WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2009

REGULAR MEETING

7:00 P.M.

1. ROLL CALL. Mr. Sabatino called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M., with roll call as follows: Mrs. Sanders and Mr. Sabatino were present. Mr. Sauer absent as he was on vacation. Others present were Lynda Yartin, Chief Mike Taylor, Don Phillips, Paul Lane, Lance Schultz, Ed Drobina, Steve Carr, Brenda VanCleave, Cristie Hammond, Mayor O’Brien, and others.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF May 20, 2009, Regular Meeting. Mrs. Sanders moved to approve; Mr. Sabatino seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Sabatino and Mrs. Sanders voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 2-0.

3. COMMUNITY COMMENTS:

A. Rachel Blake. Ms Blake stated she was present this evening to ask a few questions with regard to property maintenance complaints and zoning violations. She stated the City has a web site dedicated to this for the residents and it specifically gives your information for contact and states the individuals will be contacted. She stated it does not give specifics as to when that will be, how you will be contacted, if you are going to be contacted whether it is a complaint that is something that is part of the community standards or if it is something that is not a city issue and might be a police issue in your neighborhood. She stated, for example, a basketball goal in the street, would that be City, police, or code enforcement? Ms Blake continued that the process and how the city handles complaints is where she would like the information to start. Stated she would like to know if the response is based on guidelines the City has written in the book for property maintenance complaints or is it neighborhood driven, or is it complaint driven. She stated an example would be one of the code violations written in the book is weeds and as you drive down 256 you have Fifth Third by Kroger and next to the bank is a vacant lot. She stated her understanding is that the owner of that vacant lot needs to maintain that lot and if they don’t, does a resident have to complain about that lot or does the city contact the owner to have it maintained. Mr. Sabatino stated the City Manager is not here as he is on vacation, but he met with him last week on these very same issues. He stated his questions to the City Manager were what was our process, what happens when a concern is received by the City, is there a log, etc. He stated Mr. Hansley is on vacation this week so he has not heard back yet, but he had some of the same concerns Ms Blake did. Mr. Sabatino stated it seems we need some type of definition of just what the process if for dealing with these community concerns. Mr. Sabatino clarified that Ms Blake has not spoken to Mr. Hansley as yet. Ms Blake stated she was just questioning if she could come to Committee to discuss this or if by the next Committee meeting Mr. Hansley will have had time to look into this to see what is going on. She stated if she reads the standards that are written, it is not clear on the process. She stated she would like to meet with someone to find out what is going on, whether it is the Committee or Mr. Hansley, but she needs to have a clear understanding of what the process is so when residents are looking at things in their neighborhoods they are not bombarding the city with unnecessary calls or e-mails because it is not something that can be enforced. She stated it seems like each time she tries to get a directive or standards of where we are going, depending on where she gets her information, it changes. She stated it is either community standards, neighborhood standards, City code, or whatever. Mr. Sabatino stated he felt we need some written procedure for dealing with these things and once we have that, we would have direction on where to go with it. He stated he felt we definitely need some clarification and Ms Blake was correct in coming to Safety Committee because Safety Committee deals with property maintenance. Mr. Sabatino stated he would follow-up with Mr. Hansley. Mrs. Yartin stated she receives complaints that come through the “Contact Us” portion of the web site and those are forwarded to Planning and Zoning and Code Enforcement. Mr. Schultz stated eventually the property maintenance complaints are forwarded to Mr. Mahaffey for review, whether it is phone calls, e-mails, or whatever. Mr. Sabatino stated he understood the system we have is a complaint driven system and the City does not respond unless someone actually makes a complaint. Mr. Schultz stated or unless it is health, safety, or general welfare issue. Mr. Sabatino clarified that Mr. Schultz was Mr. Mahaffey’s direct supervisor and that he would verify that Mr. Mahaffey keeps a call log. Mr. Sabatino stated he had been contacted by a resident who had left a voice mail for Mr. Mahaffey with a complaint and her name, phone number, and e-mail and for almost three weeks she did not hear back. Mr. Sabatino stated he understood this time of year was busy with weeds, etc., but he hoped we would find a way to at least acknowledge that we have received a complaint. Mr. Schultz stated we do not have a defined process or policy on how to respond to complaints, but most of the time we contact them. He stated the majority of time when there is a complaint we address it, and typically do not call back unless they request it. Mr. Schultz stated with regard to the 256 situation, we do emphasize that corridor when it comes to grass cutting, etc. Ms Blake stated her question would be then that if the City sees something on 256 they take care of it, or does someone have to call and complain about a situation. She stated if enforcement was going to be complaint driven only, there would be some written directive stating that. Mr. Sabatino stated it is his intent to follow-up with the City Manager to get a clearer definition of what procedures we have, see if we can’t get them defined on paper, so everyone would be operating from the same code book.. Mayor O’Brien stated he understood code enforcement was getting 12 to 18 calls a day and some of those may be about the same item. He stated perhaps it would be possible to post a list of complaints that were under investigation on the web site that may help with repetitive complaints. Mr. Schultz stated one problem is that some people do not want to be identified and Mayor O’Brien clarified those complaints are not taken any less seriously than others. Mr. Sabatino further clarified an individual does not have to give their name in order to have the City act on a complaint. Mr. Schultz stated it would also depend on the complaint as some complaints are obvious and some are not, so it is situation based. He stated further we would go out and check each complaint. Mr. Sabatino stated then if someone called in because of something they saw, we responded and checked it, and we saw the same thing then we would address it. Mr. Schultz stated that’s correct, we need to make a determination if it violates our Code or not and some of our Code is subjective. Mr. Schultz stated each situation is different. Mr. Sabatino stated grass would be easy, but other things might not be. Mr. Schultz stated if it is an issue with grass, we need to wait until it gets a certain height before we can address it. He further stated we did change the Code last year where we send them a letter the first time, then we can just post it the second time. Mr. Sabatino stated we also enhanced it so all we have to do now is put a sticker on the door and we don’t have to wait 21 days, we can wait 5 days and be good to go. Mr. Schultz stated that was correct and our grass cutting got more efficient last summer than it was in the years before that. Mr. Wisniewski inquired if we were doing the grass cutting at cost, and Mr. Schultz stated we are doing it in-house this year. Mr. Wisniewski stated if we are doing it at cost he did not feel that was necessarily the best use of our City employees. Mr. Wisniewski stated if someone can get away with not having to worry about cutting their grass, and getting it cut by the City for less than they would have to pay a lawn service, then what would be their incentive to keep up with maintenance. Mr. Schultz stated he believed our hourly rate was competitive with the services and there is an administrative fee as well. Mr. Wisniewski stated he felt it should be significantly higher if we are having to handle the calls, go out and post the notices, go out and cut the lawn, and do all that. He did not feel the City should be eating the cost; there should be a significant cost so that if they are not going to be a good neighbor and take care of their property, then they should feel it. Mayor O’Brien stated he thought Reynoldsburg charges $150 per lot. Mr. Schultz stated last year we used a consultant and for budget reasons we consider it revenue generating to the City. Mr. Wisniewski stated he understood that, but he felt it should be enough that it makes them realize the first time they get a bill that they don’t want to get a second bill. Mr. Sabatino stated the City should not be the default lawn service provider. Mr. Drobina stated right now we use the Administrative Order that allows us to charge a certain amount for a piece of equipment so if we send a guy out to cut grass and he takes a truck, and the truck is gone for two hours, they get charged two hours for the truck, two hours for the man, two hours for the mower, two hours for the weed eater, etc. Mr. Schultz stated he thought our fees were comparable to what we paid the consultant last year. Mr. Schultz stated further when we used the consultant; we might have to wait for them to cut it. Mrs. Sanders clarified that for that property on 256 the property owner would get the bill. Mr. Schultz also stated we have an inventory of all the addresses of the developers along S.R. 256 and once we see the grass getting high, letters go out, and that has been quite effective over the last couple of years as we have had minimal complaints. Mr. Schultz stated an issue we have been having this year is that there are a lot of vacant platted lots in the City and getting the builders to cut those has been difficult to do. Mr. Wisniewski further clarified the fee schedule is up for review at the next Finance Committee meeting. Mayor O’Brien stated with our Committee schedule summer will be over before we can get anywhere and Mr. Sabatino stated it is his intent to follow-up with Mr. Hansley next week and he was sure we could have something to present at the next Safety Committee meeting so everyone will have a better definition of what the process is and that it is as effective as it can be utilizing the resources that we have. Mayor O’Brien stated as it was shown in the survey results, we do not communicate well. Mr. Sabatino stated we learned that by Ms Blake coming in tonight and by citizens calling council members, and by defining the process is a good place to start.

4. COMMUNITY SAFETY CONCERNS: Mr. Sabatino stated he has had some people ask him if there is anything that we can do about the noise that is generated from motorcycles that seem to have after-market exhaust systems that are rather loud. Chief Taylor stated we can fall back on the noise ordinance and issue a citation for that. Chief Taylor stated if the officers hear a motorcycle driving on the street that is extremely loud, they will certainly address it. He further stated if they receive a complaint from a resident that a neighbor’s bike is very loud, if they can get a time to watch the bike or listen to it, they will address it. Chief Taylor stated they will certainly not ignore a motorcycle that had no muffler on it at all.

Mayor O’Brien stated on Roxbury Drive there is a basketball pole that is in the driving lane, it is black and there are no streetlights and it was in front of an abandoned house. Mr. Sabatino stated he thought would be a police issue and Chief Taylor stated that was correct, if it was in the roadway it was his concern. Mr. Sabatino stated all anyone would have to do is to call the PD and when an officer was available they would go by and deal with the situation. Chief Taylor stated that was correct.

5. DEPARTMENT REPORTS:

A. Parks and Recreation:

(1) Director’s Report. Mr. Carr stated he had provided a written report to the Committee and he would be happy to answer any questions. Mr. Carr stated the garden plots project is going very well and we have over 20 lots rented. He stated he would like to thank Mayor O’Brien for initiating the idea, and we have also donated six plots to organizations that raise crops for food pantries in the county and a boy scout that is doing a project and donating to the Pickerington Food Pantry. He further stated one of our Parks & Recreation board members is by occupation a Farm Manager and he has volunteered to give talks out at the gardens twice a month to help beginning gardeners or even more seasoned gardeners. Mr. Carr stated the Fourth of July schedule will be similar to last year with the park opening at 4:00 P.M. on Saturday, July 4^th, the parade beginning at 6:00 P.M., and the fireworks will be at 10:00 P.M. Mrs. Sanders stated she had been questioned on why we went to a picture ID card at the pool and Mr. Carr stated it was an added security to lessen the likelihood of someone sneaking in or passes being passed around. Mrs. Sanders further verified the city had purchased that machine. Mr. Wisniewski inquired what the break even point was on passes as to where we need to be to meet our debt obligations, payroll, and everything to make sure this is self-sustaining. Mr. Carr stated he was not sure of that exact number but last year before we made major improvements we had about $150,000 surplus and we will most likely be down 80 to 100 season passes this year, so we may have a drop of $20,000 to $25,000 in revenue. He stated that would still put us in the $100,000 surplus range. Mr. Carr stated we are still issuing passes and he could have those numbers at the next Safety Committee meeting.

B. Code Enforcement:

(1) Code Enforcement Officer’s Report. Mr. Sabatino stated the Committee had received a written report from the Code Enforcement Officer and ascertained there were no questions regarding this report. Mr. Sabatino stated some discussion was held earlier on the agenda regarding some code enforcement concerns and inquired if there were any other code enforcement questions or concerns. Mrs. Hammond stated as she has been walking in her neighborhood she has been questioned about trash in the streets or houses that have broken windows, cars up on blocks, and that sort of thing. She stated there is concern about the property values declining with these types of houses in the area. Mr. Sabatino stated he felt once we get some sort of definition of what our procedures are that that would be a good place to start with some commentary going forward. Mr. Sabatino stated he felt everyone would agree that there are some areas that are ripe for improvement in that arena. Mayor O’Brien stated every employee of the City drives around every day, and if they see something that needs to be taken care of they should call in and report their observations to the Code Enforcement Officer. Mr. Wisniewski stated Mr. Mahaffey’s report had mentioned something about impact fees and he hoped that lowering the impact fees was not being seriously considered. Mr. Sabatino stated he felt any discussion on this issue would be at Finance Committee where all Council members are present.

C. Building Regulations Department:

(1) Building Department Report (Mr. Lane) Mr. Lane stated he had provided a written report and he would be happy to answer any questions. Mr. Sabatino stated Mr. Lane’s report indicated that Park Alley Tavern would open in May, and he understood that might not happen until August. Mr. Lane stated he has not spoken to the owner and he is not sure why they have not opened at this time. Mrs. Sanders stated she has had a lot of questions about Walgreen’s and Rule(3) because it seems like they are taking forever. Ms VanCleave stated Walgreen’s is delayed right now because there is a gas main in the way of the road improvement, and Mr. Schultz stated they do not want to open until the traffic improvements are completed. Mr. Phillips stated Rule(3) is under construction and the inspectors are making trips every week. Mr. Sabatino stated he understood from the Chamber that Rule(3) would be opening in August. Mr. Schultz stated their goal is to open in August so they can get fall bowling leagues started.

Mayor O’Brien inquired if Mr. Lane had received a copy of the letter from Mr. Walt Reiner that was sent to himself and Council and Mr. Lane stated he had received it just prior to this meeting. Mr. Wisniewski inquired what Mr. Lane’s opinion of it was and Mr. Lane said he thought it was malarkey. Mr. Lane stated our turn around time is a week and he doesn’t know what Mr. Reiner is referring to. Mrs. Hammond clarified that 90 percent of the issues about how quickly someone moves into a space depends upon the architect they are using to prepare their drawings. Mr. Lane stated if someone presents a good set of drawings Mr. Phillips is turning them around within a week. He stated if everything is completed they have their permit and they’re ready to go. Mr. Lane stated they just need to fill out the forms and bring the documents to the building department, they are couriered to Mr. Phillips twice a week, and turn around is rather quickly. He stated typically the burden falls on whomever is preparing the drawings. Mr. Schultz stated he had spoken to Mr. Reiner today to get further clarification on what he was determining as slow, and he said other communities turn them around in a week. Mr. Schultz stated that he had informed him that was also our typical turn around time. Mr. Phillips stated also that securing a permit is only the first step, you also need to build the project out. He stated he knew there were a couple of projects where the permit was issued in October and the business did not open until March. He stated that was beyond anything that the building department had any control over. Mrs. Yartin provided copies of this letter to all of the Safety Committee members.

(2) Chief Building Official’s Report (Mr. Phillips) Mr. Phillips stated he had provided a written report and he would be happy to answer any questions. Mr. Phillips stated he had received a comment about the size of the graph so he had provided a larger copy of the graphs to see if that would help. Mr. Sabatino stated his comment was to do the graphs in landscape and putting in more activity so they could see more of a trend. Mr. Phillips stated there is already activity going back to 1998 on the charts as well as a monthly chart. Mr. Sabatino stated it would be nice to look at 18 months ago we were here, and where we are now. He stated it would be nice to see if a spike in activity is an anomaly or is it a trend developing and that sort of thing. Mr. Phillips stated he didn’t know how well it would turn out, but he would see what he could do.

a. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance amending the Pickerington Codified Ordinances, Chapter 1444, entitled “Registration of Contractors.” Mr. Sabatino stated he had spoken to Mr. Lane and Mrs. Sanders earlier and he had some concern about the inclusion of lawn maintenance, which he presumed was people cutting grass for profit and could be college or high school students. Mrs. Sanders inquired if a high school kid was cutting grass they would be considered a contractor. Mr. Sabatino stated you don’t need a permit to cut someone’s grass so why would they need to register as a contractor? Mr. Sabatino stated he could understand if this were someone who was applying chemicals and that type of thing, but he couldn’t see it for just cutting grass. Mr. Phillips stated one of the things that registration requires is that the contractor have insurance, and whether you are a large international grass cutting company or a college student, the probability of a rock flying out of the mower and injuring someone or damaging property is the same. He stated the intent of this registration is to require that insurance. He stated, however, if it is not the intent of the Safety Committee to register those types of contractors they can certainly be taken out. Mr. Sabatino stated if this is a commercial contractor by that very nature they would probably have some type of insurance, but if you have an individual just cutting the neighbor’s grass and something happened, you have your homeowner’s policy to protect you from something like that. Mayor O’Brien stated then if his son cut grass for the neighbor he had to be registered with the City and he would have to have insurance. Mr. Phillips stated under the strict interpretation of this ordinance, yes. Mayor O’Brien further clarified the fee to register is $150 and business liability insurance would run at least $200 per year. Mrs. Sanders stated she felt this was a little extreme, and Mr. Sabatino stated he did not feel that was the spirit or intent of where we wanted to go with this. Mr. Sabatino stated he felt we probably had a need for the vast majority of things in here, but he would recommend that lawn maintenance not be included. Mrs. Sanders stated she has a neighbor’s son help her move dirt and all and that would seem like it would be landscape work to her. Mr. Phillips stated these are examples and they were trying to give the general public some idea of what they were talking about, but he could certainly move landscape and lawn maintenance down to the exempted section. Mayor O’Brien stated further in the ordinance it states that an individual desiring a certificate of registration must be 18 years of age or older, so it seemed the typical high school kid would not be covered under that. Mr. Sabatino clarified that landscaping could involve cutting grass, putting mulch on the garden, etc. Mrs. Hammond stated, however, a landscape architect could be doing things like using heavy equipment, pulling out trees, etc., so she felt those were two different things. Mr. Wisniewski clarified that all registered contractors are listed on the City’s website so homeowners can look on-line to see who is registered in the City. Mr. Phillips stated as he understands, the Committee would like to have lawn maintenance and landscape moved to Section (3) so they would be exempt from registration. Mayor O’Brien inquired how a violation would be handled to move it to Mayor’s Court. Mr. Phillips stated a notice of violation would be given to the violator and a complaint would be filed in Mayor’s Court. Mr. Sabatino stated he felt it would be handled in the same manner as a code enforcement violation. Mayor O’Brien clarified that the building official, Mr. Phillips, would file the complaint in Mayor’s Court and a police officer would serve a summons to the violator. Mr. Phillips stated the Court would render a decision and based upon the penalty would assess the penalty on the individual. Mayor O’Brien further clarified that if Mr. Phillips learns of someone doing work in the City who is not registered, they would be asked to fill out a registration form. Mr. Phillips stated if they comply that is it, but if they refuse to comply they would then follow the process and file a complaint in Mayor’s Court. Mr. Phillips stated the intention is to have compliance, not to punish people for lack of compliance. Mrs. Sanders ascertained that most of the surrounding communities have these same procedures. Mayor O’Brien stated when it comes to a penalty phase that involves Mayor’s Court he would like to get it circulated through the prosecutor, the magistrate, and the clerk of courts because they are the ones that will have to deal with it. He stated as with the noise ordinance he tried to get their review up front and they had a lot of good points to bring up that ended up being incorporated into the final ordinance. He stated further both the magistrate and the prosecutor were lawyers in the Central Ohio area, and it made it easier for them to prosecute if they know what is coming. Mr. Sabatino stated he had no problem with them looking at it. Mrs. Sanders stated she agreed that if we can prosecute in one area we need to be able to prove that we can do it in another area. Mr. Sabatino stated then his request would be to have a cleaned up version with lawn maintenance and landscaping exempted and then have Mrs. Yartin provide that to the Mayor so he can have the magistrate and prosecutor look at it and hopefully have their input back for the next Safety meeting. Mr. Sabatino stated he would like to have this continued on the agenda for the next meeting.

D. Service Department:

(1) Review and discussion regarding restricting right turns on red at S.R. 256 and S.R. 204. Ms VanCleave stated she is still waiting for the letter from ODOT stating they will permit the restricted turns. Mr. Sabatino stated he would continue this on the agenda for one more month.

6. POLICE:

A. Chief’s Report. Chief Taylor stated he had provided his report to the Committee and he would be happy to answer any questions.

(1) Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance authorizing the City Manager to enter into an agreement with the Pickerington Local School District for extraordinary police services. Chief Taylor stated the current agreement expired at the end of this past school year and the new agreement is a three-year agreement for school years 2009 through 2012. He stated he has negotiated the hourly rate with the schools and everyone is in agreement on them. Mrs. Sanders moved to approve and forward to Council; Mr. Sabatino seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Sanders and Mr. Sabatino voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 2-0.

7. CHAIRMAN:

A. Mr. Sabatino stated the Committee had received a request from the resident at 77 East Church Street requesting Council consider installing No Parking signs on the south side of East Church Street from Center Street to East Street. Mr. Sabatino clarified staff has not had time to review this request and he requested they look into it and report back to the Committee next month.

8. OTHER BUSINESS. No other business was brought forward.

9. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mrs. Sanders moved to adjourn; Mr. Sabatino seconded the motion. Mr. Sabatino and Mrs. Sanders voted "Aye." Motion carried, 2-0. The Safety Committee adjourned at 8:15 P.M., June 17, 2009.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

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Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk