The first topic last night at public improvements related to the renaming of Silver Springs Lodge in honor of Leona Farris. Ms. Farris was an assistant professor at the University of Akron, and her family was one of the first black families to live in Stow. Ms. Farris was active in many organizations throughout her lifetime and worked for integration and education to create equality and understanding. During this discussion there was clearly support in recognizing Ms. Farris, however, several committee members wanted to discuss if a recognition through our schools would be a more appropriate fit to recognize Ms. Farris for her life’s work. This item remained in committee to allow additional time to have these discussions with the school district or other appropriate parties to seek a recognition fitting of Ms. Farris.
Council received an update yesterday that the bids were open for the 2020 Road Paving program and that the bids did come in under the engineers estimate, which means we will be able to proceed with the program. The administration is working to review the bids and bidder’s qualifications and should have the program approved in the next two weeks. Once that is done the list will be finalized for what roads will be included this year. I am glad we are able to proceed with this program even if not to the extent originally planned due to the pandemic and expected losses of 2020.
Council also approved the hiring of a new police officer who will fill in for an upcoming retirement at the end of the year. The hiring now will allow the officer to complete the background process and begin their training program prior to the current officer’s retirement. I appreciate the discussion by Council related to our hiring related to police officers in ensure we have a fair process and Chief Film explaining how the process works for Council and for the public.
I also worked with the administration to review our practices of hiring and contracting with former employees of the City. One frustration I have heard from citizens multiple times is we keep re-hiring and contracting with former employees after they have retired. Some of these positions have been done through contract or temporary agencies, and when they were under the Board of Control limit of $15,000 Council would have no say in whether this would happen until it exceeded this limit. Going forward Council and the Administration agreed, that any time of re-hiring or contracting with a former employee will be approved by Council before it moves forward, regardless of limit. This will help provide transparency to the public when this occurs and there will be a clear understanding of the need prior to it just occurring.
Last but not least, there was a public update at our meeting relating to the lawsuit filed by Charter Review Commission and our Law Director. This issue was resolved by the Supreme Court of Ohio the day after our last meeting. Mr. Stephen Funk from Roetzel & Andress who represented Council came in and updated Council on the Supreme Court’s decision and how it will impact this process going forward. While I had posted on my blog about the decision after it occurred, I had not made a public statement at our meetings about this or the process until last night. In my statement last night I did clarify several statements that had been made to the Stow Sentry by the administration that were factually inaccurate. The reality is, Council clearly has say in Charter Review recommendations and all the actions taken by Council were clearly within our rights under the Charter, and the Supreme Court resoundingly agreed. This issue has been resolved by the highest Court in our state and going forward, the debate that has lasted the last 40 years in the City has ended. Last night Council and the administration all agreed that this is behind us and we are all committed to move forward and work together for the future of our City.