01/03/2006 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 1/3/2006 status of litigation, 2005 legislation, dollars collected by the department, and other matters deemed to promote good government. The following are highlights of the report: • The City Prosecutor has implemented a new victims of crime policy and procedures for victims of crime in North Olmsted. He provides monthly reports of cases handled. • Revenues coming out of Rocky River Court were up approximately $82,000. • The Assistant Law Director's duties include real property maintenance code enforcement. The Law Dept. was involved in a total of six prosecutions of the real property maintenance code in 2002-2003. In the last two years, 2004-2005, that jumped to 23 cases. • Civil litigation case resolutions were improved over the last year. In 2004, only 4 cases were resolved; in 2005, 11 cases were resolved. • The number of legislation prepared or reviewed by the Law Dept. has remained relatively constant over the last four years-ranging from 182 to 209. • Pages 10 and 11 list significant legislation from a good government viewpoint. The Charter amendments were of particular significance. • The department collected $22,574 in 2005. In addition, approximately $20,000 was received in work/study grant funds to pay for the city law clerks. Also, in large part due to the efforts of the department and of Nicole Dailey Jones, the Fair Housing Review Board chairperson, the city received $120,000 in grant funds from HUD for building the Fair Housing program in North Olmsted. • Good government recommendations appear on pages 12 and 13 of the report. One is the potential to televise Council meetings. • Records Commission, which is not really a Council chore, but Council should become involved in the process to make sure Council is retaining its records appropriately. • The issue of purchase orders versus written contracts needs to be addressed. • Review of the Ethics Code and Ethics Commission should be completed. • The city organizational chart needs revision. • The method by which Council keeps minutes for its committee meetings should be reviewed again. • Two recommendations for 2006 were for Council to take a strong look again at Mayor O'Grady's regional government initiative with fire dispatch. As the city's Law Director, he feels that is the way the city should go down the road with respect to finding a way to contain costs in delivering fire services while at the same time maintaining a level of safety that city residents depend upon and protecting the city employees at the same time. The second recommendation for 2006 is for Council to take a look at the 6-point proposal he made for the continued reorganization/refinement of the city law department to provide better services to the city. Finance Director Copfer: 1) Happy New Year to all and congratulations to those who were re-elected and to Nicole on her first election. 2) Met with the directors on the budget, which went well. The departments are concerned about the cost of utilities. Some of our buildings are inefficient and utilize a 3