04/07/2009 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 4/7/2009 +4 Whereas in light of the foregoing, it is the desire of the Council to create new Section 331.43 of the Traffic Code which will prohibit excessive idling of motor vehicle engines in the City. The committee amended the legislation to include the following (in exceptions): "A North Olmsted city government vehicle is engaged in a city government operation that necessitates the idling of the vehicle's engine for more than five (S) minutes within a sixty (60) minute period." Councilman Orlowski and Councilwoman Jones brought the legislation to Council's attention after hearing representatives of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency speak on this at the Northeast Ohio City Council Association's annual meeting in February, and also after having to deal with an incident in Ward IV with a truck idling excessively and disrupting a neighborhood. Amy Wainright from NOACA stated that northeast Ohio violates clean air standards, and by 2010 we must come into compliance with the old standards. By 2013, we must meet the new standards that are laid out by the EPA. In addition, a report was issued that points out that 22% of the area's total population is living in a diesel hotspot, with North Olmsted being in the so-called "dirty dozen" or the top twelve communities with people living in diesel hotspots. In order to comply with clean air standards, NOACA is recommending that cities across northeast Ohio implement traffic signal synchronizations and idle reduction strategies. North Olmsted is already working on traffic signal timing schemes and hopefully this ordinance will help remove us from the dirty dozen. After discussing pros and cons, the committee voted 3-0 to recommend approval. Councilman Kearney moved to amend Ordinance 2009-34 as presented. The motion was seconded by Councilman Orlowski and passed unanimously. Ordinance No. 2009-34 amended. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION 1) Bee Sidaway, 28675 Holly Drive, asked if the city had applied for stimulus grants for replacing safety forces. Mayor O'Grady replied the city administration continues to look in every direction they can to bring in revenue to the city during these difficult times. They have initiated work on a COPS grant that would bring in police officers and are working in a similar vein with regard to fire fighters. In this economy, they believe it's not going to be dollars that can be used to bring people back, which they would like, but dollars that would reduce the potential for future layoffs. The right thing was done over three and a half years-the city was reorganized and made 10% smaller asfar asfull-time employees. Every year, $l.ti million was saved through intelligent reorganization without a single layoff. When the economy crashed at the end of last year, there was nothing to be done. It was no longer in the hands of the administration-the dollars weren't there. The only thing that would have stopped layoffs at that time was reasonable concessions from the bargaining units, from the fire fighters' union, from the police officers' unions. Those were not forthcoming, and the layoffs happened. We need concessions. Salaries are too high; benefits are too expensive. When we have an average fire fighter's salary of $80,000 a year; average benefits for one person of $112,000 a year, it's too much. The way to bring people back potentially is reasonable concessions from the unions. Mrs. Sidaway said she understood a police arbitration would take place on 8 ~~~~~