08/04/2009 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Minutes of 8/4/2009 long legal battle and has come to an end with the Supreme Court's decision not to take the case in. The city has no other avenues of appeal from that decision of the court. It was a battle that was worth fighting; it was about whether or not fire chiefs could enter into agreements with the fire fighters union outside the collective bargaining arena, and whether or not those would be enforceable by an arbitrator. Two arbitrators enforced two of those side agreements that were entered into between two different fire chiefs over aseveral-year period of time. These were agreements that affected operations of the Fire Dept. and affected overtime in the Fire Dept. The administration thought it was something that was against management rights and reluctantly took the appeal into court because there is a feeling that arbitration awards have a certain amount of finality and they shouldn't be loosely appealed. These are the only two arbitration awards that the city was on the adverse side of that he appealed in eight years as city Law Director. He thinks it was a worthy fight and the city, in a sense, loss the battle; but, from the management perspective, prevailed in the war because policies and operations have changed in the Fire Dept. under current management. In fact, he can't imagine under current management of the Fire Dept. that these kind of agreements would be entered into and in a way that is damaging to management rights. The case is over, and the judgment against the city is final. • Shaffer v. city of North Olmsted, a case alleging mistreatment of a prisoner, which is in district court. It has been set for apre-trial on November 17, 2009 and is being defended by insurance defense counsel. • In the case of city of North Olmsted v. Suburban Collision, the nuisance odor complaints, there were a couple of directions in which this matter has been going. One is the temporary conditional use permit, which Council last year extended for two years. That will be coming up again next June. Also, some violations from last year have gone through as nuisance odor violations in Rocky River Municipal Court. They were subjected to a diversion program in the court, and that diversion program will come to an end in September. Recently, there was a meeting of interested parties over at the Suburban facility, which was attended by Councilman Brossard, just to see how the new equipment is working. It appears to be working better. The last complaint of odor formally received from residents was in February. The last six months appear to be at least formally complaint free. • Michael Stinn, administrator of the estate of Kenneth Corneliusen, an action in Probate Court to determine heirs. The city was named a party in that action because, if no heirs are found, then the estate was escheat to the city. That probably will not happen, but we are paying attention to the case. If nothing else, hopefully the city will receive some estate taxes. • Case of Howard Baker v. Jack Frolo involving an alleged dispute. The city was pulled into this assault between Mr. Baker and Mr. Frolo. The case has been voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff: 2) Update on real property maintenance cases in Rocky River Court: In the month period from the end of June to the end of July, five cases were resolved in court, which the city obtained guilty pleas and recovered about $2,000 in fine. Hopefully, more important than the fines, we are getting a little better compliance with some of the troublesome neighborhood properties in the city. 3) Prosecutor Mike Gordillo's report for the months of June and July: In June, 261 cases; 100 were General Offenses; balance traffic matters; one trial and a conviction. In July, 197 cases; 73 General Offenses; balance were trafJ•ic; two trials and two convictions. 4) Assistant Law Director Carole Heyward reports that HUD conducted its annual audit of the city's fair housing program on Thursday, July 30. It seemed the audit went well. We have a very good fair