09/16/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Council Minutes of 9/16/2008 15) Many trees were down in Sunday night's high wind. Extra chipper trucks will be out on the road this week, and residents are encouraged to please bring branches out to the tree lawn. 16) Power was lost at the LeBern lift station during Sunday's storm. Brownouts were happening at other stations due to unbalanced electrical pulsing. All lift stations were then disconnected from the mains and went on their generators in order to protect the equipment from the fluctuations in the lines. 17) Regarding legislation, he asks for Council's support of the equity pay for non- bargaining clerical staff. Council has decided to take this into committee, and that is acceptable to the administration. He notes that some members who previously objected to this are showing a willingness to listen and consider it, which is noted and appreciated. Councilman Barker has been in contact with Mr. Hogan from CEI who has been very informative about the work being done to restore power to the 22,000 people in Westlake and North Olmsted who are still without power. The crews sent to Houston are on their way back, and we are getting help from Baltimore, New Jersey and Toledo. CEI is working 24/7 to get everyone back in service. Law Director Dubelko: 1) A friendly amendment to the Mayor's report that Ordinance 2008-120 is to retain a labor negotiator. 1) The Law Dept. received notice that a registered sex offender was living in Ward II, within a mile of Maple School. Working with the Police Dept., action was taken to notify the gentleman that he was required to move. 2) He is working on responding to Councilman Barker's inquiry regarding the necessity of any transaction between NOCOP and STC being brought to Council for approval. He has followed up on that with the Finance Director and CLS Director who are both involved with NOCOP. He has requested records, including corporate minutes and by- laws or the code of regulations in order to gather the facts needed to provide advice to the administration. He will keep Council advised. 3) Provided a legal opinion within the last two weeks, 2008-03, regarding duties and responsibilities for the city's cemeteries. He hopes that the advice was helpful to both City Council and to the administration. 4) Litigation report from Assistant Law Director O'Malley: In the case of City of North Olmsted v. Fire Fighters in the Eighth District Court of Appeals, the court granted a motion for the city's appellate brief to exceed the page limitation. In the case of the City of North Olmsted v. Cleveland Hockey Supply, a collection action pending in Rocky River Municipal Court, the pre-trial was conducted on September 10. It was not resolved, and the matter has been set for trial on October 8. Finance Director Copfer: 1) She is in the process of working on the annual information filing, which is a part of our debt covenance requirement. Bond counsel is adding language on the downgrading of many of the banks and insurance companies who insure. Typically we buy insurance because they used to have AAA rating. But many of them have lost their AAA rating and some are even out of business now. Bond counsel has to add more information about our own underlying rate. That was always considered in the pricing of the bonds, but luckily we have a pretty good rate as it has moved up over the 3