you know [Music] do we have to sing very happy birthday um Pledge of Allegiance yeah recording in progress welcome everyone to the public hearing that was scheduled for 5 PM today prior to our Council caucus uh Debbie Lee please call the roll did Geronimo here Grendel here mayor Ducey here tagliani here present Governor there what channel here and uh public hearing has been scheduled uh and it's one item on the in regards to the public hearing and that is uh uh ordinance number 2023-95 which is on tonight's agenda under second reading and it's an ordinance amending chapter 1366 for lease rental occupancy certificate of the codified ordinances of the city of Independence uh this uh piece of legislation is has been introduced by councilman Criswell chanowitz and Jim trakis uh General I know if you want to uh start the dialogue and uh explain as far as the changes and what this legislation reports to do certainly thank you Mr vice mayor uh good afternoon everybody um the ordinance before us uh 2093-95 um amends uh and creates chapter 1366 lease rental occupancy certificate fairly straightforward um the most significant part of this legislation is that no single-family dwelling shall be leased or rented for a period of less than 30 days leasing or renting a single-family dwelling for less than 30 days she'll constitute a violation of this chapter so in other words uh uh what this is trying to do is to make sure that our residential neighborhoods are residential and neighbor that in in nature as well as in function that they are not being used for commercial purposes that has not been something that has been problematic so far but we wanted to try to get ahead of the game as we've seen uh what unfortunately uh a uh you know a good idea has come in other communities I would reference several of our neighboring communities where they have not had regulation until recently on these types of of dwellings I'll represent that more in a moment so first of all from a philosophical perspective we have a commercial District where there are short-term rentals that happen all the time we have hotels motels we have long term State facilities so in our commercial district there are plenty and ample opportunities for individuals to temporarily stay in our community for whatever reason that they choose to uh to do so with respect to the residential part of our community if you are building or buying a home in a in a residential neighborhood there is an expectation that that is a residential feel so we allowed home rentals actual rentals where people live uh you know more than 20 years ago and individuals live in in homes and rent from whoever owns the homes but that is a long-term you know commitment to live in our community the new popularity over the last uh maybe decade or so has been short-term rentals for the purposes of uh you know it could be for short-term stays that you think of business Travelers or individuals that come for uh you know entertainment purposes to the city or to the region but unfortunately what I think we've seen all too many times is that um for reasons that were never anticipated these become nefarious activities the city of Richmond Heights was just a very good example what they discovered was that these homes were not being rented to people on a temporary basis who wanted to stay in Richmond Heights for any purpose other than to have parties to sell and buy and use drugs and they became houses of prostitution one Warden particularly had dozens of these types of houses the city understood what the problem was and and rectified it earlier this summer our hope is that by proposing and passing this legislation tonight and getting the public feedback on it we would avoid that type of problem we simply want to keep the residential nature of our of our residential neighborhoods as residential and maintain the commercial uh part of the commercial district for those who wish to use it for entertainment purposes or to vacation or business travel or whatever it is we feel that Independence provides a great opportunity for both of those types of opportunities we are very renowned for having excellent accommodations in our community we have top-notch hotels we have appropriate policing security at those hotels and we know that people would have a safe experience by staying in our hotel motel and short-term rental facilities on Rockside Road or in that Rockside Corridor that's not what city residential neighborhoods were ever intended to be and this simply states that so we're hoping that by having no less than a 30-day policy that would substantially discourage any type of these nefarious activities that we discovered in other communities and provide a simple uh the opportunity for owner-owned premises to live in or to rent legitimately and fairly as we've been doing which have not created the types of problems that we've seen in other communities so that would be a summation of what this legislation does and its intent thank you Jim Chris do you have anything more to add your co-sponsor um and just as I mean Jim spelled it out extremely well I've received over the past year several phone calls from concerned residents that um they've noticed they've had people maybe renting a room for a week or two not just a whole house but renting rooms and stuff so I'm you know I'm hoping with this ordinance that you know that we can kind of do away with that as well because it some of the residents are concerned with that and in fact and function I do believe that that would be the case and I noticed that there's been a recommended change I guess in 1366.03 a fee it talks about the failure to timely pay this uh the 25 fee now that was it used to be every 30 days of Egypt and I think it's changed to uh uh I think it's uh almost every day this is here every every day an owner could use a violate any provisions chapter to separate a new violation I think Dave the way I would read that and what we had talked about with a lot of different moves that would be no less than uh 30 days so in other words if you were leasing your uh home for a 30-day period you would pay the 25 and then lease the the home and then you wouldn't be you wouldn't have to pay that until the next time you do something like that is that correct Mr O'Brien that that's uh commissioner Giro should weigh in because he deals with the applications but that's my understanding Mike what did you read on that is that uh it looks like it's every day that they are in violation of not paying the well if you're talking about the potential fine right significant material fine to dissuade people from violating if you don't have uh two onerous of a fine then people may build that right into the rental rate because what what is I mean uh how many Mike do you know offhand how many people have registered their properties that are rental properties with the city right now I believe it counts as a 19 19 and there's probably probably the compliance but this is I would imagine so we pray of more than 19 rental we had about 400 a couple years ago so we haven't really been doing much enforcement uh and Tom this has been I think this was your original legislation it's been a number of years but the only thing I would add is if you want to dissuade rooms in particular because in another part of our Code 11 07 07 I believe uh it's been on the book since the 60s there is a provision allowing homeowners to rent individual rooms so to the extent you want to keep that in place which I hadn't heard that regarding any change but you want to impose to anyone who wants to rent a room that they do so in that less than a 30-day increments then I would suggest we make an amendment on the floor to 136601 C um well my number's I guess D it'd be no single family dwelling in whole or part shall be leased or rented for a period of less than 30 days leasing or renting a single family dwelling comma and whole or part for the last 30 days shall constitute a violation of this chapter I would so move as a friendly Amendment I'll second that motion sure Randell yes di gerano yes narduzi yes tagliati yes Trey kiss aye Rivera yes while Channel Works yes the motion pass unanimously and do we have any idea currently how many of these Airbnb setups I I do not know uh council person tagliadi I I this isn't intended towards any one business just specific to rentals in general so um I have not uh checked on that so it effectively bans Airbnb type operations in Independence correct unless it's for 30 days or more well usually people are you're going for a weekend a week there it's usually not that long Jim how do you propose that we prove follow-up how do we know yeah thank you council person well uh you know I was the head of a state regulatory agency uh for uh two and a half years and uh um kind of reminds me of the old uh Army uh slogan uh if you if you see it call it in uh if something looks suspicious call it in I suppose that most of these types of things uh a that the administration and working with Council would get the word out about the change in policy should we pass this this evening uh that there would be uh an enforcement mechanism uh you know built in as to how to enforce whether it's through the police department or the you know building department or something else uh and then obviously we would want to have the residents residents be able to identify things that's how we find out about violations of of most types of violations so generally by having an informed citizenry they would probably be able to do the best I don't think we're going to be knocking on people's doors and asking them uh you know if this is happening in their homes uh that week or anything like that so it's not uh entitled to be it's not supposed to be intrusive by any stretch the imagination but we're hoping to get like any type of a regulation that it that is put forward you want to try to have the Community to understand it and to help us to report it should that be necessary let me let me follow up a little bit we we do have legislation on the books we have a whole 19 rental units that have registered that have followed through with a piece of legislation that was passed a few years ago 19 out of the possibly 400 units we also have a legislation on the books as it relates to feeding deer and talking with some people they say to describe a number of people around them that are feeding Deer uh we have legislation related on the books as it relates to uh storage of uh recreational vehicles on property and that's another issue that is out there that so I guess one of the biggest problems that I see and the reason I asked the question initially is we have pieces of legislation on the books and we don't seem to follow through with those pieces of legislation in other words originally when it was proposed by councilman arduzi that we follow up on these rental units and we initially followed up to some degree and then we've let that lapse we were really concerned about the the deer and the deer ticks and so on and we didn't pay attention to that we pay careful attention initially to the uh the recreational vehicles and that's laps so you know I'm kind of concerned about here we go again putting another piece of legislation out there that basically just sits there unless there's a very specific case that that comes along yeah I council person I can let me address your first question how are these going to come to light I've had occasion to deal with in the private sector on behalf of zoning laws in other counties for individuals that have placed their houses in Tech kind of a commercial setting and dbro and many times these come to light because there is a complaint there's a disturbance in a residential area and the way the city is or the municipality or the public subdivision political subdivision is called a bond a remedy that disturbance and often ways the way you approve a violation of this type of ordinance is unless and I haven't seen it because it's possible unless the homeowner is renting through Word of Mouth they're oftentimes the vast majority of their advertising in such such a way on the internet and so you can capture that information and it's very clear if the house on Phillips Avenue 123 Phillips Avenue is on one of these uh website platforms advertising their house for weekend getaways so that's where you can definitively show they're in violation and oftentimes when you bring that to the at least in my experience bring that to the homeowners there's not too much of an argument after that situation as to your second comment because I uh I am probably the second line of defense through the building department of when they have complaints because you have a very very uh efficiently running building department and you don't have anyone individually identified for many of the types of ordinance to enforce them just like the ordinance here most often times it uh when Mike gets commissioner zero gets a complaint and we get a lot of recreational vehicles abandoned vehicles on properties we've been enforcing those some of them has come before Council in the last couple years as nuisance is because we've been able to Abate them but the vast majority wants the building department someone he calls complains about it and then the building department with its limited resources goes off to that particular home in the in this case having uh you you know utility vehicles or recreational vehicles in violation of ordinance oftentimes the homeowner will bait those and very little involvement after that with the building department in the very rarest of occasions the building department can't get it abated and the law department will get involved we'll write a letter and in those cases the vast majority of them are baited you've seen the very very very very small percentage come before this board unable and I'm using like the nuisance ordinance as an example so uh unless the council wants to and it sits prerogative create new positions solely for the enforcement of these ordinance I think it's just going to happen the old-fashioned way someone's going to be upset that someone's doing something in their neighborhood or in violation of an ordinance and they're going to have to call the police department the building official and then we're going to have to investigate and Abate that that violation well I met I feel like at this point if we have that many rentals and we get that many res you know complaints about way yards look and trying to keep up to a standard uh I think we're at the point where we need to invest in a person that handles just this Department because Mike has enough on his plate going through the building department I don't just adding more and more and more to add to that to him it that's a full-time job for one person to handle that so maybe that is something that we need to look into is finding a person that strictly manages those past ordinances that have been passed and aren't being used the only way we're going to get to you know a solution is by adding help to solve these issues yeah if I'm a councilman we talk about the recreational vehicles the deer feeding the daily room rentals when those issues are brought to the administration's attention to the building department or through the law enforcement we address them individually and they're usually through a neighbor's situation someone doesn't want to be so conspicuous in terms of their uh frustration or concern about deer and tick but they notify us we go out and we try to remedy the situation informally at first uh the more severe situations uh like the how the cars and the housing aren't being maintained then we come to city council and Council passive legislation and then we go out and we proceed take the necessary legal steps to eradicate the situation if in fact we have a full-time enforcement officer then that's something that's open for debate it's more additional funding it's going to cost more money and but right now if there's a recreational vehicle or there's a deer feeding situation or there's a daily room rental uh this this would allow us to manage the daily room rental right now then because that's the that's the issue I've been I've been uh it's brought to my attention on a regular basis um but the other four enforcement is go is continues to be when a neighbor usually a neighbor or somebody has a situation will send somebody out to a dress situation and it usually or manages itself at that point but again there are those extreme situations we've had to deal with the last couple years where we've had to go out and uh and manage it with the legal system so there is a solution it depends on how much you want to invest in this particular concern and how much it really is a fact a concern in the community and the houses that aren't maintained they're they're uh they're not just rentals by the way just to be clear I mean you can't pick and choose which ones are rental which one's uh not a rental so uh enforcement is still something that we when when we get the calls we send someone out we identify the situation and we attempt to rectify it informally through cooperation after that then we'll do the more formalized formal uh citation hope that answers your question thank you mayor any other questions or comments on the no John yeah just on on the ordinance at hand I've stayed at airbnbs it's a nice option when you're out of town when you're when there's not a you know nice hotel close by or with a group I don't think it would be a bad option to have in town I guess if we if we pass this it would still allow someone to request a variance maybe there is a neighborhood a street some kind of dwelling where people at least could talk to the neighbors say anyone have a problem with this um I guess that would still be on the table and would go through the normal variance process I think even if we didn't pass this any Airbnb would probably already be out of compliance with our existing rental registration because you have to get the new tenant to sign off each time so if there was or probably out of compliance already um that doesn't mean that we couldn't you know do both but I'm just saying it it's probably I would guess that if there was an Airbnb we would determine they're already out of compliance so I don't know if there's any you know if somebody if an owner was in a house and rents their back garage or apartment or they got some other dwelling on site I don't think it's ought to be having the car and the problems like Jim was trying you know alluding to initially so I just had to stay open-minded to that um I'm good you know passing this here but just if you had that one house I don't know you know across across the whole city it probably wouldn't be a bad option to have but I guess that homeowner could come forward and request a variance and is there a variance process for this one yeah and with any with any code um whether or not one is given I I couldn't tell you but at least that process is clear someone comes in and asks for you know a variance then at least you have um you know traditionally as Debbie knows neighbor notification that someone's seeking a variance and here's what they want to do so you know yes yes you know if you made the application process simple where someone could come to the building department and say I want a Airbnb my house for I'm going to be out of town for a month or so and I want to Airbnb my house if I can attract some reasonable renters um if there's a simple process such as going to the building department getting a signing in some type of a document that says there and then we can alert the Police Department and make sure and then see how it goes but if you can't make it too cumbersome like if someone has to come in and go to council every time they want a variance and it's just not going to work yeah you need to you want to rent your house out you're going out for a week and then that's going to be in a couple weeks and then you got to get on a zba agenda and they'll catch you on the next month and then they're going to want to call a public hearing a queer your neighbors and effectively there's a variant process but in reality it's it's not going to work at least what the mayor outline is Randall I think that that offers some flexibility and in time we would determine if how effective it is rather than just we're absolute well and bringing the whole I mean it's been a while since I've gone through the whole um rental ordinance I didn't see in here as part of like the annual registration I think it's on the form that that's that it is required part of the annual but I don't think it's in here that once you register the first time that you're required to do an annual registration maybe we could just look at the whole Prat I mean I've got some rentals I work on I mean it's there's probably an easier way to do it maybe some Technology Solutions that we could do to make it more automated and yeah someone could actually if you use that that use technology they could actually do it online if they wanted if if they found a situation they were in where they their house is going to be vacant for some time and they wanted to use it for that purpose the city's aware of it that we can we can monitor the situation rather than just excluded period so I know through our school system they have an annual like renters agreement that parents have to sign in order for their students to go to school for Ed Independence and it has to be notarized um to me it the fact that the schools know how many more rentals in the city of Independence than we as a city know is just another step on why I feel they need somebody to handle that department for us I could solve your rental problem right now I can't see that those documents would be anything less than public records someone just go over and request them and then you can send letters all you running running entities saying hey of the uh of the 40 you know 30 or not registered perhaps you don't know this here's the application and then you can Whittle it down then you have a a more robust list than you have now if that's you know that'd be a more efficient way to find out and get all your people in at least the current rental houses in compliance up to that day well if there's 400 as the figure I've heard quoted tonight and we've got 19 registered I mean that's not even a five percent compliance rate so I think we got to deal with what we have first before we start talking about more regulations to this guy for a party on Friday night a guy on this party on Saturday night we can't do nothing about it so all legislations do is give us Apollo we're not going up there's a disturbance to us if there's a sturbance at a house I don't care if it's an Airbnb or if it's the owner's kids the cops show up and they and they shut it down it doesn't matter who's in it I would oh in a recreational part of town that you know somebody's got to have an Airbnb and run out their house all the time and people are coming here oh people are asking thousand dollars a week a couple thousand a week when the RNC convention was here in 2016. that doesn't happen I don't care if the guy makes five thousand dollars a night it's not helping the residents out it's not helping out anything you're not getting taxed out for that you don't even know what's going on it is the United States and people have private property rights the biggest issue we have right now is is the the room rentals I I've rarely come across situations with airbnbs and the maintenance issues on the properties are a different issue completely we can enforce those well usually like we like I said we don't usually encroach on properties or or become overbearing until our neighbor or somebody identifies an issue for us you have a neighbor there was a neighbor over here at Delmar neighbors called about the of Salt Lick and feeding the deer they took pictures of the deer being eating and so we had to go out we had to stop the situation so but we're not going to go in their backyard and check it out it's just not going to happen again even if we have an enforcement officer we're not going to do that unless someone brings it to our attention we're just not going to do that you know I think the the concept here is related not towards these other matters which is a healthy conversation to have but we're talking about should residential neighborhoods be residential and should we have a commercial District where people just want to go for short-term stays I think the people who invest millions of dollars in hotels and motels here would agree that the commercial district is where we should be having our focus on people who are staying for short-term periods of time and if people want to live in homes that they should live in homes and uh you know they're not commercial Enterprises operating in neighborhoods and I think that's the principle here we could determine the regulatory uh enforcement at a later time but let's give the tools that we need to try to um you know make sure that this is a community of fine homes and that's a neighborhood of fine homes I think when you when you build or buy a home here you you expect this to be a residential neighborhood and that's what we've advertised that's what we are that's what our laws call for um these are opportunities for us to uh simply live up to the the promise that we made to our residents back in 1960 when we provided with a charter and as Vern always points out in the caucus room we're a Premier Community and this will just help keep us there I agree with you generally as far as we've uh if we we're somewhere where there's hardly any uh hotels or that there might be more of a need but we have so many hotels uh on Rockside and everything just uh Airbnb my daughter went to they had a uh now these that's the newest thing with the yeah it's Asher ambassadorette party they're not just an overnight thing now it's it's a destination and they went to Dallas and they had an Airbnb in a real nice upscale community in Dallas but there's 20 people there they have pool parties they have booze and everything else that might be good there because it's gated and it's it's well protected but when you're talking here or most our homes are close together and everything and they have those had things going on until two or three in the morning uh it would be you know I would think it would be offensive and everything and and I know that mayor law a few years back there's I think there's a home in one of the nice areas of town that uh there's a lot you know drug activity going on I think I agree I think you guys you know a lot of different involved with that so you want to keep any opportunity for that you want to at least have laws on the books they'll protect our residents uh and we don't like to pick and choose our ordinances but still in the United States it's nice to have something in place that can that we can use to to protect our residents uh for peaceful you know you you pay a good amount of money to live here in this town in your homes and that and uh you want to live peacefully and be able to you know safely too and not have trouble spot so I think this this is a beginning for that uh like John mentioned if somebody has an Airbnb but I again when you're having the homes are as close together as they are here I think it'd be difficult if the intent is to have I mean if the intent is to come here for uh uh you know like the convention everything else the capacity council could look at them but say maybe you have a special dispense if you have an event like that matter of fact there will be one next month when you have our next year on the total eclipse of the sun's coming yeah I know there's people are going to be coming to this area you know for so you might want a little bit of waiver for I mean special circumstance doesn't it but uh yeah that's if we ever get our dome stadium yeah yeah I agree I mean I think I think if if you're in a neighborhood and you saw some concert turnover that would create some anxiety with the neighbors and and we wouldn't want to create that but Rockside Road's got its own issues right now it you know if you got guests coming your family coming from out of town it wouldn't be a bad option so I guess I'm I'm open to um if we pass this and then think about looking at the bigger rentals and in some permit process of of some different options in the future forget any other any other questions or comments from the council any other questions or com uh comments from the from the uh Gallery here I know in oh sorry go ahead I know in years past there was some State Legislature um movements to regulate this at the state level is that still on the table uh good question council person yes so uh it goes both ways so there there are um there had been legislation pending in this session the general assembly to both prohibit short-term rentals and then in the budget process there was an amendment that was added that mayor Kurtz helped get out I think um through bringing it uh kind of an assault on the rights of cities to create their own rules but um there was an attempt to say that cities couldn't have any impact on this process so it's going back and forth at this time there is no legislation that is as passed into law obviously that has an impact on the city's ability to have its own regulation of these types of Enterprises so it came from legislators in Cincinnati where there had been some pretty substantial abuses uh who wanted to do the prohibition uh but that did not pass through the general assembly so if a state level uh regulation was passed it would trump our legislation anyway correct it sure would yep and here's also there's also around the state and around the country uh cases pending that uh depending on how they come out depending on whether they're controlling in the state of Ohio that could affect this ordinance but as of today nothing nothing has gone that far in the whole in the whole court system and and actually you know in when council person while chanowitz and I were talking to the Law Department about how to how to form this up you know the we wanted to make sure it was thoughtful that we were not being too um you know you know too extreme in any measure we tried to put together some legislation we thought that was thoughtful and enforceable uh respecting everybody's uh rights as Citizens in in and his property and as you know property owners and we came up with this approach because this approach had been challenged in other communities in other states and had passed constitutional muster then this is just a hypothetical situation but if a large international corporation that's headquartered in the city of Independence purchases a residential home through an LLC for their employees to stay at at an interim basis rather than renting hotel rooms in the city would that be allowed if they stayed for 30 days or longer yes if they wanted to rotate them out um again I represent a lot of companies some of the size that you're talking about they like their most their people like stay in hotels but in the extent that they want to stay at a short-term base that they would have to come and seek a variance yeah yeah not if the company doesn't lease or rent it to their employees if they just like give it to them capital from okay let me just throw throw what little I know about finances but they want to deploy capital and buying a house in City of Independence where it where housing stock is at a at maybe a higher than Market versus on a short-term basis without deploying that type of capital on a very variable basis going to the hotel which they can write off I don't know if they want to devote a quarter of a million dollars versus maybe ten thousand dollars in whole any given year in housing them in a hotel but I'm not running a major National Corporation are you any other any other questions or comments did we resolve what happens if someone does want to go in Department satellite I'm going to be renting for a couple of weeks is we have we created a mechanism to be able to do that sounds like you do it and don't tell anybody if it's for if it's for four weeks or more then yes yeah four weeks right what if we reduce the time period from 30 days to a smaller period of time like a week or 10 days or something at this time I would prefer that we not go down that route let's see how this functions and if we do have to revisit it I I think we would but I'll take a look at that unless you want to add I'm just asking Mike if if there was a mechanism added to this legislation that would allow someone to come to the billing department seek a permission so to speak is that something that's manageable through your department or is it something you just want to stay away from okay okay just throw it out there I mean it's another tool it could be another tool used to make sure that that person has their house registered within the city as a rental and if they have that registered then maybe you know there's a little bit more leeway with those people okay okay I just pose questions to try to find reasonable Solutions based on some of the information I'm hearing across the board I see and so the variance procedure would require architecture or the bza and then a public hearing as well no no it might not be a public here I'm just saying I Za the first question they're going to ask is what's the hardship oh yeah I'm going out of town for two weeks it was just like to Airbnb my house while I'm out of town and they're going to say well that's not a hardship and they're going to deny it so uh good I like the mayor's idea of trying to do something ministratively but it doesn't seem like that's getting support look I don't Airbnb my house I don't even like staying in Airbnb I'm uncomfortable going to somebody else's house I'm a hotel guy but I do think that you need to absolutely on their property to do this well and we do have other people that leave town for a period of months and are we better off with those houses staying empty or with them with some other options I mean it seems like that kind of ties their hands while they're drawn so I mean I just thought well yeah but I'm saying so if I'm gone for seven months what's the difference if I find somebody that's going to live in that house for five months or I use that opportunity to have some people stay because they want to have a family setting they want to be close to the Cuyahoga Valley one of my friends has that Airbnb in Twinsburg he says he gets people coming in there because it's more of a family situation instead of a hotel situation and it's in proximity to the National Park so I guess if you have somebody staying for multiple months I mean is there not past parties or over 30 days it wouldn't be a violation right it wouldn't be a violation well dear what I think that you hear that Jim and Chris are looking at these One-Shot deals they're running it for a weekend God knows what kind of orgy you're that yeah we're trying to avoid Caligula coming to town you're really taking a turn [Laughter] Dave that circles back though my original question we it is very difficult to try to deal with certain other pieces of legislation we have if this is a One-Shot deal trying to narrow that down and get it before the problem exists is very difficult but if it does exist you have a tool stop in the Seven Hills with an Airbnb absolutely yeah was that New Year's Eve party yeah and they went 400 400 people there or something I mean it was some very egregious um you know situation and it became very intolerable for the community and uh you know traffic jams and police uh tied up the police for hours upon hours yeah we're not saying that that would never happen here but I think this the the intent here is that uh people understand that residential neighborhoods are for for families uh and for living not for temporary living and that we have the opportunity for people to have temporary living if they want to have uh and they do uh on Rockside Road in the in the corridor the hotels motels uh you know that that's for them that that's those are commercial areas these are residential neighborhoods I have one on my street I don't know if this resident is as of last year it was full-blown they were renting out rooms and my neighbors were in an uproar over it because it was different people every other day or every couple days and when you live on the street when there is one whose phone's ringing about it and aside from the neighbors seeing different people were there any problems my one neighbor there was some graffiti done on her house uh but she's the type of person that doesn't she doesn't call the police she's like she's kind of like a recluse so she doesn't leave much if it wasn't for one of our other neighbors spotting it um she probably would have never seen it but um there again it was these people were staying for a day or two or three and then out and then another person or two were coming in and out so you have constantly different people on your street um and the way you know like last year we had numerous amounts of garages broken into on our street we don't know if it was people that were staying in those homes possibly casing out neighborhoods um I know mine was one of them that was broken into they tried to steal one of my motorcycles out of my garage um so for me it's kind of personal at that level um and I like with Jim I'm just looking for a tool to monitor these situations so and council person was people were they professionals they have students and ties were they business Travelers no just just wondering just curiosity what is the going rate nightly rate for a room I don't know what it was over there see you know from what I was told um you can do it as long as you don't put a sign in your yard or a sign in your window stating that you have an Airbnb you have to go on the website to find a location and the rates are there I never went to see what the room rates were so any other questions or comments just a comment I I know that there was one home in town that someone a resident called my attention to uh it was a rental but the the rate was like astronomical by the month but you could get it cheaper by the day and and I guess the other question I have is and and again we're trying to make sure we put all these pieces on the table so and and not to put you on the spot Chris but if if you haven't uh if you have an older neighbor who's on a fixed income and they have an opportunity to rent rooms to be able to augment their income and be able to pay their taxes and continue to live in their house that we're going to prevent that not on a daily basis but I also feel that if this person is going to go down the path of renting out their house or renting out rooms this individual is not registered as a rental in Independence because this person stays in her home and then rents out the rooms as this person is staying there so you know if you follow the guidelines that we have and you're supposed to register your home you know whether you are living there and renting it at the same time it's still a rental if someone's renting a room from you so if they're registered as a rental then it still wouldn't be okay for them to if they're there rent a room for less than 30 days nope not nine so I just went to Airbnb and there is uh there's one right down the street from me on Chestnut just west of Great Oaks Parkway second house West of Great Oaks it's 336 dollars a night is that the only one uh there's some other rooms I don't know how to get back so is that the whole house for 336 today well it's listed at 493 but then it's reduced for 336. we did there's a room in Independence for 120 a night so there is an activity by any other any other questions before we close the uh the hearing yeah it's getting the motion to uh to adjourn the the public hearing so second uh Debbie Colorado yes grintel yes our doozy yes tagliani yes Travis yes yes very good thank you everyone thank you Council for uh a good discussion of that topic we'll be voting on that legislation uh tonight uh so now we will I guess uh I'm gonna need to take call the role for the regular caucus of the September 12th counseling uh here run down here there do you see yeah present here world channel here and I think uh has been requested that uh mayor I think it's it's on our regular agenda but maybe we'll do it right now to update it from Don update on the Tyler Technologies by the IT department very good on the floor is yours it's working hello I can't believe it's been a year um I'll try and keep this short for everyone's benefit uh thank you for the opportunity to provide the council with a progress report on the Tyler Enterprise asset management system everybody in Council should have a packet there at your uh desk since our launch in the at the end of August last year we have completed over 8 000 work orders using the eam system across four departments within those 8 000 Plus work orders we captured the following aggregate cost data one million nine hundred and eighteen thousand four hundred and seventy seven thousand dollars and 29 cents in labor costs 1 354 233 dollars and seven cents in equipment usage costs 169 682.76 in inventory costs and 635 988.91 in Supply costs that's Tyler eam by the numbers for one year but those numbers don't tell the whole story a great example of how we were able to harness the capabilities of the software the capabilities the software provides while streamlining our work order process is with our catch Basin cleanout program in the service department prior to Tyler the catch Basin cleanout work process required our service employees to fill out a paper form by hand in the field with crucial information about the job and location this form was entered into a binder back at the service department if a resident called about issues relating to storm water backups or floodings service employees had to refer to these binders and search for the information this is both time consuming and often inaccurately reflected the condition of the Basin upon completion of the most recent work order with Tyler our service employees are now equipped with tablets that allow them to not only capture this data electronically with a custom built form but they can also take pictures of the job and attach it to the work order directly from the field this allows service employees to search by address to see the exact date and condition of the catch Basin cleanout and convey this information immediately to the resident now with a visual representation this has saved them countless man hours and vastly increase their accuracy not only for the work that's been completed but also for planning future cleanouts in an efficient manner the service department Drive the Tyler launch from the beginning by focusing on the granular level of the services they provide across the six sub-departments rubbish land and Maintenance Service Garage sewer maintenance general service and Cemetery I worked with Ron and his foreman and admin staff to fine-tune our processes in Tyler by creating custom menus that the crews could use on the job from their tablets they were able to enter data sets like ton engine yardage use as well as drop downs with vendor information for each type of activity the feedback we received was this really saved them time on capturing required data for EPA reporting as well as internal reporting and forecasting I was able to apply these lessons to other departments adopting some of these processes despite those departments having different workflow models in Recreation we research strategies for capturing their labor hours despite their use of seasonal and part-time help which presented challenges for capturing this information we met up with their entire team and worked through the new methods of capturing labor and they are on a good track for being able to calculate their labor costs and needs for the many City events they are responsible for throughout the year tech services now has great reporting tools to see which activities utilize the bulk of their resources and can budget and plan accordingly for high ticket periods like Seasonal Pool maintenance tree lighting or home days this can help Dave and his crew plan around these events for their formal preventative maintenance schedules who are on the front line of Resident issues set up Tyler to help them manage and track the requests and concerns related to storm water issues flooding drainage problems or residential construction projects future GIS projects in the works they will be in a good position to leverage Tyler for the kind of data needed to predict problem areas and get ahead of them as they plan their larger infrastructure projects Our intention is to make the absolute most out of this robust software despite coming into this project halfway through implementation I see the time and effort each department put into the process each day I am pleased with the progress we have made in the first year and I I am eager for our future projects which include Maple Shade columbarium niches and Cemetery mapping tyler311 rollout to All City departments will begin this fall for them to begin entering interdepartmental requests and Resident requests to into Tyler and the tyler311 my Civic rollout to Residents will happen early 2024 in conjunction with the city's rebranded and refreshed websites I've included samples of some reports in your packet and I encourage anyone with questions or even suggestions on process improvements to reach out to me directly thank you the questions for Don on the first page the 1.35 million in equipment usage costs explain so there are we have FEMA codes and we have equipment that we use like scissor lifts throughout the city they could be kubota's thing these all have usage costs that cost the city for maintenance for purchasing new ones for gas those sorts so it captures that information and I think they were calculated um using some formula through the state of Ohio so we can determine we were able to pull that data off of their websites so it's like machine time per hour exactly the activity it's a 5800 you say snow roads yes I would assume that's plowing that activity [Music] Department code and then the activity sorry snow roads so the whale that's a good question so the way it's set up in there is and this is what I kind of mentioned the way Ron's group is set up when they first designed Tyler to work for their department they had subgroups there were six subgroups and so that way they were able to track the costs by the subgroup so 5800s going to be that group that handles like snow snowplowing and I assume is that also like 5200 is rubbish yeah I should have put a legend that's for the year or since we implemented yes that's not a cost that's the the department code I know but I'm looking at the cost oh yeah think about that yeah I just said a couple questions so I'm not sure on the first page when it says these 8 000 Plus work orders were captured the following egg cost so uh the 8 000 work orders were the 1.9 million dollars the aggregate is all labor costs for the entire city that we captured within the work order system yes so those 8 000 work orders what I'm wondering is do you have any type of a process or mechanism to to state if these you know if by using this system saving money are we spending more money what's the uh upside of the of the system I understand you're tracking things differently but are there cost or Time Savings because of this are you tracking any of that well I think if you look at that people like like let's use Ron for example if he has to actually have a very good example of that very recently he asked me to pull together out of Tyler um the cost for five vehicles Auto auto car the Packers so I was able to pull that data in about 20 minutes that would take his staff a lot longer to pull if they administratively because it's all in one place and the way the reporting system works within Tyler you can just run a report and it pulls it all together for you I put in a neat package in Excel but you can pull the raw data right out of Tyler so I think it saves time and we don't track cost savings uh through this versus what we used to do or anything like that be able to I mean at a time when we were having enough data we'll be able to analyze the data that's what I was trying to find out sure and I think the other thing is that uh the efficiency of not having to always come back to the barn to pick up a work order or send somebody out yeah these are these are some of the tool the benefits of these tools that we're implementing it's just going to take time to be able to put enough data in the system to be able to analyze thank you and and based on this report on the third page the uh Christmas lights it costs 130 670 to put up the Christmas lights and that's just the service department that doesn't include the tech service an expensive display the residents love it equation rise for you Ron you actually you're a department service department has been maybe you know pioneering this and being really the one Department that has uses right from the do you find it useful in your job as the service director uh the data information that's received from the the Tyler program do you feel that it it it aids you and your decision making and what you see as far as the operation of your department one thousand percent the uh data it's it's invaluable the reports are at your fingertips we can compare year to year of what we're spending um we can we can we can do budgets and analyze our costings through this the nice thing is when the guys are already on the job site if a resident calls in we can shoot them a work order via their tablet immediately and they don't have to come in we don't have to call them they just they automatically get the work order right on site so they can just continue working and that's invaluable Department very good thank you any other questions either for for Don or anybody on on the staff here regarding uh this matter now we thank you for the progress report I guess the uh I don't know how often you want to have this report done but I think it shows us as far as uh Council that this program the money that we've invested is showing progress and and being used to benefit the residents and benefit uh the decision makers as far as Christine yes um I am able to access this to extrapolate I don't see why you wouldn't that's maybe uh as long as it's not such a broad stroke of information requests and you isolate it we should be able to refine that search and be able to provide that information to you yeah right well I don't think residents are going to have access to the database you're not you're going to have access oh you're going to have access to answer a question concerning data that we've collected you'd have to just right you'd have to do it right I'm sorry for the confusion no sorry sorry and do we get down to levels of specificity is such as individual events home days fall faster individual buildings City Hall yes you can yeah we have it based on um we call those um well there's the activity codes but then there's cause codes meaning Fall Fest home you know tree lighting Home days yes you can pull that report just for that information too any other questions for Don thank you very much thank you and it's come to my attention uh father is here father Matt Jordan why do you have to be happy with the outcome of the football game on Sunday foreign to be here with you I'm a new uh resident who sent to uh let's just say Michael into Independence I got here in January and I'm so honored to be able to pray with you um I think it's actually just a beautiful before I before I pray I think it's a beautiful thing that I'm able to pray here and I will always do anything to support uh prayer or anything that we would do to help our community so I just want to say that before I started so let's begin in prayer in the name of the father and of the son of the holy spirit amen amen ever loving God we thank you for the many gifts you have given us the gift of our city of Independence the gift of our elected officials the gift of the great resources that you've given us Lord we pray that we may always use those things that you've given us to make our world a more beautiful place to take care of those especially in need Lord we are always open to your grace and your love we pray that your Holy Spirit May dwell in this meeting bless all of our families that we may know your peace in this time we pray that Independence may continue to be a place where you dwell we ask this through Christ Our Lord amen name of the father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit amen thank you everybody thank you thank you Father with the agenda we party uh we have one item on second reading ordinance number 20 23-95 it was the subject of our public hearing today and we'll be taking a vote on that during the uh regular meeting of council I move on to uh first reading the last piece of legislation on the backside of irons page two it's orders number 2023-98 it's orange authorizing the disposal of the city Surplus Goods equipment and vehicles through web deals online auction service Dennis yes good evening mayor and Council first I'd like to let Council know the first two items on the schedule I provided will be removed and will not be disposed of ongov deals we're researching some other opportunities for him within internally through the for the city that's the the bus yes the bus and the uh Debbie of suburban very good thank you any questions for Dennis thank you will any opposition putting this on the consent agenda this evening uh seeing then Debbie we'll put ordinance number 2023-98 on the consent agenda uh ordinance number 2023-99 uh it's a matter of fact 99 and 100 we may as well take together Don because uh his sword is authorizing change order number one to both of these contracts it's the city's 2022 senatorian storm sewer maintenance and repairs contract uh 99 is with United survey Inc and uh uh 100 is with cmk Industrial Service Inc both for not to exceed a hundred thousand dollars and both these uh contracts would be extended through August 31st of 2024. uh any uh comments uh add to that time uh vice mayor just that this is invoking the one-year contract extension Clause by Mutual consent both vendors are willing to honor their prices as you saw their memos that were in there these are reputable contractors have great working relationships with the city they're very responsive to our needs and we feel it's an efficient mechanism saves us a lot of resources having to rebid these contracts any questions for Don any opposition to putting this on the consented agenda this evening seeing none uh heavy 99 and 100 will be put on the consent agenda it's been brought to my attention that uh regarding I guess it's ordinance number 2023-109 and I'm not sure what page that is but on the agenda 2023-1109 the representative from uh uh the Genesee Oswald company is here somebody will so you want to have to uh it will bring you up sir and we will address uh this legislation so ordinance number 2023-109 is aren't as accepting the proposal of the James B Oswald company for Professional Insurance Brokerage services for the purchase of Health Care insurance for the city 2023-2024 I guess the amount is uh where he's 25.50 per employee per month uh I hope Bridget I'll let you introduce thank you um this is Ron Boyner he is our representative from Oswald and was kind enough to join us this evening um you know I think the legislation the request here is pretty straightforward it's more of a technicality where we are looking to renew Oswald for our broker Services essentially we have paid them the 25.50 per employee per month in the past um if you recall we did receive a two-year rate guarantee with Anthem and guardian um in doing so we basically renewed our contract with Oswald for one year so this would be the second year and ultimately it will take us through uh this term until the next renewal um Oswald has been a great partner for us to work with I will say that we are going to be challenged this year so I think that we're going to need them more than ever and um I look forward to working with them to continue to provide us with those services any questions yeah any questions for either Bridget or our our guests these are standard commissions that have been in place since 2021 no increase C and I think Vern on your notes that you gave us it runs about just 152 000 for the year correct so and I just to clarify thousand a year is the 25.50 per employee per month so what we have provided you with is a compensation disclosure form that form is something that we are recommending we utilize annually on that Forum you're going to see some additional commissions that Oswald is receiving they have been transparent in sharing that with us so that is why we're sharing that with you as well um that is not out of the norm so it aligns with what other Brokers would receive and what Fidelity had received in the past very good any questions the only question I have is for Bridget you um your statement was we're going to be challenged this year is this year different than last year and it maybe explain why you use the term challenged um I will say that our claims and utilization are not looking the best this year so essentially we are expecting to um you know potentially receive a not so favorable renewal which means we're going to need to explore a variety of different options this about a year runs till next June so we're just at the beginning of our year June 2021 right we're in the first quarter of our year or is this a rolling forecast no yeah you're correct the the plan renews July 1st it's uh you know July 1st so you're just at the beginning of the next year the rates are guaranteed for now and then but uh you have you know you have enrolled employees that are using the plan more they're seeing their doctors more um so we're just being cautious as we look forward that uh we will be exploring all options to make sure the city has the best plan in place thank you our claims going up this I mean we are as a city are expressing more preventative maintenance to our absolutely our employees and you know so I I would anticipate claims Rising just because we are trying to have a healthier Workforce am I incorrect yeah that's correct so the program the ERC health program that you're in uh comes full of risk management strategies that are doing everything they can to prevent claims from you know having a great impact and so yeah they're it's they're encouraging people to go see their Physicians I think that's what you're getting at so that they uh better manage their health conditions and so yeah that's it's all working that it's important to remember that but every employer you're going to have good years you're going to have bad years when it comes to your health insurance plan over the course of the past several years we have ran historically well so um it's you're bound to have a bad year here and there and I would say that just given the way that our claims and utilization look um we just don't want it to be a surprise to council when we do see a potentially higher renewal um you know come July 1st with the help of the health care committee who has been absolutely fantastic in you know getting the word out and encouraging employees to you know utilize preventive Services I think that we certainly have the right troops on board to make sure that you know we can go ahead and explore all the best options that are obviously economically sound and in the best interest of everybody and is this increase in utilization unique to the city of Independence are you seeing it more across the board based on deferment during covid uh I would say it's not unique um you know we're seeing it really in a lot of organizations a lot of different types of organizations there was the first wave of you know when covid hit people stopped going to the doctors um and then a year later people started going back to the doctors and we're seeing that you know people are becoming more comfortable and so it's another tale I would say but um you know with inflation you know like anything else things are costing more um hospitals are having to pay more for nurses it's really all that put together you know adding up to an increase for everyone Market trend is 13 to 15 depending on the carrier so it's well you kind of anticipated that a year ago when we decided to go with the two-year yeah it certainly has been anticipated and one of the reasons we went for a two-year rate guarantee right we're really thankful that you know the city could get that because it locked in your rates for two years yes any other questions any uh opposition putting this on consent agenda this evening thank you this will be on the consent agenda thank you back to uh uh I guess that's page it's hard when there's no page number on these but it's orders number 2023-101 is authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with Coward County to cooperate with and participate in the cost of construction to replace the shaft Road Bridge and declaring an emergency and down I think you and both and then Vern also confirmed that that right now except for the tax that has collected the yeah is that the I guess is that the gas tank what do you have the uh motor vehicle that's where the that's where our contribution comes but there's no other contribution that comes with this so do you want to explain a little bit uh further which Bridge it is sure nice Marriott it's the bridge over West Creek on shaft Road it's not the Granger there I'm not quite sure the age but it's programmed through the county and through ODOT for 2026 so they routinely require these agreements and consent legislation in the communities that they have these projects one point to note not only is it zero cost for the city for construction but also for the maintenance it's 100 percent County structure to be forever maintained by the county and I see the estimated cost of construction is over three million 3.2 million dollars correct so this is a formality that these kind of contracts that we need to give approved approval any any questions for Don any opposition we'll put this on consent agenda thank you down you're welcome uh ordinance number 2023-102 uh it's orange is accepting the proposal of O'Brien pools Inc to repair and resurface the existing outdoor activity pool and Whirlpool with Diamond Bright uh for an amount not to exceed 191 741 . [Applause] I'll take okay thank you oh yes so we went out to bid for the resurfacing of the outdoor activity pool and whirlpool and we received three bids uh they arranged in price from 174 to 260 and um so this ordinance is to award O'Brien pools which had the 174 and then the rest was the contingency that we put in because there are a couple of Expansion Joints in that pool that may need some extra work so just have extra money available that's why we went up to the 1991 yes I see Tom those the other two bidders other things were from out of ones from Missouri I believe and one from you know Brian pools is right here in uh in Cincinnati so I know Jim be happy with that they have Ohio company working on our pools um so yeah and we did our leg work uh I was researching O'Brien pools and and all the references that they uh gave us came back positive uh one of the big ones is they do the Great Wolf Lodges around the area and uh they were very happy with all their work and they've been in business for a while and it's all they do is is plaster work and um so yeah we're all we're very happy with the with their bid um and I just want to say that uh if you uh Google search Diamond Bright life expectancy it says 8 to 15 years and this is the first time we're actually doing uh resurfacing these pools they uh so we got almost 24 years so I think it's a testing of how we maintain our pools our water chemistry so again 24 years in the average life expectancy is only eight to Fifteen so I see uh over we have 60 000 budgeted but uh no problem as far as getting the other 131 000 moved around to cover the cost well the finance office never says no problem but uh we'll we'll make it work if it's passed and And in regards to that where we got the original budget number it was back in 2017 when we were putting away money for this I had the original email from the company that originally did that who was called a a Plastering they ironically are out of Cincinnati also they came back then with a price of 53 958 for the activity pool and they were estimating another possibly 8 000 for the for the nice Whirlpool so that's where that that number came from unfortunately and unfortunately we didn't keep increasing it and we didn't realize how much this had gone up since covet to do this work in the in that diamond Freight product so well that's a good lesson there Recreation director all Chino it's in that all directors should pay heed to what just happened there and when we update the capital plan uh I think it's coming upon all of us to really look at the dollar amounts that are in there right now and see if there's still legitimate or not so that we could head off situations like this a little earlier in the process uh going forward with with some of these other purchases so when we go through the capital budget updating process we'll definitely be be encouraging and and getting these these prices updated and I know uh Dennis we rejected that uh bids for that had to do with with the slide I think or yeah are these similar yes slide was rejected and initially we had bid this project but we received one bid and we determined that uh I think that a number of contractors did initially get involved because of the time frame so we allowed more contractors to participate because we uh actually uh Tom what is the deadline May 15th the 15th of next May 15th so I think we got a lot better response has that other one been rebid or it's it's in the process process for a separate project that's for the slide so [Music] and again I think Tom Owens has planned to have new uh I think we have different activities installed in the book because these are the original I think is that still we've been putting money away for that yes and um if I'm not mistaken it's around 26 that we have started replacing those uh the toy features that are in there but it's a tribute I mean they lasted this long too is yes any questions for Tom [Music] just a comment I mean in the proposals I mean maybe it was a challenge of being able to quantify because the O'Brien they mentioned like we're only doing 15 in certain areas or you know the pool's not drained so we can't really see I guess is it is it going to remain a challenge time just to be able to quantify the work that they're that they are doing so may not come back with with such an extra um I don't think that the guy did end up coming off because he bid this and actually didn't see the pool and he did come up and we actually drained at least the whirlpool form and he was actually surprised of how intact everything was and he felt very comfortable with this bit and and the way it was you yes you know I just reiterate with Tom said O'Brien did come up they inspected the pool he uh he thought that he actually felt that the pool's in better shape than uh he anticipated because of the age are you think any problem having this on the consent agenda this evening very good thank you Tom thank you Dennis foreign is number 2023-103 his ordinance amending ordnis 2023-90 accepting the bids for snow plowing services for senior citizens the disabled persons active military residents for the 2023-2024 snow season uh and Dennis yes uh ordinance 23-90 awarded 16 of the 24 21 routes uh Council authorized the rebid of the six remaining routes this ordinance addresses those six routes we receive bids and we can have full coverage for all 21 routes within the city as we anticipated the the rebid costs so it did increase uh it increased uh a dollar 88 per Drive per average and it will increase the cost per event to 33 200 hours of snow event that's based on uh 762 driveways any questions for Dennis we talked about this thoroughly at the workshop and everything so having done any problem putting this on the consent agenda this evening thank you thank you Dennis they do have a question though the description of uh acted military those terms yes somebody help me out with those I want to get you the definition I believe it's in the ordinance it's on the next piece of legislation on the other one later on on the agenda yeah this is just awarding the bids right okay legislation on this topic uh now we go to ordinance number 2023-104 and matter of fact the next number uh uh Ron will be all purchases that we're making for service departments so we start off with ordinance number 2023-104 as long as authorizing the purchase and delivery of four new 2025 uh whipkey residential front loaders mounted on autocar ACX cab and Chassis these are rubbish Packers and an amount not to exceed one million four thirty seven thousand nine hundred twenty eight dollars this includes total trade-in value of 350 000 again this was a part of the workshop that we had so we discussed it very thoroughly but if you like to explain yes thank you vice mayor as we talked at the streets and sidewalks meeting and the workshop this is for the four new Packers we are trading in three and keeping one as a backup like you said a million million four and 350 on the trade-in it's uh coming off the source will contract and there's about a 20 month to 24 month lead time on these new red Packers so the whole process to replace these trucks will take a period of about what three to four years uh two years 24 years and we anticipate receiving all four at once or will they come staggered or no we anticipate all four ones two years correct and then we'll retain one you as a backup in you that is correct yeah any questions for run any problem having this on the consent agenda CNN Debbie will place 104 on the consent agenda this evening to order this 2023-105. this one is for a uh excuse me a 24 vaccon we are trading in our sweeper um towards this back con this vatcon is about 13 to 15 months out and it is also coming from the source well contract uh for a price not to exceed 480 400 8474. again this was discussed at the workshop extensively and so the street sweeper will be traded in to offset the cost of this back on truck well yes but also because we're buying in the 106 a new street sweeper the money worked out better we traded it we got a price to trade in Sweeper for sweeper and they offered us 60 000 versus 60 versus the trading in for the background they offered 145 000 that's why we went that route with that and we're keeping the old vetcon we are keeping the old back on truck for a catch Basin truck so we have the capabilities to Jet the basins while we're out there as well so we will have three vac trucks we will have two vac trucks don't we have one for the catch Basin program so that's just a vac all it's not a jet truck we have the backup jet truck right so we'll have two vac Jets and one vac all yes that's correct as I know that I see that we have three of the purchases for the service department I'll use the source well Cooperative purchasing programs so we had the last the uh the Packers for Rich Packers and I think down the there's one more that uses the uh I believe it's the swap loader model the background Schwartz sweeper is coming off the ODOT contract and the Ford f-550s off the state of Ohio so we have a different Consortium as far as that we use on correct depending on the best price correct yes any any questions for any further questions for a run on this topic no problem putting this on the consent agenda 2023-106 is Orange is authorizing the purchase and delivery of one new 2023 uh is that Schwartz A7 regenerative air street sweeper mounted on 2023 Freightliner M2 chassis for the service department not to exceed the 367 481 dollars oh yes this is a 23 short sweeper it is on the ground now um as soon as we get a pl we can go pick it up and start sweeping the streets again as we discussed this is off the um [Music] ODOT contract that offered the best pricing and it's coming from Southeastern equipment and he uh questions for Ron on this and we're in all these uh overall part of The Five-Year Plan that we have in place correct we did have to to move some of the timeline up but uh we we accounted for the vast majority of that in the uh the August appropriation Amendment tourism no problem putting this on the consent agenda this evening and nobody's asking a lot of questions it was quite lengthy discussion that's right that's why I'm allowing this side sidebar over here I'm sorry for the sidebar yeah we just want to make sure the legislation is correct this is right very good well I just had something to try to concentrate on oh I want to get a few more months to concentrate it's number 2023-107 is authorizing the purchase and delivery of one new 2023 Ford F-550 4x4 for the service department in the mountain exceed 80 177 dollars yes thank you vice mayor this is a 550 actually 107 in ordinance 108 they go together the swap loader goes on the 550 um the 550 is the 23 uh Ford F-550 with a seven three liter uh yes engine on it it is coming from the state of Ohio contract and then it is on the ground immediately following the swap loader install hoping to have it by the end of mid end of October mid-november it's very good any any further questions and it will put this on the consent agenda that uh that 192 thousand dollars for the pool that lasts 24 years don't sound too bad now that's for sure just I don't remember the last one Ryan is that a replacement or that's adding to the fleet it's a replacement of a 2006. 550. okay so 107 will be on the consent agenda orders number 2023-108 uh I think it's the last one for you around in order is authorizing the purchase and delivery of one new swap loader model sl105 snow and ice equipment package in the monastic seat 107 000 28.68 yeah as we discussed the swap loader it goes on the 550. um pretty simple it's the same model we have now the sl105 um we'll put a plow on the front of the truck on the salt box on the swap loader and can do containers as well or get any questions for Ron and we'll put this on the consent agenda this evening also thank you Ron thank you uh ordinance number 2023-109 we've already discussed and it's on the consent agenda we moved to orders number 2023-110 and its ordinance enacting new chapter 1384 of Title VII other local provisions of part 13 building code of a modified ordinances of the city of Independence regarding electric vehicle charging stations and like any comments on this thank you vice mayor uh a few months ago we we came to the count city council and requested a ordinance to a national moratorium on electrical vehicle charging stations until he had an opportunity to look at some of the restrictions as far as zoning and setbacks and locations we put this together it was presented to Planning Commission for review and comments they went ahead and and decided should you move forward to council so this is this is that ordinance with the items that we feel are at this time these items would be considered a guideline for someone that wants to put in electric vehicle charging station and uh This only affects the uh control properties in town this is not does not deal with the residential use or someone putting one in there in their home or in her garage so any issue that's that a applicant may have they they also have the right to appeal to the board of zoning appeals for a variance to the section that they're challenged with so anybody have any questions the legislation calls for annual inspections is that something that your department will be handling knowledge it's not the annual inspection would be provided by a uh looking for that section I believe it's it calls for annual inspection provided by a licensed contractor or person certified scanning through I don't recall which one that was exactly I'm just looking at page four it just says that uh number four the evcs shall be inspected once a year proof of inspection shall be made available the fire department upon request yes right now uh that's something that the fire department requested and then kind of looked at um there would it would be done by a someone who is an installer or someone with a certification in those in those that equipment it's not something the building department would go out and do marriage minor saying that you'd like to have this on first reading refer to a workshop or utilities committee I don't care this is more time to review this have questions and may or need to defer for Mike and yeah and if if you can probably let fight no two there's a concern or a question let him know ahead of time so this way like you could whatever you need to do a little preparation or a research and that you could that'd be good yeah thank you John Mike when we first talked about the moratorium you weren't aware of any uh charging station in process or something there was no one that had a an active application at that time any any updates since that I have not had any anybody that's applied for any or uh or if you had any questions all right thanks and did we receive a no-pec grant for charging stations at the cbiz parking lot are we moving forward with that no they uh their grants went out to a variety of uh communities and we did we were not one of the successful first round allocation communities so do we still plan to put charging stations in that parking lot or you know I think I think there's a lot the juries out that's one of the things we can talk about at the workshop because of the uh people in the industry have indicated to me that uh they're they're putting them in installing them in communities and the utility is not hooking them up because there's a lag between the public utility and and the service customers so there's really a challenge going on and eventually from what I understand it's uh uh one of the challenges utilities are having is the grid so this is going to uh take a a interesting course in the future but we should we can talk about all these things at the at the workshop so that's okay Mike if we put on First Street edges that's fine that's fine everybody can generate questions will never robust discussion that's what they've left the schedule a workshop between now and yeah and the next year that'll be our goal yeah very good so this will be kept on first reading first reading thank you thank you Mike to uh ordinance number 2023-111 uh and these are I always like to to have these type of organizations there's another uh Tiff financing District you're being created so um I'll let the Jessica you have the Florida thank you yes this this piece of legislation is looking to Tiff the new uh 260 000 square foot uh flexible industrial building that's being the construction is being finished on Rio Nero the building has announced two tenants for that building which will make it completely occupied when it's delivered the developers indicated the construction cost for that building to be approximately 18.3 million dollars and while construction cost does not translate to the fiscal office to an appraised value if that number does hold true we would anticipate about uh five I'm sorry 382 000 in annual Pilots which would break down to be about 226 thousand eight hundred dollars to the independence local schools and the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center with about 155 900 remaining to the city of Independence during that time that could be utilized for public infrastructure projects we would Tiff this for a period of 30 years which means that would yield approximately 4.7 million dollars for the independence Local Schools as well as the Cayuga Valley Career Center I'm sorry 4.7 million dollars for the City of Independence and 6.8 for the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center and the independence local schools so this would just be consistent with our past projects our past practice of tipping new construction for any any questions for Jessica on this what do they anticipate occupancy early next year or no they're being delivered here I think some there's some occupancy already in the building for Faber Castell if I'm correct yeah also there are signage the building's painted it looks really great back there oh it must have been the last couple weeks yes they've been moving very quickly very good any questions for Jessica on this and in any opposition is on a consent agenda I'll go to Webster oh yeah okay so we'll vote on this separately that's why John I forgot we'll vote on this separately thank you gotta work today Chris [Laughter] not office very good thank you Jessica uh we moved to ordinance number 2023-112. uh ordinance amending section 959.01 Service established qualifications of the codified ordinances of the city of Independence really into snow removal for senior citizens and disabled persons I think this is what Anthony you're referring to the another legislation and I think you had a question to Dale on on this matter regarding the uh yeah that would be full soldiers in the Army full-time and this would be deployed for a minimum of 15 days so that would be active military would not apply to reservists although um I I think it should but many times that I'm Fielding questions from councilman trick is that he is being deployed and he's at Camp I was actually surprised at how many times reservists are actually out of Town doing their their service but before this topic of discussion at the at the last workshop on this too and I know Anthony you had reservation on this so we'll be voting on this uh just out of curiosity would we be able to say active duty military and active reserve but isn't it reservist in the military isn't a reservist part of the military yeah but active duty Reserve means active duty individuals means that you're actually at an army base or or you know you're not living in Independence basically if you're an active reserve you drill outside of your hometown generally um but what we're talking about for obviously for deployments would apply to both of them but active reserve would mean that if somebody happened to be uh you know I just came back from an annual training exercise so if the annual training exercise was in February I wouldn't use this ordinance but you know if a reservist was uh uh you know had a two-week station somewhere out of state or in you know another part of the state they wouldn't be able to remove the snow from their driveway so that would be the difference deployed if they're deployed they call up we're going to put them on the list it's not a deployment you are but if you're under or if you're under orders for a non-deployment and you're still just drilling elsewhere that's not considered the deployment yeah but they're gonna if they call up they're gonna get their driveway plow okay any other questions regarding are we are we plowing uh employee driveways anymore I don't believe we are completely no it wasn't part of that right I thought that's what we had dropped but I was just checking that's outside the city's responsibility though right I don't recall that discussion but I thought that was brought up about if an employee wanted to call want to overhead I think that was ending and get that same rate is that it wasn't that any Resident that wanted to do have a one push I think it was I think it was any Resident not just um yes very good weather we'll be voting on this this evening separately uh Debbie right uh resolution number 2023-6 it's a resolution accepting the amounts and rates as determined by the budget commission and authorizing the necessary tax levies and certify them to the County Fiscal officers and uh explain that to us but if you want to just reiterate what you have in your report that's just confirming the 2.2 Mills that the city collects inside millage and superintendent hagarish inside millage two of your favorite words I'm sure any any uh opposition putting this on the consent agenda CNN Debbie will put this on the consent agenda and mayor that ends the caucus thank you vice mayor we all ready good evening we have the regular meeting of City Council of Tuesday September of 12 2023 Corporate Colorado here here tagliotti here president Roberta here while channelings here please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance certified United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all audience participation yes yes I uh reported the council that we should have something uh to present to Council in terms of for their review and Analysis the next couple of two or three months thank you uh superintendent hagadish was anybody else not just superintendent and mayor I appreciate the 20-minute time slot thank you for that understood I practiced I've never talked for three minutes or less but I'm gonna give it a go today so first of all just want to come and uh just say hello welcome welcome back it's our new year and it's been a great new year in the independence Local Schools hopefully you've been able to see some of the excitement some of the things going on um perhaps you were able to see our welcome back video we uh have have amped up our video communication actually at no cost to the district we were able to use some State subsidy grant money to put together monthly communication videos and our first was uh just to Welcome Back video so I wanted to bring a few things for you here tonight but I'm going to put them together uh and drop them off I'm going to first need to know your T-shirt size I want to give everybody a little blue devil swag but Mr wall Channel which I was unsure if you were a medium or a large so I've got to get sizes so I'll I'll uh I'll send out a I'll send out an email tomorrow following up from which it depends on which wall Channel absolutely absolutely the second thing I wanted to give everybody tonight is one of these eye Pride carts and I'll deliver those as well but just with all of you being public officials and public servants I really wanted to extend uh you know we're done with covet we're done with pandemic and we're back and we're opened up and uh oftentimes we've got the best show in town whether it's on the field whether it's on the court whether it's on the stage um and and having you become be part of that is is really special and this is you know kind of my lifetime uh cordial uh invite for that and for spouses too so I'll make sure everybody has one of these um they're good at all of our home events excluding playoffs so even I have to pay for playoffs so I'll drop those off and then the third thing that I wanted to pass out and take I think the minute 40 left of my three minutes um was just some some initial facts and some initial sharing about the independence local schools and the two levees that we'll have on the ballot in November um so just kind of reviewing those the first will be issue 9 we just got our issue numbers and issue 9 is a renewal that's a renewal of a funding mechanism that was first approved by the community in 2011. uh that's a 4.2 million dollar fixed sum Levy you may hear the term emergency Levy so both of these levies are emergency levies but that doesn't mean oh no what's going on emergency what that means in school Finance world is that they are fixed some levies so they generate the same amount of money for the lifetime of the levy this first one as I mentioned was first approved in 2011 generated the same 4.2 million dollars in collection year 2012 as it will generate in its last collection year 2024 and so as property valuations with the exception of sometimes recession uh generally go up the millage decreases to generate the same amount of money and this renewal is not an increase of taxes in fact if you get very deep into the weeds it's a slight decrease for most Property Owners now if you did a great addition or had a reevaluation that might affect that but we can comfortably say that it's not an increase in taxes that currently costs homeowners about 250 a year within a few cents of that uh per hundred thousand dollars of real home value um the second Levy uh will be a an increase uh this will be a new money request that'll be issue 10. issue 10 will be a two million dollar sixth sum emergency Levy again not emergency oh no but emergency fixed some that will generate that same two million dollars that represents approximately a 10 percent increase in our operating we haven't with the exception of May where we had our first attempt we had our issues together we also had some new programming and it was for a greater amount we took the feedback including a loss at the at the at the polls um split those issues took away uh any cons significant new programming in terms of preschool offerings where there were you know close to five or six hundred thousand dollars of potential costs and some of those we lowered the amount don't split the issues based on community feedback and what issue 10 would do would allow us to continue what I consider continuous Improvement a continuous Improvement approach to school operations that we've been exhibiting I think over the last 10 years nine of which I've been able to be your superintendent for and that includes a a significant improvement over time in our offerings our courses that we have our technology we went from managing 30 devices to now we have over 3000 devices at no increased cost to our residents to our to our students and our families we have some of the lowest technology fees class fees participation fees in the area where the lowest gross tax District in the county and the services that I think hopefully our school provides are consistent with the outstanding Services the city provides this would allow us to continue to have a continuous Improvement model of school operations and to to gently grow what we do in terms of technology in terms of courses uh it would allow us to keep our class sizes at levels that our families think are amazing um I was reading brecksville's update and their class sizes are significantly larger than ours and that plays to our strength of our relationships our connections I think I'm over on time um and it would also allow us to continue to operate in the black we've been three years deficit spend spending gently dipping our toes into that and make operational adjustments as we go but there comes a point in time when the cost of a school bus the cost of a driver the cost of electricity just has increased and so I will have a lot more information to share I'll be inviting all of you to a series of town hall meetings that will be putting on I also want to perk your ears or your eyes for our fall edition of the independence quarterly and our quality profile will you'll get to read more about all of those things that that I brag about quite frankly of what we offer for our kids and the successes that we have in the classroom and outside of the classroom so thank you for your time I think I went over tonight but I'm looking forward to having continued discussion and I'll be sending everybody an email to get your swag you know Independence Blue Devil sizes and also have those I pride cards and some facts and statistics here so thank you thank you superintendent thank you thank you mayor if I could second just to follow up on superintendent hagadish's comments thank you Ben there's a very passionate group of individuals that put together uh what I would say a very sophisticated uh plan to Market both issue nine and in issue 10 here so that there is more uh public awareness of these two issues than there was for the May Lobby request uh there they've got a number of committees there forming the to uh to over the next month and a half really take a professional approach to to educating and informing the community about these two issues one of those committees is endorsements and comments and so I've been asked to just throw it out to members of council the mayor elected officials if you would like to provide a quote if you would like to provide an endorsement let me know let superintendent hege know and they'll pass that I will or be and we'll pass that along to the appropriate individuals so that that can be used in some of the marketing materials between now and the first Tuesday in November thank you let's see do we have a motion to prove the minutes of the regular council meeting of August 12 2023 the minutes of the streets and sidewalks Committee of August 1st 2023 the minutes of the council Workshop of August 29 2023 and the minutes of the public buildings and lands committee meeting of August 31st 2023. second on favor aye opposed and those minutes are all adopted we have Ordnance 2023-95 second all in favor aye opposed an ordinance amending chapter 1366 rental occupancies how to fight ordinances of pendants move the adoption any questions on the adoption call the roll did Geronimo yes Grendel yes yes and it's adopted we have uh approval of the consent agenda items are considered routine each item will be read individually into the record and the consent agenda will then be voted on as a whole by one motion and one room do I have a motion to uh uh motion to let me see it tidal only of the title only of the consent agenda so move second all in favor aye aye opposed ordinance 2023-98 an ordinance authorizing the disposal of the city Surplus Goods equipment and vehicles through gut Fields online auction service ordinance 2023-99 and ordinance authorizing change order number one to the city's 2022 sanitarian storm sewer maintenance and repairs contract with United surveying ordinance 2023-100 and ordinance authorizing change order number one to the city's 2022 sanitary and storm sewer maintenance and repairs contract with cnk Industrial Services Inc ordinance 2023-101 an ordinance authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with Cuyahoga County to cooperate with and participate in the cost of construction to replace the Chaparral bridge 02.89 and declaring an emergency on its 2023-102 an ordinance accepting the proposal of O'Brien pulsing to repair and resurface the existing outdoor activity pool and Whirlpool with Diamond Brite ordinance 2023-103 an ordinance amending ordinance 2023-90 accepting the bids for snow plowing services for senior citizens disabled persons active military residents for the 2023-2024 snow season ordinance 2023-104 an ordinance authorizing the purchase and delivery of four new 2025 Wiki residential front loaders mounted on autocar ACX cabin chassis rubbish Panthers revision one ordinance 2023-105 an ordinance authorizing the purchase and delivery of one new 2024 Back Time tighten the single axle mounted on 2024 Freightliner 1142 decaf 2023-106 an ordinance authorizing the purchase and delivery of one new 2023 Schwarz A7 regenerative air street sweeper mounted on the 2023 Freightliner M2 chassis for the service department Ordnance 2023-107 an ordinance authorizing the purchase and delivery of one new 2023 Ford F-550 4x4 for the service department 2023-108 an ordinance authorizing the purchase and delivery of one new swap loader model sl105 snow and ice equipment package 2023-109 an ordinance accepting the proposal of James B Oswald company for professional insurance broker services for the purchase of Health Care insurance for the city 2023-2024 in resolution 2023-6 a resolution accepting the amounts in rates as determined by the budget commission and authorizing the necessary tax levies and certifying them to the County Fiscal office motion is suspended second all in favor aye aye opposed potion of that second any questions on the adoption of the consent agenda tolerance yes yes yes and the consent agenda is adopted we have Ordnance 2023-110 an ordinance enacting new chapter 1384 of Title VII other local provisions of carc 13 building code of the codified ordinances of the city of Independence regarding electric vehicle charging stations and they'll remain on first reading and referred to uh utilities or a workshop whichever it can be planned sooner we have Ordnance 2023-110 seconds all in favor aye opposed declaring improvements to certain Parcels of property in the city of Independence Ohio to be a public purpose for purposes of sections 5709.40 and 5709.42 of the Ohio advice code an exempt from taxation describing public improvements to be made to directly benefit the parcel requiring the owners of parcel to make service payments in lieu of Kansas establishing a municipal public Improvement tax increment equivalent fund for the positive service payments making related authorizations pursuant to a high Revised Code sections 5709.405709.42 and 570-9.43 opposed ocean adapt second any questions on the adoption follow wrong now do you see yes yes tagliani yes hi Roberta yes yes G Geronimo Epstein brendell yes and it's adopted and we have uh Oregon's 2023- 112. second on favor opposed an ordinance amending section 959.01 Service established qualifications of the codified ordinances of the city of Independence relating to snow removal for senior citizens and disabled persons motion is suspended all in favor aye opposed ocean adapt second any questions on the adoption Colorado no trachus aye Rivera yes well chanowitz yes did Geronimo yes grindel yes yes and it's adopted we have no other business before this honorable body uh we'll entertain a motion to adjourn so I'll move second all in favor aye aye opposed thank you very much and thank you everyone for being this here this evening and God bless you man okay um that's okay too all right I haven't seen him in a long time Christmas lights