03/27/2007 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Special Council Minutes of 3/27/2006 twice amended. Councilman Tallon agreed and said the motion to amend would reflect all the changes in Ordinance 2007-17 as twice amended. The motion was seconded by Councilman Barker. Roll call: Tallon, yes; Barker, yes; Ryan, no; Gareau, yes; Orlowski, yes; Jones, yes; Miller, yes. The motion passed with six yes votes and one no vote. Ordinance No. 2007-17 is twice amended. LEGISLATION Ordinance No. 2007-17 introduced by Mayor O'Grady was given its second reading as twice amended. An ordinance to make appropriations for current expenses and other expenditures for the City of North Olmsted for the year ending December 31, 2007 as twice amended. Councilman Tallon moved for suspension of the rule requiring three readings noting the legislation had been heard in committee. The motion was seconded by Councilman Miller and passed unanimously. Councilman Tallon moved for adoption, and the motion was seconded by Councilman Miller. Roll call: Tallon, yes with comment. He is voting to pass this ordinance in the spirit of cooperation in order to move the city forward. He wants to make it perfectly clear that he is not in favor of this ordinance. Some of the reasons are as follows: Although this is presented as a balanced budget for the year 2007, it does not provide any contingencies for the possible increases in wages for ail the bargaining units. The Mayor stated the unfairness of the amendments to the original ordinance because they were unfair to a small number of people. The reversal of that is that a small number of people, the chosen few, will receive much larger increases than the majority; most of them will not be brought into parity with the bargaining unit, but will be above it. The Mayor often talks of "doing more with iess," but this does not include the Mayor's office. The Mayor's office has three employees at a cost of over one-third of a million dollars to the city, of which over a quarter of a million dollars is salary. The Mayor told Council at the beginning of the year that all personnel would be receiving a 1 % raise. In the Mayor's office, the Mayor receives a 2.5% increase (which is by ordinance and can't be changed), his secretary receives a 3.5% increase, and his administrative aide receives a 7.76% raise. In addition to this, a new car will be added to the administrative pool, which we all know will be the Mayor's. To add insult to injury, the Mayor who makes over $92,000 per year has asked the city to buy his personal PDA. It is not "do more with less" in the Mayor's office. One of the secretaries in the ordinance receives over a 14% increase. This ordinance ignores the warnings that the Finance Director and Councilman Ryan have been stating all along that there will be a major loss in our revenue stream in the year 2008 and beyond. No provisions have been made in this ordinance to address this situation. For the sake of brevity, he will move on. His vote is yes. Roll call continued: Miller, yes with comment. For the sake of brevity, he will echo Mr. Tallon's comments. He would like to thank the chairman of the Finance Committee. Each year, this is a very difficult process. As the money gets tighter and the decisions get tougher, the job gets tougher. He appreciates Mr. Tallon's efforts this year. Roll call continued: Gareau, yes; Ryan, yes with comment. He knows he has been the bearer of bad news to a lot of people in the administration. He has done his best to forewarn the administration what we are facing in 2008. The Mayor and administration have come forward with a budget this year which the Mayor feels he can live it. The Mayor is well aware of the difficulties and what we 2