Last Council meeting we found out that Mr. Kurtz, the current Director of Planning and Development had put in his notice to take a new position and the Administration requested the approval to replace the position. The Administration presented a candidate at this meeting, Mr. Nathan Leppo who has a background in both planning and economic development. Council approved this appointment and Mr. Leppo will be starting at the end of June. I wish Mr. Kurtz all the best in his new position and would like to welcome Mr. Leppo to the City.
We also hired Ms. Sonya Mottram as a part-time Deputy Clerk of Council to assist in the Council office with various projects, including the implementation of new technology to stream our meetings. The Council office is overseen by the Council President and in the last several years was operated with one full time Council Clerk. A one person department is tricky and makes coverage of the department when time off is needed difficult. This new position will be able to ensure coverage of the department while the Clerk is out and also will allow for moving the Council office towards a more digital presence. I am excited to have Ms. Mottram come on board and know she will be an asset that will be able to come in and hit the ground running.
Mr. Feldman, Chief Film, Mayor Pribonic, and myself also gave an update on the current status of the proposed Regional Dispatch center and the visit that Mr. Feldman, the Chief, and myself had to the potential site. I made a separate post about that visit, last night may of those same things were shared and put on the public record to update everyone in an official manner. It was important to note last night that the Mayor and Chief Film both openly stated that everyone is waiting on the County to gather more information to present to all the interested cities and that there is absolutely nothing that the Administration or Council is doing to hold up the process. I also encouraged any of my other Council members who would like to gain more information to coordinate with the Chief to visit the site and/or meet with the County to answer any questions they may have.
Finally, Council started the discussions about updating of our Council rules related to how legislation is drafted, comes before committees and Council, and how it is handled after it is addressed by Council. I believe this is an important conversation and needs updated, currently most of the rules and procedure have not been updated since 1986. A few key points of my legislation include:
- Legislation should be of a new topic or be to repeal or amend prior legislation;
- Legislation should only be drafted if requested from a city official, department, board/commission, or after approval by a committee chairperson or by majority of Council;
- Legislation should be assigned a temporary number for tracking, but should not be formally appear on the Council agenda until the legislation is reviewed and received a recommendation from a standing committee;
- Legislation that has failed requires a motion to renew approved by Council before it appears back on the Council agenda.
Updating our rules required amendment to 3 section of our current rules and the create of a new section. My goal was to create a conversation and starting point to address some of the concerns with our current process. The reality is that Council operates as a body and the majority of what Council is what dictates what happens in the City. In the past year we have seen a lot of special interest items and requests to implement and pass legislation simply because other cities, namely Akron, have passed without consideration or discussion by our Council as to whether it is an issue or concern that we should address in Stow.
My proposal would put the issues to the committee chairperson, or if needed, the Council as a whole, for their input prior to legislative research and writing taking place by the Law and Council office. In this past year there have been several pieces of legislation that have been drafted without the support and a lot of time is wasted discussing topics that were not supported by the Administration or Council. In addition to failed pieces of legislation, there has been legislation requested and drafted by the law department where the council member just “changed their mind on” and requested it not be placed on the actual agenda. This is not a good use of our law department and clerk’s time. Again, Council operates as a body as whole, and if the majority does not want to hear an issue, we should be up front and say that as a motion prior to additional time being spent on legislation.
Again, the purposes of these changes is to define the legislative process. This is also the case with defining how failed legislation is handled. It does not state legislation cannot come forward again, it just defines the motion and process necessary to renew such failed legislation.
I am hopeful that with some on going conversations we can find a solution that works for a majority of Council.