The confusion of regular and special meeting last night was quickly clarified by outgoing Council President Riehl where he explained the schedule was approved in 2018 and this is a standing regular meeting, it in the past was just often cancelled. This meeting was also held last year for the appointment of a new council member in the at-large seat, which Mr. Costello was appointed to and I was subsequently appointed as the Ward 2 Councilwoman.
As for the discussion items, we had the following:
- Council voted 5-2 (Costello and D’Antonio voted no) to rescind the approval to hire an Economic Development Coordinator. This was mostly because the position posted was for a Deputy Planning Director, at a higher rate of pay than the position approved by Council. I think there is some confusion on the needs of the Planning Department and what actual role they need and the proper pay range of it. Because of this, Council rescinded the approval to hire and asked the administration to verify the needs, the actual job description and duties prior to bringing this request back to the new council who will be seated January 2, 2020.
- The first charter amendment discussed was to clarify the role of Council in relation to the upcoming charter review commission. Currently, there is some ambiguity in the Charter as to how recommendations from the charter review commission must be handled. This amendment would make it clear that any recommended charter changes still must be approved by 2/3 vote of Council prior to being placed on the ballot for residents to vote on. Based on the language of the charter review commission and that such commission is to “make recommendations to Council” I feel that this is already the intent, however, it has had different interpretations by various law directors, so this would end the debate on the issue. This passed 7-0
- The second charter amendment would allow for a vacancy of Mayor to be filled by anyone qualified under our Charter instead of just to be filled by a current sitting member of Council. While we hope this would never be an issue, we do know it is possible because the exact thing happened in 2018 when Mayor Kline resigned her post early. The main sticking point here is that Council serves in a part time role, while the role of Mayor is a full time job, Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 4 PM. This makes it difficult to fill a temporary gap in Mayor position since majority of Council members already hold full time positions. This situation would allow for a wider pool of applicants than the current council members to be reviewed to hold the position. Again, this would only be until an election so it would be a year period or less. I think it is a practical solution to at least see what other candidates may be interested as a pool of 7 can easily become a pool of 1 as we saw last year simply based on other work commitments. This issue was passed by a 6-1 vote (Costello voted no, he felt it should go to charter review).
- The final legislative item for 2019 was an item that has been under discussion for several meetings and it regards discharging a firearm or hunting within the city or on city property. This legislation was with regards to hunting on a piece of property the City of Stow owns in Franklin Township in Portage County. The change in this ordinance only affects this property OUTSIDE the city limits and makes no changes to the hunting regulations within city limits or on any other city owned property.
- Lastly, President Riehl proposed any budget left over in council funds at the end of 2019 be moved to the stormwater fund, this passed 7-0.
On to 2020, I am looking forward to continuing to serve the residents of Ward 2! The official swearing in of all the new administration and council members will be Thursday January 2, 2020 at 7:30 PM in Council Chambers.