12/16/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 12/16/2008 frenzy off of one another to solve the problems that actually originated at the top of this structure. He believes the Mayor's motto of doing more with less was defeatist. We should be doing more with more. For years, he has been making suggestions and has been ignored. He believes the city's land management has been a disaster. It's the land management and the taxes from that land that would have paid for these jobs. We have $8 million in debt service, and we have a $2 million shortfall. Without that debt service, we would have $6 million in the bank. This city has been grossly mismanaged. It's all been puff and fluff and no sound business practices. Regarding the Crocker-Stearns extension-it will take business from this community and ship it to Westlake. He noted that Westlake will not extend Route 2S2 which would bring traffic by Great Northern. He does not want to see any cuts in service or in the safety departments. He wondered if we need a CLS Director or a Planning Dept. We're cutting staff and we're not using good business practices and we're not doing it with priority. Most importantly, he doesn't don't want to see a feeding frenzy of one to the other. We need to demand solid business practices from the top so that the citizens get the services they need and the protection they need. Mayor O'Grady said that, when he campaigned for the office three and a half years ago, he said we had to reduce the size of government. We are now a much smaller, more efficient government through attrition and reorganization and our services have increased. Trying to lay the debt service at this administration's feet is absolutely ludicrous. If we didn't have that debt service, we wouldn't be borrowing to do our roads. We wouldn't be facing this crisis now. That is accurate. But that debt came from the 1980's when the Council looked at people who were flooding in their homes and decided to spend an outrageous amount of money, too much at the time. But how can he possibly criticize them when he wasn't here then and can't say he looked into the faces of people who had water in their homes. Perhaps they should have taken more time then, but that is what we are dealing with. The truth is, through sound fiscal management of the Finance Director and himself, through reorganization, we are taking that debt down. During the next term, a huge portion of that debt will fall off. When it does, there will be more we can do for our citizens. 11) Bee Sidaway, 28675 Holly, a resident for 49 '/Z years. Her grandson is one of the safety people being laid off, and he is devastated and angry. She questioned why the layoff notices were sent out by letter just before Thanksgiving. The employees didn't even receive the courtesy of being told face to face. These are men and women who have been well trained for their jobs and are necessary to keep the city safe. She read in the newspaper a statement that the people of North Olmsted will still be safely served by their safety forces in spite of the reduction. But will this service be as quick as it would have been before this reduction in forces? Will the departments have to pay overtime to overworked officers to keep up this good service? Is the budget geared for this? In March of 2007, there were S7 policeman. Now with retirements and the layoffs, the total number will be 48. That is close to 19% in less than two years. There's constant encouragement to new companies to locate here. What new business will want to settle in North Olmsted when they find out that there are layoffs in these vital safety areas? Who will want to locate in a city that is as broke as ours appears to be? A city which has a 12