01/21/2025 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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we've been experiencing on the east side of North Olmsted for more than 10 years. It was a good start to finding solutions, and I appreciate everyone's participation. In recent days, we have been experiencing a lot of snow and cold. Our Public Service Department had 17 plows out, clearing and salting our streets over the course of the snowfall this past Thursday through Sunday. As always, I am grateful for the hard work of our service crews, especially during the bad weather events that we've been experiencing, especially this winter and that Mr. President, that concludes my report. Council President Brossard: Thank you, Mayor. Director of Law Gareau, do you have a report this evening? Law Director Gareau: Yes, thank you, Mr. President. There's an old saying about things you never want to see made, legislation and sausage; and the third category we can include in that is tariffs before the PUCO. Why would I say that? Because while everybody was preparing for the holidays, AT&T submitted a tariff request. In its tariff request, it included an unusual provision which would shift the cost of any future utility relocation to the municipalities within which that utility is located. It wasn't for everything, but it was for road widening, where we would typically ask them... you could do a sidewalk, they'll come out and move it, and they frequently bear the cost of that. It's a part of cost of doing business. But when word got out that this was like the first step, because if it passes with them, it's going to pass with every utility; and before you know it... We had a great discussion about burying wires underground not too long ago, and what that costs, and before you know it, all the utilities would jump on board and really give it to the cities. So it was a time of year when everybody was paying attention to the holidays and they tried to sneak it through. The Law Directors Association and the Ohio Municipal League both really jumped on it, and intervened before the PUCO because they could see it coming where it's just another example, as the Mayor has pointed out, where you just go ahead and shift costs back on to the municipalities who are ill equipped to handle it. And I'm pleased to report with the Municipal League, the Law Directors Association, the County Commissioners Association, the Mayor's Alliance, Ohio Township Association, Engineers Association, all of those went to work, those organizations went to work immediately, and killed that for now. So we can expect they'll probably be coming back. But there are people looking out for us, and these different organizations, they do a good job of making sure that our interests are being protected. If it hadn't died, you'd have had legislation tonight opposing it, asking for a suspension, but we didn't have to go that route. So keep an eye out for future developments with that. I wanted to bring to your attention, Mr. Ralph Bohlmann passed away. Ralph Bohlmann was a longtime resident of North Olmsted. I knew him very, very well. He was a member of the North Olmsted City Council; he was a member of the North Olmsted Board of Education. He was their President before he was on City Council, and he served as the Service Director for Mayor Boyle, and that was as recently as what? 01-21-25 Council Meeting Minutes - Page 2