PICKERINGTON CITY COUNCIL

TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 2008

CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD

 

REGULAR MEETING AGENDA

7:30 P.M.

 

1.         ROLL CALL, PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, AND INVOCATION. Council for the City of Pickerington met for a regular session Tuesday, April 15, 2008, at City Hall.  Mayor O’Brien called the meeting to order at 7:30 P.M.  Roll call was taken as follows:  Mr. Fix, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Sabatino, Mrs. Sanders, and Mayor O’Brien were present.  No members were absent.  Others present were: Tim Hansley, Lynda Yartin, Linda Fersch, Chief Mike Taylor, Phil Hartmann, Ed Drobina, Pastor Jim Riggs, Steve Malone, Carl Smith, Harry Myer, Nick LaTorre, Rachel Scofeld, Miriam Segaloff, Jim Woods, and others.  Pastor Riggs, of Peace United Methodist Church, delivered the invocation. 

 

2.         APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF APRIL 1, 2008, REGULAR MEETING.  Mr. Sabatino moved to approve; Mr. Smith seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Sabatino, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Smith, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Fix, and Mrs. Sanders voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0. 

 

3.         APPROVAL OF AGENDA.  Mr. Smith moved to approve; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Sabatino, Mr. Smith, Mr. Fix, Mr. Sauer, Mrs. Hammond, Mrs. Sanders, and Mr. Wisniewski voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0. 

 

4.      COMMUNITY COMMENTS:  There were no community comments.

 

5.         APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA:  Mayor O’Brien stated there were no Consent Agenda items this evening. 

 

6.         COMMITTEE REPORTS:   

 

A.        RULES COMMITTEE.  Mr. Fix stated Rules Committee met on April 2nd, and the minutes have been distributed.  He stated the Committee is moving forward with the review of the Charter.  Mr. Fix stated this plan is to move that through the Rules Committee to Council, to have public hearings and to appoint a Charter Review Commission to look at all of the revisions being proposed before sending it to the ballot.  He stated this will provide for a very thorough review at multiple levels before it would go to the ballot.  Mr. Fix stated he did not anticipate this being completed this fall.  Mr. Fix further stated Rule Committee will be conducting interviews for a vacancy on the Personnel Appeals Board on April 21st and April 22nd.  Mr. Wisniewski inquired why the Charter Review Commission would be after Rules Committee has proposed revisions, and Mr. Fix stated they wanted the individuals most familiar with it review it and then present the proposed revisions with an explanation for a review of citizens.  Mr. Fix stated with the citizen’s commission on utility fees, it took a very long time because the commission members had to learn everything first.  He stated the thought process is that those who deal with the Charter review it and recommend proposed changes and then present it to the citizens. 

 

B.         SAFETY COMMITTEE (Mr. Smith).  Mr. Smith stated Safety Committee met on April 7th, and the minutes have been distributed.  Mr. Smith stated the motion concerning the letter of intent for the traffic signal red light cameras on tonight’s agenda came out of that meeting.   Mr. Smith stated he would answer any questions. 

 

C.        SERVICE COMMITTEE (Mr. Wisniewski).  Mr. Wisniewski stated Service Committee met on April 10th, and one item from that meeting regarding the purchase of road salt is on tonight’s agenda.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he would answer any questions. 

 

7.         REPORTS:

 

A.        MAYOR.  Mayor O’Brien stated Council held a retreat on Saturday, April 12th, and he felt it was very successful.  Mayor O’Brien stated the group discussed several topics involving setting policies and procedures and he would like to thank all Council members for their cooperation.  Mayor O’Brien presented a proclamation in honor of Arbor Day to Mr. Steve Malone, Chairman of the City’s Tree Commission. 

 

B.         LAW DIRECTOR.  Mr. Hartmann stated he had nothing to report this evening, but would answer any questions.  Mr. Wisniewski clarified that Mr. Hartmann had reviewed the letter of intent being proposed this evening and he is comfortable it does not bind the City to go forward with anything other than the study.    

 

C.        FINANCE DIRECTOR.  Mrs. Fersch stated she had distributed the 2009 Tax Budget that Finance Committee will be reviewing at their meeting. 

 

D.        SERVICE MANAGER.  Mr. Drobina stated Ordinance 2008-27 on tonight’s agenda deals with entering into a contract with Cargill for road salt.  He stated we received three bids on this contract and Cargill was the lowest bidder.  Mr. Drobina stated he would be happy to answer any questions.  

 

E.         CITY MANAGER.  Mr. Hansley his written report had been distributed and he would be happy to answer any questions.  Mr. Hansley stated our volunteer program started this weekend and with the help of the several volunteers we did some clean up at the newly purchased swimming pool and around the Windmiller Pond.   He stated our Pickerington Clean Up is scheduled for April 26th and will be a very large community wide effort and if anyone would like to volunteer we urge them to join us. 

 

8.         PROCEDURAL READINGS:

 

            A.        ORDINANCE 2008-27, “AN ORDINANCE TO AUTHORIZE THE CITY MANAGER TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH CARGILL FOR ROAD SALT,” First Reading, Service Committee.  Mr. Wisniewski moved to adopt; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond, Mrs. Sanders, Mr. Fix, Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Sabatino, Mr. Sauer, and Mr. Smith voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0. 

 

            B.         ORDINANCE 2008-26, “AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH URS CORPORATION FOR CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT OF THE CITY OF PICKERINGTON WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT EXPANSION PROJECT,” Second Reading, Service Committee.  Mr. Wisniewski moved to adopt; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he would like to note that Stilson would be performing some of the inspection work with URS on this contract since they have significant knowledge of our current plant.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Sabatino voting “Nay,” and Mrs. Sanders, Mr. Smith, Mr. Fix, Mr. Wisniewski, Mrs. Hammond, and Mr. Sauer voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 6-1. 

 

9.         LEGISLATIVE READINGS:

 

            A.        ORDINANCE 2008-18, “AN ORDINANCE TO AUTHORIZE THE CITY MANAGER TO ENTER INTO AN ADDENDUM TO THE SEWERAGE SERVICE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE VILLAGE OF CANAL WINCHESTER, OHIO, AND THE CITY OF PICKERINGTON, OHIO,” Third Reading. Service Committee.  Mr. Wisniewski moved to adopt; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mrs. Sanders, Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Fix, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Sauer, and Mr. Sabatino voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0. 

 

            B.         ORDINANCE 2008-22, “AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE PETITION FOR ANNEXATION OF CERTAIN PROPERTY, LOCATED IN VIOLET TOWNSHIP, FAIRFIELD COUNTY, TO THE CITY OF PICKERINGTON, OHIO,” Third Reading, Service Committee.  Mr. Wisniewski moved to adopt; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion.  Mr. Wisniewski stated this is our water plant.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Fix, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Wisniewski, Mrs. Sanders, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Sabatino, and Mr. Smith voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 7-0. 

 

10.       OTHER BUSINESS:  No other business was brought forward. 

 

11.       MOTIONS: 

 

            A.        MOTION TO AUTHORIZE THE CITY MANAGER TO SEND A LETTER OF INTENT TO REDFLEX TRAFFIC SYSTEMS FOR PHOTO RED LIGHT AND SPEED ENFORCEMENT SYSTEMS.  Mr. Smith moved to authorize the City Manager to send subject letter of intent; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Mr. Smith stated this came out of Safety Committee on April 7th, and followed up on a presentation from Redflex about the capabilities they have available.  Mr. Smith stated Redflex is the provider of this type of system for the City of Columbus as well as other municipalities within the State of Ohio.  Mr. Smith stated Safety Committee’s intent is to have the City Manager send a letter of intent to Redflex that will not obligate the City to pursue, so Redflex could make a proposal to the City.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he is not 100 percent in favor of this as yet, although he would not say he is against it.  He stated he finds it troubling that if someone else is driving your vehicle you get the ticket with this system, and the registered owner has to go through the process of getting the violation sent to the appropriate individual.  He stated he would feel more comfortable having his questions answered before having this company come in and do some studies for us.  He stated he felt we need to ask ourselves how “Orwellian” we are willing to become as a society in having our actions monitored.  He questioned if we are willing to accept this amount of oversight from private entities in relation to our law enforcement.  He stated he was not stating this is a bad thing but he has several questions that he needs answered before he is willing to go forward with this.  Mr. Sabatino stated his concerns are the drivers who do not respect the traffic signals and put everyone else in jeopardy.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he agreed with Mr. Sabatino that people do go through the lights, however, there are other means to alleviate this problem such as offsetting the green light or lengthening the yellow light, etc.  Mr. Fix stated he understood it would take several months for this company to do the research they need to do and in that time Mr. Wisniewski could get the answers to his questions.  He stated he felt we needed to move forward tonight to authorize the letter of intent so they can start their process.  Mrs. Sanders stated she was also anxious to get the letter of intent moving along.  She stated our community is growing and this would be a great thing to help alleviate some of the strain on our police officers.  She stated if we can put extra officers in our neighborhoods by letting someone else look at these films, she was in favor of that.  Mrs. Hammond stated she concurs with Mr. Wisniewski in that she is not saying she is against red light cameras, but she did not feel at this point in time that we have exhausted all the other avenues possible to alleviate some of our traffic problems.  Mrs. Hammond further stated she was not completely comfortable with the company that is trying to sell her something being the one that does the survey.  She stated she would prefer a more independent survey, and while she has no objection to the cameras in general, she is just not comfortable going ahead with this at this point in time.  Mr. Sauer stated he shared some of the concerns others have stated, however, this particular letter of intent does not bind the City to purchasing the system.  Mr. Sauer stated he understands the concerns regarding privacy, but it was his understanding the only time those cameras will fire is when an infraction occurs.  He stated that means someone is breaking the law; running a red light, and if a police officer were at that intersection they would more than likely be writing a citation.  Mr. Sauer stated again, given that this is not binding the City to purchase the system he is willing to let them explore it to see if there really is a need in this community and, if so, he will support it.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he understood that whatever data was collected during this letter of intent could not be used by the City to go out and use for another system.  Mr. Fix stated as he understood it, we could not use this company’s data to go out and bid it for other systems, that if we decide this is not the company we want, we would go to another company and go through the same process.  Mr. Fix stated we may find in doing our due diligence through this process that there may be someone else who can do it better, and this may not be the company we want to do business with.  He stated, however, we can find these answers while they are doing their work, and then we can make a decision.  Chief Taylor stated he would like to add that at the present time this is the only red light company that has received judicial notice from the courts.  Mayor O’Brien stated it is his understanding that only law enforcement officials can issue tickets that carry points with it, so these would fines only.  Chief Taylor stated that was correct.  Mr. Hartmann stated there is an Ohio Supreme Court case that involved this company where it was found that it is constitutional for cities to use this under their home rule power as long as it a civil penalty that does not carry points, and Mr. Hartmann stated that is correct.  Mr. Wisniewski stated he understood that case may be pending before the U.S. Supreme Court and Mr. Hartmann stated he would research that and let Council know.  Roll call on the motion was taken with Mr. Wisniewski and Mrs. Hammond voting “Nay,” and Mr. Sauer, Mr. Smith, Mr. Fix, Mrs. Sanders, and Mr. Sabatino voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 5-2. 

 

12.       ADJOURNMENT.  There being nothing further, Mr. Smith moved to adjourn; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Mr. Sabatino, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Fix, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mrs. Sanders voted “Aye.”  Motion carried, 7-0.  The meeting adjourned at 8:00 P.M., April 15, 2008. 

 

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED: 

 

 

_______________________________

Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk

 

 

ATTEST:

 

 

 

_______________________________

Mitch O’Brien, Mayor