We had a shorter Council Meeting on Thursday March 26, 2020. It was important that Council continues to meet to keep informed and updated on the current crisis and to remain prepared to see the city both through and out of this crisis.
The updates provided to Council and to the public from the Administration and the Police and Fire Chief are very valuable so we all know where we stand as a City in response to this epidemic. The Chief Stone updated on the supplies that the City recently received from the national stockpile, which was a pretty minimal amount over all. However, there have been several alternate sources that the fire department has been working with and after their public request earlier this week they have also had many supplies donated from our community. The Stow-Munroe Falls Schools has also worked to allocate some supplies from their classrooms that are not currently in use to assist the fire department. Chief Film also updated on the recent activities that the increased in the police department related to the stay at home order and calls they are getting. The police department is not enforcing any issues relating to whether a business is essential or non-essential but based on calls they get, the information can be forwarded to the health department for review. They also have had calls about large groups gather such as kids playing basketball and the like. The police are trying to educate these types of groups about social distancing if they find them gathered after they are called, however they are not currently giving any citations for this activity.
The main agenda item was the discussion and adoption of a special standing committee of Council. This committee would operate the same way as the other council standing committees but their goals would be different. The 2020 Budge Oversight Committee was approved by a 6-1 vote, Ms. Shaw voted No. This Committee is the 2020 Budget Oversight Committee that is tasked with working with the Finance Department to get regular updates on the revenue coming into the city and how that compares with expectations. Although the administration has currently frozen capital spending, this will not be permanent. This Committee will partner with the administration to work through the capital equipment and repairs lists to prioritize the items and monitor the funding for those items to see if they will be something that is possible based on where the funding comes from for such items. This is going to be a difficult year and there will have to be hard questions and decisions about our capital improvement programs. There were a few who asked how this is different from the Finance Committee. While the Finance Committee reviews the annual budgets and appropriations bills, it does not have the in depth oversight into the incoming revenue streams of the City. This new committee will also be looking for alternate funding resources that may become available to the City after this crisis. The 2020 Budget Oversight Committee also is composed of different members than the Finance Committee. I appointed Mr. Hailer (Ward 3) to chair this committee, Mr. Hailer has vast knowledge and experience seeing a bank through the 2008 banking crisis and I have no doubt his background will be extremely valuable in chairing this committee. Mr. Altieri (Ward 1) will be the vice-chair of this committee, he also brings a unique experience as a former small business owner in Stow. Mr. Feldman (at-large) and Mr. McIntire (at large) will also be on this committee. Mr. Feldman brings his experience as an administrator working in the Stow-Munroe Falls School System and Mr. McIntire brings his experience in involvement with large capital projects and project management.
Going forward, Council is working with the Administration and the IS Department to achieve a better solution that would allow Council and the needed staff to meet remotely. This option to meet remotely has just been approved by the Ohio Legislature. As of this meeting, Council nor the Administration had a tool setup that would allow us to meet remotely while still allowing the public to view and hear without interruption. We will be uploading the video from the meeting on the City website where we post our minutes, I apologize that the sound quality is not the best, but this was the best resource we had available to us in the time frame. We are diligently working to put a better resources in place prior to our next meeting.