ASHLAND CITY COUNCIL
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Minutes for Charter Members Meeting
Thursday, May 17, 2007
7:30 a.m.
Charter Member Meeting started at 7:30 am
Purpose: Recommendations for updates for the Charter to submit to
City Council
Session:
Economic Development Conference Room.
Roll Call: Sign –In sheet was sufficient.
1)Bernard Sargent
2)Nevin Bowers
3)Ruth Detrow
4)Howard Scanlan
5)Ron Baker
6)Ken Seidner
7)Kay Conrad
8)Elizabeth Hipp
Ken Seidner- Chair Person, called the meeting to order at 7:30 a.m.
Presentation of Minutes (Corrections or admissions)
(a) Charter Committee Meeting from 5/10/07
Old Business:
(a) Terminology and new language for Item #6 that
Dorothy Stratton collected. Expedite vs Emergency.
Ken Seidner- it does clarify if it is Emergency Ordinance or just
expedited. Rick went through all of this and what he had makes
sense. This clearly differentiates. This is fine. One
of the 6 items we had come up with.
Howard Scanlan- That is the bare minimum. It gives more people a
chance to jump on the ballot and rest of the Charter takes care of
everything else.
Ken Seidner- Valarie, what is all of these items or copies?
Valarie Bishoff, Clerk- that is the Purple Maintenance Code Book that
Roger Gordon, Building and Zoning had handed out to all Council members
at the one Council meeting we had so I copied that for all of you and
that is the newest, most recent one and the other one is the older, but
everything in there is still updated, that was personally made up by
Roger Gordon.
Ken Seidner- Fortunately at this point, it is one of the things we said
we had considered, Maintenance Codes, as a recommendation, but I think
this is one of the things we said we would consider, but they should
move forward. This is one of the things that Council has been
wrestling with, the Sidewalks. If you start to enforce some of this, it
really will be opening a can of worms.
Again, I think we are down to a point and what I was planning to do was
to sit down and come up with a letter with our recommendations and
present it to Council.
Howard Scanlan- Have we got those prioritized now?
Ken Seidner- Yes pretty much. 1-6 Items we have as
recommendations and then 7, we crossed out 8, 11 and 13 but then 7, 9
10, and 12 are things to be considered and we will leave that pretty
much to the next committee. We changed Item #4. Basically 4
would be to remove the information from the Charter for the Mayor to be
a Safety Service Director position and have Council establish a new
safety director recommended by the Mayor and approved by City
Council. And what I was going to do in addition to the
letter was just reference items that Cherie put together and Rick and
include all of this and they can pick and choose what to do with
it. We have the information on the Health Dept. and the things
that Dorothy put together for Item #6.
Comments or questions?
Kay Conrad- What happens to it when you turn it in and where does it go?
Ken Seidner- Council gets it. I will put the letter together and
e-mail all you folks and read the letter over for comment, change
anything you want to change and we will get together next week and then
everyone can sign the letter if you are agreeable to it; you can sign
the letter and at the next Council meeting, we will present it to them.
Nevin Bowers- I think it sounds like a good slate. Will these
items be included as attachments?
Ken Seidner- Yes, I will touch on each one of them in the letter but
then I will put this information as attachments. I will retype
this and put; “ See the attachments”.
Howard Scanlan- Sounds good. I like it.
Ken Seidner- We will get this thing wrapped up and that was our goal to
get it back to Council by the first part of June. I
appreciate everyone’s time; I think we didn’t have any
large misunderstandings by anyone so I think it went well.
Howard Scanlan - It made for good conversation.
Ken Seidner- It has worked very well. Ruth, are you here for
report?
Ruth Detrow- No this is a public meeting and I am the public.
Ken Seidner- I will try and get this thing knocked out today. Get
it out to you on an E-mail. Read it over, write any comments and
return it to me. Any typos let us know. I for one
appreciate everything you have done for us Valarie.
Valarie Bishoff- Your welcome. I enjoyed doing it.
Ken Seidner- The Charter is our Constitution of the City and in reality
I think this thing, the last time and this time, whoever put this
Charter together originally did a pretty good job because over the
years it hasn’t really been changed all that much.
Howard Scanlan- I wish more people would read it myself.
We are leaving that up to you.
Ken Seidner- It has been a good process. The next time around,
just remember me from around, if you guys volunteer, you get to be
Chairman. Wouldn’t want to do this twice. You all
have been a pleasure to work with. No big problems.
Elizabeth Hipp- What happened to this letter, did it go anywhere?
Valarie Bishoff- It just came this morning on my e –mail.
That is what I wanted to ask about. You had mentioned Maintenance
Codes about, and I think I spoke with you Ken about this before and was
going on about the fence. I guess there is not too much that can
be done, but now if you read that what is going on now with the
neighbor. It is awful. There is a bad stench and the renters
noticed and so did other people but you could not find anything.
There is a deer head lying just on the other side of the fence rotting
and the smell is terrible and the renters saw it and took pictures of
it. The neighbor previously had also laid a dead fish there too,
the purpose is not understood, but they have pictures.
Howard Scanlan – drawing bugs and critters; she can call the
Health Dept. now.
Ron Baker- Valarie, How many other ways are there out of this
house? In the front of her house there is a front porch that goes
down onto Arthur Street, she has 3 entries but that is her main house
and then there is a deck on the side for the renter that goes up
stairs, which is narrow because of the property line. When you
walk over that same deck, she had to put steps on the other side; there
are college students that live upstairs. He constructed that
fence after he had moved in and now there is no way for them to get
their furniture out, that is how close the fence is. It is a fire
hazard.
Ron Baker – that causes a safety problem, it really does.
Elizabeth Hipp- That should be addressed right now.
Valarie Bishoff- this has been an ongoing thing of course Ruth can tell
you too. Building and zoning has looked at it and there is
nothing in the Ordinances the way they are written that can be done
because the neighbor is in his right of way. This has just
come up in the last few days about the deer head and the fish, Council
did not know about that.
Howard Scanlan- There is a nuisance Ordinance isn’t there Ruth?
Isn’t there an Ordinance on nuisance?
Elizabeth Hipp - The law is the law. If a rescue squad had to get
in there, they couldn’t.
Valarie Bishoff- No. You cannot even get a ladder in there.
Ron Baker- If any other of the exits are blocked, it would be very
difficult to come out this way.
Valarie Bishoff- She cannot have her roof repaired or maintain her
deck. That is the way years ago they said that the property lines
were made. There were no Ordinances that would demand you to
build off of the property line by 11 feet or more, so he is within his
right of way to be able to put that fence there. His back yard is
her side yard and you only have inches between his fence and her
renters side deck.
Elizabeth Hipp- If she is X amount of feet from her lot line and he is
X amount of feet from his lot line and they are equal distance, would
there be room?
Nevin Bowers- It is a tough situation, I have been there many
times. The fence is probably legal. Then it creates a
situation and how do you handle the situation. It is tough.
Valarie Bishoff- Because if they tell him to take the fence down, which
he has built on to his garage since, her renters deck is there and they
will probably also ask for that to be removed. That is
where it stands right now. There is nothing much they can
do. She was calling Fish and Game and they were going to come out.
Howard Scanlan- Yes, if there is some setting dead, rotting flesh, then
call Al sanders at the Health Department and I would be raising some
stink on that stink.
Ken Seidner- Well, I guess we are done then.
Nevin Bowers- I noticed in the hallway by the Mayors office pictures of
the previous Charter Review Committee groups, do you want a picture of
this one?
Ken Seidner- I don’t have a problem with that.
Ruth Detrow- When I was on the Charter review commission, the Police
came up and took the pictures.
Howard Scanlan - Mug shots, alright.
Valarie Bishoff- Just when everyone is here; somebody is absent on
5/24/07, who is that? Ron Baker. You would want it when
everyone is here right?
Ken Seidner- When is the next Council meeting, the first Council
meeting is in June.
Valarie Bishoff- June 5. Will you all be there at the meeting?
Ken Seidner – Yes, If everyone can be there that evening, Tuesday
6/5/07 at 7:00 pm, 3rd Floor, Municipal Bldg. we will submit the
recommendations to Council.
Valarie Bishoff- If everyone is going to be there that night, then
maybe we can have pictures taken then.
Good idea.
Ken Seidner- We will take a look at that letter next meeting and that
shouldn’t take long, that is the only thing we have to do and if
everyone is here maybe we can sign it then.
Meeting was adjourned by Ken Seidner, Chairman at 8:00 a.m.
Submitted by
Valarie Bishoff
Clerk of Council