The Committee presentations last night highlighted several upcoming storm projects for 2020 with approval of legislation to bid several of these projects and also the review and approval to bid several water quality and line replacement projects. These types of projects are important to move forward in our City to address on going water control issues and flooding and also to improve the water quality for our citizens. These types of projects are funded through specific water accounts that for the most part are not funded out of our general fund so the income for these accounts and projects remain stable for these to move forward.
Council still has a few positions before us that the administration has asked for approval on. Both positions are related to plans review in the building department and plans review in the fire prevention bureau. At our prior meeting the administration had been asked to go out for proposals to see if using an outside source/contractor for these services would be beneficial to the City. Council did receive information from the administration on these proposals on Thursday of the meeting so there wasn’t valid time for council to thoroughly review this information and ask the proper questions or vote on these issues at this meeting. There is also some concern of the use of an outside temporary employment agency to hire prior employees of the city back instead of addressing the actual employment needs. I find it awkward we are using a temp agency to pay for employees that the city is actually sending to them, typically a temp agency is responsible for helping find you temporary help. Another issue is, that some of these employment needs have been answered to be a longer term need instead of a true temporary need.
These are not settled issues, these staff needs are part of on going discussions with both Council and the Administration to understand the needs of the departments and then to determine how the needs can be best met. In light of the current financial uncertainty, this is a time to review these types of needs carefully to make sure we are making smart decisions for our city that maintains the service level and also is cost effective for our budget. I look forward to continuing to understand these department, roles, and how we can deliver the services and needs to our residents. Specifically, in the fire department, I am continuing to work with the Fire Chief to find a solution that addresses the root cause of the problem. The overall issue is, we had a retirement, the position was then filled, but due to other constraints he is not able to do the complete all the duties of the job that the previous person did. We need to find a long-term solution to the constraints in the department instead of a temporary solution of hiring back the recently retired person and essentially paying two people to do the same job. I did have a discussion with the chief after the council meeting and we are going to continue working together to determine a better overall solution to this issue.
We also had a discussion about the 2020 road paving program that was disappointing to say the least. At this time we are still not receiving adequate projections from finance to know if a roads paving program is even feasible at this time. The Service Department is going to start the process by going out to get bids for what the costs will be and hopefully as we look at adjusting our budget to offset for this crisis we can still look at having a roads paving program.
Overall, Council will need to continue to push for more solid budget numbers so we can adjust the course as the year goes on and not be in a position to have to make major account changes at the end of the year. Under Ohio law the City is required to maintain a balanced budget, therefore as we see less income we are going to have to adjust our expense to make sure the budget can remained balanced.
Another update that everyone was looking forward to was knowing when City Hall and other city facilities are re-opening. These things are coming in as the city has time to review and prepare the proper safety and health guidelines for the different facilities. Here is a summary of items being opened and what is still remaining closed:
- City Hall to re-open June 1st with safety guidelines in place
- Tennis Courts will re-open June 1st, Adelle Durbin will be reserved for the pickleball program and Silver Springs will be available for open play
- Baseball Fields will be allowed to be used by our local sports groups as of June 5th/June 6th, they are still finalizing a few details on that
- The Campground date still is not finalized as they are looking at what is necessary to comply with the current state guidelines
- Community Gardens has reopened with reservations available online and many gardeners have already reserved their plots and have begun planting
- Lodges are taking reservations for the future but are not currently being for events at the moment
- The Dog Park remains closed until there is some additional guidance on how to safely open and maintain distance that is approved by the state
- Playgrounds and basketball courts remain closed
- The Senior Center also remains closed
The City is continually reviewing the updates, guidance, and protocols available for the different types of programs and facilities we have and will continue to review and update openings as they become safe to do so.
Council did also roll out the use of a new live comment method for the meeting and had two individuals make comments during the meeting, I think other than some slowness with Zoom last evening it went rather smoothly. You may watch the whole Council Meeting on YouTube.
There will be a Finance Committee meeting to hear from the Stow Court House on their 2020 budget items on June 4, 2020 at 6:30 PM. Our next regular Committee and Council Meeting will be Thursday June 11, 2020, start time of committees will be determined closer to the date once the agenda has been completed.