Caucus: April 5th 2021
MINUTES OF A COUNCIL CAUCUS
MAYFIELD VILLAGE, OHIO
Monday, April 5, 2021 – 7:04 p.m.
Immediately Following the Special Meeting of Council
Videoconferenced in Main Conference Room-Mayfield Village Civic Center
Present in Main Conference Room: Council President Schutt and Mrs. Betsa. All other members of Council, Mayor Bodnar, Ron Wynne, Ms. Weber, Chief Matias, John Marrelli, Doug Metzung and John Marquart in attendance via ZOOM. The remainder of the Department Heads accessed the meeting via videoconference.
This meeting can be accessed by going to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tjTW9pnKGc
Council President Schutt stated, welcome to the April 5, 2021 Council Caucus meeting for Mayfield Village, Ohio. It is 7:00 p.m. This meeting has been duly noticed and will be held in accordance with Ohio Revised Code Section 121.22 specific to recent amendments made in light of the current COVID-19 declared emergency (House Bill 197-amended by House Bill 404). Under the orders of Governor DeWine and the Director of Health of Ohio, and pursuant to Ordinance 2020-08, adopted March 16, 2020, Council will be meeting remotely, via electronic means. No one will be in Council Chambers or able to access that space during the meeting The public is invited to view the meeting live and can access the meeting through a link posted on the Mayfield Village website at www.mayfieldvillage.com.
Mayfield Village will conduct these proceedings in compliance with all applicable State Laws and regulations.
ROLL CALL:
Present: Mrs. Jurcisek, Mr. Marquardt, Mr. Meyers, Mrs. Mills, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Schutt, and Mr. Williams
Also Present: Mayor Bodnar, Mr. Wynne, Ms. Weber, Chief Matias, Mr. Marrelli, Mr. Marquart, and Mr. Metzung
MAYOR:
Thank you Council President. First, I’d like to say that I hope everyone who celebrates Easter or Passover had the opportunity to celebrate those holidays. I hope everyone’s been able to get their vaccines so we have an expanded opportunity to be together with our friends and our families as these holidays and as the summer opportunities come up.
I have a couple of announcements tonight. First, I know this is not the freshest news, but we have not had a public meeting since then so I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Scott Sipos as our new Service Director. Scott’s been with our Service Department for a very long time. He’s currently a foreman in the Service Department. Ron Wynne, Diane Wolgamuth and I interviewed 10 different candidates. We had a very very talented field of candidates that we talked with and we all agreed that Scott was outstanding in that field of candidates. He also came very highly recommended. So, we are very much looking forward to working with Scott. His promotion date is actually today. He’s got a lot to learn and some big shoes to fill so we wanted him to have some overlap between when he starts and when Mr. Metzung is retiring. We are looking forward to working with Scott. He will actually be sworn in at our next Council meeting on April 19th and also at that time we are going to have to bid a sad and fond farewell to our retiring Director, Doug Metzung. We will be wishing Doug great health and happiness and fun on his new adventures in retirement.
So that was my first announcement. I also wanted to note that I am issuing a letter of commendation to Lieutenant Brothers in our Fire Department. Late in March, Lieutenant Brothers was working out at the Crooked River Crossfit facility on Beta Drive. At that time he was alerted by a staff member there that there was another patron who was experiencing cardiac arrest. Lieutenant Brothers immediately assessed the situation and he responded by delivering life-saving measures. By the time help arrived from 9-1-1, the patient had been defibrillated and was alert and speaking. So this was just a wonderful culmination of all of the efforts by our Fire Department. The Fire Department has a CPR training program that is offered free to our local businesses and I know Lieutenant Brothers personally trains business personnel. Also keep in mind we have a local ordinance that requires the installation of an AED, so the gym was equipped with one and was ready to go on that. Also we had trained employees at Crooked River so they were able to recognize a medical emergency early on and get the help that was needed. I know all of Mayfield Village takes comfort and pride in the skill of our first responders. As I said, I will be issuing a letter to Lieutenant Brothers and a copy of that will go in his personnel file.
Finally, kudos and thanks to our Rec Director Shane McAvinew and our Assistant Rec Directors Danielle and Sean. Also, a lot of thanks to our Rec volunteers for putting on a wonderful Easter program. You made a lot of families and kids happy here in Mayfield Village so thank you for all of your efforts.
That’s all I have for this evening.
Council President Schutt stated, thank you Mayor Bodnar.
Mayor Bodnar stated, thank you.
COUNCIL PRESIDENT:
I would just like to echo the Mayor’s comments for the activities that the Parks and Rec Department put on for the families last weekend and also thank you to Lieutenant Brothers as you mentioned as well for his quick response. Mr. Metzung congratulations on your retirement. I know you have a couple more weeks. I’m sure you will be enjoying your additional time that you can spend playing golf and spending time with your family. Congratulations to Scott Sipos. We look forward to working with you and having a strong relationship with you as well as we already have had. I also wanted to say Happy Birthday to Shane McAvinew. His birthday is April 23rd. Our next Regular Meeting of Council is on Monday, April 19th at 7:00. That meeting will be held virtually. Hopefully later on this year we can start meeting in person again. That’s all I have.
ADMINISTRATION:
- Mayfield Community Improvement Corporation (“M.C.I.C”) Annual Review of Incentive Agreement – MARS Electric - (M.C.I.C. meeting immediately before Regular Meeting of Council on 4/19/21)
Mr. Marquart stated, thank you Mr. President. You all should have received a memo from me in your packets just making you aware of this item in advance of the April 19th Regular Meeting. We need to review the final Income Tax Incentive Agreement. This one is with Mars Electric. As you can see in the memo, they are just wrapping up their fourth out of a five-year Agreement with the Village. Their minimum income tax requirement is $82,889.00. I am happy to report that despite the pandemic they generated $169,449 this year. That’s actually within just a handful of dollars from the previous year so it’s a good sign that they were able to hold their own during the pandemic. So a payment will be required this year of $50,834.77. Again, we will need to convene a meeting of the MCIC on the 19th to formally review this Agreement and then Council will need to act on it later that night. That concludes my report. I am happy to field any questions.
There were no questions.
- Updated Vehicle Policy (Resolution 2021-11)
Mr. Wynne stated, Council should have received a memo as well as a copy of the current vehicle policy. We have decided that it made sense to update that policy to include a couple of things. One was to address the use of cellphones while driving and then the other was to put in a detailed list of responsibilities of both the employees and the Department Heads in the event of an accident if an employee is operating a Village vehicle. All those changes were highlighted in the current policy for your convenience. That will be on the agenda for passage on the 19th.
Council President Schutt asked, any questions for Mr. Wynne?
There were none.
BUILDING:
- Mutual Assistance Agreement with the City of Lyndhurst (Resolution 2021-10)
Mayor Bodnar stated, thank you Council President. You have in your packets the Mutual Assistance Agreement with the City of Lyndhurst. What that is is pretty much a standard issued Mutual Assistance Agreement. It’s for the Building Department services. The way this works is we already have an Agreement in place with Highland Heights. The City of Lyndhurst was putting their Agreement together with Highland Heights and they contacted me and said, would you like to have one also between Mayfield Village and Lyndhurst? So this works pretty much the same way as the one with Highland Heights does. It gives us the opportunity to just broaden our scope a little bit. Mr. Marrelli has reviewed it. What happens is in the event that Mr. Marrelli, say for example, is on vacation or has inspections or something of that nature that he cannot get to, then not only could we call Highland Heights and say, hey, can you help us out, but we would also have the availability of calling Lyndhurst and seeing if they could help us out. They would have the same thing with respect to us. They could call us or they could call Highland Heights and say, can you help me out in any given situation. There’s no liability if we fail to respond to a request for assistance on anybody’s part so if we can’t do something to help out Lyndhurst, we can just say no and they can say no to us if they are not available to help us out. So the Agreement is in your packet and I would be happy to answer any questions if you have them.
Mr. Meyers asked, I do have a question. We have that much building going on in Mayfield Village that would need assistance from two different cities?
Mayor Bodnar replied, we don’t have a lot going on. I think Mr. Marrelli could answer that better than me. We don’t have to use this Agreement. It just gives us the availability of having someone else so if we called over to Highland Heights we needed to do something and they weren’t able to do it, we would have at least the availability to be able to ask Lyndhurst, but Mr. Marrelli, do you want to answer that also?
Mr. Marrelli replied, yes. As you know, I just was on vacation for two weeks and then I had to stay in for a week after that because I was out of the country. Highland Heights took care of all of the inspections over at the Montebello while I was away. So that’s pretty much how it works. If somebody goes out on sick leave or is on vacation and you know a homebuilder or a contractor needs an inspection, they can’t wait a week or two weeks to close up something. One of us would go over there and take care of that and submit a simple report to their City Hall and everybody’s on time.
Mr. Meyers asked, then so it wouldn’t matter who it is, Highland Heights or maybe Lyndhurst would step in and help you.
Mr. Marrelli replied, yes. As the Mayor said Highland Heights and Mayfield Village have had an Agreement for a couple of years now and I’ve been able to help them out. They’ve been able to help me out. It’s not on a regular basis. It’s like in an emergency when somebody’s not available or the inspection can’t wait one or two days. Sometimes there’s trenches open and the inspector has called in sick that day and so we get a call, can you run out and look at this excavation real quick so they can backfill it so that it’s not unsafe. So we will run out and take care of that for him so we’re just doing what’s required in almost an emergency situation.
Mr. Meyers stated, thank you.
Mr. Marrelli replied, okay.
Council President Schutt stated, well it definitely would be nice to have a back up to the back up.
Mr. Marrelli added, and have more people in the mix.
Council President Schutt asked, are there any other questions for Mayor Bodnar or Mr. Marrelli?
There were none.
Council President Schutt stated, since there are no other questions, we will move along.
- Additional Amendments to Building and Fire Code
Mr. Marrelli stated, this is a housekeeping issue. The Ohio Basic Building Code which is the State of Ohio Code, hasn’t been called the Basic Building Code for probably 20 years. So, Gino and I were going through some of the Ordinances and mostly in the Fire Department Ordinances that they still refer to the Ohio Basic Building Code, so we simply wanted to get up to date. This is a housekeeping cleaning of language so that we refer to the proper Code, the Ohio Basic Building Code versus the Basic Building Code.
Also, while we were at it, we took some of the references out of our Ohio Basic Building Code Ordinances that are in conflict with our Local Codes and took the section numbers out because the Building Code gets revamped every three years and section numbers change so we decided not to refer to those section numbers in the Ohio Building Code because we are probably going to have to come right back in a couple of years and say, now we have to change that number. So we just deleted those numbers and referred to the book as a whole when need be.
Council President Schutt stated, makes sense. Any questions for Mr. Marrelli?
There were none.
Council President Schutt stated, if there are no questions, we will move along. Thank you Mr. Marrelli.
Mr. Marrelli stated, you’re welcome.
POLICE DEPARTMENT:
- SPAN Agreement (Resolution 2021-09)
Chief Matias stated, thank you, Council President. The only thing we have is the SPAN Agreement. The Agreement was originally written in 1972. It is what allows us to work with the other governments to share our resources. That includes providing for a SWAT team bomb squad and all the other special units. So there’s really no changes to the Agreement. It was just kind of rewritten and updated from the original 1972 Agreement. It doesn’t change any of the way we do business or any current practice that we have. So again, it’s just an updated Agreement. If there’s any questions about this, just let me know
There were no questions.
Council President Schutt stated, okay, if there are no further questions we will move along. Thank you, Chief Matias.
LAW DIRECTOR:
- Road Salt for 2021-2022 season (Resolution 2021-12)
Council President Schutt stated, next we have our soon-to-be retiree for the Service Department, Mr. Metzung.
Mr. Metzung stated, one last step out the door. This is for next year’s salt purchases. It’s our yearly resolution that allows us to purchase through the State of Ohio Department of Transportation’s Cooperative Purchasing for salt. We are asking for 1800 tons this year. This will obligate us to purchase that salt. Once we get into the mix then we have to purchase it no matter what the number comes back at. Like I said, we are looking for 1,800 tons. We base this typically on a typical winter. We had 2500 tons a winter but we didn’t use nearly as much as last year so we are probably sitting at about 1200 to 1300 tons in the bin right now, so 1800 is a pretty safe number I believe for next year. I hope I won’t be here to see it, but I hope for Scotty’s sake it’s the right amount. That’s all I have.
Council President Schutt asked, any salt questions for Mr. Metzung? If we run out, can we call you?
Mr. Metzung replied, my number will be unlisted.
Council President Schutt stated, I have a feeling Scott will call you anyway. If there are no other questions, we will move along. Thank you, Mr. Metzung.
ANY OTHER MATTER BEFORE COUNCIL:
Council President Schutt asked, are there any other matters to come before Council tonight?
There were none.
There being no further matters, the meeting concluded at 7:21 p.m.