10/02/2007 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 10/2/2007 Ryan on September 18'x', I apologize to those members of Council who felt that I had been disruptive to the process. Sincerely, Dennis M. Lambert" Councilman Ryan said it should be noted that he may have encouraged Mr. Lambert to approach the dais at one point as he did look at him in the audience. He apologizes to the chair if it caused a disruption and he will not do it again. Councilman Gareau commented that the suggestion a conversation he has with somebody must be included in the record is inaccurate. He is entitled to have a conversation with someone and not have it be a part of the formal minutes of the meeting. He did leave the room on the date in question and did approach Dr. Walters and his group of people. He told them they should go back into the Council Chambers and fight for what they think is important to them and not leave. In fact, they did that. Certainly there was no disruption and certainly there is no prohibition in the Rules of Council as to his having a conversation with somebody. The rules are different for the members of Council during the performance of the meeting and the residents. He doesn't recall people coming up to the dais at any point in the nine years he has been on Council. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION Charles Dial, 27959 Gardenia, spoke on the Walters Dentistry issue and it was his recollection that at a previous meeting Councilman Orlowski had stated he had been contacted by ten of his constituents and nine of them were opposed to it and that he had a log of this. Councilman Orlowski answered he has a mental log of all of those individuals and feels he has a fiduciary duty to any resident that talks to him in a private conversation or calls him at home and discusses an issue with him. As to whether a public records request can be made on a mental log, Mr. Dial would have to ask the Law Director. On another issue, Mr. Dial asked the Law Director if he would be the person to defend litigation that might arise out of the Walters Dentistry situation. Law Director Dubelko stated the job of the city Law Director is to prosecute all cases on behalf of the city and defend all cases against the city. We have insurance that covers a lot of activities by different officials and employees, different types of risk. Typically, the insurance company assigns defense counsel. So, a great percentage of the cases against the City of North Olmsted end up being primarily defended by insurance defense counsel. It's just a fact of life with insurance being what it is these days. If an action is brought against a city official or city employee, the department will take a look at the allegations of the complaint and work with insurance defense counsel and if there's issues of whether or not the insurance company is going to deny coverage for certain claims. Mr. Dial said his concern is that it has become apparent that potentially members of Council who are not in a moment of not being overly conscientious can figure on almost carte blanche legal protection for anything that they might do as an official act, even if they'd been advised repeatedly that it is not a legally appropriate act for them to do. He is supportive of the concept of Council being protected and defended against reasonable actions brought against them. What he is concerned about is allowing it to be carried to the point where people can knowingly and repeatedly do things that are not right and then expect to be defended at the expense of the city. Law Director Dubelko said, in almost every case that comes up where he sees a potential liability concern against the city or against city 11 ~~