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• Last week, the Chief of Staff represented North Olmsted at the public meeting held in
<br />Brookpark, sponsored by NOACA, regarding the Cleveland Browns Stadium. The focus
<br />was on the infrastructure needed to support the project, specifically streets, roads,
<br />infrastructure. Seeing as how close North Olmsted is to this project, we continue to
<br />participate in meetings and monitor the ever -evolving situation.
<br />• And I also had met recently with the Northeast Ohio Representative for U.S. Senator
<br />Husted, Mary Kate Hastings, regarding infrastructure projects here in North Olmsted,
<br />and I plan to visit D.C. at the end of February to lobby our U.S. Senators and our
<br />representative regarding funding for various projects that will have a long-term impact
<br />on our City, and that, Mr. President, concludes my report.
<br />Council President Brossard:
<br />Thank you, Mayor. Director of Law Gareau, do you have a report this evening?
<br />Law
<br />Law Director Gareau:
<br />Thank you, Mr. President, I do.
<br />• The Law Department, day-to-day, gets any one of a number of different unique issues
<br />that come our way, but last year, it's a project we've been working on for some period
<br />of time. It was brought to our attention by the Safety Director and the Chief of Police,
<br />that there were a number of items that had been in the storage locker in the Police
<br />Department that they wanted to dispose of, or in this case, to deem them to be
<br />forfeited. And now in this instance, what it was a very significant number of silver coins,
<br />one -and -a -half -ounce uncirculated Canadian Maple Leaf silver coins, to be exact. And
<br />oddly enough, we believed that we had identified the owner of the coins, he just simply
<br />refused to get them, refused, wouldn't come here, which makes you wonder exactly
<br />why he wouldn't come pick up his silver coins. The silver coins had been actually
<br />confiscated in an arrest, and he wasn't the one arrested, but you get the point.
<br />Somehow these coins were in the vehicle, and they'd been here for a very long period of
<br />time. So we initiated, the Law Department initiated litigation in the Court of Common
<br />Pleas to have them deemed forfeited, and for authorization to sell them, and we were
<br />able to do that. Thereafter, there were six separate lots of coins that were sold at a
<br />public auction, and in the end, the City of North Olmsted... the total sale, there's some
<br />commissions involved and what have you, was $123,120.00. Now, if I was able to see
<br />the future, I would have said, this was last Summer/Fall, I would have said, who knows
<br />what's gonna happen to the price of silver, right? But if I had that kind of power, I
<br />wouldn't be sitting here. I would have retired years ago [laughing]. But at the time, six
<br />separate people paid, paid in six separate lots of the coins, paid in a range from $22,000
<br />for each lot to a low of $15,000, and all in all, I think it's an excellent result for the City of
<br />North Olmsted. Strange set of facts, weird case, but good result. So the city was able to
<br />receive 100, on the order of $123,120... $123,120.00, which I think is outstanding. So
<br />thanks to the Police Department and Service Director and staff from the Law
<br />Department, we were able to get that done. We had to file just now, we're just filing
<br />the final report, which we're required to do to let the court know who bought them and
<br />01-20-25 Council Meeting Minutes Wage 2
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