Ashland City Council
MINUTES FOR THE REGULAR SESSION OF COUNCIL
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Council Chambers Conference Room 3rd floor 7:00 p.m.
* Our Law Director is on vacation; our Mayor has some family situations
and is absent also.
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 9/4/07
Corrections to the Minutes: On page 5, it should say 630; it is
our Sewer Capital Fund. Also on page 9, 6 people down under Glen
Stewart’s name, it was the bet tax and it should read bed tax.
Motion to accept the Minutes by Glen Stewart, moved by Robert L.
Valentine W1, seconded by Ruth Detrow.
Ayes: Robert L Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul
Wertz, Glen Stewart.
Comments of questions from the Audience: Items that are not included on
the Agenda.
None.
There are three Ashland University Students present.
1)Emily Garrison
2)Kristen Usher
3)Laura Lipinski
Glen Stewart: Welcome to our meeting. If there are any questions
you wish to ask during a particular Ordinance reading or after the
meeting, there are five of us up here that would be more than happy to
talk to anyone of you.
LEGISLATION
Ord. 65-07
Item (a) AN ORDINANCE ENACTING SECTION 921.39 OF THE CODIFIED ORDI
NANCES OF THE CITY OF ASHLAND, OHIO, RELATIVE TO SANITARY
SEWER SERVICE; AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY. 3RD READING
Glen Stewart: This is the third reading, is on the Agenda this
evening and has passed on two
separate occasions previously.
Moved by Valentine W1 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
Glen Stewart: This ordinance has passed on the third reading and
it has been several weeks that we have worked with this, so it is now
passed. I want to share with all of you that the passage of this
Ordinance does not start the clock on anyone relative to
annexation. The clock will not start until the Mayor authors a
letter sent to individual property owners and after that letter is
prepared and sent, there is a 60-day time frame to take action.
Jim Wiser, 226 Walnut Street, Ashland Ohio 44805: Again, I
would like to raise the point. The Ordinance as written deals
with the Codified relative to the Sanitary Sewer Service and you are
declaring an emergency. (1) there is no emergency. (2)it should
say, in the matter of annexation.
Glen Stewart: I will share with you that reading this over a
period of six weeks would certainly not constitute an emergency.
It does say that, I acknowledge that, but we have given this Ordinance
at least.
Jim Wiser, 226 Walnut Street, Ashland Ohio 44805: That is not saying
what it is truly about. The services on in place now. Your water
and sanitary sewer are in place. You are not putting sidewalks
in; you are not making any improvements.
Glen Stewart: Have you read the entire Ordinance?
Jim Wiser, 226 Walnut Street, Ashland Ohio 44805: As much
as has been afforded to members of the
community.
Glen Stewart: The whole Ordinance is available at any time in the
office of City Council. So I would offer that over a period of 6
weeks, anyone that chooses to read the Ordinance and wants to come up
and make comments relative to that Ordinance has had that
opportunity. Your comments are noted on the record. And
they will be a part of our Minutes.
Jim Wiser, 226 Walnut Street, Ashland Ohio 44805: Where are
the sidewalks to Wal-Mart: Where is the sidewalk to the Justice Center.
Glen Stewart: Time Out; Time out please. We are talking
about an Ordinance, a piece of legislation; there was an item in item 4
for comments and questions for items not appearing on the Agenda.
This is relative to enacting Section 921.39 and that is all we are
going to talk about in that section right now.
Ruth Detrow: I don’t know who this gentleman is.
Glen Stewart: Would you please identify yourself?
Jim Wiser: Jim Wiser, 226 Walnut Street, Ashland, Ohio
44805.
Glen Stewart: Mr. Wiser, your comments have been recorded with your
name and address.
Ord. 66-07
Item (b) AN ORDINANCE ENACTING SECTION 927.03 OF THE
CODIFIED ORDI-
NANCES OF THE CITY OF ASHLAND, OHIO, RELATIVE TO WATER
CONNECTIONS; AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY. 3RD READING
Glen Stewart: Again, this is the 3rd Reading done over a
period of several weeks and Council,
what is your pleasure?
Moved by Detrow and seconded by 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
Ord. 67-07
Item (c) AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE MAYOR, DIREC-
TOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE, TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT FOR CON-
SULTING AND DRILLING OF A PRODUCTION WELL AND TESTING
THEREOF ON THE BATES PROPERTY; AND DECLARING AN EMER-
GENCY.
Moved 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.
Larry Paxton: This completes a test well born in April of this
year on Bates property it is about 300 feet deep; it is to a different
Aquifer than of like the other well system is on currently. It is
located approximately 50 feet away from our intake line which feeds the
Water treatment plant. So this is a new well, a new water source
that has a capacity of about 750 gallons/minute. We believe that
it will be a long-term production well for the city in the future.
Glen Stewart: Are there any other property rights? Are any
additional easements needed?
Larry Paxton: Currently the city has an easement for this
property.
Glen Stewart: To the Transmission line?
Larry Paxton: For the entire property with the discussed
well was located and to the transmission line.
Glen Stewart: So there are no additional easements?
Larry Paxton: Not at this time.
Robert L. Valentine W1: The Bates property is on
Simonson Road, out close to 58.
Larry Paxton: Probably ½ mile off of St Rt 58. Close
to Simonson Road, right along the creek out there.
Phil Rafeld, 1039 Oakhill Circle: My concern is do we have
control of mineral rights on that?
Larry Paxton: I believe the easement is to allow the city
to drill the well on that property and that is it.
Phil Rafeld: Is that property not the property of the
city of Ashland?
Larry Paxton: It is a private property that the city is entering
into an easement, to drill a test well on.
Glen Stewart: And produce water.
Phil Rafeld: We are calling this an emergency drilling well?
Glen Stewart: This word “Emergency” is in
virtually every Ordinance that is read in this Council. It is not
an Emergency that it is an emergency to do it tonight. The Law
Director has explained this numerous times in that it does not present
an emergency. We have had the Charter Review Committee look at
this and has made some suggestions. I do not think we had put
that on the ballot, did we. We did not put that on the
ballot. It is totally included in conjunction with all of the
state laws and so on that the language that we use is not uncommon for
many communities to use this language. But the word Emergency is
not really definitive in this case.
John Chorpening: Is this 1 million gallons a day?
Larry Paxton: It could have potential towards that but at this
point it has a capability of a 750 gallons/minute. But at this
point until we get it into production, we won’t know that it has
that line of capacity. Our test shows that it has that capacity
but until we actually have it in production, we won’t know.
Questions or Comments:
Moved by Wertz and seconded by Valentine W1 that the Ordinance be
passed on the first reading.
Ayes: Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart
Moved by Wertz and seconded by Detrow that the rules requiring the
reading on three separate days be suspended and that the Ordinance be
passed on the second and third readings.
Ayes: Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart
Moved by Valentine W1 and seconded by Valentine W2 that the Ordinance
be passed.
Ayes: Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart
Ord. 68-07
Item (d) AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND ORDINANCE 34-07 AND
AUTHORIZING
AND DIRECTING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT FOR
THE PURCHASE OF ONE (1) LIGHT TRANSIT VEHICLE-NARROW BODY
(LTN) AND ONE (1) CONVERTED VAN FOR ASHLAND PUBLIC TRAN-
SIT (APT) OF THE CITY OF ASHLAND, OBVIATING FORMAL ADVER-
TISING AND BIDDING; AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.
Move for non-reading in full by Paul Wertz, seconded by Ruth 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: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth
Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.
Anna Tomasek: This Ordinance is to amend 34-07 which
Council passed and the reason for the amendment is the State of Ohio,
Department of Transportation is a State contract bid and the price has
increased due to the Ford production has been reduced, therefore the
city has to pay for these two vehicles a grand total of $9,167.00
dollars; it was for original Ordinance; it was $7,459.00 dollars.
So the City of Ashland’s share of these two vehicles is 10%.
Robert L. Valentine W1: It is for that?
Anna Tomasek: Yes, it is due to the change in the
economy with Ford, they have a reduction in production which caused the
price increase.
Robert L. Valentine W1: I just asked are we budgeted for
that?
Anna Tomasek: There is enough to be budgeted, yes.
Glen Stewart: Do we have to change any line items?
Anna Tomasek: No, there is enough in the category in the
budget.
Glen Stewart: What is the current cost? It went from
$7,459.00 to $9,167.00?
Ruth Detrow: The account number is, I am used to seeing it, but it is
there.
Anna Tomasek: Yes. It comes out of the
transportation fund.
Glen Stewart: Anna I am going to blindside you and I
apologize right up front for it. This is a standard lift van?
Anna Tomasek: We are purchasing two vehicles, the
first one is a converter, it is very similar to the high top van that
we currently have and we are going to replace that high top van.
The other vehicle is a light transit vehicle and that is basically what
we see at Hopkins Airport. They are little small airport shuttle
vehicles, that is what we are getting. These are two vehicles
that transportation assistant needs to meet its current services.
Next year there are no plans for any vehicles. These two vehicles
will take care of Ashland Public Transit this year and next year.
Glen Stewart: Are there any concerns with these
vehicles when they have a raised roof on them?
Anna Tomasek: We have no problems with the roof. Why did we
go with a converter van is to fit more wheelchairs so we are in
compliance with ADA, half of our fleet has to be ADA accessible.
Glen Stewart: I understand that. I think it
would be wise before this Ordinance is in, that we assure ourselves
that there is not a propensity for these to roll over. They have
a propensity to roll over and there are several institutions that have
removed this type of vehicle from their fleets.
Anna Tomasek: I can check with ODOT on that.
Questions or Comments?
Moved by Valentine W1 and seconded by Detrow that the Ordinance be
passed on the first reading.
Ayes: Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart
Moved by Wertz and seconded by Detrow that the rules requiring the
reading on three separate days be suspended and that the Ordinance be
passed on the second and third readings.
Ayes: Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart
Moved by Detrow and seconded by Stewart that the Ordinance be passed.
Ayes: Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart
Ord. 69-07
Item (e) AN ORDINANCE CREATING ADDITIONAL
APPROPRIATIONS TRANS-
FERS FOR THE FOLLOWING HEREINAFTER NAMED FUNDS FOR THE
YEAR 2007 AND DECLARING THIS LEGISLATION TO BE AN EMER-
GENCY MEASURE NECESSARY TO MEET THE FINANCIAL NEEDS OF
THE CITY OF ASHLAND, OHIO.
Move for non-reading in full by Paul Wertz, seconded by Ruth 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: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth
Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.
Anna Tomasek: This is an accounting, housekeeping item,
City of Ashland was self insured fund and now that our insurance has
changed, therefore the voluntary life, dental needs to be moved out of
the health insurance fund and moved into section 125, into the correct
appropriate fund. This is just a housekeeping item so that our
health insurance fund 705 will just have health insurance costs and
revenue in that fund.
Robert L. Valentine W1: So it went from 705 to 706?
Anna Tomasek: Yes, that will correct the accounting with the
voluntary life insurance dental and vision.
Robert L. Valentine W1: Does that mean then we will have a
clearer picture of what we have?
Anna Tomasek: Under true expenses of health insurance, yes.
Glen Stewart: And I know flexible spending is included in
that also?
Anna Tomasek: That is correct.
Glen Stewart: So there are five. Employee dental/vision,
voluntary life and flexible spending and the exact amounts that were in
705 are going over to 706?
Anna Tomasek: Well, let me clear it up. The 4 thousand
accounts at the end are revenue, the 5 thousands are expenses, there
are 3 items.
Questions or Comments:
Glen Stewart: There are no additional funds
required. This is moving from one account to another account
based on a different insurance plan. Any questions from anyone
out there?
Moved by Valentine W1 and seconded by Detrow that the Ordinance be
passed on the first reading.
Ayes: Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart
Moved by Wertz and seconded by Valentine W1 that the rules requiring
the reading on three separate days be suspended and that the Ordinance
be passed on the second and third readings.
Ayes: Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart
Moved by Valentine W1 and seconded by Valentine W2 that the Ordinance
be passed.
Ayes: Valentine W1, Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart
Glen Stewart: That concludes the legislative portion of the
meeting this evening. Now we are going to move into some other
areas that are in front of us.
Liquor permit request: A Permit to allow Paved Road LLC, DBA Cleveland
Ave. Market, 1225 Cleveland Avenue, Ashland, Ohio 44805 to have a
Liquor Permit and is being transferred from Dean A. Emmons, DBA Park
Market, 823 W. Main Street, Ashland, Ohio 44805 and was put in with the
Liquor Commission on 8/28/07 in the safekeeping area.
Glen Stewart: The options that we have is that we can
request a hearing be held in our County or in Columbus or we can
request not to have a hearing. Questions from the Audience? Any
comments Bill Miracle, Chief of Police?
Bill Miracle, Chief of Police: I have no problems with it.
Cleveland Avenue Market has been in operation for many years. It
is update information it is 435 feet away from Cahn Grove Park.
But quite frankly, I don’t have any problems with it. It is
good that Cleveland Avenue Market is opening up again.
Robert L. Valentine W1: It seems that the Peanut Bar was right
close to there also.
Bill Miracle: Well the Firehouse is in operation
there; for a long time now.
Move that request no hearing by Paul Wertz, seconded by Ruth Detrow
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth
Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.
Advertising permit request: A request for advertising on private
property for political request, Larry Paxton, 1247 Colonial Drive,
Ashland, Ohio 44805, Political Advertisement, until November 6,
2007 – Anticipated frequency is daily.
Glen Stewart: We have this permit in front of us and we also have
a copy of the material that will be handed out. This one piece printed
both sides. It will be handed out in his political
campaign. Any questions from anyone?
Moved to approve Advertising Permit by Ruth Detrow, seconded by Robert
L. Valentine 1.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul
Wertz, Glen Stewart
Advertising Permit Request: A request for advertising on private
property for political request, Marie Anna Tomasek, 982 Thomas Drive,
Ashland, Ohio 44805, Political Advertisement until November 6, 2007
– Daily frequency.
Glen Stewart: Her advertisement will be handed out
during her campaign process throughout the city. Any questions
from anyone?
Moved to approve Advertising Permit by Robert L. Valentine W1, seconded
by Paul Wertz.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul
Wertz, Glen Stewart.
Ward Reports:
W2: Robert M. Valentine
(a) Jerry you weren’t here at the last meeting,
but I called you about that tree problem. I know the arborist
took care of it. They did a nice job on W. Main Street.
Thank you.
W1: Robert L. Valentine
None.
W3: Ruth Detrow
(a) Last week our city Arborist sent a crew to take a
tree down on Center Street, it was one of the diseased with the tree
borers, an Ash and in conversation with them, I needed to go talk to
them and I learned a lot of things including the fact that there are
lot of cases where the trees have been filled in with so much dirt and
mulch around the tree that is going to do a lot of harm to the tree and
so as I talked with the Arborist department, we concluded it might be a
good public information effort if there were literature of some sort
and I don’t know how it should be sent out, these little bills,
water/sewer bills, maybe that’s it, but there are things people
can do to the trees in the tree lawn in front of their houses to assure
that they will be healthier trees and of course I think all of us want
attractive trees in front of our houses. What do you think we
could do?
Tim Clingan: We did have door hangers and if we see
something that is not healthy for the tree, they will need a door
hanger explaining what the problem is. We can’t do that for
everyone. We talked about this and most recently we have those articles
coming out in the paper around the first part of October and we can
have an article about that Parks portion to educate the public about
that.
Glen Stewart: And I think a lot of those are well
read. It is a very good communication process.
W4: Paul Wertz
None.
Council at Large: Glen Stewart
None
Old Business: None
New Business: Greg Gorrell- Council on Aging Levy
Greg Gorrell: Earlier today I had the opportunity to stop
in the Council office and drop off some information that I will share
with you this evening. We coming before Council and to
elected officials here just as we have with the County Commissioners
and with Township Trustees regarding Ashland County Council on Aging
levy that is on the ballot in November. It is 6 tenths of a
mil. The cost is $19.00 dollars a year for 100,000.00-dollar
property. I have talked to Phil Leibolt and it is 18.47 dollars and
rounded it off to $19.00. Why the Levy? I
have been involved with the Council on Aging for the last 17
years. The literature that I have shared with you earlier today
and I am not going to take the time to read all of it, except that the
Organization is designed solely to take care of our senior citizens for
their very critical needs or their transportation to get to the doctor
or hospital or for dialysis in Mansfield. Or to have meals taken
to their homes if they cannot come to the center. Or to bring
them to the center if they don’t have a way to get there, it is
transportation. Information referral for health care services
they might know where to go find them. They help with nearly
40-50 Drug Care Plans, some of which the drug companies will provide
reduced fees if the senior citizens need help in figuring out how to
complete that. The Council on Aging and we talked about this 5
years ago, we said no, we looked for other sources of funding.
Those other sources of funding become flat or declining. The
sources of funding friendly are Federal and State Grant; donations from
private individuals like United Way and if this passes in future
periods, the request to the United Way will be substantially reduced,
so there won’t be duplication of funding requests. The
whole objective behind this is to help keep our seniors home, in their
homes longer, those who are having to go to assisted living or other
healthcare facilities. The three handouts I gave you talks
about “Be a Lifesaver!” and in that we mean, there
are 10,000 seniors approximately in our county. By the year 2010
there will be 11,500 and when you get into 2013 it is close to
14,000. The senior’s population is growing. The
Funding that help with the critical needs that the account provides is
declining. At the end of the day, would could have went for a
continuous levy; this is not continuous. It is a 5-year
levy. So that we can review the process and the accountability
associated with the stewardship and response. What will the funds
be used for? It will to meet the requirements that are not being
met. It will increase the transportation needs in various parts
of the county. There are 17 townships in this county and we are
serving in all of these areas, but we are not meeting all the needs of
our seniors. So the objective is to meet the needs of meals
onsight/offsight, to take care of information of referral to help
people find the things that they otherwise are not finding, to help
with transportation, otherwise do not get transported where they need
to go, plus any service that used to exist, that no longer exist
because there are no funds, and that is to train qualified people to go
in to senior’s homes to help with light housekeeping, things that
they still need to have done to help them to be independent in their
home. None of those services are currently taking place. The
second document that was in your package says be a Life Saver, and we
believe that is what is involved here and flip to the back, there are 7
questions. You should actually know about the Ashland Council on
Aging. The 7 questions they are asking are multiple-choice
questions. The answers, you have to turn it upside down at the
bottom of the page. Then last we invite you to the Open House on
October 25, 2007 from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. And we also invite you to
come to the Ashland County Fair. I am going to call it the Big
ten where I rest when I am tired. It is right in front of the
Coliseum, the double doors that go right into the Coliseum; upstairs is
the show, downstairs are the exhibits. As soon as you walk in the door,
there is the Council On Aging exhibit. All of these materials are
at the County Fair, and they will be at the Loudonville Fair form
October 2 to October 6. We are presenting this material to other
organizations
within the community so that we hope come November, that the community
will be very aware of versus what the needs are first, but the current
funding is second, and the funding shortfall is third and how we are
looking to ask this community minimally under 20.00 dollars a year for
100,000.00 dollar property to help meet these needs of growing senior
population. These are needs to be met. These aren’t
wants to be met. Somebody has asked the question to the ballot
and the language uses the term facilities. Well I need to be
clear about the facilities. This is not be build a new
building. But if the kitchen needed to be upgraded, then
certainly we would do that so we can warm the meals. The van and
the vehicles wear out and we will certainly replace those. And
that is included in this. But this is not a bricks and
mortar. I will share with you that right now there is a range of
12,000 meals delivered to homes, there is about 7,000 meals here
delivered to the center, it used to be up to 12,000. Meals are
down because of funding. Seniors need our help.
Transportation, we are not meeting all of the needs there. We
encourage Council with the influence you have with the community,
equally with you come in contact will that you would certainly share
this information with them. I am a believer if you arm people
with the information, they can make their own decisions. I
wouldn’t have been involved with this organization for 17 years
if I didn’t come to understand this is what the needs were for
our seniors. Now again some people say, Greg aren’t you a
senior? You seem to get around pretty well. Well
seniors is defined for this purpose 60 and over but I can tell you the
seniors that you don’t seen and need our help is what we are
talking about here. And that population is growing and the needs
are great. So we enlist your support. If you would like to
have us come in to address your career or meet other organizations that
you are associated with, we would be glad to do it.
Ruth Detrow: Do you serve just limited income people or all
seniors?
Greg Gorrell: It doesn’t matter what your income level is.
If you are 82 years old and you can’t get out and no one will
come and help you, you qualify. This is not an income-based
circumstance. Whoever needs the help, we help.
Ruth Detrow: Well I have called you for help more than once
and they never did ask me, is your income here or here. I was not
sure. They help with things like social security, getting things
set up; they are really a super organization that deserve our help.
Greg Gorrell: This biggest complaint that I have heard is a
board member; why aren’t you doing this, why aren’t you
doing that? We would if we could get the funding. These are
questions about me. We would love to serve those who really need
your help. We had a waiting list at the beginning of the year. We
directed the Board meeting decision to not have anybody on the waiting
list, so it is a race against time and if the funding runs out November
15, 2007, then the meals could be drastically reduced. I hope
that this will pass. I understand very well that levy’s and taxes
are a challenge for all of us. We are on fixed incomes. All
I am saying is the public has to decide our growing senior population,
declining revenues, growing needs for our seniors, 19.00 dollars a
year. $150.00 dollars per month.
Glen Stewart: Would I be safe in saying, if this levy would pass
that
we would be able to restore the services and at what point in time were
they cut and could they be restored back to that level?
Greg Gorrell: It will increase the levels because of
where we used to be, the senior population is growing. We presented a
chart to the county commissioners which we were obligated to do by law
because we had to have the County Commissioners approval. They
had the prosecutor’s office review it and had the State approve
it then come back for approval. We presented a 10-year trend for all
the services, here is the 10 years, here are all the services, here is
where they were, and here is where they declined due to funding. If
this passes, here is the project for what the needs are for the next
five years out of this 5-year levy and in that context those needs will
be met across the board. The question becomes, when the seniors
population continues to grow in this county, in five years when this
would come up for renewal, it has a window to it. The needs that
are being met, we will evaluate in 5 years and let the taxpayers make
that decision.
Questions or comments?
Robert L. Valentine W1: It is kind of hard in what
you are saying. You have served a lot longer on Council on Aging than I
have, but the point is the time that I have served, I think there is no
question the services being provided and the problems that have accrued
over the last year or two financially and I think that the levy needs
to be passed and I think it is a step in the right direction. I
think the different things that you quoted the elderly and more and
more people and the demands, I think we can provide that, but if we
don’t pass this levy then I think it is going to hurt.
It has done an outstanding job for the city of Ashland and County.
(Name unknown) – I have been on the Council of Aging Board since
1982 and it is a very frugal organization and government funding at the
Federal level is diminishing every year. To show you how frugal
we are, and how outstanding the people are on that board, we built that
building in 1986 and it was ½ million dollars, of course it
would be a lot more now. In 1991, we burnt the Mortgage so we are
frugal. We do have a lot of people that paid what they could
pay. When you go in there for a meal you have one charge, if you
can’t meet that charge, leave what you can leave, if you
can’t leave anything, you are still going to get a meal. So
I can’t say enough for that organization.
Glen Stewart: I appreciate the comments of both Mr. Valentine and
yourself being board members and guess I would say fortunately I have
not had to call on your services there but I do qualify age wise and I
may very well be there. But I have been in there on numerous
occasions and the people that are there are very thankful for what is
there and what services they are giving and I hope that this is a
successful levy for our community as a whole.
Greg Gorrell: We are what is called the Arian Agency and in
Arian county the state is governed by an Arian agency that is why it is
over site. We are part of a nine-member group, nine counties and
of the nine counties that report to our agency, there are only two that
don’t have a letter that relates to these kinds of
services. We are one of them and Richland County is another one.
Glen Stewart: Thank you for your time and your
presentation. The Mayor is not here for comments. Any
comments on his behalf?
WORK SESSION:
Adjourned to Work Session at 7:45
PURPOSE:
Insurance Update with Cherie Helterbridle, Director of Human Resources.
Cherie Helterbridle: This evening, I do want to make this
very brief. I am going to go to these slides. I have a
presentation which I will give a copy to all Council members and then
primarily if you have questions beyond this, especially if they are
very specific, maybe we can make an appointment and sit and go through
it in as great of depth as you individually choose. Eventually
you are going to end up with a good overview of this. We do have
Mental Health Insurance that is now fully insured and what happens any
insured plan constitutes is the premium plus the HRA and I will be
explaining those terms for you. The principal group is our fully
insured health insurance plan and our first year with this fully
insured health insurance began on 4/1/2006 and ran to 3/31/2007 and in
that 12 month period our plan cost which included the cost of funding
the HRA and I will explain in a moment was 1.7 million dollars.
The previous plan or the old plan was the PCM partially funded.
Self-funding was a viable way of doing things in years past. It changed
over time and in the nine months prior to the starting of the self
fully insured from 6/1/2005 to 3/31/2006 and in that nine-month period,
the cost of that plan was 3.2 million dollars. When you look at
the difference what a base difference is the city no longer pays
medical claims. With the self funding, we were paying medial
claims and the old self funded there was a lower deductible for
employees to pay but the City covered the medical claims up to
65,000.00 dollars on a healthy person and up to as much as 200,000.00
dollars on people who were known to have high cost medical
expenses. That is part of where the change came over time.
They began adding something that is called a riders fee that they knew
had ongoing health situations, became extremely expensive to the
city. Now the principal group the fully insured health insurance
plan there is a premium that covers all medical claims. You
don’t pay individual medical claims, you pay a premium. The
premium covers the medical claims and the prescription program to there
is not a separate prescription cost to this too. It’s that
prescription rolled right into the premium plus the cost of the HRA is
all part of what we budget for. In the old self funded, the
family deductible and out of pocket, what was the most a family could
pay, the deductible and out of pocket was 1300.00 dollars for a
family. There was little to no preventative medical
coverage. So many of the tests, preventative tests that people
now have commonly were not covered and in our new insurance you will
see that they are and to the city there was high and unpredictable
medical costs and prescription costs because in both areas the city was
picking up even 80% in prescription costs. In this newly fully
insured health insurance, the maximum cost for a family, the deductible
and out of pocket is $2000.00 dollars. So that is the maximum a
family would have to pay for deductible and out of pocket in a year
before it is going 100% fully insured. There is excellent
preventative medicine coverage and all of the tests that are important
are being covered. One test a year is part of a preventative
medical package. There are no unknown medical claim costs and no
unknown prescription costs. That is gone away. We are
not worried about the medical claim cost and we are not worried about
the prescription cost. What is the state of the industry right now as
far as coverage? That is what we’ve got, plus good
cost savings.
So now I want to talk to you about what is an HRA. An HRA is a
(Health Reimbursement Account) and the HRA is funded by the City and it
is to the employees, individual employees and it helps defray the cost
of their larger deductible. They have a large deductible so where
the City is funding as it is used, they don’t keep it forever, it
is funding as they used it, the deductible. And let me give you
an idea of what that looks like. A single-insured person has a
deductible of $1000.00 dollars and the city can fund up to $1000.00
dollars of deductible in the HRA. So from the very first penny if
someone had some type of surgery or they had pneumonia, they are in the
hospital for a while and they had $1000.00 dollar deductible, that is
their deductible but it is funded through the HRA and that HRA is part
of what we budget for right up front. We know exactly what that
cost is to the city. Before we were on a two-tier program.
So it was just either you were single or else you were a family.
Now we have four tiers, so if you are an employee and a spouse, the
deductible for you is $2000.00 and this will fund up to $2000.00 in an
HRA. An employee with children, and that is a single
employee and any number of kids and the deductible is $2,000.00 dollars
and the city will fund up to $2000.00. An employee and
spouse and any number of kids. The deductible is up to $3000.00
dollars. Two people have to meet $1000.00 dollar deductible so it
is very likely that you don’t have $3,000.00 dollars worth of
deductible in a family set up like this and if you want me to explain
that further in an appointment, I would be happy to. But up to
potentially $2,000.00 dollar deductible for a family, the city would
fund up to $2,000.00 dollars of that. So what do the premiums
look like that the employees pay. The employee
contribution. This is per pay, 24 pays, okay. Singles would
pay $38.45 per pay; Employee and children $63.21 and
Employees and Spouse $79.52; Employee, spouse and any number of
children $104.29. The Police as you know have a slightly
lower rate of contribution based on negotiation of contracts over the
years past prior to this. So their single is $33.14.
Employee and children $ 61.08; employee and spouse $ 73.13; employee
and any number of children $73.13. With regard to prescription
cost of the old self insured, the city paid 80% of the prescription
cost. Now you are probably well aware of that one of the fastest
growing areas of expense and medical insurance is prescription cost and
so that was huge and growing. We had no way of knowing for sure
what it was going to be from year to year. Now that is part of
the premium cost; it is rolled into the premium with a discount to the
user. The prescriptions can be purchased at local pharmacies
and/or they can be purchased on mail orders. So if they go to a
local pharmacy, the prescription is broken down into three tiers.
Tier one drugs tend to be generic drugs, so they are $10.00 a
prescription; Tier two drugs are generally drugs that are name brand
drugs but they have been on the market for a while; Tier three drugs
are the brand new ones that you are seeing on TV advertised all the
time, generally when they first come out, they have a seven year
moratorium on any one creating a generic and during that seven years,
they make their money off of them and they are to most expensive
drugs. You can get them in this plan, but they cost a bit
more. If you go with mail order, you have a discount and for the
employees share of that, they can also have an additional discount
which is if they take part in the city’s flexible spending plan,
then they can actually save by paying for their part of
those prescription drugs with pre-tax dollars. And possibly I
could do a whole thing on what is a flexible spending plan and how that
relates to this but it is a wonderful advantage for employees and many
of you do know how that works. With the flexible spending plan,
that is pre-tax dollars that comes directly out of the employees
pocket, their pay before ever seeing their pay, they determine how much
they want set aside into the flexible spending and then that is
pre-taxed dollars. They are used for unfunded medical
expenses. Now here is where I want to draw a clarification.
The HRA health reimbursement account, funded by the city is for only
medical expense like you get an explanation of benefits from your
insurance company. Those are funded medical expenses. This
flexible spending covers the unfunded expenses, those things like
prescription drugs, the 20% that the employee may owe at some point in
time, balance on dental. Then we also offer for their convenience
a flexible spending debit card. What is wonderful about this is;
if you are going to go pick up your prescription locally or even if you
are calling away to the mail order, you can give them the number off of
that and you don’t have front that money and then wait for
reimbursement, it works just like a credit card and it is coming out of
your own account and makes life a lot simpler. So the medical
benefits with the principal in a review statement is the principal is a
fully insured plan with the equivalent benefit coverage at least.
I would say greater because of preventative medicine, greater
preventative medicine coverage and then an aspect that is extremely
valuable to many of our employees is chronic illness management
program; it just is available for people who qualify. They
review your records and if you qualify, they contact you and say, you
know what? You qualify for additional information and an
additional management of this chronic condition if you want it.
It is a great program. Now lets look at the network, we have the
very same medical network that we had before. We had medical mutual
network before; we had the very same hospitals and doctors now only
more of them than we did before but we have the very same ones and the
discounts are great because before you had 200 employees constituting a
group and all we had combined power was the discounts for a worth of
200 employees now a part of thousands of people across the United
States and so the discount is much, much greater for each thing we are
being billed less to begin with so now it becomes to where we are
today. Our plan is new plan year; we are in the same plan year
stating 4/1/2007 thru 3/31/2008. When we looked at 2006, what happened
in the industry, premium rates went up 12-14%. The City’s
premium rate increased by 9.8%. And we are on track for a good
year. But I put this in here because I want you to know though I
have no names or no identifications, I do have a list of current
illnesses that we are dealing with and we still have many employees
among us who have high dollar medical issues that are ongoing but
because of the way we are covering them now, we are not taking a hit on
those like we were directly in the past. So if you look at where
we were between 6/1/2005 and the end of 2006, we are down 1 million
dollars in cost from where we were and the maximum cost; if every
person used every penny of their HRA during this plan year, the maximum
our plan would cost us is 1.95 and right now on 8/31/07 with the
numbers from Finance and looking specifically I realize we are cleaning
up that account which needs to happen, but if you look specifically at
the HRA where it is tracking target would be at 67% and we are coming
in at 37.9% on the HRA. So we are tracking toward a really good
year. We are not using excessively on our health insurance at
all. So if we continue through the rest of this plan year as we are
now, we are looking at plan year of health insurance plan year that is
going to come in 1.85 million. The City has offered my office has
offered numerous training opportunities since we started, you know
before the plan began during the first year and now we are ready to
pick up again and head into the fall. I do think that there are
many people among us that really don’t want to, they can’t
comprehend the health insurance thing until they need it. When
they need it, they are ready to sit down and learn how it works and
that is what is so exciting; they can come to my office, I have
computers there and they can go online and they can track exactly where
each claim is in the process of being paid and they can see how much is
left in their HRA and where things were paid. They can see how
much is left in their flexible spending, if they are a part of that
plan and every single claim that was paid on and so we have, each
employee has complete access to absolutely everything that profiles the
use of their medical insurance and they can come to our office and we
will help them get up to speed on how that works and it is fun when
people have the light bulbs come on and they realize that the first
full 1000.00 or 2,000.00 dollars of their medical expenses, they are
not paying out of pocket anything. If it is deductible, it is
covered from their HRA and I think for the employees that is a
wonderful benefit and for us we are looking at 1.85 in cost for health
insurance. It is going down a little the last couple of years
from where it was in 2006 and that is good. So when people are
ready to learn, we are ready to teach them and that is the end of the
Health Insurance Presentation. Thank you.
Questions or Comments?
Robert L. Valentine W1: What percent, and we are just 5
months into this year?
Cherie Helterbridle: Well we are about 6 months into this
year. I have no idea. I just know right now at this point
in the year, the HRA would be at, if everyone were meeting it, it would
be at 67% and it is only at 37.9%. So instead of looking at the
first day on track instead of looking at 1.95 for our plan cost which
is the maximum and we got it down to the penny, the maximum it could
be, we are looking at 1.85 if we continue to track like we are now.
Robert L. Valentine W1: Well another question, if we have spent,
probably Anna as much as anyone 3.2 million in the past for the old
program and we are spending 1.9, where is the money that we are not
spending then? Do you understand what I am saying?
Anna Tomasek: The health insurance fund is charging
everyone’s department budgets. To pay for the health
insurance cost with the city, it is charged to every individual
department’s budget.
Robert L. Valentine W1: So that means each department then is
saving money, is that correct?
Cherie Helterbridle: No, we budget as we go so the fact is that
probably that money has been assigned toward other budget needs.
Glen Stewart: When we made the 2007 budget, there was a forecast
based on this new insurance plan and each department was to budget for
health insurance so their budgeting process was forecasted by Cherie
and Anna for 2007. So I would presume that each department had a
lesser line item for 2007 than they did for 2006.
Anna Tomasek: That is correct. There are less expenses
coming out of every fund for health insurance.
Robert L. Valentine W1: You had mentioned something about chronic
conditions? I didn’t know if I followed that completely. If
someone has a chronic condition, Asthma, Heart disease? What
happens?
Cherie Helterbridle: It is not a financial thing, it is
additional information. I get information all the time and
suggestions, the newest things that are out on the market. If you
are diabetic, they probably send things to Diabetics, if you are an
Asthmatic; they are keeping you up to date on the latest things that
are out there available and it is a service. It doesn’t
cost anything. The goal is we are helping that person with a
chronic disease being wiser in their disease management and hopefully
educating them so that we save ourselves dollars over time.
Robert M. Valentine W2: Where I work, we have
flexible spending accounts; if you do not use your money all up in
1-year time, where is it?
Cherie Helterbridle: You realize, that comes under
Federal Law guidelines. Now you also know, it is not one year; it
is now like 14 ½ months. I just mentioned, our employees
have an opportunity to go online every single night if they want to and
keep track of where they are. And so we will help them if they
have a balance, if they are going into 14 months and they haven’t
used that up, we will help them know all of the various types of places
to use that, but it is their responsibility and by law it remains with
the City if there is any balance. On the other side of that is
that in the city, we allow them to shelter up to 3,000.00 dollars in
the flexible spending account. There is always the potential of
someone choosing to put $3000.00 dollars in there, having some major
surgery done, having a bunch of miscellaneous costly things done, or
having dental work done, using their $3000.00 dollars and quitting 2
weeks later, who by law don’t have any way to go after a person
in that situation. But we could swallow that money, that has not
traditionally happened to the city and it has been my observation, we
have had that account now for quite a number of years. It is more
efficient now with the card, it is much more comfortable to use, but
the city, people use up their funds for the most part. They are
responsible for that.
Glen Stewart: They have the responsibility to project their needs
and obviously in health issues you can’t always project the
need. But if you know you are going to have dental work next year
or you are going to get new glasses.
Phil Rafeld: Our Health insurance isn’t near that
good. We pay 248.00 dollars a month out of pocket. We have
flex spending. We know when we are going to have dental work
done; so our maximum is $2000.00 dollars, but if we don’t spend
that $2000.00 at the end of the year, we lose that money; it is
pre-taxed dollars.
Cherie Helterbridle: And that is what I have just mentioned,
really it is not just one year now, you actually by law have 14
½ months to use that money. If someone was careless in
managing their own money and there are a lot of ways to use that
money. If they left a couple hundred dollars, yes they would lose
it. By law you cannot give it back to them; you could potentially
divide it over all the investors.
Questions or Comments:
Glen Stewart: Something that is not on our agenda this
evening. I have added that we will adjourn to an Executive
Session for the discussion of imminent litigation. We will not
make any decisions in that Executive Session. We will come back
in and reconvene and then adjourn from the Council session this
evening. I don’t expect that we will be over 20 minutes,
but that is where we are headed for.
Motion to adjourn to Executive Session by Glen Stewart, Moved by Robert
M. Valentine W2, seconded by Robert L. Valentine W 1.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth
Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.
Adjourned to Executive Session at 8:11 p.m.
Move to reconvene back into Regular Session at 8:43 by Ruth Detrow,
Seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth
Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.
Move to adjourn Regular Session by Ruth Detrow at 8:45, seconded by
Robert L. Valentine W1.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth
Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.
Meeting was adjourned by Council at 8:45 p.m.
Submitted by
Valarie
Bishoff
Clerk of
Council