At our meeting Thursday night Council passed legislation creating a new section of our code that creates an annual road plan that will consist of two parts: Annual Road Improvements and Annual Road Maintenance. This legislation was co-sponsored by Mr. Feldman, Mr. McIntire, and myself with the goal of creating a longer term plan to insure the quality of our roads in the City continue to meet the expectations of our residents. This includes both a paving plan that will use the quality rating of the roads to determine the priority of paving along with funding an annual crack seal program that will be aimed at preventative maintenance to extend the life of the roads between paving cycles. Previously the City had used temporary labor to perform crack sealing, however, with the current labor market it has been unable to find the staffing to do so. This legislation does allot some of the annual road budget to the crack seal program that would be put out to bid with the annual road program each year. I look forward to the next steps of this legislation in reviewing how this process will work and seeing this program move forward to better maintain our roads.
Council also had a first reading related to the re-zoning of the former Stow Glen property. Previously Council approved several lot splits to create 3 lots out of 4 former lots related to this property. With the new lots created, the potential developer is now looking to unify the zoning of one of the parcels which currently falls into two separate zones along with re-zoning a second parcel. The two parcels right now are C-4, Commercial and R-3, Residential, the potential developer is seeking to have both lots re-zoned to R-3, Residential entirely. The planned use for these two lots would be both a newly built assisted living facility and renovation of the current independent living buildings into one-bedroom apartments. Both of these uses would be appropriate in the R-3, Residential section of our Code. A re-zoning of property in the City of Stow requires 3 separate readings by Council and a Public Hearing. This item will have its third reading and public hearing before Council on Thursday February 23, 2023. There will then be an additional process where the applicant will have to present the use and site plan approval, including any variances back before the Planning Commission and ultimately Council.
Council also approved two engagement letters for the State Auditor’s office. The first is for our annual financial audit that is required of our City to conduct. We also approved a second audit which will be a performance audit conducted by the State of Ohio. A Performance Audit is to be used as a tool and is a service offered by the State Auditors Office to provide outside objective analysis of programs and operations performed by our City to improve our offerings and operations. The proposal for this audit was presented to all of Council and the Administration back in December where two employees of the State Auditors Office were present to answer any questions or concerns about this type of Audit. At that time, no questions or concerns were raised about this Audit. However, on Thursday night the Mayor read a pre-drafted statement under his report which was in strong opposition to conducting such audit, along with many unnecessary points attacking Council President McIntire. The opposition to the performance audit was mostly based on making assumptions about what the audit results would be and using fear tactics that this audit will lead to cutting of services and events of the City which would impact our residents. The Mayor’s negative take on this Audit and unrelated personal attacks is disheartening, but as he stated multiple times last night, 2023 is an election year. The audit process is meant to improve operations and efficiencies for our City, not create unnecessary work for anyone. As with any task we undertake in life, going into something with a negative outlook is likely to create a negative result, so I hope after the Administration will keep an open mind to this process as it begins.
I supported this Audit and I believe it will help us drive our focus and ultimate goal of creating longer term planning for our City to make sure we are right sized to deliver the quality of services expected by our Residents. We initially began speaking about this audit during the 2020-2021 Council term but held off on this in lieu of several other studies and plans that the City was conducting, including the Parks Master Plan, the Connectivity Plan, and Zoning Code review. I believe now that we have these items in place along with the Charter amendment for a five-year capital plan, it is of the utmost importance to understand the tools and resources the City has available to accomplish these goals. While I have some expectations of things that may come out of this Audit, I do not feel it is appropriate to state what those are and instead let the objective review take place. While I understand that there may be some recommendations that would be out of line with our overall goal of the City, I believe we will get many good recommendations to improve operations and services. Regardless of the outcome of this Audit, at no time would I ever support the cutting of any of Stow’s programs such as the Fourth of July Parade, Summer Sunset Blast, or services such as the leaf pickup program or the free mulch pick up. Overall, our City is in a good financial position, with our carryover funds into 2023 remained strong at nearly $10 Million, this is also a good reason to review our operations and services to ensure we are wisely balancing our spending and savings to deliver the best value to our residents for their tax dollars. The Performance Audit will take multiple months to complete but I look forward to seeing the overall result presented to Council at a public meeting for all to review.
Council will next meet on Thursday February 9, 2023 with committee meetings starting at 5:30 PM and Council to follow.