12/17/2013 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 12-17-2013 police and fire departments which assists in accessing leads information and dispatch services. The increase in costs rose by just a very minimal amount over last year's figures. It is a proprietary contract. The administration will be consulting with the police and fire chiefs to discuss the benefits of extending the contract over a three year period rather than renewing the contract each year. In the interim, it was agreed that Council would move forward in passing the legislation as the contract will need to take effect at the beginning of the new year. A motion was made to recommend approval to Council with suspension, and that motion passed with a vote of 3-0. • Discussed next was Ordinance 2013-98 which is an Ordinance amending section 3 of Ordinance No. 2002-103, as later amended by Ordinance Nos. 2002-154 and 2008-155, which collectively established fees and charges for emergency medical services rendered by the City of North Olmsted Fire Department, in order to increase fees and charges currently charged, and declaring an emergency. Councilwoman Williamson asked for this ordinance to be brought back into committee to discuss the current billing issue. Outstanding EMS charges are not being collected upon. As you recall, when this ordinance was first introduced, Council made a motion to recommend approval and place the matter on second reading. Between the time the committee met and the next council meeting, new information came to light which warranted further review by committee. The current company handing the City's EMS billing does not handle the collection aspect for the City. There is a significant backlog of uncollected debt owed to the City for these charges. These figures were originally estimated at $200,000 but have been confirmed to be nearly $400,000. A question was raised by the ilomy committee Chair regarding increasing the fees while not currently collecting on the debt. The Finance Director explained that other cities are charging similar rates for their services. The committee chair asked whether the city would be profiting from the increase in fees. At that time, the finance director stated that the monies collected go to defray the costs of the EMS services. However, in a subsequent email to Council yesterday, it was clarified that the monies collected for these services actually go to the General Fund. A discussion was made to revisit the issue of moving forward with the collection process after the first of the year. One of the avenues the city will consider is utilizing the Attorney General's Office which has a service available for assisting municipalities in the collection of overdue billings. After a continuous discussion regarding the increase of fees and resolving the outstanding debt, the Safety Committee agreed to move forward with recommending approval to all of Council with suspension, and that motion passed with a vote of 3-0. This was done so in good faith with the agreement to discuss collection methods to be utilized in collecting the current outstanding debt from EMS billings. • Discussed last was Ordinance 2013-72 which is an Ordinance amending Chapter 521 of the Codified Ordinances of the City of North Olmsted entitled, "General Offenses Code' Health, Safety and Sanitation" for the purpose of establishing a new section 521.16 entitled "Constructing, Cleaning and Repairing Sidewalks" in the City of North Olmsted. Councilman Orlowski requested several revisions be made to this current proposal. These revisions included minor changes. fir.- Councilman Orlowski requested the matter be held in committee for further 5