6/19/2018 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 6-19-2018 The Mayor responded yes and would be more than happy to show him the numbers. Mr. Urmin said his biggest concern with North Olmsted right now is with online shopping posing a threat to physical stores there is a vulnerability to the tax base. Donna Urmin 5680 Wellesley Avenue Mrs. Urmin wanted to know if given the big tax abatements to hotels like Aloft, have the ramifications about how the City is losing the tax base from the businesses closing while giving abatements to these new businesses been considered. Mayor Kennedy said you are talking about potential risks in the future, but you are talking as if they are loses right now, but they are not. Business has been great, the City has had corporate headquarters move in and businesses, such as Moen are expanding here. He said every day he wakes up trying to figure out how to get more business into the city. The Mayor said while retail is changing, the proximity to the airport and interstates position the City for the future. Mrs. Urmin asked if the corporate headquarters got a tax abatement. The Mayor responded not on current jobs, but on future jobs if they expand because that is what you have to do. Law Director Gareau said it was a job creation grant, not a tax abatement as one thinks of a real estate tax abatement. Its money the City never would have received if the jobs weren't here, so it's an incentive to get the jobs. He said, if a company has 50 employees and adds another 70 employees, it's an incentive to keep those 50 jobs here in addition to the 70 others that might come along. It allows the City to keep the 50 jobs by giving up some income on those 70 jobs for a period of time rather than lose everything. It's a competitive world and if the City is not competitive the City will lose them. Councilwoman Hemann responded as the Councilwoman that represents the Mall, Moen and RTA there are a lot of questions she asks that are outside the box on what would the City do if it did not have this. Director Lieber can tell you I've had lively discussions with her about possible uses for the Mall if it were not to have those large stores. She said she asked questions like that when doing the rezoning. She said she thinks about it all of the time. Bruce Robinson 24302 Gessner Road Mr. Robinson said he heard Council was considering a modification to the levy that would bring the costs down and include all parks in the City and he wanted Council to strongly consider that proposal. He said he has lived here for 30 years and voted for every single levy that has ever come along until this one. He said he lives on a pension and social security and he believes the cost is a lot and there are no improvements to Clague N