On Thursday we heard from our Municipal Court partners, Judge Hoover, Judge Coates, and Clerk of Courts Zibritosky. They provided updates on how the Court operated in 2020 and expectations for 2021. While many people may not understand the relationship of the Courts and the City, there is a financial implication for the City related to the Courts as we are the host city. The Courts saw a large downturn in 2020 based on COVID-19 and the downturn in police actions, especially traffic stops and tickets. This caused a financial impact on the Courts which will require cuts to their 2021 budget. The Judges did make cuts and reduced their staff by 2.5 people and expect that they will not replace an additional 1.5 positions for a net reduction of 4 staff members by December 2021. The Courts Office did not make any reductions in their staffing yet for the 2021 budget. The overall deficit in 2020 was $800,000 and the projection is a $1,000,0000 deficit for 2021. The Courts projected that Stow should consider needing $500,000 to cover the costs of the Court operating expenses for 2021 and that Stow should consider asking the other municipalities under the courts to return their collected court fees to help cover the shortfall.
Council also made some changes to how the Lodging Tax can be used in 2021 (and going forward). This includes repealing legislation that previously funded the Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) from the lodging tax, and dedicating the lodging tax going forward for a new Sidewalk Program. This sidewalk program would look to rate the sidewalks throughout our City, and going forward would start replacing the poorly rated sidewalks at no cost to the residents. This is a new program and is much different from the prior sidewalk program in the City. This program is going to focus on new sidewalk replacement and it isn’t in place to reimburse residents who previously had sidewalks replaced. There will also be a dedication of a portion of the lodging tax focused on adding NEW sidewalks to areas of the City where previous sidewalks do not exist. These new programs are of a great benefit to our residents, while at the same time, not being paid for by the tax payers, and instead is paid by those who use our local hotels. I appreciate the hard work Councilman McIntire took to research this program and then the work and discussions put in with Councilman Feldman, Mr. Wren and Mr. Anderson to develop this program. I look forward to seeing this program start this year and hope it is in place for many years.
There was also a proposal to provide paid family leave for City employees proposed by Councilwoman Shaw. Ms. Shaw failed to have any discussions with the Administration prior to introducing this legislation and it was NOT supported by the Administration. I do not believe it is the job of City Council to legislate the benefits provided to our City employees. The benefits provided to our employees in the City is the job of the Administration to determine, it is definitely not something I feel should become codified in our city ordinances. Ms. Shaw last minute tried to also push this item from this meeting to the next meeting because of the lack of discussion and support of the Administration. I believe Ms. Shaw needs to understand the legislative process better to realize that once legislation is introduced, Council must take action on it, therefore I voted to move this onto Council and because of the lack of support at all by the Administration and the overall feeling that this is not a legislative function, this legislation failed by a 6-1 vote.
Council will have a final reading of the budget and approval of the budget at 7 PM on Wednesday March 31, 2021.