WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

REGULAR MEETING

7:30 P.M.

1. ROLL CALL. Mrs. Hammond called the meeting to order at 7:30 P.M., with roll call as follows: Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Barletta, and Mr. Blair were present. No members were absent. Others present were Jeff Fix, Tricia Sanders, Brian Sauer, Bill Vance, Lynda Yartin, Commander Steve Annetts, Ed Drobina, Chet Hopper, Greg Bachman, Alexa Liebert, and others.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF August 18, 2010, Regular Meeting. Mr. Blair moved to approve; Mr. Barletta seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Blair, Mr. Barletta, and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

3. COMMUNITY COMMENTS: There were no comments.

4. POLICE:

A. Chief’s Report. Commander Annetts stated Chief Taylor had submitted a written report and he would answer any questions anyone might have.

(1) Discussion regarding fundraising at busy intersections. Mr. Vance stated we have had situations in the past where permits have been issued for fundraising activities at intersection areas within the City. Mr. Vance stated that technically it appeared that such approval needs to come from Council in the form of an ordinance, and he felt Council should provide guidance on how they would like staff to proceed in regard to these activities. Mr. Vance stated he knew of at least one case where the Chief of Police had safety concerns for those proposing to do these activities. He stated he would recommend that proposals for these activities come before the Council or the appropriate committee for consideration of approval. He stated it seems that we have an issue where the Code has not been adhered to and how would Council like to proceed in the future. Mrs. Hammond stated she does want to support charities and help them with their fundraising, but she was uncomfortable with this as she was always afraid someone would be hit by a car. Mr. Blair stated he did not feel the approval of each request should go through Council or Committee as that was a staff decision that should be handled at staff level, such as the Manager and Chief of Police. Mr. Vance stated he did not believe the City Manager or the Chief of Police was very comfortable with fundraising activities at busy intersections or the City condoning such activities without the involvement of the law director and the release of liability to the City or something like that. Mr. Vance stated the basic question was should we approve, consider, condone activities that are in a place that could quite possibly be detrimental to someone else’s safety. Mrs. Sanders clarified there were numerous groups that did this several times a year. Mr. Barletta stated if there was a way to do this without putting the City at risk for a lawsuit for allowing it, he would think we could modify the code to make it a staff decision, and he would support that. Mr. Vance stated he could send this issue to the law director and have them put together some language which will clearly communicate the dangers associated with fundraising activities at busy intersections, some suggested parameters around that type of activity, and then have them release the City of any related liability. Mr. Vance stated further we could limit the number of permits per year per organization so we do not see it happen on a daily basis. Mr. Fix stated this is an important fundraising activity for many groups and there are some safety issues. He stated these groups have to take out a pretty big insurance policy, which we should require, and they have to sign a waiver, which we should require, and he felt we should also make it so that only those that are 501(3)(C) or government would be allowed to do this so that would cover the fire department. He stated he felt that only charity organizations and not for-profit organizations should be allowed to participate. Mr. Fix stated further, given all of that, for the Chief of Police and City Manager to make the call. Mr. Fix continued he felt we should also have an age requirement so we do not have high school kids out there doing it, and he felt this was something we should allow for charitable organizations to participate in. Mr. Sauer stated he understood there was an occasion of this happening at the S.R. 256/S.R. 204 intersection and Mr. Vance stated he believed that was correct. Mr. Vance stated the situation could have occurred where a staff member issued the permit without the involvement of Council as called for by the Code. Mr. Vance stated obviously we cannot do that, if indeed it did happen, because we would then open ourselves up to all kinds of liability. Mr. Vance stated staff is fine with going forward if we treat everyone equally and just come up with a form and he liked the idea of being a government entity or an officially recognized non-profit, that made a lot of sense. He stated staff could serve the purpose of being the mechanism to give the approval provided that they meet the agreed upon requirements. Mr. Sauer stated he does not have a problem with this around the City except for the S.R. 256/S.R. 204 intersection as that is rather dangerous and is completely different than other intersections in the City. Mr. Sauer stated he did not feel comfortable giving anyone approval to do anything there. Mrs. Hammond stated she felt that made sense and Mr. Blair agreed that intersection was not appropriate for this. Commander Annetts stated in the past the police department only approved the four-way intersections of Columbus and Hill Road, Long and Diley, Columbus and Diley, Columbus and Lockville. He stated now that Long and Diley and Columbus and Diley are five-lanes, you have a lot more traffic. However, with S.R. 256/S.R. 204 there is no place to stand and to his knowledge they have never approved anyone at that intersection. Commander Annetts stated recently this was approved for S.R. 256 and Refugee Road, however, that did not come through the Chief of Police for approval. Mrs. Hammond summarized that the Committee agreed we should ask the Law Director to come up with some parameters and staff can determine which, if any, intersections would be appropriate. She stated we would also have the appropriate waiver requirement. Mr. Vance stated prior to this policy being established if anyone has such a request he will have to bring it before Council. Mrs. Hammond stated that was fine and she would look forward to having a draft policy before this committee for review.

5. DEPARTMENT REPORTS:

A. Parks and Recreation:

(1) Director’s Report. Mr. Drobina stated he had provided a written report and he would answer any questions. Mrs. Hammond stated she noticed in Ms Medinger’s report that registration for fall programs was slow and as she had not received the brochure as yet it is possible that others had not received it. Mrs. Hammond stated perhaps Mr. Barletta could mention this at the Parks & Recreation Board meeting and they might want to look at some other way of delivering the brochure. Mrs. Hammond stated further that she noticed there was mention of there being a tournament at the disc golf course and she questioned if we needed to set up some sort of criteria since this would mean the course was closed to the public during that time. Mr. Drobina stated he had responded to the requestor that the course would still be open to the public and they would have to work around that. Mr. Drobina stated at this time we do not have a policy or a fee where the course could be rented for a group. Mrs. Hammond stated this is also something Mr. Barletta might want to discuss with the Parks and Recreation Board because we do rent out our shelters, etc. She stated she felt we would want to encourage the tournament, but some kind of guidelines might be nice. Mr. Barletta stated he would bring that up at the next meeting. Mr. Bachman stated that Mr. Jay had contacted him about this and his thought was that Mr. Jay has helped us with the course and while we did not want to close off the park, it would be fine with us if he put up signs saying there would be a tournament on such and such a date so the public would know. Mrs. Hammond stated she still felt it would be easier if we had some guidelines for this.

B. Building Regulations Department:

(1) Building Department/Chief Building Official’s Report. Mr. Hopper stated he had provided a written report and he would answer any questions. Mr. Hopper stated as of today we have issued 59 residential permits for this year. Mr. Blair inquired how that compared to this time last year and Mr. Hopper stated he did not have that information with him but he could provide it. Mr. Fix inquired if we knew how many permits had been issued by the Township and Mr. Hopper stated he did not have that information but he could forward it as well.

(2) Code Enforcement Officer’s Report. Mr. Hopper stated he had provided a written report and he would be happy to answer any questions. Mr. Hopper did state with regard to 671 Long Road, the mortgage company has engaged a local agent and over the next two to three weeks he anticipates seeing some improvement on the property. Mr. Vance stated staff also has a proposal that will be provided as a draft ordinance to this committee that would give staff the ability to work closely with the banks that are involved with foreclosed properties so we can negotiate maintenance and make sure these properties do not negatively affect the neighboring properties.

(a) Nuisance Abatement Board Issue. Mr. Vance stated we are looking at convening the Nuisance Abatement Board on some situations that may be heading in that direction. Mr. Vance stated he would predict the use of this Board in the future, and we will be working with the law director as we move forward with this. Mrs. Hammond stated she would look forward to getting more information on this and this Committee would do whatever was necessary.

C. Service Department:

(1) Service Manager’s Report. Mr. Drobina stated he had provided a written report and he would answer any questions.

(2) Review and request for motion to authorize contract with Lancaster-Fairfield Community Action Recycling. Mr. Drobina stated he had provided a contract for the recycling trailer through Lancaster-Fairfield Community Action Recycling. Mr. Drobina stated we started this a few years ago and we signed a three-year contract at that time. He stated that contract expired, and in order for them to send us the $500 per year for maintenance of the road, etc., where the trailer is parked, we need to execute a new contract. Mrs. Hammond clarified this is being heavily used and they do empty it at least once a week. Mr. Blair moved to authorize the City Manager to execute the contract with Lancaster-Fairfield Community Action Recycling; Mr. Barletta seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Blair, Mrs. Hammond, and Mr. Barletta voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

D. Engineering Department.

(1) City Engineer’s Report. Mr. Bachman stated he had provided a written report and he would also like to note that the gas well on Avalon Road has been capped. He stated further the Safe Routes to School Committee would meet on September 30^th and the school that he will be recommending we do something for is Pickerington Elementary at Long and Diley. He stated the applications for this program are due in early November.

(a) Review and discussion regarding Sidewalk Replacement Policy. Mr. Bachman stated he has had a resident contact him regarding the enforcement of City regulations to have people take care of their sidewalks. Mr. Bachman stated the City Code does state that the owner of abutting property does have the responsibility for the repair or replacement of the sidewalk. Mr. Bachman stated to his knowledge we have never enforced that and in general our sidewalks around the City are fairly new. Mr. Bachman stated he was bringing this forward for some guidance from the Committee on this issue. Mr. Fix stated he has a sidewalk issue in front of his house, however, it is the roots of the City’s tree that is pushing up the sidewalk. He stated he felt a lot of people would view this as the City’s issue and not the property owner’s issue. Mr. Drobina stated he has heard that from several residents and he has been asked to cut down trees because of the damage they are doing to the sidewalks. Mr. Fix stated an older neighborhood that has mature trees would have a lot of sidewalks pushed up because of this. Mr. Fix stated he thought it would be the City’s responsibility because it is the City’s trees causing the issue in most cases. Mrs. Hammond stated she has noticed as well that some sidewalks seem to be sinking because the street is sinking, and there are some neighborhoods that do not have sidewalks. Mrs. Hammond stated she did not feel the City could insist upon citizens making repairs if we are not making repairs ourselves. She stated she felt we needed some guidelines and criteria, but she was not sure what that would be. Mr. Bachman stated we have over 60 miles of streets in the city and over half of them have sidewalks, some on both sides of the street, so we probably have anywhere from 80 to 100 miles of sidewalks. He stated he has checked with other cities and it is all over the board on what they do; it goes from the city paying for all sidewalk repairs to some sort of property tax that goes toward sidewalk repair. Mr. Bachman stated further we would need to determine what criteria to use; so much settlement, what size cracks, did the salt we use on the streets cause the scaling of the sidewalks, trucks turning off the radius cracking the sidewalk, etc. Mr. Bachman stated when you set up a policy, no matter what you do, it would not be without controversy. Mr. Bachman stated he was just asking the Committee to think about this and in the next month or so if they could provide him some guidance he would appreciate it.

Mr. Vance stated he felt we needed two budgets, and whether or not those budgets were affordable he did not know, but one would be for sidewalk maintenance because we have an urban forestry program where we require developers to plant trees in subdivisions which appear to be causing a lot of damage. He stated he did not feel we could ask property owners to assist us with the correction of those problems. He stated further we might have situations where just over time sidewalks have deteriorated and maybe property owners would like to take advantage of some sort of proactive program in coordination with the City where they would pay 50 percent and the City would pay 50 percent. Mr. Vance stated it seemed this was more a budgetary question and if we could find some funds to coordinate these improvements then they become realistic. Mr. Bachman stated if one square of a sidewalk is bad, to have a property owner get a concrete contractor to do one square would be very expensive. He stated some cities do a program where the property owner could pay the City and the City could get a better price if we are doing it around the whole city. Mr. Barletta stated he has seen where the city would go and mark the pieces of sidewalk that needed removed because of damage from the trees, and then offer the property owner the opportunity to contract with the same contractor to get the whole sidewalk if they so desired, at a discounted rate.

6. CHAIRMAN: Mrs. Hammond stated she had nothing to bring forward.

7. OTHER BUSINESS:

A. Review and discussion regarding traffic control signs in Windmiller Ponds Subdivision. Mr. Vance stated he and Chief Taylor met with the residents of that area and they do not have any speed limit signs nor children playing signs. He stated they were hoping the residents could coordinate some sign installation activities. Mrs. Hammond stated she had no objections to this signage. Mrs. Hammond moved to amend the traffic control map to include the appropriate signage deemed necessary by the City Manager and Chief of Police; Mr. Barletta seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Blair, Mr. Barletta, and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

B. Review and discussion regarding drug education program. Mrs. Hammond stated she felt everyone was aware that there is a different kind of drug problem in the area. She stated the schools are starting to address it and Mr. Sauer has some concern about drugs in the parks and Mr. Fix has concerns about drugs in the schools and other areas. Mrs. Hammond stated she has seen the film the Sheriff has regarding this issue and it is an excellent film. Mrs. Hammond stated she would like to share this film with Council in some manner and Mr. Fix had suggested a Council Work Session. Mr. Fix stated he had the opportunity to meet with Orman Hall who is in charge of the ADAMH Board of Fairfield County, and opiate addiction has become an incredibly fast-growing issue. Mr. Fix stated this is not just a school issue, it is a community issue, and one of the things he would like to work on is getting all of the community leadership involved in some kind of task force to address this issue. Mr. Fix stated in the short-term, Mr. Hall has offered to come to City Hall and lead a Council work session to help council understand the issue more and to help council to figure out what they can do about it. Mr. Fix stated he had suggested that a work session be scheduled for the next Safety Committee meeting and invite Mr. Hall to lead that. Mr. Sauer stated he would suggest a separate evening be set aside for this work session because it could be a lengthy discussion. After discussion by the committee it was determined that Safety Committee would schedule a Council Work Session for October 14, 2010, at 7:00 P.M.

Mr. Vance stated he had spoken of this at Service Committee; however, Safety is the committee that oversees building. He stated that in leading into the budget process we need to make sure that we keep our options open and we will not have any full time inspectors budgeted. He stated he would request approval to go forward with requests for proposals to contract building inspection services for the future so if we have a lot of building activity we can get a lot of inspectors and if we have none, we don’t need any inspectors. Mr. Vance stated he would like to get proposals and then come back to the Committee to consider staff’s recommendations. Mrs. Hammond moved to authorize the City Manager to proceed with soliciting proposals for building inspectors and code enforcement personnel; Mr. Blair seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Barletta, and Mr. Blair voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

Mr. Sauer stated Safety Committee last year was discussing an inter-jurisdictional agreement between the City and Township for nuisances, for example when we were having the noise issue with Doolin’s Pub. He stated he would like to know the status of that issue. Mrs. Hammond stated she would request Mrs. Yartin contact the law director and ask him to provide an update on that agreement for the October Safety Committee meeting. Mr. Sauer stated he felt we should have something in place as this issue could come up again in the future.

8. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Blair moved to adjourn; Mr. Barletta seconded the motion. Mr. Blair, Mrs. Hammond, and Mr. Barletta voted "Aye." Motion carried, 3-0. The Safety Committee adjourned at 8:30 P.M., September 22, 2010.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

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Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk