THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2007

REGULAR MEETING

7:30 P.M.

1. ROLL CALL. Mr. Smith called the meeting to order at 7:30 P.M., with roll call as follows: Mr. Sabatino, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Fix were present. No members were absent. Others present were Mayor Shaver, Judy Gilleland, Lynda Yartin, Linda Fersch, Ted Hackworth, Carol Carter, Fred Holmes, Bob Slingluff, and others.

2. A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF February 21, 2007, Work Session. Mr. Fix moved to approve; Mr. Sabatino seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Fix, Mr. Sabatino, and Mr. Smith voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 4-0.

B. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF February 21, 2007, Regular Meeting. Mr. Fix stated he would like to amend the minutes to reflect on Page 7, the second paragraph, to have a sentence included at the end of that paragraph that noted he disagreed with Mr. Ricketts on his client’s knowledge on how the City does business. Mr. Sabatino moved to approve with that amendment; Mr. Fix seconded the motion. Roll call was taken on the minutes as amended with Mr. Sabatino, Mr. Fix, Mr. Smith, and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 4-0.

3. Presentation by Fred Holmes of Volunteer Energy Services, Inc. Mr. Holmes stated he was representing Volunteer Energy Services, Inc., and they provide natural gas services. Mr. Holmes gave a power point presentation (Attachment 1 to these minutes.)

Mayor Shaver stated he would like to submit to Finance Committee an Annexation Agreement for consideration, and all Committee members have received a copy of this agreement. Mayor Shaver stated this is an annexation agreement on approximately three acres of land that would have professional office space. Mr. Smith stated he would like to delay considering this agreement until at least next month. Mr. Smith moved to Table the Annexation Agreement; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Mr. Smith stated Mayor Shaver was also going to present a Memorandum of Understanding and he would like to separate these two items. He stated he would like to consider the Memorandum of Understanding this evening, and continue discussion on the annexation agreement at the next meeting. Mr. Fix stated he understood the Township had put some kind of a deadline on the annexation agreement, and Mr. Smith stated the Township had indicated they would like a response within 21 days. Mr. Sabatino stated he had asked the law director about that and his comment was that they generally disregard things like that. Roll call was taken on the motion to Table with Mr. Sabatino, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Hammond, and Mr. Fix voting “Yea.” Motion to Table passed, 4-0.

Mayor Shaver stated he would also like to submit to Finance Committee a Memorandum of Understanding to Create JEDDs, and stated he would like to have Finance Committee move this out of Committee to the full Council for a vote. Mayor Shaver stated this Memorandum of Understanding is between five entities, Bloom Township, Violet Township, City of Lancaster, City of Pickerington, and the City of Pickerington. He stated the purpose of the agreement is to indicate that the parties will work in the future on economic development throughout the Route 33 corridor. He stated we want to present a united front and all of the entities to be involved in the discussions and share in the revenue. Mayor Shaver stated he felt it was important as the Route 33 corridor is developed, that there be cooperation between all the government entities. He stated each JEDD or CEDA would be addressed on their individual terms. Mayor Shaver stated the other entities will be presenting this Memorandum of Understanding to their Councils or Trustees so he would like to start this process going. Mr. Smith stated he understood the City of Lancaster has already had one reading this differs from that one because this has five signatories as opposed to three, with Pickerington and Bloom Township being added. Mr. Smith stated he would then assume Lancaster would amend their agreement at the next reading so all five entities would be voting on the same agreement. He further stated as he read the agreement, it does not obligate us to anything. Mayor Shaver stated that was correct, it is an indication that the parties are going to cooperate in the future for economic development. Mr. Sabatino stated he felt this was a good way to approach it as when it comes to individual projects each entity would make a decision on their involvement based upon the merits of that project. Mr. Fix moved to approve the Memorandum of Understanding and forward to Council; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Mr. Smith stated he was initially concerned about the additional parties involved, but in thinking of it objectively it was just more people to share the infrastructure costs. He stated he now felt he liked having five parties involved instead of three. Mayor Shaver stated we would also have the ability to use the two percent income tax of Lancaster and Canal Winchester. Mr. Fix stated last year when the Mayor appointed him to work with the CEDA group, there were three objectives. To see whether or not Pickerington could participate in the existing CEDA, to work on the Violet Township agreement which we adopted a couple of months ago, and to take a look at the corridor all the way from the Franklin County line all the way down to the Lancaster line and include as many groups as possible in that process. He stated the Township has taken the initiative to push that third effort forward and he did not see how we could possibly lose in this. Mr. Fix stated he applauded the Mayor and others in working with the Township to make this happen. Mr. Hackworth clarified that there is no specific JEDD that is being considered right now. Mayor Shaver stated there are some JEDD discussions going on about different properties, so specific JEDDs may be coming very quickly. Mr. Sabatino stated this agreement still only obligated us to take a look at it, it does not obligate us to get into an agreement if it is not in our best interests to do so. Mr. Smith stated he felt this got us a seat at the table, and the next agreement would be a specific JEDD. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Fix, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Sabatino voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 4-0.

Mayor Shaver stated he was proposing to put two motions on the next Council agenda. He stated what he is trying to do is to put forward two different motions, each to be voted on by Council, to simply gauge the will of the Council concerning the proposed Charter amendment. He stated the first motion would be “Be it resolved that by a vote of the majority of Pickerington City Council the Council hereby supports the proposed Charter amendment on the May 8, 2007, ballot and hereby recommend that the voters adopt said Charter amendment. The Council further requests that the City Manager provide educational information to the voters concerning the proposed Charter amendment.” He stated the second is simply the opposite, that the majority of the City Council opposes the proposed Charter amendment and recommends that the voters reject said Charter amendment. He stated the last sentence meant that the City Manager would provide educational material to the public concerning the ramifications, in a neutral fashion, concerning the proposed Charter amendment. Mr. Smith stated he assumed the Mayor was giving this Committee advance notice of the motions he intended and Mayor Shaver stated that was correct and as all the Committee chair persons were present this evening he was just give them advance notice of his intention to put these motions on the agenda.

Mr. Smith moved for an Executive Session under Section 121.22(G)(1)(a), Matters involving an employee’s or public official’s appointment and Section 121.22(G)(2) Purchase or sale of public property; Mr. Fix seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Smith, Mr. Fix, Mr. Sabatino, and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 4-0.

Finance Committee adjourned into Executive Session at 8:25 P.M. and reconvened in open session at 8:47 P.M.

4. FINANCE DIRECTOR:

A. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance amending the 2006 appropriation, Ordinance 2006-164. Mrs. Fersch stated she had no appropriation requests this evening.

B. Finance Director’s Report: Mrs. Fersch stated she had provided a written report and she would answer any questions. Mr. Fix asked if it would be possible to forward the Vendors Report in excel rather than as a PDF file and Mrs. Fersch stated she would see if that could be done.

(1) 2006 Auditor Selection – Update. Mrs. Fersch stated the auditors will not be here until the last part of April or the first part of May.

Mrs. Fersch stated we are working with our current bank to allow people to pay their utility bill by an ACH debit so we would debit their accounts. She stated there would be no fee for this service. She stated we are also negotiating to allow utility bills to be paid by credit card, however, there will be a fee to the resident when doing that. She stated we hoped to have this in effect by mid-May.

5. PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT: Mrs. Fersch stated she hoped to have revisions to the Personnel Manual ready for this Committee to review in April.

Ms Gilleland stated Mr. Bob Slingluff was present and would like to make a few comments to the Committee. Mr. Smith stated if there were no objections he would recognize Mr. Slingluff at this time.

Mr. Slingluff stated he owns the Wright Road property and the purpose of his appearance this evening is to convey some information from Dave Dozer, the prospective developer of the property, that is in response to an article that appeared in the Pickerington Sun Times. Mr. Slingluff stated in reading that he had a feeling that there was some request from Dozer Development to ask that the City fund part of the cost of that development, and he assumed that was probably with respect to bringing utilities to the property. Mr. Slingluff stated Mr. Dozer had requested him to make it clear that he has not made such a request and wants to confirm that he expects to pay all costs associated with that development and there would be, to his mind, no expense connected with the development to be borne by either the Township or the citizens of the City of Pickerington. Mr. Slingluff stated further neither he nor Mr. Dozer has seen that agreement. Mr. Sabatino asked if this meant the Committee had an annexation agreement to discuss that the property owner does not have a copy of, and Mr. Smith stated Mrs. Yartin will provide him a copy of the agreement. Mr. Slingluff stated he was not sure if he had seen it or not. Mr. Smith stated the committee would welcome any comments or inputs over the next month. Mrs. Yartin provided a copy of the Annexation Agreement to Mr. Slingluff.

6. DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT:

A. Development Director’s Report. Ms Gilleland stated Mr. Hansley had provided a written report to the Committee. Mr. Sabatino stated Mr. Hansley had reported on the Drug Mart issue and he did not feel this solution would make much of a difference and might actually impede us if there ever is a better solution in getting the developer to participate whatever that final better solution may be. He stated he just wanted his opinion to be on the record. Mr. Sabatino stated he did not know if there was a better alternative at this point. Mr. Fix asked if Mr. Sabatino thought the better alternative would be to leave it as it is right now, and Mr. Sabatino stated rather than looking at it, particularly if the developer signs off on any further participation in an ultimate solution, he would say, yes. Mr. Smith stated all of the solutions considered were less than desirable, but this solved the problem of the left turn on Diley across three lanes of traffic. Mr. Smith stated this does remove that huge safety concern. Mr. Sabatino stated it would just shift that safety issue out onto S.R. 256.

B. Review and discussion of proposal by Violet Township on Wright Road property. Mr. Smith stated this had been tabled earlier in the meeting.

7. CHAIRMAN:

A. Review of Legal and Engineering services invoices. Mr. Smith ascertained there were no questions on the invoices.

8. OTHER BUSINESS:

A. General Communication to Residents. Mr. Smith stated he had planned on having a discussion about a survey, however, he felt this might be better as a work session topic for all of Council. He stated he would request this be removed from the agenda.

Mr. Smith moved to authorize the Mayor to execute an employment agreement with Judith A. Gilleland, as amended in Executive Session, and forward to Council; Mr. Fix seconded the motion. Mr. Sabatino stated he has some concerns he has discussed with Mr. Smith, and he would abstain from this vote pending the outcome of what the actual document looks like. Roll call was taken with Mr. Sabatino abstaining, and Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Fix voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

Ms Gilleland stated Mr. Smith had requested she check into the Child Advocacy Center of Fairfield County Memorandum of Understanding. Mr. Smith stated a representative had made a presentation at Council last month and requested we consider signing a Memorandum of Understanding. Ms Gilleland stated she had checked with our attorney and Chief of Police, and they were both supportive of the MOU should Council decide to adopt a resolution in support of it. Ms Gilleland stated it was her impression the resolution was for support only, not for a financial contribution. Mr. Smith moved to forward a Resolution to Council to authorize the City Manager to sign the Memorandum of Understanding with the Child Advocacy Center of Fairfield County; Mr. Fix seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Sabatino, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Fix voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 4-0.

Mr. Smith moved to forward legislation to Council authorizing the sale of 350 Diley Road; Mr. Fix seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Fix, Mr. Sabatino, and Mr. Smith voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 4-0.

9. MOTIONS:

A. Motion for Executive Session under Section 121.22(G)(1)(b), Matters involving an employee’s or public official’s employment, Section 121.22(G)(2), Purchase or sale of public property, Section 121.22(G)(3), Conference with law director regarding pending or imminent court action, and Section 121.22(G)(4), Matters involving bargaining sessions with public employees. Mr. Smith stated there was no need for an additional Executive Session.

10. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Fix moved to adjourn; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Sabatino, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Hammond, and Mr. Fix voting "Aye." Motion carried, 4-0. The Finance Committee adjourned at 9:10 P.M., March 15, 2007.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

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Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk