December 18, 2017 - Meeting Minutes

 

Brewster Village Council met in regular session with Mayor Mike Schwab presiding.

 

7:06 P.M. – CALL TO ORDER

 

Council Members bowed their heads for the invocation provided by Clerk-Treasurer

Kris King followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

Mike Schwab, Mayor

Dave Godwin, Council Member                Chuck Hawk, Council Member                   

Tom Hilliard, Council Member                  Paul Mackey, Council Member                  

Steven Tharp, Jr., Council Member           Dale Fox, Council Member

 

John Anthony, Solicitor                           Kris King, Clerk-Treasurer

Michael L. Miller, Village Administrator 

 

Mayor Mike Schwab asked if there were any additions or deletions to the December 4, 2017 Council meeting minutes. 

 

COUNCIL MEMBER THARP MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER FOX and motion carried to accept the minutes as presented.  The vote: All yes.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER GODWIN MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER FOX and motion carried to accept the bills in the amount of $ 459,339.56.  The vote: All yes.

 

Fire Chief Chris Colucy, Ray Heitger, Andrew Hess, Sydney Radich, Jim Mills, Patrick and Shelby Bucher, Kyle Hershey, Larry Gilkerson, Roger and Randi Carpenter, Tyler Carpenter, Jacki Hickman, and Donna Rovan of the Independent.

 

Clerks note: Many of the following comments are in reference to the Council of the Whole Committee meeting just previous to this meeting. The discussion revolved around a training reimbursement request for Jacki Hickman in the amount of $10,329.14.

 

Jim Mills, 887 Wabash Ave. S., his utility bill was $500 this month. He wanted to know why it had been estimated for three months and read for this month. He stated playing catch-up right before Christmas is wrong. Mr. Mills has heard that there is going to be a sign put in his yard that states no trucks. He stated he has never seen any milk trucks traveling on his street to Brewster Cheese and does not want the sign in his yard. Mr. Mills stated that Jacki Hickman has been on the fire department for quite a while. He thinks it looks terrible that she has not been reimbursed for her training. This is in reference to the previous Council of the Whole meeting earlier this evening.  VA Miller advised Council that he had worked out a payment plan with Mr. Mills and offered several solutions to the estimated bill issue.

 

Roger Carpenter, 432 Wabash Ave. N., presented a paper showing that he and another fireman had taken free training and wanted Council to know that the firemen were taking the initiative when free training was available. He stated that Jacki Hickman was willing to compromise and sign a contract for five years and be paid over a five-year period when everyone else received their money as soon as their classes were completed and only signed a three-year contract. He also stated in reference to Mr. Mills meter getting estimated because of his dogs, that the Village employees had no problem painting exes for the utility poles to be installed in his yard. Mr. Carpenter stated that he and his brother have lived on Needham St. for years and never had a problem with trucks traveling through the area. Mr. Carpenter stated that when he joined the fire department there were 35 people on the roster and now is down to 25. We need to do what we can to get and keep volunteer firemen.

 

Jacki Hickman, 223 Wabash Ave. S., thanked Council for taking into consideration paying for her education. She stated she did not do this to get a full-time position but to be a well-rounded person. She is not going anywhere and is more than willing to sign a five-year contract. Ms. Hickman also thanked Council for their time and for the fire fighter class for which she has already been paid.

 

Cheryl Wade, resident of Brewster, is a nurse. She stated she doesn’t want to be a medic. She stated that Jacki doesn’t want to be a full-time medic and that the fire department can’t turn down volunteers. Jackie is dedicated to the people and to the station and it would be a shame if she was not paid.

 

Tyler Carpenter, 149 Sixth Street, stated you can’t train enough for job that will kill you.

 

Larry Gilkerson, Tuscarawas Street, is a previous Fire Chief for the village. He stated training is the biggest bang for the buck. When the buzzer goes off, you want well trained firemen.

 

Randi Carpenter, 432 Wabash Ave. N., asked how many people in the room have needed medical care. “Aren’t you glad a medical professional helped you?”

 

Council member Godwin stated that the fire department is full of amazing people. We are here for you. No one has ever had a negative comment about our fire department.

 

Kyle Hershey, fireman, discussed the different levels of training. He stated paramedics save lives.

 

Larry Gilkerson stated when he gave up the chief’s position, he gave the next chief some advice. “Don’t ask for anything you don’t need.”

 

Cheryl Wade suggested paying her monthly over a year’s time.

 

Ray Heitger stated, as a citizen, education is well worth the money.

 

Council Member Mackey stated that every nickel matters.

 

Jacki Hickman stated she was told by the Fire Chief that she would be reimbursed. She was told this prior to paramedic Scott Borojevich being reimbursed in 2015. She did this to be a more well-rounded provider. She has been doing this for Brewster.

 

Council Member Tharp stated you need a budget. That is what you have to spend. It should not be that difficult for Chief Colucy to get a good estimate on a training budget. Chief Colucy stated that we can’t tell how many people will join. The $10,000 per Fire and EMS Departments training is nowhere near what we need. Council Member Tharp stated you can come up with an estimate.

 

Randi Hickman wished to point out everyone on the department has full-time jobs. They make less than half at the fire department than they do with the full-time positions. Ms. Hickman doesn't pick up over time at her full-time position because she chooses to be in the community to answer calls.

 

Council Member Mackey asked if they have any idea of what we are going through as far as the finances. It has been discussed over and over again and he is yet to hear any solutions to the money situation. Chief Colucy said the contracts are written to be soft billed, whenever he brings up hard billing he is up told that we can’t because we just passed a levy. Councilman Mackey said we can’t do anything without suggestions he needs recommendations and ideas on where to come up with the money needed to run the fire department. At the rate they are going, there will be no fire department in five years.

 

Roger Carpenter asked how you tell someone you can’t go to training. There’s always outside training. You never want to stop training. He stated that there wasn’t an issue paying for training two years ago, why is it issue now?

 

Councilman Mackey stated he was glad to see the fire department turnout for the meeting.

 

Cheryl Wade asked about hard billing and why we can’t do it. Mayor Schwab stated before we start doing anything we need to get numbers.

 

Jim Mills said the reason this is the first time they all come to the meeting is because this is the first time someone has been denied payment for training. An issue like this has never come up before.

 

Mayor Schwab thanked everyone for their input and participation in the discussion.

 

ORDINANCE 94 – 2017: An Ordinance Authorizing the Adoption of and Hours of Work for Nonexempt Employees Policy and adding it to our Employee Handbook was given third reading.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER HILLIARD MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER GODWIN and motion carried to bring the legislation forward for passage. The vote: All yes.

 

ORDINANCE 95 – 2017: An Ordinance Authorizing the Adoption of an Hours of Work for Exempt Employees Policy and adding it to our Employee Handbook was given third reading.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER GODWIN MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER THARP and motion carried to bring the legislation forward for passage. The vote: All yes.

 

ORDINANCE 96 – 2017: An Ordinance Authorizing the Adoption of an Employee Federal Labor Standards Act Policy and adding it to our Employee Handbook was given third reading.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER HILLIARD MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER FOX and motion carried to bring the legislation forward for passage. The vote: All yes.

 

ORDINANCE 97 – 2017: An Ordinance Amending Ordinance 17 – 2017 Relating to Appropriations and Providing for Transfers within Appropriated Funds for the Fiscal Year ending December 31, 2017 was given third reading.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER GODWIN MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER MACKEY and motion carried to pass the legislation as presented. The vote: All yes.

 

First Reading: An Ordinance Authorizing the Adoption of an Employee Longevity Policy (VA requesting amendment) to add part-time employees in the policy as it is currently structured.

 

RESOLUTION 98 – 2017: A Resolution of Temporary Appropriations for 2018 was given first reading.  The Village Clerk added that this legislation provides funding for early 2018 expenses and bridges the gap until permanent appropriations can be finalized and approved.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER GODWIN MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER FOX and motion carried to suspend the rule requiring three separate readings and bring the legislation forward for passage. The vote: All yes.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER THARP MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER FOX and motion carried to pass the legislation as presented. The vote: All yes.

 

Fire Department: Chief Chris Colucy

Chief Colucy reported there are 749 calls to date. This is a new record.

 

Chief Colucy is requesting for EMT training for firefighters Tyler Carpenter and Trevor Heaton. Cost submitted is $1460 each. Chief Colucy will be meeting with the Mayor, VA, and Clerk sometime during the next two weeks to go over the budget for 2018.

 

Chief Colucy discussed how training works when someone joins the department.

 

The grant for the Ohio State Fire Marshall for the MARC’s Radios awards have not been announced.

 

Chief Creter provided Council with a November Run Report via email.

 

Chief Creter has asked that the Village look into modifying the parking regulations to provide further clarification; a review and recommendation will be made to Council.  He has provided sample language for review by the Solicitor, VA and Mayor.

 

Fines and other monies: December Report equals $115 received from Stark County Courts.

 

Solicitor Anthony is working on a draft of a collections letter for submittal to delinquent accounts. He is not sure how that’s going to work in collaboration with Weltman, Weinberg, and Ries Collection Agency.

 

The State Auditor has become involved with the employee healthcare situation. The village is still working on the run out claims but it appears that Stark County Schools Council of Government will be able to help the village with this. The village is making sure the employees are covered.

 

It appears the injunction to stop the income tax legislation has not been filed yet. Solicitor Anthony will keep Council up-to-date as things progress.

 

Solicitor Anthony discussed social media in the employment process. Some states are now prohibiting its use for employment purposes.

 

The 2017 Griswold Christmas Lighting Contest:

                First Place – Mike Compan family at 163 5^th St. SW. received $100.

Second Place – a tie – Dave Sullivan family at 250 Harmon St. NW. and Larry Remenaric family at 650 Amherst Southeast each received $50.

                Third Place – Dolores Burdge family at 431 Mohican Ave. NE. received $25.

 

AMP Proposal space – space Icebreaker When Farm Project on Lake Erie; six turbine pilot project; AMP has offered to provide a presentation or a PowerPoint demonstration for Council’s review; AMP advises that based on Brewster’s 2016 purchase of 47,080 MW, it would be $42,842.80 in additional costs.

 

Stark – Tuscarawas – Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District: Notice that all yard waste facilities will be closed from January 1 through March 17. Councilman Tharp reported that this was due to a reduction in their budget and this time of year would have the least impact to the communities.

 

Stark Commissioners Letter: 2018 Municipal Road Fund Applications are being accepted until February 15, 2018. Due to the village receiving funds for Seventh Street this year and Elton Street last year, no applications will be made. These are the only roads in the village eligible for these grants.

 

VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR: Mike Miller

Administrator’s report for period 12/5/2017 thru 12/18/2017:

 

Policy. It lays out what is kept, how it is kept, and what is a public record versus a non-public record. As I previously related to Council, when policies are written and administratively adopted I will distribute copies so that you are aware of what is occurring, and allow for feedback, concerns, or questions. I have previously distributed this policy.  It has been added to our revised Employee Handbook.

 

 

 

AMP-NextEra are now moving forward with the purchase of the property from Myron and Marilyn Miller, coordinate with the acquisition of the access lane from Fairless so the project can be constructed.

 

 

 

 

AMP has expressed a willingness to make a presentation to Council.

 

A decision does not need to be made until April 2018.

 

It was agreed that the next step is to assure that there will be no impediments to making the substation upgrades (expanding the substation footprint).

 

The next step would be for GPD to make a formal proposal for engineering the project, which the fee is still being negotiated.

 

Following that, the GPD formal proposal for engineering will need to be approved by Council.

I will provide Council with a more detailed overview of what we plan to do to upgrade the substation in the near future.

 

 

The next Council meeting will be on Tuesday, January 2, 2018. Oaths of office will be administered by solicitor Anthony to the recently elected members of Council. Those new members are Sydney Radich, Andrew Hess, Dale Fox, and Tom Hilliard. There will also be the election of Pres Pro Tem by members of Council. This person substitutes for the Mayor in his absence. Committee chair assignments will also be made by the Mayor at this meeting via current Council Rules. The 2017 Council Rules should be reviewed and modified if desired. They need to be adopted for 2018. The Mayor has emailed a copy to both the old and the new Council members. The mayor noted that Council Rules can be changed from time to time.

 

The Chief and Fire Chief were provided with memos from the Mayor today concerning the changes in the processing of their departments training requests. The mayor will sit down with each Chief to review the expectations. The memo states that the Mayor’s Office will be reviewing and approving all training requests in the Police and Fire Departments as outlined in Council’s recently adopted policies 5.15 and 5.16. In these policies, the Village Purchasing Agent (the VA) will be the second step for review of requests under $1,000, and Council will be step three for any requests over $1,000. Most training requests will be over $1,000. Copies of each of these memos have been emailed to Council.

 

The Police and Fire budgets and expenditures will follow a new procedure. Police Chief and Fire Chief will receive memos from the Mayor this week concerning the changes in the processing of their departments requested expenditures in 2018. The Clerk, VA, and Mayor will sit down with each Chief to review the expectations. The memos state that the Mayor’s Office will be reviewing and approving all expenditures in the Police and Fire Departments prior to submittal to the Village Purchasing Agent and the Village Clerk. The Fire Chief will also receive a Mayor’s memo concerning the 2018 budget the Clerk, VA, and Mayor will sit down with Chief Colucy to review. The Police Chief has submitted his proposed budget for 2018. Copies of each of these memos will be available for Council review after they are submitted to each of the Chiefs.

 

Water rate increases will appear on water customers February utility bills (Ordinance 27 – 2016):

                                                  Current Rates (2017)                      2018 Rates

First 2000 gallons                        $3.56 per 1000 gallons                   $3.65 per 1000 gallons

2001 to 30,000 gallons                $2.65 per 1000 gallons                    $2.72 per 1000 gallons

Above 30,000 gallons                   $1.87 per 1000 gallons                   $1.92 per 1000 gallons

Capital Charge/account                $13.66 per month                           $18.44 per month

Monthly Minimum                        $17.22 per month                           $22.09 per month

 

Ordinance 27 – 2016 sets a 2019 increase in user rates of 2.75% and an increase in the capital charge from $22.09 to $27.15. For 2020 and beyond, both user rates and the capital charge will increase by 2.75%.

 

May I offer thanks to members of the Village Fire, EMS, and Police Departments each of whom provide services that protect and save the lives of village residents and their property. These people are special and respond at all hours of the day and night. They run toward situations that may put them in harm’s way. May I offer thanks to the members of the Village Water, Sewer, Electric, and Street Departments that make sure that our water is safe to drink, that are area streams and water sources are protected, that the electric power is reliable and efficient, and that our streets, parks, and buildings are maintained in state. May I offer thanks to the Village Clerk, the Village Administrator, and the ladies at Village Hall for their dedicated service to our residents and businesses. Mayor offer thanks to members of Council, the Recreation Board, the Planning Commission, the Zoning Board of Appeals for the vital services for little or no compensation. All of the above play a huge role and what makes our community and I cannot thank them enough for what they provide to our residents and businesses.

 

And a special thank you to Councilman Steve Tharp and Councilman Paul Mackey that are completing their terms of Office on December 31^st. We will miss their talents and wisdom. I asked that they not be strangers and state that their continued input is expected and welcome. Councilman Hilliard stated the thank you also goes out to the Mayor for his hard work and dedication.

 

I am currently working on year-end and starting preparations for 2018.

 

The date for the Local Official Government Conference will be March 21 through March 23. Any Village Officials that wish to attend need to let me know in the near future.

 

COMMITTEES or COUNCIL REPORTS: The Goal of any committee meeting is to discuss an issue or proposal and to provide, by a consensus of the committee members, ONE recommendation to Council.

Building, Parks, and Grounds Committee Meeting minutes from December 4, 2017.

Council of the Whole Meeting this evening at 6 PM.

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REMINDER:  Council Meeting will be on Tuesday, January 2, 2018.

                   Stark RPC: Governmental Law Seminar will be on Saturday, February 24, 2000 for Municipal Officials. Those members of Council interested may want to register.

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Police Sgt. Rossiter/Chief Creter: Requested donation of $1500 for the Village 2018 DARE Program.

 

Fire Chief – Reimbursement of the following training cost for Volunteer Jacki Hickman:  EMT Basic = #2,300; Paramedic I = $1,939.70; Paramedic II = $3,112.00; Paramedic III = $460.80; Paramedic IV = $1,266.70; and Firefighter 1 & 2=$1,749.60.  Total = $10,329.14.

OLD or NEW BUSINESS: (Council Rules dictate a one meeting review period for expenditures, unless deemed an emergency)            

COUNCIL MEMBER THARP MOVED SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER FOX and motion carried to reimburse $10,329.14 from the EMS Fund for Jacki Hickman’s request in five annual installments paid at the beginning of each calendar year. The vote: All yes.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER HILLIARD MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER THARP and motion carried to approve a donation for the DARE Program. The vote: All yes. Councilman Hilliard stated he feels this is a really good program and that Denise does a really good job.

 

Councilman Tharp reported that Sgt. Rossiter and Officer Joey Lorenzo participated in the shop with a cop program. He has heard nothing but positive comments.

 

Mayor Schwab read a “thank you” card received from new village residents Mark and Carol Akers. 

 

Ray Heitger thanked Council for approving the payments to Jacki Hickman for her training.

 

Jacki Hickman thanked Council for approving the payments for her training.

 

Councilman Fox stated that Councilman Mackey and Councilman Tharp were two of the better Councilman he has served with over the years.

 

Councilman Mackey thanked everyone for putting up with him and stated God bless you one and all.

 

Councilman Godwin stated how impressed he had been with Councilman Mackey. Councilman Mackey spent many days in Village Hall reading 108 years of legislation and minutes. He also thanked Councilman Tharp for his due diligence.

 

Councilman Tharp read from a 2 ½ page letter he wrote thanking the residents for their confidence in him over the last two terms. He discussed his experiences over the last eight years serving as a Councilman.  Towards the end, Councilman Tharp gave advice to the new incoming Council Members.

 

 

COUNCIL MEMBER THARP MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER FOX and motion carried to adjourn the meeting at 8:51 PM. The vote: All yes.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Kris King, Clerk-Treasurer

Mike Schwab, Mayor