04/01/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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G Council Minutes of 4/1/2008 of legislation, everybody ought to be able to feel good about it and be willing to vote for it. Wants Council to know at least one resident is awaze that they aze putting in time over and above the call of duty in their own lives to get things done and trying to do the best they can. Mayor O'Grady thanked Mr. Dial for his comments on the foreclosure crisis. At last year's U. S. House of Representatives Select Committee hearing on foreclosures in Cleveland, he was the only mayor to attend, and there were no members of Cleveland City Council present. Last week, he attended a meeting at the Court of Common Pleas regarding this issue and three suburban mayors and three members of Cleveland City Council were in attendance. Attention to the problem is growing. In our city, we recognize the problem and through the work of Assistant Law Director Carole Heyward and Safety Director Lisa Thomas, we are coming out with a very wide-reaching innovative program that's going to protect the property values in our city. Law Director Dubelko addressed Mr. Dial and Mr. Smith and said they are talking about two sides of same coin. The reason we have individual rights and we protect individual rights, is because we have majority rule in this country. All of our laws reflect that majority rules. Along time ago in this country, we carved out certain areas where government just can't go. The city is attempting to protect property values by passing real property maintenance laws and finding new ways to enforce them officially. At the same time, we have to make sure we don't tread on individual rights. With respect to Ordinance 20U8-44, the Law Dept. changed language which he thought did have the potential to tread on some individual rights with respect to property inspectors going onto property and infringing upon Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unlawful, unreasonable searches and seizures. A change was made in the ordinance that would require our inspectors to go into court and get a search warrant before they go onto property without consent to conduct property inspections. With respect to Mr. Dial's concerns and people on Council, we are attempting to implant a better real property program because we were concerned about what's going on-not just in the foreclosure crisis, but in North Olmsted in general. We're an aging community with changing demographics. We're hying to balance those to keep it a healthy, good community with good housing stock, a good mix of residents living within the city, in a friendly, neighborly way and at the same time protecting individual rights. Councilman Gazeau noted with regard to foreclosures that on the webpage for the Cuyahoga County Clerk of Courts, you can do a seazch by zip code to find every house that is in foreclosure in North Olmsted. It is important to know that because residents should know the houses in their neighborhood that are in foreclosure and perhaps not occupied any longer and keep on eye on them. Our safety forces have taken the initiative to actually have the list of houses that are in foreclosure. Councilman Barker noted, for the record, that the search warrants the Law Director spoke about are for inspectors to go into backyards. It is not to get into a home. 4) Dennis Lambert, 25057 Carey Lane, said the Law Director's message was good. However, he does not agree that the majority rules in this country as we are a representative republic. In conjunction with what Mr. Dial said, in a representative republic we have representatives who do our voting for us. Some of them from time to time do dissent in how they vote. Dissent is very good, and it's healthy for democracy. It would disturb him very much if every time he came to a Council meeting, the agenda was already set before he got there. That would be collaboration and conspiracy before the fact, and he and other citizens would not have the opportunity to express their opinions. He respects those who vote affirmatively for things, and he also respects those who vote negatively for things. Each of them has a reason, and it provides the opportunity to hear what those reasons are and perhaps form our own opinions because of that. 6 ..~