PICKERINGTON CITY COUNCIL

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2008

POLICE DEPARTMENT

1311 REFUGEE ROAD

COUNCIL RETREAT

8:00 A.M.

Mayor O’Brien opened the retreat at 8:10 A.M., with the following members present: Mayor O’Brien, Jeff Fix, Keith Smith, Mike Sabatino, Trisha Sanders, Brian Sauer, Cristie Hammond, and Brian Wisniewski. Others present were: Tim Hansley and Lynda Yartin.

Mayor O’Brien stated due to the length of this meeting, he would like everyone to know that when the minutes are distributed, they will not be detailed, verbatim minutes, but a general summary. He further stated further, the agenda is based on conversations he has had with staff members since the beginning of January and asking how Council can help them do their jobs.

Mayor O’Brien stated if there were no objections, he would like to move discussion regarding Item 2, Growth Assumption Policy, to the end of the session.

1. Faster Action on CIP Items. Mayor O’Brien stated after meeting with Mr. Drobina, one of his major concerns is the length of time it takes to get CIP items approved. He stated the CIP is approved by ordinance, and since the project has already been approved, it would simplify the process if Mr. Drobina did not have to go back to committee or council until it was at the point where the contract was ready to award.

A. Approved Once. Mayor O’Brien stated all of the projects have been debated and discussed during the CIP and the budget process so; in essence, they have been approved at that time.

B. Consent agenda. Discussion was held regarding putting large projects on the consent agenda and several members stated they were not in favor of that and would request they be removed from the consent agenda.

C. Special meeting, if required. It was determined that Council is willing to schedule special meetings when circumstances require legislation to be passed in a timely manner.

2. Growth Assumption Policy

A. Help with planning for water and sewer

3. Set policy on police/1000 residents. Mayor O’Brien stated Chief Taylor had asked if the City would set a policy of number of police per thousand residents for the purpose of budget forecasts and planning. Mr. Hansley stated the Finance Expense Subcommittee has asked for a survey on several areas regarding police departments and that information may be contained in that survey. Mr. Smith stated the ratios only look at one aspect of allocating police resources, and he did not like setting a policy per thousand, and Mr. Hansley stated he agreed with Mr. Smith, because several areas must be surveyed.

4. Administrative Code changes to law director not Lynda Yartin. Mrs. Yartin stated this is actually reversed, because the problem she is having is that many times Code changes go to the law director and she is not made aware of them so she does not know to track them or put them on the agenda, etc. Mr. Smith stated he felt the law director should coordinate with the Clerk on items to go on the agenda. Mr. Sabatino stated he also felt when Council is working on items that have various versions, they should be marked so Council knows which version is the most current. Mrs. Yartin stated she is currently putting the date of the draft on each version and Mr. Sabatino stated he would like them labeled as “Draft A,” “Draft B,” etc. Mrs. Yartin stated she could use that system if that is what Council preferred. Mrs. Yartin stated, however, that would only be possible when the drafts came through her office.

5. Set policy/process on working with municipal clerk. Mrs. Yartin stated the problem she is having is knowing what Council would like to have on committee agendas. Mr. Smith stated he felt it was the Committee or Subcommittee chair’s responsibility to notify Mrs. Yartin when they want items on the agenda and all council members concurred.

6. Building Department.

A. Fee policy and increases. Mr. Smith stated he did not like setting an automatic inflation factor because you end up getting odd numbers. He stated he felt doing a fee ordinance in January of each year would be a more efficient way of handling this. Mr. Sabatino stated he didn’t agree with an automatic increase because some items do not necessarily increase. Mr. Smith suggested giving the City Manager the authority to raise fees within a certain percentage, so the Manager can evaluate the fees each year and determine what fees need increased annually. Mr. Fix stated if department heads know what the inflation factor is that will be used, they will be able to use those figures during the budget process. Mayor O’Brien stated we can also research what other communities do in this area. Mr. Hansley stated he would recommend the City Manager have the authority to raise the fees as necessary and notify Finance Committee of the increases. Should Finance Committee not agree with the increases, and then the fees would go back through the process. Mrs. Yartin stated at the time the General Fee Schedule was revised last year, the intent was to handle it in that manner. Mr. Hansley asked that Mrs. Yartin check to see if that language is clear in the ordinance and if not, get the law director to provide the appropriate language.

B. Green policy. Mayor O’Brien stated staff has asked if the City is interested in setting a “Green Policy.” Mr. Smith stated he felt we are doing several things that could be included in such a policy. Mayor O’Brien stated he would ask Mr. Hansley to have Mr. Paul Lane of the Building Department look into this and develop a draft policy for Council to look at, and all council members concurred.

7. Policy on naming things.

A. Naming things (streets, etc.) after elected officials who have held office for along period of time. Mayor O’Brien stated Planning and Zoning has asked that Council consider a policy on naming things. He stated as an example all of Council had received a letter from Mr. Ebright requesting something be named after his grandfather, the longest serving Mayor in Pickerington. Mrs. Hammond stated she did not feel that streets should be renamed as that just creates more problems. Mr. Smith stated he had researched this issue and had received policies from other communities. He stated he did not recall all of the criteria, but some of the criteria was that the individual must be deceased, and they must have had some type of attachment to the City. Mrs. Hammond stated she did not know if being deceased should necessarily be required. Mr. Hansley stated he would appreciate some direction in drafting such a policy because whatever was decided would offend someone. Mr. Sabatino stated if we had some sort of memorial park, there were several service organizations in the community that would be happy to help with it. Mr. Smith stated this would also give families a place to put memorials, however, he felt the policy was more toward naming things like streets, plazas, and things for people. He stated there are a lot of things in this community that have been named after people who are still living, and in looking back they would probably not be named that way now. Mr. Hansley stated staff would bring a couple of versions of policies from other communities for Council to review.

B. Directional signage hung by traffic signals for public offices, schools, etc. Mayor O’Brien stated he has heard from individuals who would like us to consider adopting a sign policy for the City itself. He stated we would then have our own signs indicating schools, library, etc., that we can use exclusively. He stated the old village is looking for some assistance for pedestrian signs and they are looking to see if there is any way the City can help. Mrs. Hammond stated she felt the enclosed sign in Gazebo Park could be used for some type of map showing where the businesses are. Mr. Smith stated he has heard from many people that the City is biased towards the businesses in the old village and businesses north of Refugee are abandoned. Mrs. Hammond stated she has heard that a lot as well. Mr. Smith stated he has sympathy for the old village because they do not have nearly the traffic or exposure than the businesses to the north. He stated the City wants to preserve the look and feel of the old village. Mrs. Hammond stated if you are going to have something that will attract people, you need to have the businesses that attract people, and we do not have that. Mayor O’Brien stated he was asking Council if anyone was against exploring the options of what we can do, Code-wise, etc., to make life easier for the old downtown. He stated compared to the businesses north of Refugee that have corporate support, etc. Mr. Smith stated as long as it is done with the cooperation and participation of the major stakeholders, he was not against it.

8. Policy on support to people like OPVBA and Chamber. Mayor O’Brien stated this is a budget question and becomes more critical as our funds get tighter. He questioned if we want to continue to support at the current level, or do we want to change our procedure. Mr. Sabatino stated he understood several council members have expressed a desire to look at our historical funding for the Violet Festival. Mr. Wisniewski stated he had spoken to Chief Taylor just yesterday, and he does not have the money in his budget for the overtime that the Violet Festival requires. Mr. Smith stated further when we give money to this organization, and others, it should come with strings and it currently doesn’t. Mr. Fix stated he felt the question would be what these organizations are trying to accomplish, are they doing it, and is our support helpful and necessary in making things happen. Mr. Fix stated the question was if the event or organization made enough of an impact on the quality of life for our city’s residents for the city to spend the amount of money we do. He stated he felt each group that asks for money should show that there is a benefit to the City’s taxpaying citizens that voted Council into office. Mr. Sabatino and Mr. Wisniewski stated the agreed completely. Mr. Sabatino stated he felt it made sense to judge each request along the lines of what they want to do. Mr. Fix stated the question became how you wanted to do that. Mr. Sauer stated our donation could be the police services we provide since we are paying for overtime. Mr. Smith stated not only that, but Street Department personnel for cleaning up after the parade, Parks Department personnel for being on site, etc. Mayor O’Brien stated we do have to be sensitive to the politics of the dynamics these groups. Mrs. Hammond stated she is Council’s representative the Township Bicentennial. She stated they have planned an event every month and every one of those events are taking place on City property and closing down City streets. She stated the quilt show is taking place at the junior high school, but that is the only event in the Township. She stated these events include an event for preschoolers in Sycamore Park, a 5-K run, Heritage Days over the Fourth of July that seems to be taking over Victory Park, the rocking chair marathon, etc. She stated there is also the community picnic and she questioned how many people want to pay for a seat at a table. Mrs. Hammond stated the picnic is also scheduled for the same weekend as the Seton Parish Festival and she cannot convince them to choose another date for the picnic. Mrs. Hammond stated the plan is to close down Opportunity Way on a Sunday afternoon. Mayor O’Brien stated he felt it was time they came in and briefed Council on what their plans are involving the City. Mr. Sabatino clarified they have cleared using the park with Mr. Carr. Mrs. Hammond stated she felt we should call a halt to this picnic. Mr. Fix stated he felt they need to come forward and let us know what they need from us, allow us to evaluate it and decide whether we can do it or not. Mr. Smith stated this is a big event in the Township, they are reaching an historic milestone and it should be the appropriate pomp and circumstance associated with it, but the pain needs to be felt by the Township and borne by the Township and not by the City. Mayor O’Brien stated it should be shared, and Mr. Sauer stated if they came to the City and we could do an analysis of the impact to the City in terms of our police department and parks. He stated then we could let them know what the costs would be and they should offset some of those costs, and he felt that was completely reasonable. Mr. Fix stated he thought our policy should simply be that anyone who wanted money from the City, either in real money, in manpower, or any other service, they must come before Council and present it to them, and then Council would make a decision. Mr. Sauer stated if there were any organization outside the City, and if any of our resources would be utilized, such as our police department, there should be a fee associated with it. Mr. Fix stated that can be considered on a case-by-case basis. Mayor O’Brien stated he felt this should be at the top of our list, and he felt the Township should come in and provide us with notification on what they want from the City. Mayor O’Brien stated anyone wanting money should be notified they need to prepare a presentation, get on the Finance agenda, and come in and make a presentation, in person. He stated perhaps we should have a checklist or a list of criteria or something that they need to address. Mr. Fix summarized that everyone agreed that anyone who wanted money, manpower, or whatever, needs to come in and make a presentation to Finance Committee. Mr. Fix stated he would like to have staff bring Council a recommendation on what the checklist or criteria should be. Mr. Wisniewski questioned if there should be a minimum amount involved before the organization must make a presentation so if someone were requesting a $100 or $50 donation they would not have to come before the Committee. Mr. Wisniewski stated perhaps anything over $1,000 or more of money or services. Mr. Sauer stated he felt that should be an annual amount as well, anything over $1,000 per year. Mr. Fix clarified that this should be a policy that needs to be put into some kind of ordinance so it would be public and everyone would be aware of it. Mr. Smith stated that would also help staff if they had something to show what the requirements were. Mr. Hansley stated he would suggest that for the groups the City has historically provided funds to that the policy not change right now, but next year it would be in effect. He stated he would draft a policy for the next budget cycle and set a threshold for special events. He stated a lot of these are funded by the bed tax, and most communities have the Finance Committee hear presentations to get a bed tax grant. He stated the policy would be consistent and logical and there could also be a waiver process to cover special circumstances included.

9. Discussion regarding Gazebo Park and Plaza. Mayor O’Brien stated the Gazebo Park is not being used to its full advantage because of its slope and the LEADS class has suggested putting in seating there. Mayor O’Brien stated we were looking at potentially terracing the area and creating flat spots in some sort of amphitheater arrangement. He stated he has also received information from a company that does town clocks and that is being looked into. Mayor O’Brien stated he would like everyone to think about what they would like to see in this area.

Mayor O’Brien stated if there were no further comments he would like to address Item 2 on the agenda.

Growth Assumption Policy.

A. Help with planning for water and sewer. Mayor O’Brien stated this is something several staff members have requested, and they would like to know if Council wanted to try to adopt a policy of how we anticipate our growth based on the information we have right now. Mr. Hansley clarified we have a Growth Management Plan, but staff would like to know if we want to be aggressive about annexing, what is the growth assumption. Mr. Smith stated he felt everyone was agreed we wanted managed growth. Mr. Wisniewski stated he felt that meant we were not allowing our residential growth to overwhelm our infrastructure so our infrastructure grows in pace with our residential. Mr. Hansley questioned if we had a limit, such as we did not want to grow larger than 25,000. All council members stated they did not feel they wanted to put a limit such as that on our growth. Mr. Hansley inquired if there were a number that Council would feel to be our maximum population. Mr. Smith stated there is a natural phenomenon that limits growth. He further stated he felt we had developed from a village mindset to a rural suburban City. Mr. Fix stated we are a suburban community and it is going to grow at whatever rate it grows. He stated he did not feel the body sitting here today could predict what the City will look like in 20 years. He stated we are no longer a village, we are not going back to being a village, and we cannot guess what our growth will look like twenty years from now. Mr. Wisniewski stated he felt our residential growth should be at a slow to moderate pace. Mr. Fix stated to him there seemed to be two questions, how do we want to grow, and how do we do it in a way that keeps us out of court and off the front page. Mr. Sauer stated the quality of life has to be considered, and this means homes, jobs, and leisure. He stated if we have office development that keeps not only our residents here for work, but other residents coming into the City to work. Mayor O’Brien stated perhaps we should designate a retail corridor, such as on StoneCreek Drive, and then encourage the retail development in that area. Mr. Sabatino stated he felt the Charter does not allow us to provide incentives for residential, but we could provide incentives for office development. Mr. Fix inquired if we had staff review the growth management plan that was adopted in 2005 and provide an update and new goals for Council to review and adopt. Mr. Wisniewski stated just because we say we want office development that does not mean that the landowner will agree to that or that there will be a developer to do it. He stated did not feel we could say someone could only access to the City if the land would be developed as offices or would we allow other types of commercial. Mayor O’Brien stated even by adopting a policy, it could be changed by a future council. Mr. Fix stated there may be things that start happening soon on Diley Road and staff may be tied up with those projects. Mr. Sauer stated the Diley Road Corridor Study may be coming before Council very shortly as well. Mayor O’Brien clarified that council felt it would be important to get a feel of how much time staff would have to spend on updating the Plan and also get a cost estimate from a consultant to have them update the Plan so it would give everyone and idea of what we should do.

Mayor O’Brien stated with regard to the Economic Stimulus Program at the state level, if that money is released, we could apply for funds for projects. He stated his question was if we should invest in developing the applications for a list of projects out of the CIP. He stated we could address both the funded and unfounded projects, and if we were to look at the projects and prioritize them, by the time we have that completed we may be at the time when we can apply for some of these grants. Mr. Smith stated he felt moving traffic in the City was a priority, and Mr. Fix stated the point was to clarify that council wanted staff to prepare a prioritize list for council to review and agree to or amend if they felt it necessary. Mayor O’Brien stated that was correct, and if we do not apply for the funds we would not get them. Mayor O’Brien stated then as he understood it, council concurred with having the staff look at the projects and prioritize them so we can be prepared when the time comes to apply for these funds. Mr. Smith stated further, when these funds become available, every small town will be putting in applications, and what would cause us to rise to the top. Mayor O’Brien stated further ODOT may be asking for funds for the 70/71 split, so we need to be realistic and ask for projects that are obtainable.

Mayor O’Brien stated all of council is aware of the proposed Mayflower development and he would like an opinion from Council as to their views on this project. He stated this is a mixed-use development and the purpose of bringing it up today is to gauge whether Council would support this project. Mr. Hansley stated the impact fees, water and sewer capacity fees make this project attractive, but we would then have to ensure that we would commit in the CIP to ensure all of the infrastructure projects are included. Mayor O’Brien stated again the purpose of discussion today is to determine if Council was in favor of supporting this project. Mr. Sauer stated he does have a problem with the apartment portion and he would have a hard time getting past that. The general consensus of Council were that all council members felt it was worth exploring, however, Mr. Sauer did have strong feelings about the apartment complex.

Mayor O’Brien stated the final two items he would like to mention is that we need to determine a process to begin to come up with a statement of work for both the engineering and law director’s contracts. He stated a case can be made for a single City Engineer person, hire a person, for about the same amount we are paying as a retainer, and have them under the supervision of the City Manager, and then you would have control of all of your engineering aspects. Mayor O’Brien stated the question was if we wanted to hire a consulting firm to do a statement of work and get candidates, do we want to do it as a Council, do we want staff to handle it, or what direction Council wanted to take. Mr. Sabatino stated he did not know that we had to make the assumption we are going to hire different people, he felt we needed to define what we are paying for now, if there are any changes to be made there, and if we can construct a contract with either the engineer or the law director that would be something we could live with considering our current budget. Mayor O’Brien stated then, if Council is satisfied with our current engineer and law director and their level of service, but we are not satisfied with the contract constraints or costs, perhaps the focus should be on rewriting the contract. He stated however we cannot ask the current law director to rewrite his own contract on our behalf. Mr. Sabatino stated he felt we should have the conversation with our current law director and engineer and if we are not satisfied with that, then make the decision if we want to hire a consultant to handle the process or handle it internally. Mr. Fix stated perhaps this should be included on the agenda for the next Finance Expense Subcommittee meeting since this is a major expense.

Mayor O’Brien stated that concluded the topics for discussion and he would like all of council to know how much he appreciated their participation. It was determined that all of Council would like to schedule another session such as this in the future.

There being nothing further, the Retreat adjourned at 1:00 P.M., April 12, 2008.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

_______________________________

Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk

ATTEST:

_______________________________

Mitch O’Brien, Mayor