Stow City Council
Vote Nov. 8th!

My notes from tonight’s committee meetings are below…

– The mayor nominated Bob Pontius and Dave Licate to the Public Safety Services Commission. Pontius currently serves on the commission. Licate, you will remember, ran for Ward 1 city council in 2011.

– We discussed a waiver of the $50 fee for Summit County Humane Society to hold four rummage sales at the Stow-Kent Shopping Center, the first of which will occur March 23-24. I will seek to make their waiver permanent, so they don’t need to keep coming back each year for this waiver.

– We discussed a contract whereby Stow’s building inspectors will conduct those duties for the village of Peninsula. It’s a good deal for Stow. They will pay us the same fees paid inside Stow, plus either a $35 (residential) or $75 (commercial) add-on.  I had a few minor changes to make to the agreement between the communities. In particular, the agreement was worded so as to require Stow’s inspectors to investigate for violations within Peninsula, but this was not the parties’ intent.

– Mayor Drew seeks to reduce the pay grade on two positions: On Parks and Rec Director from 19 to 13, and on Human Resources Director from 16 to 15. Both positions are currently vacant, so now is a good time to do this. We won’t be hiring a new Human Resources Director. The administration will soon begin internal interviews for the Parks Director job. Having fewer employees is a partial cause for both changes. Also Parks Director will no longer have responsibility for Fox Den. Regrading these positions is a good move.

– Council went into executive session to examine the hiring of a part-time assistant law director for criminal prosecutions. Her name is Nicole Welsh, and you might recognize her as a former Munroe Falls City Councilperson. We previously lost a full-time assistant law director. Brian Reali is saving money by replacing him with two part-timers.

– City council will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday to vote on this legislation.

We began the council meeting on a fun note. About a dozen third- and fourth-grade students and their families were in council chambers to be recognized for their fire-prevention artwork. I think each councilperson enjoyed watching the excitement on the kids’ faces.

Tonight was the meeting where we recognized the outgoing council members: Janet D’Antonio, Joe Hickin, and Sara Drew. Each councilmember said something nice about the departing individuals. It was a little odd for Sara, because she’s obviously not going anywhere.

Sara also gave her “State of the City” address. It was refreshing to me that she did not use the opportunity to make political statements, and what she said was true. If you can’t tell, I’m drawing a contrast to the past two State of the City addresses.

A few things stood out to me:

• Sara expects groundbreaking on the new hospital in the third quarter this year.
• She instructed the finance department to draft a budget that includes, among other things, a “significant increase” in roads funding.
• She is looking for ways to lease or sell city space that is not being occupied.

I know it’s early, but I like Sara’s policies as mayor, more than as a councilwoman — or even as candidate for mayor.

It was probably an hour before city council began its usual business. Most notably, we delayed a vote on the changes to the building code. I requested this delay so that I can examine a “redline” copy of the new ordinance, compared to the old. We were not provided with this tool, so it was hard to tell what changes we were actually voting on.

Each of the new personnel were approved unanimously. They are all qualified, and I’m confident the mayor has chosen good people in their new positions.

City council will meet against with committees on January 23.

Below are my notes from Monday’s meetings:

There was a public hearing on changes to the zoning code. These changes are diverse, but can be summed up as making it less time-consuming for a business to open up in Stow, without losing the protection for the residents that the zoning code provides.

We also saw numerous proposed changes to the building code. Chief among them are new fees for plumbing and water heater installation/repair. The idea is, if Stow offers these inspections, then property owners don’t need to use the county. In the future, Stow can also offer these inspections to other municipalities. I was assured that Stow’s fees would be lower than the county’s. If that’s true, then this is a win for residents. If not, then we are just unnecessarily creating bureaucracy.

We learned that a company that manages group homes is moving offices to an empty warehouse. They will have 40 employees at first.

The Finance Committee, now chaired by Matt Riehl, went through several expenditures.

The Committee-of-the-Whole recessed into executive session, and four pieces of legislation came out. These are the proposed personnel changes: Mike Miller will be the new service director, with Dano Koehler’s retirement. Nick Wren will move to assistant service director. Jim McCleary is the new permanent city engineer. Don Brooker is the new street superintendent. These appointments all make sense to me, provided that Nick’s replacement as Parks Director is qualified, is appointed from within, and is not replaced.

City Council will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday to vote on these ordinances.