CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD
WEDNESDAY,
APRIL 11, 2007
REGULAR
MEETING
7:30
P.M.
1. ROLL CALL. Mr. Fix called the meeting to order at 7:30 P.M., with roll call as follows: Mr. Hackworth. Mr. Fix, and Mrs. Riggs were present. No members were absent. Others present were Cristie Hammond, Judy Gilleland, Phil Hartmann, and Lynda Yartin.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF March 7, 2007, Regular Meeting. Mr. Hackworth moved to approve; Mrs. Riggs seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Riggs, Mr. Hackworth and Mr. Fix voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.
Mr. Fix stated prior to getting into the lengthy discussion regarding proposed Administrative Code revisions, he would like to address another issue. He stated the Committee did have the opportunity to interview two candidates for the vacancy on the Planning and Zoning Commission. He stated if the other committee members concurred he would like to have a brief discussion regarding the vacancy on the Planning and Zoning Commission and making an appointment to that position. Mr. Hackworth stated he would certainly support appointing the last applicant interviewed to this vacancy. Mrs. Riggs stated she was very impressed with Mr. Harmon’s preparation for the interview and felt he would do a great job. Mrs. Riggs moved to recommend Todd Harmon be appointed to the Planning and Zoning Commission; Mr. Hackworth seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Fix, Mr. Hackworth, and Mrs. Riggs voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.
Mr. Hackworth stated Mr. Harmon had learned of the vacancy through the flier Mrs. Yartin had placed in with the utility bills. Mr. Fix clarified that there have been three responses to the flier that have turned in applications, and other calls have requested applications but have not turned them in as yet.
3. SCHEDULED MATTERS:
A. Review and discussion regarding proposed Administrative Code revisions. Mr. Fix stated he would like to begin tonight where they left off last month and that would be on page 23, Section 220.05. He stated he appreciated the revision Mr. Hartmann had provided, however, he had not had time to review it as yet.
Under Section 220.05(b) it was determined that “…under the direction of the President of Council” should be deleted at the end of the first sentence.
Section 220.06(a) Regular Meetings. Mr. Hartmann stated he would suggest making this less restrictive and Mr. Fix stated he would like to allow for meeting once in July as the first meeting usually falls around the Fourth of July and a lot of vacations are planned around that time. Mr. Hackworth stated he concurred with meeting once in July as that does create issues. Ms Gilleland stated she felt the least restrictive wording would be something stating that if there is a holiday the meeting shall be held on a date proposed by the Mayor and approved by Council. Mr. Hackworth stated he would like to keep the meeting schedule on the first and third Tuesdays and Mr. Fix stated he agreed, however, there may be times in the future when other days would make more sense. He stated if the specific day is not in the Administrative Code, then it would be easier to change it. Mr. Fix asked Mr. Hartmann to prepare some wording that would allow some flexibility in the meeting schedule. Mr. Fix clarified that we do not have a cancellation procedure and he felt it might be a good idea to have that included in this section of the Code as well. Mr. Hartmann stated he would draft a section dealing with a cancellation procedure. The committee further determined that section 220.06(c) should be deleted.
Mrs. Hammond inquired if it were usual to require a sponsor be listed on legislation, and Ms Gilleland stated it was her experience that sponsorship is not the driving force of legislation. Mr. Hartmann stated he does not see a sponsor listed very often anymore. Mr. Hackworth stated the sponsor normally provides a summary of the ordinance at Council. Mr. Hartmann stated the Committee Chair could report to Council on the legislation as they give their committee report to Council. Mr. Fix stated since we already have the Committee report, that should be sufficient instead of having the Committee Chair brief during his report, the department head brief during their report, and then the sponsor briefing again at the time of the reading. Mr. Hackworth stated he would have to think about removing the requirement for a sponsor of legislation. Ms Gilleland stated she did like the idea of the committee chairperson being listed as sponsor, and Mr. Hackworth stated if we are going to make the Chairman sponsor, why not just name the Committee as the sponsor. Mr. Fix stated he thought that was a good idea. Ms Gilleland clarified that if a committee reviews an ordinance and does not approve it, the legislation will go on to Council and the sponsor would still be that committee. Mr. Fix stated that was correct and in the report, the Chairman would state that the committee did not recommend approval of the legislation. Mr. Hartmann stated he would prepare some draft language for the committee to review. Mrs. Riggs stated with regard to the delivery of packets, the wording that the packet be delivered “into the hands” of the council member should be removed. Mr. Hackworth stated he felt the wording should just be along the lines that the agenda is delivered to members of Council. Mr. Hartmann stated he would prepare this paragraph.
Mr. Fix stated with regard to the order of business, Mr. Fix stated he felt the time limits should be removed, and Mrs. Riggs stated she agreed, however, we still want the flexibility to allow discussion. Mr. Fix stated the Mayor has the ability to stop the comments at any point. Mrs. Riggs stated perhaps something could be put in to show that comments or requests may be limited by the Presiding Officer. Mr. Fix stated the limitation of comments could be removed completely and just leave it at Community Comments and requests. Mr. Hartmann stated with regard to the invocation, he questioned if that should be left in. Mr. Fix stated he did not see a problem with the invocation. Mr. Hartmann stated he would also reflect the order as the invocation and then the pledge of allegiance. Ms Gilleland stated the Communications listed on the agenda format is not used and Mr. Fix stated he felt that could be removed. Mr. Hartmann stated we have the approval of the consent agenda and then the consent agenda; however, we have been doing the approval in one action. Mrs. Hammond stated she did not see a problem with the way we are doing it, and Mr. Fix stated that would be fine. Mr. Fix stated there was a note under discussion to add request for referral to committee, and Mrs. Yartin stated that was suggested in order to provide a place for the Mayor or any Council member to request legislation be referred to a committee. Further, Discussion should be changed to Other Business.
Mr. Hartmann stated he felt the section regarding suspension was dealt with in other areas and this seemed out of place. The Committee concurred that section could be removed.
Mr. Fix stated in Section 220.10, subparagraph (a) Policy should be deleted, and under (b), subsections (1), (2), and (3) should be deleted as well as subparagraph (c). Mr. Hackworth stated in 220.11 to be consistent with the Charter voting should be either “Yea,” “Nay,” or “Abstain.” Further, after the vote is complete, it should read the “Clerk” shall disclose the results. Mr. Hartmann clarified the roll call vote is being left in for all legislation, however, the Presiding Officer can call for a voice vote on other items. Mr. Fix further stated a roll call vote can be called for by any member at any time.
Mr. Hartmann inquired if this would be the appropriate time to discuss voting only at the time of the third reading. Mr. Fix stated the voting on each reading does not take that much time, and Mr. Hackworth stated he felt we needed to have the vote for the record. Mrs. Riggs clarified that the process would be for the first and second reading that the ordinance would be read, there would be discussion, and then move on to the next ordinance, there would be no vote. Mr. Hartmann stated other entities do not have discussion on the first and second readings, and Mr. Hackworth stated he thought the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the issues. Mr. Hartmann stated the discussion would occur at the time of the third reading. Mr. Hackworth stated there were items that were routine and there is no discussion, however, there are controversial items where you need discussion. Ms Gilleland stated she would check the procedures used by other entities and bring that information back to the committee.
Mr. Fix stated he would like to call a brief recess at this time.
Rules Committee recessed at 8:45 P.M., and reconvened in open session at 8:54 P.M.
With regard to 220.11 (b) regarding abstaining votes, Mr. Fix clarified that Ms Gilleland was recommending that if a member abstains it should due to a conflict of interest and they should state the conflict. Mr. Hackworth stated he has a problem with stating the conflict. He stated there have been times when he did not get the information he had requested until the night before the third reading. Mr. Hartmann stated that may be one reason not to have a vote on legislation until the third reading. Mr. Hartmann stated there have been opinions given to other municipalities that state you cannot abstain unless you have a true conflict. He stated members were voted into office to vote, and should vote unless there is a reason that provides you with a conflict of interest that you can’t vote. Mr. Hartmann stated an abstention can create a “No” vote because we have hard numbers. He continued if we went by Roberts’ Rules where you have three-fourths of the members voting, that would be fine, but we don’t, we have three-fourths of the members of Council. He stated members can not vote, never be accounted for, but create a “No” vote by doing that. He stated an abstention is effectively voting “No,” but the member can always say they did not vote on something. Mr. Fix stated it has occurred in the past where a member abstained from a vote, and then states they did not vote for an issue, and the abstention is in the record. He stated he felt that was wrong, if there is no conflict and you just don’t want to vote in favor of something, but you also do not want to vote against it, you should not be able to just abstain. Mr. Hartmann stated he has not seen in any other municipality where there is no accountability for an abstention. Mr. Hackworth stated he had a problem with having to state the reason for a conflict because there might be a situation where you do not want to disclose that information, such as if you were an attorney and did not want to reveal a client. Ms Gilleland stated if a member is going to abstain due to a conflict, it is typical for them to leave the meeting during discussion on that issue. Ms Gilleland stated perhaps this could be left open by just stating that an abstention is due to a conflict of interest and not require the reason for the conflict. Mr. Fix stated he felt the reason for the conflict should be required. Mr. Fix stated he would like to move this forward to Council with the wording “abstain for conflict of interest and state the conflict” and Council as a whole would have discussion on it. Mr. Fix asked Mr. Hartmann to put together some language for the Committee to review.
(Mrs. Riggs stated she had to attend another meeting and was excused at 9:15 P.M.)
With regard to Section 220.12, Acting Clerk, Mr. Fix stated it should be changed to read the City Manager shall have the authority to appoint any administrative employee whom he or she may feel is responsible to perform those duties of the Municipal Clerk as Acting Municipal Clerk.
With regard to Chapter 222, Section 222.01, Public Notice, it was determined the places designated for posting would be the City Building, Police Department, Pickerington Public Library, and the City web site. Further the newspapers designated for legal publication should include the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, Pickerington Times-Sun, This Week in Pickerington, and the Columbus Dispatch.
Mr. Fix stated he felt Chapter 232, Section 232.02 could be deleted in its entirety, Section 232.045 (a)(3) should reflect that before being disposed of, a list of surplus items will be supplied to the Safety Committee of Council, and remove the language “valued at more than two hundred and fifty dollars ($250.00). All Committee members agreed that Section 232.05 and 232.06 should be deleted.
With regard to Section 236.03, Annexation Plats and Fees, the Committee determined the entire section should be deleted.
In Section 236.04, City Motor Vehicle Insurance, the dollar amount of three hundred fifty thousand dollars ($350,000) should be deleted.
Ms Gilleland stated she would like to review some items in Sections 230.05 through 236.09 once more with the Finance Director before making any recommendations on changes. Mr. Fix stated that would be fine.
In Section 236.10, Designation of Fixed Assets, the dollar value was recommended as five thousand dollars ($5,000) in lieu of the $1,000 currently reflected.
In reviewing Chapter 238, Law Director, it was determined the duty of representing the Municipality in Mayor’s Court should be deleted.
In reviewing Chapter 242, Police Department, in Section 242.03, the title should be Minimum Hiring Ages, deleting the words “Maximum” and “Retirement.” Subsection (a) should read “Ages for full-time police personnel. No person shall be appointed as a full-time member of the Police Department, unless such person is over the age of twenty-one years. Subsection (b) should be deleted, and Subsection (c) should read police officers and delete “policemen or policewomen.”
Mr. Fix stated due to the late hour, if there were no objections he would like to complete the review of the Administrative Code at the next meeting, starting with Section 242.08(e), Police Powers.
4. CHAIRMAN: Mr. Fix stated he had nothing further to bring forward this evening.
5. OTHER BUSINESS: No other business was brought forward.
6. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Hackworth moved to adjourn; Mr. Fix seconded the motion. Mr. Hackworth and Mr. Fix voted "Aye." Motion carried, 2-0. The Rules Committee adjourned at 9:30 P.M, April 11, 2007.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
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