Ashland City Council


MINUTES FOR THE REGULAR SESSION OF COUNCIL
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 7:00 p.m.
Council Chambers



Council President Stephen Stuart called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

ROLL CALL


Ward 3:           Ruth Detrow        Present
Ward 4            Sandra Tunnell        Present
At-large           Stephen Stuart        Present
Ward 1:           Robert L. Valentine    Present
Ward 2:           Robert M. Valentine    Present

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

MINUTES:  
(a)    Work Session 1/14/10  (Priorities 2010)
(b)    Regular/Executive Session 1/19/10

No corrections.

Move to accept the Minutes from Work Session 1/14/10   by Robert M. Valentine W2, seconded by Robert L. Valentine W1.
     Ayes:   Ruth Detrow, Sandra Tunnell, Stephen Stuart, Robert L. Valentine, Robert M. Valentine.

     Motion carried.

Move to accept the Minutes from Regular/Executive Session 1/19/10 by Robert L. Valentine W1, seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2.
    Ayes: Ruth Detrow, Sandra Tunnell, Stephen Stuart, Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2.

    Motion carried.

Legislation:
     Ordinances:
    Ord. No. #  2-10
    Item #    (a)  AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE MAYOR TO ADVERTISE FOR
                                BIDS AND TO ENTER INTO CONTRACTS FOR THE PURCHASE OF SUPPLIES AND MA-
                                TERIALS FOR THE CITY OF ASHLAND, OHIO; AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.
 
Moved for non-reading in full by Ruth Detrow, 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:  Ruth Detrow, Sandra Tunnell, Stephen Stuart, Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2.

Shane Kremser:  This is an ordinance for the 2010 public bidding for supplies and materials for the city.  The Engineering Department put together quantities with the assistance of Jerry Mack and Mike Hunter.  

Questions or comments?

Mayor Stewart:  This is an annual process.

Stephen Stuart:  I am just surprised at some of the quantities.

Shane Kremser:  One thing we had changed was that we added pre-cast concrete catch basins to the list rather than always buying them here and there, or forming them up.  It makes it a little more efficient and we can get a better price that way.

Moved by Robert L. Valentine W,  seconded by Robert M. Valentine W2 that the Ordinance be passed on the first reading.
    Ayes:  Ruth Detrow, Sandra Tunnell, Stephen Stuart, Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2.

Moved by Stephen Stuart, seconded by Ruth 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:  Ruth Detrow, Sandra Tunnell, Stephen Stuart, Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2.

Moved by Ruth Detrow, seconded by Robert L. Valentine W1 that the Ordinance be passed.
    Ayes:  Ruth Detrow, Sandra Tunnell, Stephen Stuart, Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2.

    Motion carried.

      Resolutions: None
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
WARD REPORTS:  

Ward 4:        Sandra H. Tunnell
    No report.

Ward 2            Robert M. Valentine
(a) Thanks to Mr. Wolfe.  He took care of a large trashcan problem for me on West Main Street.

Ward 1            Robert L. Valentine
(a)    I had gotten an email from a constituent in my ward and what the concern was--  I do not think they receive the Mansfield paper--  but the concern was regarding the Adult Store on Route 13, Interstate 71.  She had heard what had happened there and a councilman over in Mansfield was involved in this and stated that he did not know too much about it.  The implication was that if we had a way to do something about it.  The concern was if we have anything on the books that would protect our city from something like this?  I went to Rick Wolfe and Rick updated me.  What I found out was that we had an ordinance passed in 1995 that establishes what our perrogatives are and what can be done and what cannot be done.  The people were thinking what happens if someone wants to put one in our city?  What kind of control do we have?  That was an ordinance in 1995, number 67-95.  It states what we can do and what we cannot do.  It might be a good idea for me to read that because I think for me to specifically quote everything would be difficult.   We had an ordinance passed in 1995 that states the PURPOSE AND INTENT:  It identifies the Adult Book Store or Adult Video Store.  City Council only controls the above if within the city limits.  The provisions in this chapter which means the one I am quoting from have neither the purpose nor effect of imposing a limitation or restriction on the content of any communicative materials, including any sexually oriented material.  Similarly, it is not the intent nor effect of this chapter to restrict or deny access by adults to sexually oriented materials protected by the First Amendment or to deny access by the distributors and exhibitors of sexually oriented entertainment to their intended market.   The point is, we cannot prevent, we can regulate.  Am I correct in what I am saying here Rick?

Richard P. Wolfe II:  Yes.

Robert L. Valentine W1:  I understand the concern.  One point to mention again is the idea that it has to be within the city limits.  We do have something on the books.  We have to understand this is protected by the First Amendment.

Ward 3                 Ruth Detrow
    No report.

Councilman at –Large/President     Stephen Stuart
No report.


OLD BUSINESS:  

Robert M. Valentine W2:  I have one thing.  There was a letter to the editor.  I think it was a former preacher in the city.  He looked at our list of priorities before it was dated and we just had a session where everyone just brought up what we wanted to look at this year.  I think number 20 was the corridors.  He said that was rated too low.  I thought, we did not do it yet.  Yell at us when we are done doing it.  He jumped the gun.  That was not our final list.  I wanted to clarify that.  That was our brainstorm list.

Stephen Stuart :  We should have the list, I suspect of our ratings done and that can be identified at the next meeting.

Questions or discussion?

NEW BUSINESS: None.

FINANCE DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS:
Larry Paxton:   We continue to work on the 2010 appropriations, working with the Mayor and the division directors to formulate the budget and we hope to, if everything goes well, to try to have that to you at our next meeting.  There will also be a couple of new funds we need to create.  You will see those ordinances coming to you.  

Questions or comments?
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
MAYOR’S COMMENTS:   
Mayor Stewart:  I want to make sure that Council and Directors-- we have sent out 43 invitations to a special meeting and Rick has advised me that probably the right way to handle our meeting next Thursday night would be to go ahead and make that a Special meeting.  Is that correct Rick?  We will not take any action.  Those of us that can attend will be going down to hear the presentation on the Canal District that was presented about three weeks ago through some business people.  I think it has a great deal of merit.  I really like the idea of it.  It is a wonderful thing to have someone thinking outside the box and looking at our downtown and beyond.  That is next Thursday night, 7:00 p.m and that will be at the former Gilbert Warehouse on South Street, at the corner of South and Luther and you go in off of South Street entrance.  Thursday 2-4-2010 at 7:00 p.m.  I think it will be time well spent just to see the ideas and the effort that has gone into it.  Bob you will be there?  Sandra you will be there? Ruth you will be there?  You will be gone.   So there will be three of us.  Three Council people there.  And then I have invited all of the division directors to be there and numerous other people.  I hope we have a respectable turnout there. It is not an easy thing to do.  

Richard P. Wolfe II:  For official purposes, we will declare that as a Special meeting of Council because there will be a majority of you there and if at sometime later on down the road, Council takes some kind of action that emanates from this meeting then, again all actions and participation of council have been at open meetings.  For Council’s purposes.  

Stephen Stuart:  So Valarie you will notify the media of that?  

Valarie Bishoff, Clerk of Council: Yes.  

Mayor Stewart:  As Larry has said, we are working on the budget.  Again the General Fund takes a huge amount, about 90% of our time.  But all of the elements of the budget/appropriations are very important.  We are working on that.  We have made some pretty significant progress last week. We are moving forward on that.

Stephen Stuart:  John, it appears that you are ready.

John Hoornbeek:  We have gotten pulled together. Thank you for your patience.

PRESENTATION ON EfficientGovNow:  With John Hoornbeek and Kerry McComber as speakers.

John Hoornbeek:  I just want to take a moment to thank you all for setting aside a little bit of time in your meeting today to hear from us regarding our center that is based at Kent State University and the services it provides to local governments in our region.  And we also want to share with you information about a grant program that has been made available by the Fund For Our Economic Future.  I think the way Miss McComber and I orchestrated our comments this evening would be that I will go through a few slides letting you know who we are and ways in which we work with local governments, both in our region and throughout the state, and then I will turn it over to Miss McComber to share information with you on the new grant program.  Then, we will have time for comments or questions for you to share with us and we will do our best to respond.

As I had mentioned, my name is John Hoornbeek and I serve as Director of the Center for Public Administration and Public Policy at Kent State University.  We have been around for a little over a quarter of a century, since the late 1970’s and we are devoted to improving public and nonprofit sector performance in the State of Ohio and throughout our region.  We have a small staff.  Both myself and Miss McComber are involved on largely a full time basis trying to provide services to governments and nonprofit entities in our area.  We have a number of faculty members from Kent State University and a number of professionals with expertise in different areas who are also available to us and work with us on a number of different projects and activities.  In addition we have graduate students and undergraduate students who work on the staff both contributing in a very cost effective kind of way and getting experience as they go.  We have done a fair amount of work in an effort to enable local governments to work more effectively with one another.  We provide technical assistance to local governments.  We have done small studies for local governments on emergency service consolidation.  We have operated a number of different training programs for multiple jurisdictions.  We had the pleasure of interacting with Ms. Valarie Bishoff getting set for the session today.  Valarie has been a part of our Clerk’s training program in the past and is moving forward in that program, even as we speak.  We have provided forums on stimulus funds that have come into the state so local governments are aware of funds that are available to them.  We have provided assistance to the Efficient Government Now program in the technical assistance area.  We have done research.  Those are some of the topic areas that we have worked in, Economic Development, Government Collaboration, the use of the World Wide Web amongst local governments and modern energy practices.  And we do, as I had mentioned a moment ago--   we have a training program that is starting just in a couple of weeks for elected officials.  I mention it to this group because you all are a part of the potential target audience there.  We have a location at our Stark campus and I would invite any of you if you are interested to talk with Kerry or me or connect with us in some way if you would like to sign up for that course.  It brings you together with other elected officials in order to share experiences and ideas that can help you move your communities forward.  As I had mentioned, we do run a program for the Municipal Clerks each fall and we run a program for the Mayor’s Court Clerks which occurs in the spring.  These are some of the activities that are on our agenda right now.  We are developing some case studies around collaborations that have occurred in the northeast Ohio region.  With the idea that we will identify things that are working for certain communities with the hope that other communities may be able to benefit from that experience.  We have worked on local government charter and comprehensive plan development projects.  We are serving as a fiscal agent on the EGM 2 program which Kerry will speak with you about and we are doing work with KSU faculty in a number of areas that are relevant to both state and local operations.  Our hope is to enable a region and a series of local governments within it that can work cooperatively to the benefit of all.  We do want to play a roll in sharing experiences across jurisdictions and in the long run hope to improve the performance of all government entities in our region and in our state as a result of those efforts.  The Fund For Our Economic Future is an organization that is making a grant program opportunity available to you all and to share information about that grant opportunity in particular.  I am going to turn it over to Miss McComber and let you proceed.  

Kerry McComber:  Thank you all and thank you John.  The Fund For Economic Future has a mission to strengthen our region’s economic competitiveness.  Have you all heard of the Fund for Economic Future?

Mayor Stewart:  Yes.

Kerry McComber: You have? Very good.  So you know of the 16 county region which Ashland is a part of the region.  Together there are 60 voting members and they have raised more than 16 million dollars.  We have a map of the 16 counties and what those statistics play out to be; $170 billion dollars.  Four major categories, Business growth and attraction, Town Development, Government collaboration and efficiency and that is where the Efficient Gov Now program comes in.  They’re looking at ways that they can support governments that are currently working on collaborative projects.  Some of the other activities that advanced northeast Ohio has supported, and you probably have some familiar areas with those as well.  How many have heard The Voices and Choices who have participated?   Good.  Where did you participate?  Was it here locally?

Mayor Stewart: No.  It was one of the gatherings in the Cleveland or northern area and we were, at that point in time, I believe we were identifying some of the choices.  It was very early on, maybe three years ago.

Kerry McComber:  Right, I am thinking four to five even.  

Mayor Stewart:  We were trying to break down what we were going to focus on and who needed to be heard now.  

Kerry McComber:  They did an excellent job.  They gathered some 20,000 people together through the activity of Voices and Choices, and they have, basically, huge town hall meetings.   They gave everyone the opportunity to say what they thought would move northeast Ohio forward in a more competitive nature.  One of the things that came out of that is the economic indicators.  That is being updated on a regular basis by the Wright State University.  They have been tracking how the public is responding to regional approaches.  I don’t think that this will surprise anybody.  82% believe that working together is better for the governments who would collaborate and perhaps even consolidate.  67% favor government consolidation.  A lot of people have in the past collaborated to improve roads, sewers. I am sure that you work with other cities and townships. Do you have examples of collaborative projects going on right now for Ashland?

Mayor Stewart:  There has been some collaboration on snow removal and improving roads.  We have worked a bit with the county on that some time back.  

Kerry McComber:  I think that kind of collaboration and cooperation has been going on for years.  What we are trying to do now is actually measure it, and actually come to terms with it in cost savings, efficiency measurements.  The fire and police services really are getting a lot of attention especially with dispatch services.  You are smiling, does that mean something special to you?

Mayor Stewart: Well,  we are in the midst of it.

Kerry McComber:  Oh are you?  Excellent.

Mayor Stewart:  Not the actual collaboration.  We are trying to understand what is the right thing to do.  In other words, the feasibility of it.

Kerry McComber:  So have you completed the study?

Mayor Stewart:  No, as a matter of fact, that may be an area that we will apply for funding through this opportunity to do a feasibility study between two counties; possibly a third county and several agencies.  

John Hoornbeek:  There is discussion then on going about collaboration between multiple fire departments and police or just the fire?

Mayor Stewart:  Fire and police, also sheriff.

Ruth Detrow: 911 and whatever comes after that.  

John Hoornbeek:  Okay, so it would be a dispatch, as well as police, but the first responders of all different varieties.

Mayor Stewart:  Not a done deal, but a study to make sure if it is the right thing to do and what needs to be addressed.  

John Hoornbeek:  One of the things that I know the fund is looking for as they move forward with their review of abstracts and grant proposals is for projects that have reached the point where people have found elements that are going to be implementable.  So as they review project ideas one of the things they are very much encouraging amongst local governments and encouraging us to share with you all and others are those portions of your ideas where you have reached the conclusion that there should be some greater collaboration and that collaboration, in turn, can yield savings of cost in economic development opportunities for you.  I don’t know if there are any elements of the investigations that you have been doing thus far that are at the point where you are not only wanting to study them, but also implement some aspect of what you are doing.  Is there anything in that category as yet or not?

Mayor Stewart:  I am not prepared to say that we are ready to implement anything.  That is a challenge.  It is a real challenge.

Kerry McComber:  It is certainly one that is being investigated by a lot of communities.  We are starting to really learn some things from people who have gone forth and started to teach us that.  Another one that is really gaining a lot of attention is collaboration with public school districts.

Mark Burgess:  Do you have a list of those communities that are working on collaborations with dispatch?

John Hoornbeek:  We have several that we are aware of that we can share with you.  Yes.  We have a group we know, in fact one of the people that is very closely affiliated with our center was very centrally involved in an effort to create a collaboration among several local governments, right near Kent on a dispatch center. They actually did proceed in bringing those communities together and share a dispatch center and they have been able to save a fair amount of money doing that; well into several hundred thousand dollars a year on that process.  We are also aware that there are other groups that are moving forward in that direction so if we could get your name and number or whomever is interested here, we would be happy to put you in touch with those individuals.  In fact, we could have one of the persons that we know who have worked in this area give you all a call and share their experiences with you if that would be helpful.  

Kerry McComber:  And this support to change is growing.  They have figures from 2005 to what is happening now.  It is more recent 2009 and 2010.  So you see it went from 27% in 2005 up to 54% .  People are actually starting to see results and seeing the tangible benefits.  It is getting stronger support.  Positive government research.  This goes back to the beginning where we were talking about $61 million for northeast Ohio’s economy.  $16 million of that is going for government entities. This is the slide that always gets people’s attention.  Our population is the green line at the bottom 1990 to 2002.  Basically it is flat.  But the red line, the top line, our local government spending,  70% increase.

Mayor Stewart:  Do have any specifics on what drove that increase, such as mandates?  

Kerry McComber:  The unfunded ones?

John Hoornbeek:  I am sure that is a piece of it.  I think there have been increases in human services expenditures. Increases in the school expenditures as well.  There is a report that details that. It is on the website of the Fund For Our Economic Future.  We would be happy to share that website with you and actually get you a copy of the report.  

Kerry McComber:  So here is Ashland County, 27 local governments on the 2002 census.  Total spending in 1992 versus 2002.  75% increase.  

Stephen Stuart:  You are including in local governments school districts as well?

John Hoornbeek:  I believe that is the case, yes.

Kerry McComber:  I believe that is true as well.

Mayor Stewart:  Is there a detailed report on that also?  

John Hoornbeek:  It will all be in this one report.

Kerry McComber:  And this is available through the fund. Chris Thompson and we have information on that.
So this talks about the per capita of government spending and you are seeing a 15% increase per person.   For comparison, there is Medina County. They are at 75% increase per capita spending.  Also,  Wayne County, a 12% increase.  Not surprising.  The fund continues with the Regional Prosperity Initiative as well as the  Efficient Gov Now program.  They have completed round one last year and provided $300,000 dollars to three projects.  The way this ultimately works is that the public has the voting rights on the top projects and you can vote in a number of different ways.  On-line, send in your vote.  So it is really a matter of pulling in citizen involvement.

Richard P. Wolfe II:  How is the smaller county like Ashland ever going to compete with when the public is voting. We are dealing with Stark County and Cuyahoga County, etc.?  What is the point?  We are never going to compete with that.

Kerry McComber:  We did hear that.  We did an analysis of Efficient Gov Now online and we did hear that a lot.  They have made some changes in response to those concerns.  This year there will be one additional grant program just for smaller communities and it is at a lesser amount.  It is $33,000 dollars but it will be earmarked for just the smaller communities.  Have you all heard about the winning proposals from Efficient Gov Now one?  The first round,  Rolling on the River--  it is basically an economic development project and it is revitalizing the Brownfield area, along the river corridor. Westshore Regional Fire District.  And you are right, it is really hard to compete with Cuyahoga and Lorain Counties.   But it is all about getting the word out and getting your voice heard and getting people involved.  

John Hoornbeek:  I will just make an observation on that.  There was concern early on expressed that Cuyahoga County was going to get all of these things because Cuyahoga County has a lot of people.  But that did not turn out to be the case.  Folks in Mahoning County were the number one and two projects if I am not mistaken.  There was a significant effort by the community there to get people engaged in the process, and they produced more votes than Cuyahoga County did.  That is because they got people behind the particular projects that they had in place.  There was concern like what is being expressed here, I think legitimately so smaller communities can end up at a disadvantage in this kind of situation and that is why they did go ahead and create a separate category for smaller communities so at least one smaller community would be at a competitively advantageous position in that process.  Clearly, count population is a major potential advantage, but at the end of the day, they count the votes like anything else and it is a matter of mobilizing people.  And the fact that Mahoning County was able to be the top vote getter, not for one project, but for two, as a result of the efforts it took, it does provide some suggestion on what could be done.

Mayor Stewart:  Will there be any changes that would eliminate the duplication of grants going to the same general governmental area?  

John Hoornbeek:  I am not aware that they have made that change.  These are two separate projects with two separate sets of communities involved with them.  I think they thought through those potential adjustments and they came to the conclusion that if they are a multiple communities or sense communities with separate projects that it doesn’t make sense to disqualify them.  That was the judgment that was made.

Ruth Detrow:  So these monies are for studies, feasibility type studies?  What exactly are they?

John Hoornbeek:  The intent is that these would be in cases where there has been some judgment to proceed with a collaboration of some sort.  We can help you find anything that you might have ideas about that would fall into what they call the, “implementation category”.  I believe some of these efforts where there are studies on how collaboration could be undertaken would be eligible as long as there has been a determination that the collaboration will proceed.  What they are trying to avoid is a situation where people do lots of studies and what results is a whole lot of disagreement about the study and the study doesn’t result in anything.  Quite frankly, there have been a number of cases where that has occurred.  Where people have done studies of various things and the principles then disagree over what they mean, and so forth.  That is the rationale behind the judgments that they have made in this area.

Robert L. Valentine W1:  I am curious.  How does the voting take place?  

John Hoornbeek: It is interesting.  There are paper ballots and they do them electronically also.  I think they encourage people to go on the web and do electronic votes.  They take place during a one-month period.  Last year in the first round, it was during the month of July.  This year it is during the month of May that those votes will take place and you can vote either electronically or by paper and they do have steps in place to assure that I don’t go vote 25 times.  

Robert L. Valentine W1:   Can anyone from the 16 counties vote?

John Hoornbeek:  Yes.

Robert L. Valentine W1:  So it isn’t just like Mahoning alone. If they want to push their project, the votes are from the 16 counties?

John Hoornbeek :  If you want to get the folks from Mahoning County to support a project here in Ashland, it could be done.  

Mark Burgess:  Do you charge for your services?

John Hoornbeek:  We are in a position where we can help you think things through.  The fund has enabled us through some support to us, to come forward and help you within limits.  So we would be happy to sit down with you, or talk by phone see if we can do things to help you move forward in this area.  That is why we are here in part.  They did enlist us because they had known we had worked with local governments in the past.  They wanted to have some group that could provide assistance to local governments and we are in a position where we can provide some of that assistance.  We are obviously available across a 16 county region.  We have limited people with limited resources, but we are certainly willing to sit down with you and work through ideas on any projects that you may have.  In fact, I very much welcome that opportunity.  

Mayor Stewart:  If I am not mistaken, the project that was submitted and forgive me because I do not remember the detail, but Mark probably does. I believe our project came in fourth last year.  It is like Win, Place and Show?

Kerry McComber:  Here is your timetable.  You will see that the project abstracts are due February 26, 2010.  That is a 250 word abstract, so chances are you have already got that written down somewhere describing your project and then final proposals are April 19, 2010.  So you have some time to work on that.  Then as Dr. Hoornbeek said, the voting will take place in May of this year 2010.  Winners will be announced in June 2010.  

These are some of the potential projects that they are looking for; shared Economic Development staff, merger of city/county departments, public health, combined safety forces and that speaks to the 911 dispatch.  The shared administrative has really been successful.  Criteria-- you need two or more governmental partners.  Money is for implementation, not planning.  We would like to see this implemented within two years.  We want tangible results.   You can contact us. You can contact the Fund For Our Economic Future Efficient GovNow.  

Questions or comments?

Robert L. Valentine W1:  How are you financed?

John Hoornbeek:  We are financed through Kent State University.  There is a portion of our budget that is based on state funds.  There are portions of our budget that are based on grants that come in for us to do research and technical assistance projects, and there is a portion of our funding that comes in for fees from training courses of various kinds we operate.  So we have some state funding, and some grant funding, some fee based project funding.  We do have a relationship with the fund where they are providing us with some funding to support the kind of technical assistance that we were just talking about so we can help them convey to local governments what this program is about as well as share information about collaboration throughout the region, some of which are working and some that are not.  I mean at the end of the day I think it is a presumption of our efforts as well as the funds that there are some advantages to enabling local governments to work together in certain areas.  I would not pretend that every collaboration is a perfect one or needs to proceed just because you call it collaboration.  Our hope is through time and through experience and study that they are going to start sorting through the kinds of things that can work successfully and some of the kinds of things that don’t work as successfully as others.

Robert L. Valentine W1:  You said that the money comes from the state.  Your grants are from either state, federal or some project?

John Hoornbeek:  You got it.  You have summarized it is well as I could summarize it.

Kerry McComber:  One of the opportunities that are coming up next week is a forum to discuss intergovernmental collaborations and that will be held at the Stark campus as well.  Valarie came to the University Center when we came to training.  We will have two projects to discuss at that forum.  One is on Stormwater Conveyance in Stark County and then another speaker will be from Kent at the development office talking about JEDS.  Brad Whitehead, who is President of the fund, will also be there to talk more specifically.

John Hoornbeek:  Our hope is to be able to identify cases where collaborations are working; share information with others with the idea you all can learn from your colleagues throughout the region.  

Sandra Tunnell:  When was the money from the first round distributed?

John Hoornbeek:  This past fall the voting took place in July and the winners that Kerry just shared with you were announced in August.  Then the grants were set up between the funds from that fund, through Kent State,  to the local governments involved,  in September and October.

Sandra Tunnell:  And does someone measure how well it actually works after all their trouble?

John Hoornbeek:  It is interesting you raise that.  I have it in a file on my desk, the first draft, the case study around the nine proposals that were funded.  We are also going out with a survey at the mid point of the year, about June, where we are going to go to all of the those proposals to see who has moved forward with their collaborative works and what their views are on the success of both collaborations.  That will then give rise to a report of some kind that we will share with the region on what is coming from these kinds of efforts.  I will call your attention to, we did have a project that we worked on with the Ohio Commission on Local Government Reform just this past fall and we released a report that is on our website of a number of collaborations that we have become aware of over the past year of effort.  We surveyed those collaborators, tried to discern what they thought was working, what the opticals are what they need to have available to proceed effectively.  The findings of that research are encapsulated in that report that is on the website.  We would also be willing to share that report with you as well so you can start to think things through.  What we did find, and I will only take 20 seconds to share with you-- a number of the collaborations that we had identified actually were becoming operational and a number of the folks that responded to our surveys indicated that they felt that there were positive fiscal impacts on their community, economic development impacts and service improvement impacts.  That is what we were told by those collaborations that had actually moved forward.  Roughly 2/3 of those surveyed had in fact either put their collaboration into action or were in the process of actually doing that as we were administering the surveys.  

Robert L. Valentine W1:   In kind of reacting to what Rick said,  and I understand his question-- Mayor, what program do we have where each year-- it is every year or every year and a half, we get about 1 million dollars for projects? What is that program?  The county is involved in it.

Mayor Stewart;  Issue II.

Robert L. Valentine W1:  The thing I like about Issue II, and it has been a while, but I served on that committee and the thing they did there is that you have larger counties and smaller counties but they worked together and it was based on need.  I understand what you are saying about the voting but that worries me.  I know what happens.  You know, “if you vote for me, I will vote for you”.  I understand and I think it is a good program but I would just like to protect the interest of the area that I represent.  So that was what Rick was saying.  I agree with that.

John Hoornbeek:   I would like to respond.  I think you are raising a valid point.  I will share with you the process that they go through.  There is kind of a two-phase process.  There were 65 abstracts submitted on the EGM 1 program.  There was a review undertaken by the group of people that were brought on by the Fund of Review the abstracts in relation to the criteria for the program.  There were about 40 of them that were found to be consistent with the criteria of the program.  Those 40 were then assessed by a community of individuals that looked at issues associated with need, magnitude of impact and so forth.  From that review, emerged nine finalists.  The vote took place across those nine finalists.  The idea there was, I think similar to the point that you are making,  that there has to be some screen that takes place so that people who are in a position to make judgments about the merit of the proposal relative to the needs can go ahead and do that.  Then the judgment was that any of these nine projects are pretty darn good projects so if we end up with three winners that is a positive thing.  So I think that was an effort to respond with the kind of thinking that you are going through.  It doesn’t guarantee that all nine of those get funding unfortunately but it does mean that the proposals that were funded are amongst a group that were felt to be meritorious.

Robert L. Valentine W1:  They can present the project the next year?

John Hoornbeek:  They can come back again.  

Robert L. Valentine W1:  Well that is what happens with this one.  The same thing in that respect.  You move up on the list.

John Hoornbeek:  Well I think there are some positive things.  When people get to know your project, they are more likely to come out. People are in a position where they can get people to come out more effectively.  To be quite honest, my perception of the interest here is that the fund wants to enable people to start talking about these kinds of things and do so in an educated way.  So people see opportunities where they exist and hopefully over the long term could discriminate between cases where there are true opportunities, and the cases where people are wasting their time.  That is the long run.

Richard P. Wolfe II:  Who makes up this community of people who do the sifting and evaluating and so forth?

John Hoornbeek:  They asked a group of people from philanthropic organizations who were accustomed to reviewing grant proposals and they also brought in some folks that were involved in local government.  

Richard P. Wolfe II:  Who is the “they”  that you keep referring to?

John Hoornbeek:  “They”, is the Fund For Our Economic Future, which is a group of philanthropic organizations from the region that come together and invest in funds to try to encourage the development of the northeast Ohio economy.

Kerry McComber:  Kent State University is one of the members or organizations.  It goes from large organizations to private foundations.

John Hoornbeek:  In the financial world, we are one of the smaller members.

Richard P. Wolfe II:   Is there a list of all these members?

Kerry McComber:  Yes.  It is on the website and I have it on my desk if you want.  The same three projects that won in EGM 1 cannot submit the same proposal for EGM 2.  It has to be a different project.

John Hoornbeek:  But those six other finalists and anybody who submitted an abstract is free to go again and probably have some advantage of doing so.  

Mayor Stewart:  I think there is a really “bright side” to this.  I don’t disagree with ”we are a little fish in a big pond”, but the opportunity is-- this is money that wasn’t there two years ago or three years ago so it is an additional small pool of money that can make a difference with if we are fortunate enough to be selected and win.  This is money we wouldn’t have had to do a project with.  I can beat it up and criticize how it is handed out but it is money that wasn’t there and available for projects such as we are speaking of.  There is a very bright side to it also.

John Hoornbeek:  We are happy to be of assistance to any or all of you if we can do so; clarifying what the program does or doesn’t do, getting you information, following up with questions that have arisen here and helping you prepare an abstract if that would be something you would like us to do.

Stephen Stuart:  Kerry and John, we thank you very much.

John Hoornbeek:  Thank you.   Appreciate your time.

Mayor Stewart:  I have another comment.  I think all of you received a draft of an ordinance possibility that we first had through CRA’s pre 1994/post 1994 and a map in the back of it I believe.  I think it would be appropriate to have a Work Session following a council meeting and I can see where it could take 30-45 minutes to go through it and explain it.  I would like Evan Scurti to be a part of that.  Rick has looked through it very diligently and has made some recommendations and I think we have cleaned up the reading material but there are a lot of changes that are in red.  I am not presenting this or actions tonight obviously, but I think it is something that Evan and I have been looking at for some period of time and I think it would warrant Council’s attention in the near future.  

Stephen Stuart:  How would you feel about having a Work Session following the next Council meeting on this topic?

Robert L. Valentine W1:  I have one question.  I read through this, one question, whomever is in charge, that someone who takes over, is that a paid position?

Mayor Stewart:  Not an additional paid position Bob.  It may become part of someone’s job skills.  

Stephen Stuart:  Would that be acceptable to you all for having a Work Session upon the completion of the next Council meeting in February? If no objections we will do that.
                                                                                                  
Comments or Questions from the Audience:  (items that are not on the Agenda).

Doug Sloan, 200 East Walnut Street, Ashland, Ohio 44805:  A neighbor had built an overhang 36 inches out which goes over my fence and hits the bush and when rain freezes and falls down.  The code is 24 inches.  I would just like for them to be able to put it back to 24 inches.  

Mayor Stewart:  What is your address again?

Doug Sloan:  200 East Walnut Street along Arthur Street.  The overhang is on 425 Arthur Street.  

Stephen Stuart:  What did they build again?  

Doug Sloan :    The old awning was 36 inches and it fell down and did some damage and they rebuilt it here recently and the code is 24 inches and they build it to 36 inches.  

Shane Kremser:   You are citing a code, where did you find that?

Doug Sloan:  I had asked Roger what the code was for the overhang for over a door and he said it was 24 inches out.

Richard P. Wolfe II:   I don’t think this is anything appropriate for Council at this point.  Engineering has been working on this. Building and Zoning has been working on this. My office has been involved.  This has been an ongoing matter in a number of different ways.  Frankly it is a neighbor dispute.   I am at a point where as far as I am concerned if neither of the parties are happy with the respective neighbor, they need to take it to a private attorney and handle it through civil court.  It has been an ongoing issue.  There are problems on both sides of the fence, no pun intended, and I don’t think there is anything that is necessary or appropriate to be done by the City at this point and especially not by Council at this stage.  I think Mr. Sloan needs to consult a private attorney if he is not happy with the status of matters.  

Doug Sloan:  I brought it before you because it was code, so thank you very much.

Comments or discussion?

Motion to Adjourn Regular Session by Robert L. Valentine W1, seconded by Sandra Tunnell.
    Ayes: Ruth Detrow, Sandra Tunnell, Stephen Stuart, Robert L. Valentine W1, Robert M. Valentine W2.

Adjournment at 7:58  p.m.


                
                                Submitted by
                                Valarie F. Bishoff
                                Clerk of Council