Caucus: September 7th 2021
MINUTES OF A COUNCIL CAUCUS
Mayfield Village Civic Hall - Mayfield Village Civic Center
Tuesday, September 7, 2021 – 7:00 p.m.
The Council of Mayfield Village met in Caucus Session on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. Council President Schutt stated, good evening everyone. Welcome to the Mayfield Village Council Caucus meeting. Today is Tuesday, September 7, 2021. It is 7:00 p.m. We are meeting tonight on a Tuesday since yesterday was the Labor Day Holiday.
ROLL CALL:
Present: Mrs. Jurcisek, Mr. Marquardt, Mr. Meyers, Mrs. Mills, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Schutt, and Mr. Williams
Also Present: Mayor Bodnar, Mr. Coyne, Mr. Wynne, Mr. Cappello, Chief Carcioppolo, Mr. Russell, Chief Matias, Mr. Marquart, Mr. Sipos, Mr. McAvinew, Ms. Wolgamuth, and Mrs. Betsa
Absent: None
MAYOR:
Mayor Bodnar stated, thank you, Council President. Just a couple of things I wanted to note. Tomorrow night is the Annual Historical Society Ice Cream Social which will be from 6:30-8:00 at the Historical House and Wiley Park Pavilion. It’s always a great way to start off the Fall season; have some delicious ice cream and probably get the best history lesson that you ever got. I encourage everybody to join us for that.
Mayor Bodnar continued, on Saturday morning, we have our 911 Memorial Event to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of 911. That will be at 8:30 a.m. at our First Responder’s Memorial. Chief Carcioppolo will be giving you some more detail.
Mayor Bodnar stated, that’s all I have. Thanks.
Council President Schutt stated, thank you Mayor Bodnar.
COUNCIL PRESIDENT:
Council President Schutt stated the next Regular Meeting of Council will be on Monday, September 20th at 7:30 p.m. due to the scheduled Town Hall here in this room. I would also like to wish Mr. Wynne a Happy Birthday early. His birthday is September 20th.
CLERK OF COUNCIL:
- Approval of Current Replacement Pages to the Mayfield Village Codified Ordinances (to July 2021 – Walter Drane) (Ordinance 2021-11)
Mrs. Betsa reported, I have been sending to Walter Drane on a quarterly schedule legislation passed by Council so as to get the legislation on the web on a timelier manner as opposed to annually. This is just a procedural adopting legislation required by Walter Drane and American Legal Publishing in order to place this legislation on to the web. Thank you.
Council President Schutt stated, thank you, Mrs. Betsa.
ENGINEER:
Mr. Cappello stated, yes, Council President, I have a small item here. The Service Department annex which used to be ODOT’s old maintenance building where the salt shed is and an area where we have the storage building, there’s been some issues with drainage. The water tends to come towards the doors. After some big storms, it’s actually flooded the building. The drain we have there is inadequate. I went there with the Service Director, Scott Sipos and we looked at it and I came up with a design to install a trench drain in front of the building. I have requested three proposals. I received two back. The low bid was $41,191.50. We would like to put this on the Council agenda on the 20th if possible. Mr. Wynne can speak as far as there is money in the budget for that site that would cover this. It’s an improvement that is needed.
Mr. Wynne stated, to add to what Tom said, we have $50,000 in the budget for that facility which we have in there in anticipation of maybe replacing the shingles. After evaluating the status of the shingles, that’s not needed so we will just be using that $50,000 toward the cost of the drain project.
Mr. Cappello added, I will include all of the information in packets this Friday so you can review it. If you have any questions, let me know.
There were no questions.
Council President Schutt stated, if there are no questions, we will move along. Thank you, Mr. Cappello and Mr. Wynne.
FIRE DEPARTMENT:
Chief Carcioppolo stated, thank you, Council President. I have no report from the Department, but I will dovetail on what the Mayor said about the First Responder’s Memorial on September 11th. Mayfield Heights’ Honor Guard will be there to present colors. There will be coffee and donuts. The Mayor, the Police Chief and I will do a speech. We will try to make it as good as we can. There’s a lot of demand for the normal players that come to those events on that day. It’s going to be more of them than anything else. We look forward to seeing whoever wants to attend.
Council President Schutt stated, thank you Chief.
FINANCE DEPARTMENT:
- Tax Rate Resolution for Tax Year 2021 (Resolution 2021-32)
Mr. Wynne reported, if you recall, in June Council passed an Alternate Tax Budget which we submitted to the County for next year. That Alternate Tax Budget informed the County as to how we would like to receive our property tax revenue and allocate it between the funds on our books. The County has approved what we submitted. That now has to be formalized with the passage of an actual Tax Rate Resolution which will be on the agenda for September 20th.
- Health Insurance Renewal - 2022
Mr. Wynne reported, for health insurance, there’s nothing that needs to be done by Council. This is just FYI. A couple of years ago we joined the Buckeye Ohio Risk Management Association benefits pool. It’s was a consortium at the time of 14 other municipalities. Several have been added since then. It’s a self-funded pool. The first year, health insurance costs went up by 4.49%. Our increase for next year is 5.49%. From a financial standpoint, it was a good decision to join this consortium and keep control of our health care costs.
- Lease Agreements
- 6500 Wilson Mills
- 6536 Wilson Mills
Mr. Wynne reported, on our two properties on Wilson Mills, 6500 and 6536, we have not increased the rent on those properties for several years largely because of the impact COVID was having on a lot of individuals. We communicated with the tenants of those properties and will be submitting to them for their review a new Lease Agreement effective November 1st reflecting a rental increase. It’s also a month-to-month rental agreement to allow us the flexibility if we decide to go out to market with the property, we have an out quickly to move and do what we need to do from a development standpoint.
Mr. Wynne stated, end of report.
Council President Schutt asked, are there any questions for Mr. Wynne?
There were none.
Council President Schutt stated, thank you Mr. Wynne.
PARKS & REC:
Mr. McAvinew stated, I don’t have a report, but this is just a reminder that Cruise Night is coming up next Saturday the 18th. We have a pretty good response.
Mr. McAvinew stated, we are still taking snow plow applications. I know it’s early, but as soon as we get them in, the sooner we can figure out how to schedule the contractors.
POLICE DEPARTMENT:
- Parking Citation Fine Increase
Chief Matias stated, this is a request to increase the costs of the parking ticket fines. As I described in my memo, we have only had one increase in parking ticket fines since the 1970’s. That was in 2004 and it was a pretty moderate increase so I think that the proposed increases will effectively be a little more deterring for some of our more common parking violations. At the same time, they are not anything that’s overly burdensome on the violator. I attached a comparison between some of our other surrounding cities. Let me know if you have any questions regarding this.
- Purchase of Dispatch Recorder
Chief Matias stated, this is a request to purchase a new recording system for our dispatch center. It’s an important piece of equipment. It’s one of those things you just have to have. It works for our public records and also our playback and investigations. It’s a computer that records all of our radio channels and our phone lines. The last new one we got was in 2013. They are Microsoft- based and the version we have is no longer supported by Microsoft so that means no security updates or anything like that. We are kind of on borrowed time with it. The one I am requesting is an Eventide which is actually designed for public safety. Instead of being Microsoft-based, it’s kind of like Apple where it’s Linux-based. That means we won’t have to keep buying updates over the years. Right now, our version that we have for the system is version 7 and they are selling version 10 right now. Each time you have to have an update, you have to pay for that update. I think going to the Eventide will be a much better system for our dispatch center and it will be a system that will last us for quite a while. All of the upgrades and updates that come with that system is just part of the purchase price. When they do an upgrade, we don’t have to purchase it. I included the two quotes I have gotten. Stephen Campbell quoted $21,539. It’s a cheaper quote. Stephen Campbell is the current vendor that we use right now. That also includes a service contract so if we have any problems, they will take care of them. If there are any questions about this, let me know.
Chief Matias stated, the last item I have isn’t on the agenda, but we plan to have it on the agenda for the Council meeting. It’s the progress for the photo enforcement program. It looks like we have a version on the ordinance that we are going to be presenting to Council at the September Council meeting. I ask that when we do present it to Council that you consider passing it as an emergency ordinance because we would like to get this program going as soon as possible. A little while ago we were in the news quite a bit. People were talking about the program and we got a lot of positive feedback and a lot of support for the program. People were calling and coming in to the station talking about they think it’s a great idea. I think anybody who’s been driving on the freeway over the past year or so knows what the problem is. This past weekend, our officers wrote about 10 tickets on the freeway. Six of them were in the 90’s. An officer just today wrote a ticket at 4:30 p.m. for 105. They didn’t even run the radar. The car actually passed them. I would like to get this program running as soon as possible. We will have a draft of the Ordinance and I would ask that it be passed on First Read at the Council meeting. If you have any questions about that, let me know.
Chief Matias stated, that’s all I have.
Council President Schutt asked, any questions for Chief Matias?
There were none.
Council President Schutt stated, thank you Chief.
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 7:13 p.m.