06/16/2009 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 6/16/2009 candidates. They will meet again in July during the regularly scheduled COG meeting to further discuss this issue, and a determination is expected next month. 11) The Law Dept., Finance Dept., and Safety Dept. are finalizing details regarding collection systems for non-resident overdue EMS bills, yet another example of how we are looking at every possibility to find revenue streams. City Hall representatives have met already with the owner of Great Lakes Billing to review procedures to continue to enhance our efforts to collect these outstanding debts. 12) Terrace Drive will be closed for up to three days this week beginning today. Cuyahoga County is making emergency repairs to storm sewers in Olmsted Township on Elizabeth and is closing Terrace as that street too will be excavated. Traffic signs have been posted on MacKenzie alerting drivers to this change. 13) Pre-construction meetings are being held with contractors regarding street repairs. A meeting was held last Friday with Specialized Construction regarding the asphalt recycling and reclamation projects on Lewis, Oakdale, West 232 and Twin Circle. Work is scheduled to commence in mid-July, and it will take approximately three weeks for these streets to be repaved. 14) Pre-construction will occur this week with regard to Dover Center Road. 15) ATS is in their final design work with regards to renovations and improvements at the WWTP. A two-day visit by ATS engineers included a complete walk-through of the facility. 16) Union negotiations begin this week with members of AFSCME. Meetings will be held Thursday morning with representatives of the Service Dept., while Clerical/Tech workers will meet in the afternoon. 17) As Ordinances 2007-135 and 2009-6 are dated and scheduled to be placed on the table this evening, he hereby withdraws his sponsorship. President Kennedy commented that at the last Council meeting he had asked the Mayor whether any action was planned this year with regard to the projected shortfall in 2010, which he now understands may be $2.4 million rather than $2 million. He believes action should have been taken in the first quarter. Mayor O'Grady replied that the time for action on this issue, and in fact everything associated with our city government and the administration of that government, was four years ago when he took office. That is indeed when this work began. President Kennedy noted that the Mayor had explained that previously, but what he wants to know is what is being done from this day forward until the end of 2009 to help solve the problem. Because whatever we do is going to be painful, but waiting will be extremely painful. Mayor O'Grady said he would give the same answer as he gave two weeks ago, which is the administration continues to do the good, innovate things, the goad solid leadership that was brought to this position. He suggested Mr. Kennedy come in and meet with him to discuss these issues more candidly and more in depth. He does not think bringing up the idea of furloughs or layoffs at this point and in this venue is wise. If Mr. Kennedy will come in and meet with him and the Finance Director, they will bring him up to speed as much as they can. The bottom line is every single thing is on the table. We have nowhere else to turn. The revenue streams have been flat for ten years. Last year they went down; this year they went down. More than four years ago he said we would be laying off people if we didn't change how we were doing business. We couldn't get change. Layoffs happened after the economic 3