Garrettsville – Village officials present at the village council meeting on October 14th were Village Solicitor Michele Stuck, Mayor Rick Patrick, Assistant Fiscal Officer Deb Wordell, and Councilpersons Tom Hardesty, Chris Knop, Larry Beatty, John Chambers, and Tom Collins (via Zoom). Jeff Kaiser was unable to attend as he was traveling at the time. Due to COVID-19 social distancing requirements, the meeting was held in person with no audience. The meeting was streamed to Facebook for the public.
After the meeting was called to order by Mayor Patrick, the minutes of the October meeting were reviewed. Following the approval of the minutes, council reviewed the financial reports and income tax receipts.
Moving into new business, the following resolutions and ordinances were discussed at the evening’s meeting:
Ordinance 2020-33, which accepts an easement for a stormwater drain from the Garrettsville Nelson Freedom Joint Fire District, was approved and enacted.
Resolution 2020-34 reallocates $3,082.30 from the water and wastewater operating funds to the local coronavirus relief fund to reimburse administrative leave taken by staff in response to the coronavirus health emergency in the months of March and April 2020 and declaring an emergency. On March 22, 2020, the Director of the Ohio Department of Health issued a “Director’s Stay at Home Order” in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the State of Ohio; and during initial stage of this public health emergency, prior to the implementation of protective measures in the Water and Wastewater Department, Jeff Sheehan, Water and Wastewater Superintendent, determined that it was in the interests of the health and safety of his staff and the continued delivery of services to the public to prevent said staff from working together on shift. In order to achieve this, the superintendent sent employees under his supervision home or required them not to report to work; and in order to prevent a reduction in pay for these staff members, the Superintendent determined that this forced leave should be compensated by the use of accrued sick leave hours. Recently the Garrettsville Board of Public Affairs recommended that Village Council consider restoring the sick leave used for this purpose. By passing this resolution the village restored the 147 hours of sick leave accrued by the employees.
Resolution 2020-35 authorizes Mayor Patrick to apply for, accept and enter a Water Supply Revolving Loan Account on behalf of the village for the construction of the South Street Water Main Improvement Project. The resolution was passed at the meeting.
Ordinance 2020-36, which sets the compensation rates for employees of the village and employees of the Board of Public Affairs, was approved and enacted. The ordinance adjusts wages for positions in the Water and Wastewater Departments based on licensing, training level and experience. This change was necessitated by a number of water employees exceeding the training levels in the prior ordinance.
Resolution 2020-37, establishing a Permissive Motor Vehicle License Tax Fund (#2101), was approved at the meeting. This resolution was necessary because under the Village’s old accounting system, the “Street Construction, Maintenance and Repair” fund accounted for and reported motor vehicle license tax, gasoline tax and income tax monies restricted for construction, maintenance, and repair of streets within the Village. Unfortunately, during the recent transition to the Uniform Accounting Network, the necessary Permissive Motor Vehicle fund #2101 was not created. This resolution corrects the situation.
Ordinance 2020-38 amends Ordinance 2020-07 to increase appropriations for current expenses in the village. This change is needed as the Garrettsville Board of Public affairs recently authorized a project to install Lift Station Dialers and conduct repairs to wastewater lift stations. The dialers will call water department employees in the event of system failures or malfunctions.
Ordinance 2020-39, an ordinance to make appropriations for current expenses and expenditures for the village, was provided to the council. Wordell requested they review the ordinance but wait until the next meeting to take action on it so they all have time to review the numbers.
Resolution 2020-40 was approved. The resolution formally recognizes K-9 officer “Jack” for more than five years of service to the village of Garrettsville. Jack is being retired from service due to health considerations and Garrettsville Police Sergeant Keith Whan will be adopting him.
Ordinance 2020-41 was approved and enacted. The ordinance affirms the United States Treasury’s presumption that public safety employees are substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency, and authorizing an expenditure of $125,000 from the local coronavirus relief fund to cover payroll and benefit expenses of Garrettsville’s public safety personnel. Knop asked for clarification about the use of “presumption” in the wording of the ordinance; he was worried that there was room for the federal government to reject some expenses in later review. After some discussion between the council members and Solicitor Stuck about the latest guidance from the US Treasury, council agreed to move forward.
Ordinance 2020-42 authorizes a contribution of up to $20,000 from the coronavirus relief fund to the Garrettsville Freedom Nelson Joint Fire District. The Garrettsville-Freedom-Nelson Joint Fire District provides emergency response services to the Village of Garrettsville and Freedom and Nelson Townships; but is not a recipient of local Coronavirus Relief Funding under the terms of the CARES Act. Recently the Fire District identified a need to supply individual personal protective equipment for each of the firefighters on its staff, and has requested that the village and the two townships that comprise its service area each contribute a portion of their Coronavirus Relief distributions to the District, to assist in defraying the cost, which is estimated at at total of $40,000.00. Garrettsville’s Safety Committee has considered the request and has recommended its approval, as it meets the eligibility criteria as outlined in Ohio Office of Budget and Management and U.S. Treasury guidance documents. The ordinance was approved and enacted at the meeting.
The meeting adjourned after a short roundtable session.
