02/03/2009 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 2/3/2009 Law Director Dubelko: 1) On January 21, provided advice to Council on the subject of preparing and retaining minutes for Council committee meetings. 2) On February 10, the city will be represented in the Court of Appeals arguing the fire fighters Court of Appeals case. It is a very important case for the city, and the Law Dept. put a lot of time into preparing for the argument. 3) For Councilman Gareau, the department looked at the issue discussed in the Finance Committee of the possibility of putting ceilings on sick leave accruals. He has pretty much concluded that you can't. There was some discussion about seeing what other communities may have been doing by imposing those ceilings. The State law permits putting a ceiling on cash out, and a 240 hour figure was discussed. It is within State law to put a maximum on the number of hours that can be cashed out but not on the hours as they accrue. 4) Responded yesterday to a complaint from a resident on Elm Drive regarding the property as 24275. He believes the Safety Director also responded, and some members of Council were copied in. From the Law Department's perspective, we are enforcing the laws. The tenant of the property in question has been subjected to several criminal/traffic prosecutions. Prosecutor Gordillo is satisfied that justice is working with respect to criminaUtraffic violations. He has spoken with Asst. Law Director Heyward, and the department is prepared to prosecute any property code violations that are referred over from the Building Department. The Law Dept. is confident they are doing their job to make sure the laws are being enforced at that property as well as any other city property. 6) Prosecutor Gordillo reports 276 cases in January; 99 were General Offenses, the balance of 177 were Traffic. No trials in January. Finance Director Copfer: 1) Participated in labor negotiations with FOP and IAFF last week. 2) Auditors are on site this week conducting field work testing. 3) Due to budget presentation and preparation, she has not completed the 2008 financial review as she had indicated she would do this week. With the auditors here, she doesn't see it being completed until sometime next week. 4) Compared income tax collections for January of 2009 to January of 2008, and we are down 5.6% from this time last year. Councilman Gareau, chairperson of the Finance Committee: 1) Finance Committee met on January 27, 2009 from 8 p.m. to 9:03 p.m. Present were chairperson Gareau and members Barker and Kearney; Council Members Ryan, Jones, Orlowski, Mahoney, and President Kennedy; Mayor O'Grady, Law Director Dubelko, Finance Director Copfer, Service Director Limpert, H. R. Director Farver. The following was on the agenda: • Ordinance 2009-12, an ordinance amending Sections 161.01 and 161.11 of Chapter 161 Employees Generally of the North Olmsted Administrative Code in order to review sick leave and vacation benefits and declaring an emergency. The committee recommended 3-0 with motion made by Councilman Gareau and seconded by Councilman Barker to hold that matter in committee. Amore detailed report will be given when the legislation is moved out of committee. 3