RS11-20-2007

Ashland City Council

MINUTES FOR THE REGULAR SESSION OF COUNCIL
November 20, 2007

Council President Glen Stewart called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

ROLL CALL

Ward 1:   Robert L. Valentine   Present
Ward 2:   Robert M. Valentine   Present
Ward 3:   Ruth Detrow       Present
Ward 4:   Paul Wertz       Present
At-large:     Glen Stewart       Present

Note: Throughout the minutes, Robert L. Valentine and Robert M. Valentine are designated as to their ward representation, W1 and W2.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

PRESENTATION OF MINUTES
   Regular Session 11/6/07; Work Session 10/30/07

No Corrections or Comments for the Minutes of 11/6/07 and 10/30/07.

Motion to accept the Minutes by Glen Stewart, approved by Paul Wertz, seconded by Ruth Detrow W3.
Ayes: Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.
Abstain: Robert L Valentine W1

NOTE/COMMENT: Robert L. Valentine W1- There were a couple of things in the Minutes, one was the report I had asked Anna to give and I want to complement Valarie because of the way they were typed. It was very easy to understand. I had also talked to Anna on the phone too. There was clarity and the investments were explained and how they were done, and I just wanted to thank Anna and Valarie both.

Comments of questions from the Audience: Items that are not included on the Agenda.

Phil Rafeld, 1039 Oak Hill Circle: I would just like to congratulate Bob Valentine W1, Glen Stewart-Councilman at Large, Richard P. Wolfe-City Law Director and Anna Tomasek-Finance Director for your return to office; congratulations to you all.

Comments or questions?

LEGISLATION
      Ordinances:

Ord.# 81-07
Item (a) AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE MAYOR TO ADVERTISE FOR BIDS AND TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT FOR THE PURCHASE OF EQUIPMENT FOR THE SANITATION DIVISION OF THE CITY OF ASHLAND, OHIO; AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY

Moved for non-reading in full by Paul Wertz and seconded by Robert L. Valentine W1, to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution of this Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a further reading be dispensed with at this time.
Ayes:   Valentine W 1, Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart

Curt Young: Passage of this Ordinance will allow us to advertise for bids for the Packer unit to accompany the truck capacity. IT will be a 25-yard high compaction unit. It will replace a 20 yard 1999 model. An estimated cost would be approximately $60,000.00 - $65,000.00 dollars.

Glen Stewart:   That money is in this account?

Curt Young: Yes.

Ruth Detrow: We were just going to buy it without bids on it?

Curt Young: There is no State contract available on this so we will be advertising for bids.

Glen Stewart:   Is this going to be the same type or bigger?

Curt Young: It will be bigger. We are looking at the quality and hopefully an extended life with the purchase. It will be a 25-yard. The truck it is replacing is a 20-yard.

Glen Stewart: Strictly rear load then?

Curt Young: Yes sir.

Glen Stewart: I was under the impression that we were going to go with the other.

Questions or comments? None

Moved by Robert L. Valentine 1 and seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2 that the Ordinance be passed on the first reading.
Ayes:   Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart

Move to suspend the rules, 3 separate meetings, 3 separate nights, by Paul Wertz, seconded by Robert L. Valentine W1.
Ayes:    Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Move the Ordinance be passed by Ruth Detrow, seconded by Robert L.Valentine W1.
Ayes: Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart

Ord.#
Item (b) AN ORDINANCE TO APPROPRIATE THE FOLLOWING HEREINAFTER NAMED SUM OF
             MONEY IN 2007 AND DECLARING THIS TO BE AN EMERGENCY MEASURE NECESSARY TO
             MEET THE IMMEDIATE FINANCIAL NEEDS OF THE CITY OF ASHLAND, OHIO. 1st reading

Move for non-reading in full by Wertz and seconded by Detrow to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution of this Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a further reading be dispensed with at this time.
Ayes:   Valentine W 1, Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart.

Anna Tomasek, Finance Director:   This is an Ordinance to appropriate money to pay off a loan for the Riley ODOD, $379, 500.00 dollars. This is a 0% interest loan until the year 2009. It is a five year loan at 0% and starting in 2010, it would be a 3% interest loan and this is where the City if it sells the Riley property, we have to, at the time of the sale get half of that parcel, the cost of that land back to the State. And as of to date, the total payment is $289,182.03 dollars. This is actually appropriating the whole entire amount of the loan, therefore we are going to be paying back a 0% interest loan and my recommendation is: I would not recommend paying off the 0% interest loan because the City could use that money to pay off higher debt or to keep what interest in earning additional money for additional projects, but that was your decision to make.

Mayor Strine:   This is an excellent example of Anna not communicating with me. I recommended to her and had a meeting with her to recommend to Council that we pay this off simply because we made a commitment to the state that we would pay it off as soon as we could and she did not have any problem with it at the time. And now on Council floor, she recommends that we do not pay it off. I take exception to that type of communications.

Anna Tomasek: I have fully communicated. This is his request and as Finance Director, I have rights and an opinion to voice to the citizens of Ashland. I would not recommend paying off.

Mayor Strine: Why didn’t you recommend that to me Anna?

Anna Tomasek: I did at the meetings.

Mayor Strine: You did not.

Ellie Grubb: I was there and you did not.

Mayor Strine: You did not recommend that to me. If you tell anyone else that, you are lying.

Phil Rafeld: Where is your order Glen?

Glen Stewart: Time Out.

Phil Rafeld: I feel that was highly uncalled for. Well then I can say, Time Out sir.

Glen Stewart: If you want to be recognized, please ask to be recognized.

Phil Rafeld: My name is Phil Rafeld and I think that was highly uncalled for.

Mayor Strine: What would you like Phil? Would you like that the truth not be known and go on?

Phil Rafeld: Well, I think you should have a discussion here without arguing.

Mayor Strine: We are having a discussion; there is no argument here.

Phil Rafeld: When I have been to Council meetings many times before, if anybody would act in this same tone, Mr. Stewart would ask for a time out and call the meeting back to a calm order.

Mayor Strine: I disagree with you Phil but you can say whatever you want.

Phil Rafeld: You have not been here when I have been here sir.

Mayor Strine: Excuse me Phil, let’s put things right up front here. Are you running for Mayor?

Phil Rafeld: Yes. I am going to run for Mayor.

Mayor Strine: Thank you. I just want to make sure we knew where you were coming from.

Phil Rafeld: I mean, your attitude.

Glen Stewart: I want to call this meeting back to order.   There will be no more discussion about whether there was an argument or not an argument or whether the Mayor or Ms. Tomasek were out of order. The reading of the Ordinance is before us. We have heard two versions in this. I would ask if there are any other comments.

Richard P. Wolfe II, Law Director: I have just one. It is just a matter of clarification as terminology. It was said that we have to pay back half the cost of the land; she meant the proceeds, the sale price. The proceeds of that sale. Is that right?

Anna Tomasek: That is correct.

Questions or comments? None.

Move the Ordinance be passed on the first reading, by Ruth Detrow, seconded by Robert L. Valentine W1.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Ruth Detrow: The Ordinance is the one the Mayor has suggested is it not?

Glen Stewart: Yes.

Ruth Detrow: And it would pay the full amount?

Glen Stewart:   Yes, that is correct.

Ruth Detrow: And, Mr. Mayor, we pretty much gave our word that we would do this, is that right?

Mayor Strine: Ruth, there was no specific discussion to that particular point. It was just said that when we borrowed this money, we would pay it back as soon as we could.   In my opinion, it would be better for the City to pay it off. We are talking a couple of years at very low interest rate as Anna said and that is correct. I just feel we have an obligation to pay it off as soon as we can and I believe in the long run that it would be beneficial when we deal with the state.

Robert L. Valentine W1:   Let’s clarify, what is the total loan?

Anna Tomasek: The total loan is $500.000.00 dollars.

Robert L. Valentine W1: And you are proposing that we pay off $289,000.00 dollars and the Mayor is proposing that we pay off the $500,000.00, is that correct?

Anna Tomasek: No. The Mayor is proposing to pay off the grand total balance including the part that we don’t have to pay back early. It is a 0% interest loan which is a $379,500.00 dollars. The State of Ohio is very generous to the City of Ashland’s Economic purposes. That is why we can have different loans; issue 2 loans, this loan. We are not required to pay this back early until the year 2009.

Paul Wertz: The total difference is $90,000.00 dollars, right? Am I reading that right?

Anna Tomasek: No. My recommendation to Council is to appropriate $168,682.03 dollars. That is the actual amount of money that would keep us in compliance with the loan agreement vs the $379,500.00 dollars.

Glen Stewart: Is there a due date to act on either the Ordinance as written or as proposed by Ms. Tomasek? Is there a drop-dead date on this?

Anna Tomasek: The drop dead date would be by the end of the year for the 2007 appropriations and we will move on to the 2008. We do have to appropriate the $160,488.25 for the parcel that the City sold to Jerry Baker and we do have to appropriate money for the amount of proceeds received from CIC. Which is a total of $168,682.03 dollars.

Robert L. Valentine W1: Bill, just to clarify, you said that when we borrowed this money, we told the State that we would try to pay it back as quick as we could, correct?

Mayor Strine: Correct, and I am the one that sits at the table for these discussions.

Robert L. Valentine W1: But you said, and I am not planning to be technical here. You said there is nothing in writing, but your word, is that correct?

Mayor Strine: That is correct.

Robert L. Valentine W1: Anna’s argument is that the idea that since there is no interest, why should be pay it off, is that what you are saying?

Mayor Strine: Correct

Anna Tomasek: That is correct.

Mayor Strine: Anna, how much money do we save by not paying it off?

Anna Tomasek:   Just one second.

Robert L. Valentine W1: But you could invest the difference, correct?

Mayor Strine: Sure.

Anna Tomasek: Correct. Definitely.

Mayor Strine: The problem that I have with this process is that Anna and I had a meeting and talked about this. She did not say at all anything about not paying it off.

Anna Tomasek: The difference is $ 210,817.97 dollars.

Mayor Strine: In interest?

Glen Stewart: That cannot be right.

Anna Tomasek: That is the amount of money that the City of Ashland would be paying the State back.

Mayor Strine: How much money would we save, was my question by not paying it back?

Anna Tomasek: I would have to calculate our current interest rate on average to figure that out over the 5-year period.

Ruth Detrow: Maybe we don’t have all of our questions answered, perhaps the first reading is all we should do Glen?

Glen Stewart: That is fine. I am quite beside myself of what is happening this evening.

Ruth Detrow: That is the time to take a deep breath and look at it carefully. I am a slow poke, you know I am.

Glen Stewart: Do you want to table it or just stop at the first reading?

Ruth Detrow: My suggestion is, let’s just stop at the first reading.

Paul Wertz:   I will second that.

Richard P. Wolfe II: We don’t need a motion. There is no motion to suspend the rules.

Glen Stewart: At this point in time, we have had the comments and there is not going to be a motion. No further motion Council? Okay. Without further action, we will stop at the Ordinance (b) on the Agenda this evening. Passed on the first reading.

Ord. 82-07
Item (c) AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE MAYOR, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC
            SERVICE, TO ADVERTISE FOR BIDS AND TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT FOR THE
            GARFIELD AVENUE WATER LINE REPLACEMENT PROJECT IN THE CITY OF ASHLAND,
            OHIO; AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.

Move for non-reading in full by Paul Wertz, seconded by Ruth Detrow.
Ayes: Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart

Comments:

Jim Cooper: Engineering has consulted to end this problem on Garfield with rusty water. Very antiquated pipe and we feel that it is a situation we would like to get taken care of, bid out this year to get this constructed over the winter, so we are asking that you approve this.

Robert L. Valentine W1: I have had numerous calls which I have kept in contact with you too. All I can say is Amen.

Paul Wertz: I will second that.

Robert L. Valentine W1: It needs to be done. If you have heard some of the concerns that those people have had up there. Putting new clothes in to wash and coming out they were all different colors. Also the drinking water itself. So I am glad to see that we are moving ahead with this.

Glen Stewart: What would be your proposed time frame on this Mr. Cooper?

Jim Cooper: I would like to bid this out in the next week or two. We have been working on the plans and the plans should be ready early next week. I would like to put this on the fast track assuming Council approves this.

Comments or questions?

Robert L. Valentine W1: Well just another thing too, you should know. I appreciate you are moving ahead with this. You have moved ahead the last couple of months.

Motion to pass on the first reading by Glen Stewart, moved by Robert M. Valentine W2, seconded by Robert L. Valentine to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution of this Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a further reading be dispensed with at this time.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Move to suspend the rules, 3 separate meetings, 3 separate nights, by Paul Wertz, seconded by Ruth Detrow.
Ayes:    Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Move the Ordinance be passed Ruth Detrow, seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2.
Ayes: Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart

Ord. 83-07
Item (d) AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE MAKING OF THE ANNEXATION OF CONTIGUOUS
             TERRITORY AND DIRECTING THE DIRECTOR OF LAW OF THE CITY OF ASHLAND TO
             PROSECUTE THE PROCEEDINGS NECESSARY TO EFFECT IT; AND DECLARING AN
             EMERGENCY. (Milton Twp., Northeast and Southeast Quarters of Section No. 12, Twp
             24 North, Range 17 West).

Moved for non-reading in full by Wertz and seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2, to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution of this Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a further reading be dispensed with at this time.
Ayes:   Valentine W 1, Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart.

Richard P. Wolfe II: This only relates to a parcel of land that is owned by the City and the procedure that is required before I can proceed to file all of the partitions for annexation of the City’s own property, Council has authorized. The parcel of land that the City owns on Sandusky Street.

Robert L. Valentine W1: Route 96.

Robert M. Valentine W2: Same thing.

Comments or questions?

Motion to pass on the first reading by Glen Stewart, moved by Robert L. Valentine W1, seconded by
Robert M. Valentine W2.to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution of
this Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a further reading be dispensed with at this time.
Ayes: Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Move to suspend the rules, 3 separate meetings, 3 separate nights by Paul Wertz, seconded by
Robert L. Valentine W1
Ayes: Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Resolutions:

Res. # 19-07
Item (a) A RESOLUTION INDICATING SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED UPON ANNEXATION OF A TER-
              RITORY.

Move for non-reading in full by Paul Wertz, seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2.
Ayes: Bob L. Valentine W1, Bob L. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Comments:

Richard P. Wolfe II: This pertains to a petition for annexation of 15 acres that is off of 42 bypass in Montgomery Township. When a petition is filed for annexation and the City receives notice, the City is required within prior to the hearing for annexation to indicate by Resolution what services will be provided in the territory that is annexed. That is what this Resolution is for.

Glen Stewart: Mr. Wolfe, would this indicate that the services are going to be provided at our cost or the landowners cost?

Richard P. Wolfe II: Neither one. It says entering into the agreement, so it is to be determined. Usually that means it is the property owners cost. But that is for you to determine at the appropriate time. In the event the property is annexed and in the event they ask for services to be extended could be a year from now or four or five years from now.

Glen Stewart: And this is the one that is set up for the commission for in early January.

Richard P. Wolfe II:   The hearing date is January 7, 2007.

Questions or comments?

Move the Resolution be passed on the 1st reading by Ruth Detrow, seconded by Robert L. Valentine W1.
Ayes: Bob L. Valentine W1, Bob M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Move to suspend the rules, 3 separate meetings, 3 separate nights by Paul Wertz, seconded by Robert L. Valentine W1, to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution of this Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a further reading be dispensed with at this time.
Ayes: Bob L. Valentine W1, Bob M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Move the Resolution be passed by Ruth Detrow, seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2.
Ayes: Bob L. Valentine W1, Bob M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Glen Stewart: I don’t know that it is appropriate or inappropriate, but I talked to the City Engineer on this recently and it does, this land is bordered on the North by Apartment complexes and in the general direction on the South by a Residential area in the township and it goes to the Commissioners and it goes to the Planning Commission, is that accurate?

Richard P. Wolfe II: First of all, the Commission has to determine to approve the petition for annexation, so the talk beyond that really is premature.

Glen Stewart: I have talked to the Engineer about it, leave it at that. Thank You.

Liquor Permit Request Application: Roseler Corp., DBA Donatos Pizza, 85 Amberwood Parkway, Suite H, Ashland, Ohio 44805; B-New:

Glen Stewart:   They are asking for a B class, which I believe it is for service of beer and wine on site.   They has not been in business long enough to have much of a history.

Chris Rose: I put in a request to compliment our product, our pizza and for sit down purposes only.

Questions or comments?

Robert L. Valentine W1: It is not a carry out, it is just on premise?

Chris Rose: Correct.

Move to Request no hearing by Paul Wertz, seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Glen Stewart: That means Mr. Rose that we are not objecting to the process and it goes back to the Liquor Commission.

WARD REPORTS:

Ward I:       Robert L. Valentine W1: I had a call regarding leaf pick-up in my area. The person that called me, one of the things that I said, if you read the write up in the paper, if the area has an exceptional amount of leaves, you were to call up the Street Dept and she said that she had. So I called down there and I talked to Brenda about the situation in the area that she was talking about and asked me the last time the had been by. It had been a couple of weeks now. She said they didn’t come by her area. Then I found out when the next pick up was which was the next week and I let her know and the next week, they came by and took care of everything.

   Another call I had was regarding Armstrong TV. The concern was like we heard from many people of Ashland, was the cost and looking into some type of a package deal. After that call took place, there was a piece in the Mansfield News Journal; ATT may offer Video to more Ohioans and so I saw that and gave Glen a call and I told him about it and he said “Why don’t you take it down to Valarie and we will look into it. That is exactly what Valarie did and I appreciate her looking into it. He answering said, and I am quoting “ We are sorry the service is not available in your area.   The point I liked about this is they were talking about at least 20% less for the video packages and I thought that was good. I guess they have a permit now that they can go throughout the State of Ohio and they provide services to those areas but the reply that you got was that it is not available in our area yet, maybe later on. We still have concerns by the people in Ashland because there are other areas that have packages and I though maybe this is something we could use in the future as a possibility and thank you very much.

Ward 2:   Robert M. Valentine W2:    None

Ward 3:   Ruth Detrow : None.

Ward 4:   Paul Wertz:   I have something I will talk to Rick about later.

Council At Large: Glen Stewart: None.

Old Business: None

New Business: Ohio Dept of Commerce Liquor Control.

Glen Stewart: Under New Business, I have a question for Richard P. Wolfe. I should have called earlier
But this Ohio Department of Commerce Liquor Control I think is probably we have until January to respond.

Richard P. Wolfe II:   That is an annual thing. I do not know of any premises that would warrant any type of
Action.

Glen Stewart: No action is required?

Richard P. Wolfe II: Right.

Mayors Comments: No further comments.

Update on the Quality Process with Jon Gray.

     What we have accomplished to date, how we got there, and how that is why we move forward to the next level. Pretty simple from the standpoint of saying there are only three things we are going to talk about. While we are in the middle of that, I would appreciate you stopping me to ask questions. I am specifically starting out with what we have accomplished because we have some city folks here, we have the division directors here and to some of this, they may be able to speak more personally because I have been the one who has been helping to drive the process and coach the process, but it is the employees of the City of Ashland that have been doing the process.

     The first and sort of most important thing to recognize, is the City was the recipient of nine bronze awards for the Ohio Partnership for Excellence. The OPE program is the Ohio statewide program that is equivalent to the National Quality program, so it is a fairly prestigious honor. Ashland is actually the first Municipal government to receive that level of award across the entire organization. It is an indicator of the commitment for continuous improvement. To perform with excellence. It means we recognize where you work on it, it will get better. We are going to do things and you have to get over that first threshold to be able to get to the bronze level awards. Make an achievement. The parallel that I would like to draw however is like getting your diploma from high school. You look forward to it for twelve years and it is a wonderful experience. You get to graduate. The problem is, it is not the diploma that counts, it is what you do with it that counts. Many years ago, the Congressman who gave the Commencement Address at my high school graduation that I will always remember. He reached into the box of diplomas and pulled one out, and then he tore up his diploma. And so are you any different now than you were a few minutes ago before I tore up this piece of paper? Because in fact we want to celebrate the award and what it represents because it represents a significant achievement, but what it really says is that is sets the framework for going forward. It gets you prepared. So that is what I am talking about where we have come because its like talking about what we learned in play school that they gave us the diploma for. That is the important part. And there are a few key things that have happened here. The first is communication. Communication at the Division Director level, Communication within the divisions, Communication between the divisions. It is substantially better now than it ever was before. You see work teams going on right now between divisions. We see individual employees within the divisions that are looking at what other people are doing and offering suggestions, offering their help, opinions. This is fully engaging everybody in the business of the City and delivering services to the public.

Ruth Detrow: Can you give me a few examples of how this impacts our service to the citizens?

Jon Gray: For example, in the Water Department or Street Department, when they start communicating about what it takes if you have a water emergency, the Street Department came up with signs, their initiative. They came up with a protocol for putting them out. So now when there is a water emergency, you have multiple departments between the Police and to the Street department who has an on-call truck. They have materials available at the water department if they have a problem. The departments get together and solve the problem. You have immediate response to the citizens of the City of Ashland where as maybe years ago, if there was a boil alert for example, it is up to the water department to get that word out.   The guys at the Street department didn’t realize that they could be part of the solution. Now they know they are. It is simple. They came up with the idea. Now if they have a water emergency they can go and put the signs out. Another thing, it changes the way the people think about their job, because we focus on customer service. So that everyone who is involved in the process now is in the framework where it is not I show up to work to do a job, it is; I am part of team that is getting the job done and they can take ownership in that, which means now if they feel more connected to the customer service element, you have employees who actually are thinking about what it means to deliver a service and that usually means things happen faster, they happen cheaper because they only have to happen once. I don’t want to come back; I want to do it right the first time. Ultimately that means it also happens faster. Because everyone wants to serve other people. Have way through this process, we were finishing up with the streets and the fire division, a couple of maintenance guys over at the fire department fixing some things and said, so, what else can they do for you? It kind of floored them, it is like, and you’re asking me what else you can do to help me?   Well yes, it is my job isn’t it? That is the kind of energy you get. They have to be happy with it, and they have to be productive in their job, so your job is helping them with their job. It is a cultural shift and everyone will be able to see that cultural shift. I also point to the attitudes that represent the way work force is engaged in the job. This of course we would like to believe that every employee shows up for work 100% ready to do 100% of their job for 100% of the day, right? I don’t live in that world either and I am not that naïve. But that would be something we would like to achieve. So the closest we can get to that where people are engaged in doing the job, they have pride in doing the job, they want their organization to succeed, not just because it means I have a job but because they actually want the organization have a high level of service. For example, not to embarrass anybody, but big attitude shift over at the fire department. When we started this process, the uniform of the day was, blue uniform shirts and blue t-shirts, except the Chief, wears white pressed shirt. Captains wear uniform shirts. They are proud of their fire service. They have brass on the collars. They do the whole nine yards. The cultural shift happens differently in different divisions the way they operate. . To some people it hits in the ways that they take it home with them. It is not just the pride of the job. It is a personal self-esteem issue. And we are beginning to see that. They say communication is one of the big issues. I am not going to white wash over stuff; we still have communication issues, but I think they are a whole lot better now than they were a few years ago. Maybe the best issue about it now is that now we are at a point where we can openly talk about the problems. For example, the guys down at the water department had some communication problems between their teams and struggling. They have an independent work environment where they all have a big facility, they are in charge of large capital equipment, and they work in small teams that are in different parts of the plant. They don’t always see each other all the time. When they do, it might be in passing. They hadn’t always been communicating very well. That led to misunderstandings, that led to friction because you said something and if I misunderstood you, then I took it to heart and you didn’t mean that, but now all of a sudden there is bad blood and that boiled over to something else. They actually developed a time out card. Said we are going to call it the communication tool. They can give that time out card to each other and they know what that message is. It doesn’t mean I am insulting you with this, it is just that you just did something that I didn’t like or you said something that I didn’t agree with. I am not going to get into an argument about it, but this is a time out card that says we are not communicating, and gives them a frame to talk about it.

Phil Rafeld: I am understanding what you are speaking about and you are certainly putting a good spin on everything you have presented. Are there any surveys that you have been able to give the men that can come before Council to see how they feel?

Jon Gray: Yes. That is part of what I am talking about and you will see more of it. We have preliminary stuff and you will see more of it when we talk about where we are going.

Phil Rafeld: Does the City make money through this accreditation? Is there an accreditation to go along with this? Say you are doing so well that you can get accredited for this.

Jon Gray: You don’t make money but the joint commissions, or the schools for example, get North Central accreditation, they won’t get any money for it. What it does, is that it raises the stature of the organization among their peers. So for example if you just use that analogy, if you graduate from high school you get a diploma, you have the state standards, you have the state diploma but if your high school is not North Central accredited, there might be issues about what your college might want you to do or how people look at it if your diploma is not accredited at the school. Likewise, the hospital doesn’t get anything for being JACHO accredited. But what it does is it raises the stature within that community which helps for example in attracting and keeping employees because you have raised the stature of the organization. We see retention rates go way up.   We see things like employee satisfaction rates going up. Does this actually generate cash directly from the process? No. But it can generate savings. That is something else also to look at. We are gathering information now because you may remember we got a couple of years, a grant from the Ashland Community Foundation to help fund this. And we currently owe them a report. We are in the middle of drafting that report, literally an hour before this meeting and I was sitting over at the library reading my e-mail of all the stuff that has been coming in; and we are trying to put in a report which is the results output from that. Some if it is subjective and some of it has numbers on it. For example, if you improve processes in some of the divisions have done things like dramatically decreased that the amount of time that it takes to orient new employees which results in direct savings of overtime for having shadowed employees for weeks instead of a few months. It talks about projects that have not been able to be done in house because the divisions have been working on that have saved direct dollars because it means you don’t have to contract and go out an pay outside people to do it. So it is not like getting money for the program, but it raises those kinds of issues to the point where you can accomplish some of these things. I will talk more about that when we get to where we are going.

Ruth Detrow:   Well keeping a good employee is very, very valuable in actual money.

Jon Gray: Absolutely.   And that is where we need to collect data over time which is what started in the divisions now we are just now beginning to collect the data now so we can see things like. Two or three years from now we can look back starting last year to this year, to next year and say what have the retention rates been like? Or for example as you go through the process of recruiting for the new division director for the water division. It will subjectively be where we can get some input from the process. What do the candidates think of where we are?   Is it something that they find attractive that may be attracting a better candidate for, high-qualified candidates?

Robert L. Valentine W1: How many years have we been doing this?

Jon Gray:   The first workshop started in the end of 2004 but the first divisions did not starting doing the training until the middle of 2005. That was the Street, Park and Fire Division. Then wrapped up in 2006. So they have been implementing and putting their score cards together over the last year.

Robert L. Valentine W1: Well all department heads and supervisors are acting solely on this program for it to work.

Jon Gray: Yes but it has to have the significant commitment of leadership. If the top leadership doesn’t support it, your right, it is not going to work. 100% participation below is the ideal. But what is the ideal vs, we can still make it work when the employees are called in when we have critical mass. So I guess by looking and say for example if I have a whole organization and one supervisor that doesn’t get into the program yet, they probably will or the rest of the organization is just going to get better around them. That is typically what happens.

Robert L. Valentine W1: Of course the idea is self-esteem. I guess one way to look at that would be attendance, right? Otherwise, if the program works and people aren’t saying why it didn’t work. That is unrealistic. But the point being if it is, you know this should cause at least as far as attendance is concerned, the drop.

Jon Gray: One of the measures of engagement could be attendance but is a complex ratio. Because for example, especially in an environment, a government environment, there are a lot of folks that work at the state level. There are a lot of state employees who the only thing they have to do is to show up for work. They don’t have to do anything. They just have to show up. So their attendance records are perfect, but it doesn’t mean they are engaged. We want attendance, absolutely, we want to make sure that the people are committed to be coming into work, What we want to do, is we want to make sure if they are coming to work, their brain is engaged. Not just they are here but is your brain actually engaged. Are you actually thinking and working on the job?

Robert L. Valentine W1: So if they feel better about themselves, that would be an incentive.

Jon Gray: Absolutely. You can actually measure by measuring both of them because the better they feel about themselves the more engaging in their work they are.    We do have as an output from the bronze process, we have the marching out of more questions. We do have from the bronze process all of the divisions that went through that that had developed some points. We are already taking action. By action plans we mean there are various things for the different divisions but they are all things that are directed towards, if we have an issue, we going to lose all of it, some of responsible will be on a time frame. We have a plan to get from point A to point B. None of them are big earth shakers but it is beginning that snowball effect of continuous improvement. It is getting the organization the mindset of continuous improvement. It is a requirement to finish the bronze process that they did that and they all did. But now the question is carrying it on forward. For in infact how that relates to you in your roll as Council and what you guys can look at and help with the process in ways you can also contribute to that process. A couple of other things that I wanted to bring out though is you also have programs which are direct service related programs, things like the e-gov program which was bringing together a communication tool, it is an internal web based tool that allows individual departments, and individuals within departments to quickly communicate between each other and it helps ensure that issues and problems are not lost and they are escalated, so those not dealt with, they escalate up the ladder until they are resolved and it tracks all of the response. So tools like that which are being implemented are directly enabling faster response to the population. For example, as it works now, and we are halfway through, it is out there but the maturity of the deployment of some divisions is less. It is in all of the divisions, but the maturity of the deployment in some of the divisions is less. When it is fully deployed, it doesn’t matter what city employee you talk to, it doesn’t matter what department they a re from. If you have contacted a city employee and you have an issue, it gets put in e-mail which automatically routes it to the right person and you get an answer back and you get it back fast. The answer might be we heard you and we understand the problem but we are working on it. We are not saying that we can solve all problems but it is citizens designed for customer service.   We are talking about a conglomerate of government divisions that have changed their focus to customer service. That is pretty cool. This is stuff that people have been implementing because of their drive for continuous improvement. We have issues, we need to resolve them, communication is one of them, this helps. You see the ball is starting to roll. So what we have accomplished; we got awards, that’s nice, like getting a diploma. We have learned along the way. I think everybody has learned along the way. We had the beginning stages of a significant cultural shift that gets away from that stereotypical mindset to one of professional where if I can get that and one of the conversations that I had with the Street department, one of their complaints was that public perception that the third item on all of their job descriptions is to be on show. And they said, this can’t stand. We want to be professional, what are we going to do to project a professional image? And then they have taken very specific steps to make sure and if you watch, don’t approach, just watch. If you see a city crew working some place, just watch them. They are cognizant of their appearance in public. They want to project the right image and they want to serve people. They are approachable. They are not the gruff old guys in the dirty clothes. They are a service function. And to me that is customer service. That is being right out in the public where you can help people. So we have seen change begin to happen. We are beginning to see dollar change beginning to happen. That is the good news. The flip side of the good news, cause I can’t be all positive is to say. What the Baldridge process goes through to go through the analysis is it is designed and I am going to walk through the process here again quickly to make sure you know what we are looking at and it is defined to identify the strengths and the opportunities for improvement for all the organizations that use it. What you want to do is to celebrate and share the strengths and you want to work on getting ready your opportunities for improvement. If you are lucky you can even turn them into a strength. About what I would have expected for organizations at this level, right now the opportunities for improvement out number the strengths probably 2 or 3 to 1.

Ruth Detrow:   Is that good or bad?

Jon Gray:   To me that is good. You can’t fix what you don’t know about. We have identified them. And when you go through life and you choose to just work on whatever fire is in front of you, whatever problems is in front of you and fix that as opposed to systematic and go out and say what’s all the stuff we do and what is good and what could be improved, now we have a list of stuff that can be improved and the list frankly is longer than anybody will be able to solve in a lifetime. That is the good thing. I don’t know that there is anything on that list and you guys may correct me. I don’t know that there is any on that list that I would put on the critical category which is also a good thing. But there are issues. To me it is wonderful because when you find them you can fix them. The last thing when I get into this and talk about employee engagement, is the significant change that it makes in leader management relations. My best example is probably the Fire Department. But it is actually happening everywhere because employees understand that this isn’t about us vs them. Management understands this isn’t about us vs them. This is about training and empowering employees to do what they need to do to be successful. That makes for really happy people. That builds labor management relations where people can understand, we have a roll, you have a roll, they have roll, everybody has a roll to play but the end result isn’t you and I, it is the people we are serving. And as long as we continue to serve them well, then we all succeed. Or as we refer to that sometimes, “All Boats Float In A High Tide”. When we started this back in times when things were a little bit rougher in the city, there was a lot of friction between management of the Fire Department and the Union of the Fire Department and negotiations this time, If I can use that phrase; were a snap. Does that mean everyone got what they wanted?   No. But is there mutual understanding and respect? Yes. Especially to the point where the President of the Fire Union wanted to go and help get the award. They are as proud of the award as the city is. So that is where we are at. And I invite any of the folks here who have been through it, are there other observations or things that I have missed? Or things you would like to share the inter-successes or failures along the way?

Mark Burgess: I think one of the biggest things that you hit on is culture change. Is it not each division on their own serving? It is all of the divisions serving together and I think that is showing up at all levels. And that makes a big difference. Because you do see things happening for the better. We started out slow and it snowballed. There are a lot of good ideas bouncing around and it is down where the employees are meeting with citizens and that is where it makes a difference.

Jon Gray:    We are in the middle of the process. You made strategic choice at the beginning of this process about how we were going to do it. Because it is possible to come in with some very focused training. Take a whole bunch of people for several days and pop them into this and they need a little more homework and maybe follow up a couple months later and hope it sticks. We decided not to do that. We decided to do it in little pieces at a time on a regular continuous basis so that we would get the culture shift so we get people at the beginning to ask questions and they could simulate and practice with the ideas. So what we are doing here is building that snowball from the inside out. The object is not to build a big structure that has no solid foundation, it is to build the foundation first and we are already at the first door. We built that solid foundation. To tell you where we are going, I have to back up and make sure we are all on the same page of what we are talking about because Baldridge is a framework. It is not a tool, it is not a technique. It is a framework. It is about looking in an organization in terms of its processes. And by processes everybody gets this glass eyed look. We all have been doing processes since day one. We all have a process for our morning routine. You might change it. We might have a process for how we drive to work. It tends to be the same route.   We also are all very familiar with things like process improvements. If you ever had a pet, after you had your morning routine, the chances are that you improved your process or you kept cleaning up the floor. If you drive to work and you run into construction delays. You improve the process by finding another route. We do it all the time. What we are talking about here with this framework is, since we are all akin to doing that on a regular basis, why can’t we get everybody to do that at work?   If you are at home and you say, every time I go for the scissors, they are over in that drawer, I will just move them, and I will put them over here because this is where I open the mail. This is where I want that tool and you move it. You put it over there. You wouldn’t think twice about doing that home. But for some reason, when people show up at work, they stop thinking about that when in fact that little change might actually save time. It might improve services in some way. So what we are looking at is what our process has been is to go through and help everyone who has been involved with this process understand that work in their division and the seven fundamental elements of every organization that are identified in the Baldridge framework. Piece by piece we have walked through all of the organizations so that everybody understands their mission, vision and values. That is the foundation of everything. Why am I here? Within the Baldridge framework there is criteria that we are looking at. Leadership, planning, customer focus, people we are serving. Leadership by the way is a system, it is not the people. The system by which the management happens. It is the system by which new leaders are trained. Customers is all the things to do with understanding who your customers are, what they want, how you make them happy in affect. One of the things you saw happening here started a couple of years ago was the Planning Committee, with the outreach to the community and its surveys. Other things that have added to this things like Ward walks and some of the changes that have been happening when you try to reach out and communicate with the citizens. That comes from all the questions that are asked, you really understand what the people think, what they want. Over on the other side we are looking at this we also have the work force. Let people do it and nothing happens but they have processes for the way they work. The foundation for all of this is knowledge for which for many times be translated to data. So what talked of everybody doing is to say lets understand where we work in each of these areas in our processes. Because if I have a process, process is something which I can repeat, something which I can teach other people. Something to be measured. If I measure, it will improve. That is human nature by the way. You do exercises for that. It has something to do with how competitive we are. If you don’t believe me, get a cheap stop watch and time the amount of time it takes, for example from your house to the grocery store and right it down every time you go. About the forth or fifth trip, when you get in the car to go, you are going to pick up that sheet and say 17 minutes, I bet I can do it in 16 minutes and not break the law. Your competitive, you want to do better. That is where we derive data from. Data comes out of all of this. That’s where we are at right now. The next steps that we are doing with everybody. All of the divisions report to the Mayor have draft balanced score cards. These are score cards which can have data, not opinion based, fact-based measurements of their performance. It is things that the divisions themselves have created that defines whether or not they are being successful. Let me repeat that. The balance score cards developed by the divisions themselves to be those fundamental measures that demonstrate whether or not we are being successful and success includes the ability to sustain our success for the foreseeable future. So its not good not to have been good in the past, you also have to have many to show you are going to be good enough next year because I am sure you are all aware it is not about what happened last week, it is about what we can get to happen next week and next month, next year. We want the City to improve going into next year. Balance score card by definition has at least four fundamental parts.   All the balance score cards have these fundamental parts. Each division in the city as a whole could end up with probably in the order of 12-15 fundamental measures. Spread across these four areas. What I want to point out here is what we usually use, what we usually start with to find out whether some of these people are going to be successful, is to meet your budget. Were you financially successful? That is resources, did you spend them wisely? But in fact, that is only one dimension of making an organization work. This comes directly from planning. Customers thrive whether your customer is successful, the way your customer perceives that you are successful. The Work Force directly derives whether your work force is being successful and can be successful in the future. The process is the system you use in being successful. So we are asking all of the divisions that put together actually all of the divisions have drafted, 12 and 15 measures in each of these columns to demonstrate to anyone who wants to know whether they are being successful. What we would like to do, or the next steps we are working on, is rolling all of those together to create one for the city as a whole to see if we can add all of these up. Create one that is meaningful at the entire city level. And they include things like, of course, budget. Am I being successful with the budget? There are also satisfaction measures for both the work force and your customers, the people you serve. But are the people I am serving happy with me? Are my own employees happy? What are they happy about? That is what we are getting in, some of the surveys that have been done. We need to know that kind of stuff. We need to know things like standard operating procedures. How are they used and are they current? One thing I keep joking with people is if you didn’t keep your operative procedures current? That wasn’t necessary? Then operative procedure number one, the first step in responding to a fire for the fire department would be, get the horse out of the barn. Or get the truck and start the engine. Technology change. Lots of things change.   The question is, are we current with today and what we need to do today? We also have things in here for example like training. Isn’t our work force trained to do everything they need to do? That’s an indicator of their ability to perform today. That is also a good leading indicator for their ability to perform next year. So if they don’t know the job, they are not going to be good at it. And you would be surprised with what the initial estimates for some divisions came up with here.   And in fact, the solution is solving the training issues is sometimes zero cost. You just don’t know you have a problem until you measure it, until you put it on your score card and say how ready are we? How successful can you be? When we asked this question for training down at the Police Dept., their first estimate, training was measured as the percentage of the task that every patrolman needs to know to successfully do his job. That is all the techniques, tasks and equipment. Certified all the equipment.    Well the fundamentals they have covered. They have actually put that whole Matrix together and said and is the training current? They ended up with a really low number, like 15-20%. They are well above the 80’s now because what happens is, take a look at the City of Ashland; the City of Ashland is not a violent community. The Police officers all looked at each other and said, there are techniques that we learned a long time ago for taking down a violent suspect without injuring them or us, but I haven’t had to use in 3 years, 4 years, and 5 years. I didn’t have to. I should be retrained. Well how easy is that, they got together and cross-trained each other. Their level of service went up; their ability, their confidence of doing the job went up because they identified a problem. But every division is beginning to feel this way.   The next step is defining what all of these fundamental measures are for each of the divisions and try to roll them together. And interestingly which is not too surprising to me because I have seen this across multiple organizations but about 80-85% of the measures that the individual divisions come up with are actually common across the entire city. Because of things like satisfaction, training and equipment. City employees at Ashland have actually come up with a couple of others that I think are rather stellar. They have come up with measures for professionalism.

Mayor Strine: I just think it is important to emphasize to you folks that these are the employees that are doing this. Part of the reason that we started this, it was to change the culture and I think that is exactly what Bob is saying, is if people enjoy their job, they are going to be better about coming to work, enjoy coming to work and I think that being part of one of these processes.

Jon Gray: This is 100% employee driven. Management participates in a lot of it, but not all of it. Sometimes we ask them to leave.   But all of what we have accomplished here and what they looked at in terms of their measurement, terms of their performance is a great driven. The performance appraisal process, in several divisions, is not working real well. We identified that. It is noted in the divisions that some places just don’t work real well. But when you go through this and you empower people, you get people who want to come into work and they want to do the right thing. And I want to be held accountable for what it is I am supposed to do. Cause I want to know how well I am doing and I want to be proud of it. So in the future that is going to develop out of this in a couple of divisions is probably a revamp or something in the evaluation process to really focus on what the accountabilities are so people can in fact hold themselves and their peers accountable for the stuff. It is management enabling. Without management to enable it, we are sunk. It is pure driven. To me that is the very cool part. The next step is of where we are going with this. It is like I said; we are beginning to put some flesh on the scalpel here of what the score card is, and what the expectations are. The challenge to you folks for your roll is the way I look at, to take you back to your old elementary school civics class, the legislative body and the history body. There is a chief component in what you do in relationship to the entire community. That is what you represent. Input into this whole process would be extremely guided.   What kinds of things should be here? We have to recognize that what we are measuring is what we are going to get. My joke about that with several people, for example you don’t want to put arrests here, cause if you put the number of arrests, the number of arrest will go up. There are 22,500 people roughly. If you put arrests down here, there may be 22,500 people who will get arrested for something next year.   You don’t want to measure this stuff. You want to measure something that really produces that quality of life in the community, that parallel of service. That is what we are struggling to find out what all of those measures are, so that is our next step.

Glen Stewart: Jon, when that step comes, when it comes time to participate, how will the legislative body participate in that?

Jon Gray: Individual input or group input. We can come back and do Work Sessions; we can come back and talk about the score cards. All the division directors are working on this team. You can make a phone call to anybody and the information will get into it. We will have work sessions here to continue this process.   I think we are at that stage now where we are expecting to begin to see more. We have a couple rounds worth of survey, a baseline survey based upon Baldridge framework. It is not directed satisfaction; it has some satisfaction questions in it. Almost all of the divisions have taken it twice and they also have improved from one year to the next. So we know that there is an impact, that people are beginning to see their impact. The level of satisfaction, the level of knowledge, the level of ability to communicate within the organization for example has gone up. Fortunately it has not gone up dramatically, because you need to build it slow. You need to make sure you have the fundamental understanding. Like anything if it builds too fast, it may fall apart. We are right about where we should be. I have also gotten calls from a couple of other municipalities in the State regarding the award program and can you tell us how they did that? Have we identified issues? Yes. Is there significant improvement in every division? Yes, some better than others. Is every City employee participating? Can’t say that either. Some people just won’t. Is management participating? Absolutely, at the top level. Some managers at the mid level have chose to retire. A couple more may over the next year or two. My experience with this has been especially for managers that individuals fall into one of three categories: They either get it, the light bulb goes on, they figure out how to use it, it is wonderful, they embrace it, the light bulb may be dim, it may be early stages of understanding, but they are anxious to learn more, then there are the folks who simply tolerate it, and they are okay, and there is the third group that just doesn’t want to have anything to do with it and over time what we find in virtually all organizations they go one or two places, they either move up to the second or first category, the light bulb goes on for them, who want to go on with the program or they realize that their success is to find a different organization than what they are with right now. Which can also be a good thing.

Questions or comments?

Robert L. Valentine W1: Already asked questions.

Robert M. Valentine W2: I have been through a lot of processes.

Ruth Detrow: I think I am out of questions:

Paul Wertz:   The employees, when you have those meetings, are they mandated to go to those meetings? Say Street department guys, are they allowed to go to the meeting?

Jon Gray: How it was implemented, the divisions vary. A couple of divisions required attendance, a couple of divisions didn’t. What we found is that if it was required attendance, we still ended up with a couple of people who gudgeoned but went a long with it. There were converts in the process. A couple of divisions that haven’t still have done well; the Fire department didn’t make it mandatory. But we offered it in a structured way. It is sticking. The Street Department, they were required and it is a smaller group. Whether it works is largely dependent on the culture of the organization, what their leadership is inclined to achieve.

Glen Stewart: Do any of the Division Directors have anything to share?

Tim Clingan: I feel the part they made it mandatory, is that if they don’t hear it first hand, then second hand is going to be swayed possibly. I really feel we have come a long way. I feel really strong about the leadership team that I have in my division. The supervisor directly under me. The Secretary to the Director and they just work through communication with the other employees. More aware of performance with what the customer really wants and who the customers are.

Mark Burgess: One of things I like out of it is it makes an attempt to take away the personalities and you start putting the processes in that it doesn’t depend on the individual being there for the meeting to work. There is a process in place that like your input. It was senior leadership. It doesn’t matter if two or three people are missing; we handle it the same way regardless who is there. So that things get done and continue to work forward so when you have somebody new coming in like a new division director, it is easy for them to see where we are at and the same way at the division level. If the process is in place, it doesn’t matter whose chief or assistant chief or captain. There are things that get done because that is the way we do things now. It is not dependent on an individual or group of people and that is what is sustainable for the future, is that if you continually tweak that system, it gets better even though you have different people there and that is what I think where our future is. We can get better and better at serving the public.

Cherie Helterbridle: I would like to think that I am working with a group from across the city, it is called beyond bronze. It will be part of the catalyst to taking us to the next level. The process is one where we are actually going to be able to measure many items in side each division and working into the city’s score card and possibly even neutral employees. We have been visiting every department of the city and I just love the fact that people from every division are amazed by the skill levels that it takes to do the work in every other division and that is a growing sense of appreciation for the type of work that is done in all divisions and overly discussed areas where we know that we need to know the weak spots and the strong spots and how can we help this division catch up with or understand what that division understands. It has really been valuable. I heard an employee today refer to the fact that it is kind of like doing an evaluation from the bottom up and they were just shocked that that could be happening in the city. I just totally enjoyed that group in the processes.

Jim Cooper: Real quickly. To put some dollar figures with a couple of things. We have a large commitment from the Federal Government to install 17 Water Lines and we determined some of the water lines we needed to do working with Curt Young and our group sat down and worked on a schedule they thought they could do that in house and as a consequence of them helping develop the schedule and the commitment to run along with it because we have to get targets, we have got to schedule into next October, we have to have construction completion. From the survey standpoint, they have sixteen out of seventeen surveys done; they have E. 17th Street to do. We have to get the design done in the next 3-4 months. We are talking about some serious work being done.   We expected and I anticipated to get a consultant. We can’t do this without them by the way. But in this particular area, we had the expertise there. In the past we wouldn’t have done this. It brought people together better. We communicated. They are buying into the system because they are responsible and I suspect it is going to save the city $100,000.00 dollars we would have paid at least if we would have gone out and gotten the consultant. It is very measurable. The other thing I think has helped is that through the process we have come with 5-minute meetings on Wednesdays and Fridays at 8:00 am. They may only take 5 minutes, they may take 15 minutes. This has improved the communication and if I move slow on something, they are going to let me know that I need to call that person back. So it has helped me, but I think it has helped us all. I am not saying I agree with everything only because I have to change my thinking. I always thought I was a good manager and I have great respect for people, the value of the human spirit but the gray hair is telling me there is a dinosaur here and he is trying to change. It has been good for me. Good for Engineering I feel.

Jerry Mack: We had our Bronze tour today and it was very interesting how I went with them, but the people did talk and to hear what they said about patting themselves on the back was very interesting. It would be something that would be nice for everybody to see and go through that tour of our facility. The unfortunate thing was, they talked too long and they only got about half of it done.   The people themselves are doing this. It is their deal.

Jon Gray:   My closing thought on this is what drives this is leadership. It is hard for leadership to step up and say we are going to do this a different way and we are going to empower all of the people to do this. I am not going to tell them what to do; I am just going to lead. It just shifts them over into a certain leadership mode. It makes that they need to adopt processes in here that maybe they had not thought about before but it is driven by the people and it is a huge risk to see your Executives to take, for senior leaders to take because you have to steer a boat that is paddled by other people that is supposed to think that you are really in control. So the success of this starts with the Mayor and the division directors that are in that pool to make this happen because they have made that commitment for some it has come easier than others but the cool part is to watch the change of the dynamics of whole team as they work together because in fact they are making the commitment that says, the people are the experts in doing the job. We are going to be the ones that enable them and empower them to do the job.

Glen Stewart: I would like to share that I think the Mayor took a very large risk in allowing this to happen and I think he should be applauded for standing up to take the risk because what I am hearing here tonight, what I have heard in Cleveland a couple of months ago, what I am hearing from department heads and people is that we are getting a better understanding of our jobs, of our customer base and we understand there is customers that work beside us as well as outside. I appreciate that. There will continue to be some risk. The risk is diminishing because of the outputs in my opinion.

Phil Rafeld:   Is Ashland the first one to enter into this mode? Has this been an ongoing thing in other communities and we are just now entering into it? I know I was involved in it back in 1995 and our concept back then in management was no one would show up so you paid them in 2 hour increments or a total of 10 hours to get them all to show up. That way we got full participation that way. We got everybody on the same page.

Jon Gray: Within the state of Ohio, the City of Ashland is the first municipal government, actually city or county government to do the program in its entirety. In the history of the award in Ohio, which is just finishing their ninth year in operation in Ohio. There were 12 awards given, something like 18 at the state level, but the city and county level, there have only been 12 awards given, 12 organizations recognized. One was the Redding Fire Department, the Toledo Parks division, Butler County department of environmental services, and the other 9 are here.

Phil Rafeld: How many were participating at the same time? How many communities were all participating?

Jon Gray: We only know of those who have been applicants in the program. The people who receive the awards. If you apply for the award and don’t complete the process, it is confidential, it is never publicized. So the only ones you know about are the people who have completed the entire process.

Phil Rafeld: You said then there are only 12, or 4?

Jon Gray: What I know is that there are 12 organizations at the city and county level that have completed the process. What I am saying we don’t know is for example in Ashland, we were doing this for a couple of years before we actually submitted the award process, so for those couple of years you could say from the state level that Ashland was below the radar because we were doing it, we just weren’t in the public award process. My best model for that for example is at the national level and these numbers are a couple of years old. In talking with the Director of the National program decided, that year they had some 30-40 applicants at the national level. Yet 4 million copies of the criteria had been downloaded that year. Where did the rest of them go? At the National level there are probably tens of thousands of organizations are actually doing this, they are just not doing it publicly in the word process. We see that for example when we look at the conference registration. The past 3-4 years within the state of Ohio, government has been the largest sector represented at the statewide conference. That means that there are government entities out there that are using this somewhere because they are out there looking for information for whatever reason that haven’t chosen to apply in the word process. We just assume they are coming. At a national level there are several organizations that are very mature in this process. Presumably in the next day or two will be the next announcement of the awards from the national level. And I know of at least two cities, states that receive site visits. The e-gov concepts for example came from some things they were doing and some things going on in Los Alamos County New Mexico.

Glen Stewart: Jon, I appreciate your update and your presentation. As questions come, we know how to get a hold of Jon. Again thank you.

Anything else to come before Council?

Motion to move to Executive Session by Glen Stewart to discuss some Personnel Issues, moved by Paul Wertz, seconded by Ruth Detrow.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Glen Stewart: There will be no actions taken and we will come back out and reconvene and adjourn when we are finished.

Regular Session adjourned at 8:45 pm and moved to Executive Session.

Moved to Adjourn Executive Session by Robert L. Valentine W1, seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Executive Session Adjourned at 9:00 pm.

Move to reconvene Regular Session by Paul Wertz, seconded by Ruth Detrow.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart

Reconvened Regular Session at 9:00 pm

Moved to Adjourn Regular Session by Robert L. Valentine W1, seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

ADJOURNMENT AT 9:00 P.M.

                                       Submitted by
                                       Valarie Bishoff
                                       Clerk of Council