Approved Minutes 06/28/2016
Page 223
City of Olmsted Falls
Minutes of a Regular Council Meeting
Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at Olmsted Falls City Hall
26100 Bagley Road – Council Chambers, 7:30 p.m.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. Mayor Ann Marie Donegan Council called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. Roll call was conducted. Councilmen Jay Linn, Linda Garrity, Jim Haviland, Bob Sculac, Paul Stibich, Terry Duncan, and Kyle Miller were present.
Also in attendance: Gregory M. Sponseller, Law Director, Steve Presley, Finance Director, Mike DeSan, Asst. Finance Director, Joe Borczuch, Service Director, and William Traine, Interim Police Chief. Audience: 27.
Approval of Minutes:
Mr. Sculac moved to approve the minutes from the Special Council Meeting of June 14, 2016; Ms. Duncan seconded. Poll: 7 ayes; 0 nays. Motion carried.
Mr. Stibich moved to approve the minutes from the Regular Council Meeting of June 14, 2016; Ms. Duncan seconded. Ms. Garrity indicated a grammatical error. Ms. Duncan indicated a typographical error. Poll as amended: 7 ayes; 0 nays. Motion carried.
Consideration of Amendment to the Agenda – None
Mayor’s Report and Appointments
Mayor Donegan indicated that it is an honor to swear into the Office of Police Chief William Traine. We are grateful and humbled and blessed having you become the Police Chief of the City of Olmsted Falls. Chief Traine, who was sworn in after the last meeting, is a police officer who has over 38 years of experience, a skilled supervisor with 14 years as a lieutenant with the Cleveland Police Department; eight years as sergeant and 22 years in the detective bureau. In the Cleveland Police Department and within the special investigations technical section he was the officer in charge/acting commander for a year and a half with the following units under your command: crime scene and records; forensic unit; firearms; identification section; photo lab; homicide; sex crimes; domestic violence; arson; auto theft; financial crimes; bomb squad and accident investigation units. At times during that tour of duty you were Acting Deputy Chief of Police. She stated that Chief Traine was assigned as the supervisor handling internal affairs assignments; member of a federal public corruption task force, which he answered solely to the Chief of Police. She stated that Chief Traine served in every district other than the Third District of the Cleveland Police Department. All during this time Chief Traine held a police commission as a special deputy chief. She would like to mention some of Chief Traine’s awards, he has received four special commendation awards, 1992 at the conclusion of a long term investigation relating to a series of burglaries; in 1995 a demonstration of special ability related to a hostage situation; in 1997 prevention of a potential tragic incident regarding a trouble citizen and in 1998 the management of a tragic situation following a fellow officer’s death in the line of duty. Chief Traine received Supervisor of the Year in 1998, 1999 and 2000 for the division of police. The Medal of Valor in 2006 for preventing a robbery while off duty; his references include Safety Director, Frank Bova; Commander John Cole of Shaker Heights; Captain James Churra of the CPD; Judge Steven Gaul. Mayor Donegan stated that Chief Traine has an amazing resume with level II federal homeland security clearance and she remains impressed every time she reviews his resume. She stated that the City is honored to have him stepping into the police chief role. The City needs to move forward in a very respectable manner and Chief Traine is the individual to move us forward.
Mayor Donegan administered the Oath of Office to William Traine.
Chief Traine thanked Council and the Mayor for their consideration of him for this position and approving his appointment. This is one of the most honored moments in his 38 years as a police man and he will never forget it. He would like to assure everyone that he will do this job to the best of his ability and with the utmost integrity. He is proud to see some of the men and women that work with him in the department are present and their support means a lot to him. The department will move along with progress and things will be done the right way. It will be a different touch and a rewarding touch. He is thankful for the support of his chaplain, his doctor, who is a deputy, his mother in-law, his children and most importantly his wife who has said “he’s back in the game again.” He cannot say enough and thanked everyone very much as this will be the most memorable moment in his career.
Mr. Sponseller stated that he is privileged to work with Chief Traine and the city is privileged to have him. He believes that Chief Traine emanates that which all police officer’s strive for and that which all of us as public servants strive for and that is commitment to the people and doing the very best we can. A commitment to training to make sure we know how to do the very best we can do and the dedication unmatched. It will be a privilege to work with Chief Traine and a privilege to put things in appropriate order, all for the best of this community. He is flattered and proud to work with the Chief and appreciative that he is here.
Mayor Donegan stated that there is cake and coffee in the lunchroom for Chief Traine and his guests.
Mayor Donegan stated that Council provided the administration with three hiring’s in the police department last year, three were hired but Officer Stoudmire received a promotion and had to step down. Council has received a packet of information regarding Officer Hartman and background checks were completed.
Mr. Haviland moved to appoint Carl Hartman, III as a part time patrol officer in the Olmsted Falls Police Department; Mr. Linn seconded. Poll: 7 ayes; 0 nays. Motion carried.
Charter Changes Discussion – Mayor Donegan stated that if there were no specific questions a discussion can take place during old business.
Boards and Commissions – She indicated that depending on how the Charter changes move forward we do have openings on boards and commissions. The openings include: the Environmental Protection Board, Ethics Commission, this is not a chartered board and will review and rewrite the ordinance, and Planning Commission.
Olmsted Recreation – Mayor Donegan asked Danny Colonna and Joelle McNea to come to the podium and address Council candidly.
Mr. Colonna thanked Council and the Mayor for giving him the opportunity to address Olmsted Recreation. There is a lot to cover in a short amount of time and he will try to be quick. He will be very candid as he makes his report. As an overview, for the members of Council who were not aboard when Olmsted Recreation first started, in 2014 when the Mayor began her first term, she reached out to him in regards to recreation. She has had an ongoing vision of community recreation for not only Olmsted Falls but the Olmsted Community. He had the opportunity to meet with her and begin a long process to determine how we could provide recreation services to the communities. What evolved was a potential collaboration which became reality between the Township, the City and the School District. At that time, a lot of input went into this, job descriptions were developed for the director, the programmer and a whole layout of how this collaboration and venture would be developed. At the time, the main individuals at the table were the Mayor, Trustee Kress and Trustee Fischbach from the Township. He served on a City Council for 12 years, has been in recreation for 20 years, as well as a football coach for 25 years. To see a collaboration like this and possibly setting a bar for where recreation services may have to go because when you look at recreation it does not make money, it is a service that is expected to be provided and the taxpayers expect that. Recreation provides youth programming, adult programming, senior services, and development for all ages including events within a community. When we developed this collaboration we decided to start from the ground level and build relationships, reach out to the baseball and soccer associations as well as kick start some senior programming. We were going to take the programs that were in place for example, flag football and summer arts, and refine and make them stronger to improve participation. This collaboration was moving in a great direction with each entity only collaborating to put $15,000 into it which is completely unheard of for community recreation. He stated that he lives in the City of Brook Park and they run $800,000 deficits in recreation. The residents would rather in some cases have recreation than a lot of other services. With the entities approving a total of $45,000 he believed was an amazing start to create the collaboration which would provide an assume service to the community. Over time, we built senior programming, the summer arts and flag football programs grew and each continues to grow. The recreation board, which comprised of the Mayor, Trustee Fischbach, and Mr. Weisbarth from the school board, moved at a good pace with the money available. There came a point at the end of this past year when he approached the board and informed them that they would need to make a decision, either more money would be needed and more effort to move forward. We had used the money and resources we had available and could not do any more than what we were doing. Everyone did realize that but it was at this point that a commitment had to be made. The Mayor during all of this was always straight forward with him as the director of Olmsted Recreation and indicated that she would do whatever the other entities wanted to fulfill this. She has always been very supportive during this whole process. At this time new players had come into play on the recreation board. Trustee Zver took the place of Trustee Fischbach and School Board President Joe Bertrand stepped into the mix. These two new members wanted to start over. There was a meeting with Trustee Zver who wanted to go through a whole job rebuilding and basically wanted to redo everything that had been done until she received all the information and documentation of what was already complete. The 16 month report was passed out to the board members which showed major growth. At that time, the question of how much money would be needed was asked. We need facilities and a lot more resources. He stated that he is going to be very candid because it became very clear to him by a simple statement made in a board meeting. The new fiscal agent for Olmsted Recreation, which is the fiscal agent for the schools, Emily Dales made it clear that the school district and her office would no longer want to take on the fiscal responsibilities. The Mayor then indicated, as she has during the entire venture, that she will take on whatever responsibilities needed and will speak to her finance director in order to make sure this venture grows and becomes a vision the residents expect. Right off the cuff Trustee Zver immediately responded no and then followed up with saying she does not speak for the other trustees. With his background it was clear to him that the direction this was going in was no longer about the residents but about him. It became very discouraging because of how he was brought up in public service - you put the residents first. A lot of sacrifice goes into your own families for this effort and we all sacrifice during this process. The School Board also followed suit with comments that were made in regards to their participation. He then brought up the question of where do we go from here? The question then came up does Olmsted Recreation fall under the city, township or schools. Mayor Donegan asked Mr. Colonna to mention that the school board wanted to start charging for their services. Mr. Colonna stated that the fiscal officer, Emily Dales, wanted to begin charging Olmsted Recreation for their services. Obviously the understanding and vision of recreation and public service went down the drain with some of these comments. From his background in recreation, he believes that recreation should not fall under a school district nor should it be a 501c3, it should fall under a municipal government. From his stand point and listening to the trustees the township does not have the resources and there is no way the fiscal responsibilities can fall under the township. They do not have a department they only have a part time finance director. If we were going to move in the direction and at the pace needed for the services the residents expect there was absolutely no way we could house and have Olmsted Recreation services under the township. The Mayor once again, stepped up and said whatever we have to do and whatever is needed from her to make this happen she will do.
He then took it upon myself to prepare for a meeting that was going to happen to determine the direction of Olmsted Recreation. He spoke with district educators and coaches and it was clear from speaking with some of them that they actually looked at Olmsted Recreation as the last opportunity for recreation to happen like it does in a typical municipality. Many of these individuals live in other communities like Brook Park, Middleburg Heights, and Berea that provide this service at a high level and understood how important Olmsted Recreation was and that this collaboration should grow into what municipal government recognizes as recreation. At that point, he brought up to Mr. Bertrand that there were a couple employees and teachers within the school district that would be more than willing to come to a meeting and express their concerns and support for Olmsted Recreation to move it in the direction they would like to see it move.