Ashland City Council


MINUTES FOR THE SPECIAL SESSION OF COUNCIL
August 27, 2007



Council President Glen Stewart called the meeting to order at 6:45 PM  

Note: The only thing that will be discussed tonight is what is on the legislative agenda and what I am going to do is ask for the Roll to be called for Council.  Any comments or questions that come from the audience this evening can come with the introduction of the Ordinances as they are read.


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


PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE



LEGISLATION

Ord. 54-07
Item (a) AN ORDINANCE APPROVING THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE ENTERPRISE
             ZONE NEGOTIATION COMMITTEE WITH REGARD TO AN ENTERPRISE ZONE
             TAX INCENTIVES APPLICATION FOR ASHLAND INC.



Move for non-reading in full by Paul Wertz, seconded by Ruth Detrow.
Ayes:  Robert Valentine Ward 1, Robert M. Valentine Ward 2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Glen Stewart: This will be a new building for Ashland Inc.  Ashland Inc. is the former Ashland Chemical and has had several names in the last few years; it is on Cottage Street and has been around for many years.  They are going to introduce a new product.  And the first building, they are only going to hire an additional 3-5 people.  The product line that they will start will be introduced at the various Home Builders shows.  It is a product that will be used in the Building Industry.  And with that, if it takes off like their projections indicate, there may be additional employees and possibly even a second building.  There will be a single assembly line put in the first building with room for a second and in the second building, it could equally double that.  So and it may be a few years before they reach that, but it is a brand new product for them and with that new product, it is a real step forward for Ashland and Ashland Inc. and I am very pleased to have been a part of listening to their application for the Enterprise and I will turn it over to any questions from anyone.  

Robert Valentine W2: The Company shall create within 3 years commencement of approximately 15 full time people.  

Robert Valentine W1:  I am just curious about and may be this has been a procedure in the past; an annual fee of $500.00 to Economic Development?  

Glen Stewart:  That was an application fee that was paid for by Ashland Inc.  I don’t know where that shows up in there.  

Robert Valentine W1:  Well it is $500.00 each year for when the agreement was in effect; am I wrong?  The City of Ashland, Ashland County Enterprise so in agreement (on page 5) with Ashland Incorporated (number 5).

Mayor Strine:  What is your question Bob?

Robert Valentine W1:  Do we normally do this?

Mayor Strine:  Yes, we do. I wouldn’t say that we have done it all of the time, but yes we do.  

Richard P. Wolfe II: I think there has been an administration fee; it may have been a lesser amount in previous years.  But there has been some kind of a fee.  

Robert Valentine W1: Otherwise, if this is in effect for 10 years, then there will be a fee.  Okay.

Glen Stewart:  Good evening Mike.  We are talking about the Enterprise Zone project for your Company and if you would just like to give an overview more than what we have.  

Mike Billow, Plant Manager for Ashland Performance Materials: That name may not be familiar to many of you.  We change our name periodically.  We are at 1745 Cottage Street.  We were originally at the Goodyear Plant in 1984, Ashland Chemical bought it and we have operated it since that time.  Historically we have produced products in support of the Transportation and Building/Construction Industries.  We have had an opportunity within our Company now to expand into another area within the construction industry.  This involves, and I cannot get into too much technical information about the product because we are still applying for Patents but it is a revolutionary new product used in making Counter Tops.  It is all non-hazardous materials.  It is a 7 million dollar investment on the Company’s part.  We start out with one phase and if this takes off, then we will be expected for this plant to extend to three lines and three of the ten lines that we have planned.  The other being said will be scattered throughout the Country depending on where our customer base is located.  We have committed to about 15 full time people within three years.  I am a little bit conservative on this.  All of us who have been in business for more than 15 minutes know that it can go either way, but we have a lot of highly paid professional marketing people that have gone out and done surveys and they are very excited about this.   This is the most excitement I have seen in the Company about a new opportunity in many, many years.  I am very pleased.  A couple of weeks ago, it is not just this business that this represents to our plant and our community, it opens the door for us to demonstrate to at least my company what we can do in this community.  We have a highly trained labor force.  We have comparatively speaking, a low labor cost.  We are within 24 hours at 90% of the manufacturing base within the United States.  We are ideally located for expansion.  We have some issues with taxes and things on a state level, everybody has read about it and everybody knows all of this stuff but Ashland Ohio is poised very, very well for expansion and this is an opportunity and I have been at this plant for 11 years.  This is the first opportunity I have had to get my foot in the door and give us the opportunity to demonstrate what we are all about and I think this is a great opportunity for the plant and the community for expansion within at least my Company in Ashland Inc.  

Glen Stewart:  We are all with you.  

Robert Valentine W1:  Not a negative question, but how long for Patents?  Is it 17 year Patent?

Mike Billow:  I honestly do not know the answer to that.  Part of the Building and Construction industry that we have serviced historically from this facility, dealt with commercial roofing and then we also make a lot of Urethane adhesives used in laminates and glue on boards and things like that.   This is entirely new to me.  We are a part of SPNA which is Specialty Polymers and Adhesives.  This is being brought to us by Composite Polymers division.  It is entirely a new chemistry to our facility.  That is a very good question, but the biggest opportunity I see in this is to get our foot in the door and just demonstrate what I have been saying verbally for a number of years.

Robert Valentine W1:  You have been a good company for Ashland.

Evan Scurti:  I am very pleased to see this happen.  Mike has been great to work with.  


Move the Ordinance be passed on the first reading by Paul Wertz, seconded by Robert M. Valentine Ward 2 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 Ward 1, Robert M. Valentine Ward 2, Ruth Detrow, Paul
           Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Move to suspend the rules, 3 separate meetings, 3 separate nights, by Paul Wertz, sec-
onded by Robert M. Valentine Ward 2.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine, Ward 1, Robert M. Valentine Ward 2, Ruth Detrow, Paul
          Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Move the Ordinance be passed by Robert L. Valentine W1, seconded by Paul Wertz.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine 1, Robert M. Valentine 2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen
          Stewart.

Glen Stewart: Mike, you will need copies of this Ordinance for a meeting later this week, is that correct?  

Mike Billow:   I may be able to just do it by telling that it is passed.  I don’t know that I need anything else.  I would like to have them if they are ready.  

Mayor Strine:  Yes we can get you a copy tomorrow.

Ord. No. 55-07
Item (b)  AN ORDINANCE AMENDING NO. 99-06 RELATIVE TO THE WAGES FOR
   THE WATER TREATMENT PLANT SUPERINTENDENT, WASTE WATER
   TREATMENT PLANT SUPERINTENDENT AND CHIEF OF IPP & CROSS
   CONNECTION CONTROL FOR THE CITY OF ASHLAND, OHIO; AND DE-
   CLARING AN EMERGENCY.

Move for non-reading in full by Paul Wertz, seconded by Ruth Detrow.
Ayes:  Robert Valentine Ward 1, Robert M. Valentine Ward 2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz,
           Glen Stewart.

Mayor Strine:  At the present time, these positions that are listed in this Ordinance, they are Stipends that they are paid for are separate from their salary.  And due to the fact that these management positions are not in the Union contract, we have had some disparity in wages because the Stipends for the Union people were more than what the management people were allowed.  It needs to be adjusted.  This will take the Stipends for the management people and put them in their salary and they will no longer get Stipends, they will just get a salary which is listed there. Cherie, do you have anything to be added to that?

Cherie Helterbridle:  No.

Robert L. Valentine W1:  What we have just done this year already is what was negotiated was classifications and this for the people that work there that met these stipulations, they were given Stipends.  I think that is part of this.  

Questions or comments?

Paul Wertz W4:  Do we have any more Supervisory people that are not getting paid Stipends instead of salary or vise versa?  

Cherie Helterbridle:  In this division, there are no other people who would qualify for these Stipends.  Your question is whether it will cost all of the other employees, who happens to be a supervisor,  who is getting a stipend of some sort, I would have to research that.  I can’t answer that question tonight.  It has no adverse affect on any other employee and supervisory people in this Water and Treatment Water pollution plan.   I understand your question.  I don’t know a quick answer to it but I can research that for you.  

Richard P. Wolfe II:  As to Stipends in the Sewer or Water pollution, Water treatment and Water distribution division, section no. 2, those stipends are eliminated entirely.  There is no one in this category that would be getting Stipends or will get Stipends.  Is there something in some other division or some other category?  There could be and it would probably be best to address it when the next salary Ordinance comes around, in this particular case.

Paul Wertz:  That is the reason I am asking, whether in November there would be another one of these things.

Richard P. Wolfe II:   I don’t expect so, because as I understand it, the reason that we need this, is the salary range is high enough to accommodate blending in of the Stipends and so we are killing two birds with one stone so to speak by increasing the range and merging in of the Stipends and eliminating the Stipends as a separate thing.

Mayor Strine:  That is a legitimate question but I think that our salary Ordinance is a piece of legislation that is forever changing.  And to say that this will never come up again.  Not this year, no.

Robert M. Valentine W2:   Cherie, we talked about this at that one meeting we had, and two of them had their level threes, and the other only had a level one.  So why does the guy with a level one have the same increase as the level three gets?

Cherie Helterbridle:  He didn’t.  He got the increase that is appropriate for his classification.  A level one person is not either.  Level one person you referred to fit within his salary range.  

Robert M. Valentine W2:  The IPP is not in it.  

Cherie Helterbridle:  They received the increase that was appropriate to their classification they have.  He is a class one and so he got the exact same amount that would be equal to an AFSCME employee with a Class I.  

Robert M. Valentine W2:  My question is as I am looking down through it and the ranges have increased; his has increased the same as the others.

Cherie Helterbridle:  The range has nothing to do with it.  That is not what he is getting, that is just a range.  You are looking at a range.  But he is not getting that top salary there.  He is just getting a number that fits inside that range.

Richard P. Wolfe II:  There was one other position that the range was already high enough.  So that is why I said earlier that we are doing two things here.  We are expanding. In these three positions, the range wasn’t high enough to blend in the Stipend, so in order to accommodate it, it was necessary in these three and one other position it wasn’t but the Stipends are being eliminated as to all of those positions in this employment category.

Robert M. Valentine W2:  When we talked about it, I just wanted to make sure that the guys with the threes got more than the one.  

Cherie Helterbridle:  If you know the exact amount each one of them is getting or the exact increase for each one; I thought that was on the information that I had sent to you in the earlier report.  Do you need me to review that?

Robert M. Valentine W2:  No that is fine.  I just wanted to make sure I understand why you are doing it this way now.  

Move the Ordinance be passed on the first reading by Ruth Detrow, seconded by Robert L. Valentine Ward 1 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 Ward 1, Robert M. Valentine Ward 2, Ruth Detrow, Paul
           Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Move to suspend the rules, 3 separate meetings, 3 separate nights, by Paul Wertz, sec-
onded by Glen Stewart, President of Council
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine Ward 1, Robert M. Valentine Ward 2, Ruth Detrow, Paul
          Wertz, Glen Stewart.

Move the Ordinance be passed by Glen Stewart, seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2.
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine 1, Robert M. Valentine 2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen
          Stewart.

Glen Stewart:  At this point in time, I would like to give a reminder again; we need to get questions to Roger Gordon regarding the Maintenance Property Codes.  

I would propose that we adjourn to Executive Session.  The Executive Session this evening will cover two areas, one is the potential purchase of property and the second area we will be discussing is potential or imminent litigation.  We will take no action in the Executive Session.  When we come back into our Special Session, we will reconvene and adjourn and there will be no further actions taken tonight.  

Motion to adjourn to 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.

Adjourned in to Executive Session at 7:12 pm.

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

Adjourned Executive Session at 8:35 pm.

Move back into Special Session:

Motion to adjourn Special Session by Paul Wertz, seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2
Ayes: Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2, Ruth Detrow, Paul Wertz, Glen Stewart


Adjournment at 8:36 pm


                                        Submitted by
                                        Valarie F. Bishoff
                                        Clerk of Council