revised transfer ordinance. After that, she will be able to complete the review and provide her unofficial, updated, unencumbered balance. 4) The County Auditor sent an amended 2005 certificate of estimated resources for the local government revenue assistance funds, reducing 2005's anticipated amount for the City of North Olmsted by $29,965. We will have to either increase estimated resources or reduce expenses through Council appropriation amendment to obtain a balanced budget for 2005. 5) Finally, and most importantly, she will very much miss Mr. McKay's presence at the meetings. She enjoyed their time working together on the Finance Committee. She thinks the residents will miss his representation of them at the meetings as well. He was fair; he had the courage to vote for what was in the best interest of the residents. Thanks to Mr. McKay for his selfless service and thank you to his family for the sacrifices that they have made over the 23 8