MINUTES OF MEETING OF
IRONTON CITY COUNCIL
October 8, 2020
6:00 p.m.
A regular meeting of Ironton City Council was held on Thursday, October 8, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. via video conference. Present was Vice Mayor Craig Harvey, who presided and members: Cleary, Haney, Hock, Kline, Pierce – six.
All persons stood for a prayer given by Rev. Eric Barnes of First Baptist Church, and then the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The Minutes of the Finance Committee of September 24, 2020, and the Regular Meeting of September 24, 2020, stood approved as submitted.
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
Mr. Harvey said Mr. Elam was contacted by Ms. Rosetta Roberts of 519 South 10th Street, who forwarded her number to Mr. Harvey. He said she wanted him to say on her behalf that her property is not vacant and not for sale, and she would like to be left alone because she is routinely asked about her property being vacant and development at the Gateway; and she wants to just be left alone. Mr. Harvey said he was also supposed to remind the Mayor in Audience Participation that Judy Rice had called him about a Christmas tree donation to the City for this year. He said lastly, the letter from Tim Dickens that he discussed in Audience Participation at the last meeting is attached under Communications this time, and there is a new one from Hugh Donald Scott, which Mr. Hock received; and Mr. Harvey asked Mr. Hock to go over the highlights of that letter. Mr. Hock said he was contacted by Hugh Scott, and he was curious about development going on in the Depot Square, South 8th Street, area. He says it is near a historical Black Baptist Church, Triedstone Baptist. Mr. Scott says that he is curious as to who the project leaders are and who the construction crews are. He wants to know if there was a neighborhood meeting at any point. He said he is concerned because there are a lot of elderly single women in the area, and they could be fearful of what is happening. He is curious if there would be a posting of what is being built similar to what is posted at the Marriott Suites Hotel. Mr. Hock said lastly, Mr. Scott is curious where the money came from for the construction, being that it is in a low-income area. He has heard that it was a substantial amount of money. Mr. Hock said he doesn’t know much about the project, but he thought he would turn it over if anybody has any information on it. Mayor Cramblit said he thinks Mike Finley is the one running that project. Mr. Kline said he is pretty sure that they got a zoning permit and a building permit, so that is probably public record. The Mayor said they also had to get a storm water permit. Mr. Haney said he read the letter, and it really has nothing to do with City Council. He said it doesn’t violate any zoning ordinances. He said Mr. Scott went on to say, “Come on, Ironton City Council, the reason I say this is because it’s in your backyard”. Mr. Haney said he doesn’t think any of them on Council would have the power to stop somebody from buying property or from obtaining a grant, or from building a facility within the rules of the law or the ordinances that are placed. He said he understands Mr. Scott’s concerns, but he would like to relay that he doesn’t think Ironton City Council actually has any sort of authority on this. He said basically, it is not in our hands. It doesn’t violate anything within the codes or ordinances. He said he knows that Jon Sites has checked on that property quite a bit with the storm water. Mr. Harvey said Mr. Haney is right, and as far as the Council involvement goes, it would only involve zoning, and if it properly zoned, and went through the Zoning Office and Susan Dooley, there is really nothing that the Council would have involvement in unless the grant involved some kind of cooperation with the City, and in this case that is not the case, so the City had no financial involvement in any kind of in-and-out grant. He said it is a privately-funded construction that they have no interest in when it comes to finances and out interest would be to make sure it is properly zoned and permitted, and we are doing that. He said he knows that is probably not the answer anyone is looking for, but that is the answer that we can give. Mr. Cleary said along those same lines, he had several residents come into the shop today and asked him about something called a “sober house”. He asked Mack or Brigham if they could tell him what a “sober house” is? Brigham Anderson said a sober living house is typically when a person who has been addicted to drugs has gone through some sort of inpatient therapy. He said it is a step-down facility. He said it would be a less restrictive facility, typically made up of several people; and he knows there are several in town. He said he doesn’t think these homes are regulated by the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. He said to his knowledge they are just homes that companies buy, and then they have people stay in them for up to a year as a sober living facility. Mr. Cleary said he mentioned people who had maybe been addicted to drugs, but the people who were in to see him today also said it could be hardened criminals that are being released from the Penitentiary. Mr. Anderson said those are actually called Halfway Houses. He said people who are released from prison by the Ohio Department of Corrections are not in these type of homes. He said they are Halfway Houses and are actually ran by either a DRC facility or a community-based correctional facility. He said it could be that some of these individuals are potentially hardened criminals, but it is not the design of a sober living house. Mr. Cleary said they had discussed this several years ago when they started seeing these drug rehab houses popping up in the nicer neighborhoods. He said he knows they tracked down the zoning, and he thinks Mr. Anderson’s office made some kind of a decision as to whether they can do that or not. He said he is with the residents who have this sober house moving in next door to them, across the street from a church; and they are very concerned about property devaluation on their own homes, and also about having that clientele of people living next door to them. He said he went by there today, and there were probably three or four vans that were parked the wrong direction on 4th and Mulberry. He said some of them didn’t have license tags on them. The residents were saying, you have a nice home and now they are going to fill it full of individuals who they do not want to see in their neighborhood. He said they are concerned, and it makes him concerned. He said they have had some attempt to move into his neighborhood, but it never went through. He asked Brigham if he could look up the old ruling when they were talking about rehab houses and maybe refresh Council about that at the next meeting? Mr. Anderson said he would. He said he remembers giving that opinion, and what it turns on is under Federal law whether the house would meet our zoning requirements. He said he will circulate that opinion back out to Council. He said he knows Mr. Kline talked about trying to rezone some areas also, and they gave Council a pretty lengthy opinion on what needed to be done to rezone the area. He said he knows they gave an opinion on the Federal law and also on the rezoning, so he will recirculate both of those to Council, hopefully tomorrow, by email. Mr. Harvey said besides the rezoning, they also identified the nuisance ordinance that they passed as being a potential solution for those issues. He said he would encourage those people who are having issues with crime or nuisances in their neighborhoods from those types of facilities to call law enforcement and get a report because that starts that process. Mr. Cleary said they had just talked about the new houses going up out there by the low-income place. He asked if Council had seen them because they jump out at you when you drive up 8th Street. He said the same person who is building those houses is the same one who is opening up that sober house. He said they are buying homes really cheap in nice neighborhoods.
Mr. Haney said the last time they had these discussions, there were some kinds of form that Brigham directed them towards for a nuisance. He asked if it was a compliance form? Mr. Anderson said those were forms with the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Mr. Haney asked the Mayor if there was any way they could get those forms on the City’s website. Mayor Cramblit said yes, they can do that.
Mr. Cleary said he had one other issues. He said he and the Mayor were contacted by a citizen who received one of the letters. He said he gave her the Mayor’s number. He said it is about our Ordinance No. 18-55 regarding vacant property registration. He doesn’t have an issue with somebody having to fill the forms to register, but he thinks it maybe needs to be looked at some more because the person who they served the letter on is actually in the house that they live in. He said the only thing that strikes him are the fees. He thinks this was passed in October 2018. He said he read the letter that she gave him, and if you have a commercial building somewhere and it is sitting vacant, the fee the first year is $400, the second year is $800, the third year is $1,600, the fourth year is $3,200, and the fifth year, if that building continues to sit vacant, the fee is $6,400. He said you are looking at about $13,000 in fees for having that house sit empty. He said he would like the Councilmembers to digest this, too, because you can’t force a person to sell a building. He said Ironton Alive does a lot to try to get new businesses in some of the old buildings, but sometimes a building just sits empty for a while. He said, look how long Don Guy’s building has sat vacant. He said that has probably been about 8 years, and they have all listened about these wonderful townhouse apartments coming in to it; but we’re still nowhere with it. He said he thinks the fees are outrageous for a residential home. He said it is about $7,000 in 5 years in fees you have to pay to let it sit there. He said he thinks the proof of insurance required is way out of line. He said if you want to tear a building down, you have to have $10,000 for residential and $75,000 for a commercial building. He said maybe the Clerk or the Mayor could email that ordinance that they passed in October 2018 so they could all take a second look at it. He said he thinks it is good that they were looking at that. He said he voted for it, and it was a unanimous vote on Council. He said he doesn’t think he has seen those kind of fees anywhere to register. He said he thinks they really need to look close to make sure the house is empty and not just sitting there with people not going in and out of it a lot. Mr. Kline said he was one who sponsored that and took a lead on that. He said there are several things in that ordinance that excludes that property from being considered vacant. He said if it is for sale, has a building permit, is being remodeled—you can see all the exclusions in that—if it is a building that is being rented out or being marketed. He said they weren’t the first city to come up with this—this was enacted in over 90 different municipalities across the State in an effort to curb vacant homes and vacant buildings. He said his biggest motivation on that was they saw a large amount of foreclosures throughout the City and banks holding on to property and not turning them back on the market and just letting them sit empty, tracking vagrants and bringing down other home values—now banks have to consider that when they are holding those properties. He said that was the biggest goal in achieving that. He said he would be happy to look at that again, but as far as whether or not that is needed, he thinks it is still needed. He said it has been effective in the other municipalities that they have looked at. He said they took this template from the City of Paynesville, which was one of the first communicates to enact, and they have had great success. He said he thinks it is going to work for the City, too. Mr. Cleary said he would like to see a copy of the ordinance and read it more in depth. Mr. Haney said he sees what Mr. Cleary is saying about the resident that actually lives inside the home, and that is definitely something they need to look at as to why that was deemed vacant and maybe they need to fix that. He said also when they were looking at this most recent ordinance, he and Mr. Kline looked extensively at that ordinance, as well as other facets of vacant properties when they did the most recent one. He said like Mr. Kline brought up a good point about banks holding on to properties, he doesn’t think it is necessarily meant to harm anybody financially. He said there are a lot of exceptions, as Mr. Kline said, in the 2018 ordinance to where if you have a building and have had it for years, there are a lot of exceptions you can do to keep from getting fined or feed; but as Mr. Kline said, what the original concept was to make the banks either do something with it or get rid of it, or make property owners market their building better or rent it out. He said he would definitely be willing to look at that, but there are a lot of exceptions that those people can look into. He said they definitely need to hit on the residents that are being deemed vacant that are actually not.
Mr. Pierce said to address Mr. Cleary’s first question, he thinks the first step in resolving anything is communication, and maybe someone from the Mayor’s office can talk to Mike Finley, who is doing the construction on 8th Street; and maybe if he just posted a sign, the future site of whatever it is, that might give the residents a little more ease just to know what is going to be built there. He said maybe it would also give them information that they might need.
Mayor Cramblit said Halloween trick-or-treat will be Thursday, October 29th from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. He said he also sent Council his Mayor’s Budget on Friday. He said they should also keep on their radar that they passed the ordinance for water meters, and they will be opening up those bids on Tuesday morning and decide where to go from there on that project. He said they may need to move pretty fast with the turnaround on this with the restrictions on spending and time, so there may need to be a meeting in the interim of their next meeting to get that project turned around. Mike Pierce asked the Mayor if he had parameters on the Halloween? Mayor Cramblit said he put out the guidelines in the Tribune. He said it is all State and CDC guidelines for people to follow. Mr. Haney asked if that was downtown or citywide? Mayor Cramblit said he doesn’t think they will be doing the downtown. Mr. Harvey asked the Clerk to attach the Mayor’s Budget to the next agenda in Communications.
Mr. Kline said he was talking to Kevin Wood following up on what the Mayor said as far as the possible necessity for a Council meeting. He said it would be Thursday at the earliest if there was a bid that came through and they are going to accept it and go forward with the contract. He said for them to pencil that in, and they would also need a short Finance Committee meeting before. Mayor Cramblit said he would like to work with Mr. Elam on looking at what is available. He said they have talked about a few other things. He understands that Mr. Elam will be out some next week, so he will probably get with him on Wednesday after they open the bids and try to make a decision on where they want to go on the water meters. Mr. Elam said he would be available.
COMMUNICATIONS
Mr. Harvey said he had mentioned earlier the two communications on the agenda, letters from Tim Dickens and Hugh Donald Scott.
REPORTS – None
ORDINANCES
ORDINANCE NO. 20-63 – AMENDING THE PERMANENT BUDGET FOR THE CITY OF IRONTON, STATE OF OHIO, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 2020, AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given first reading.
Mr. Harvey said Ordinance No. 20-63 was given a favorable recommendation from Finance Committee this evening. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Haney, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 20-63 second and third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 20-63 was given second and third reading. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Pierce, to adopt Ordinance No. 20-63. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
ORDINANCE NO. 20-65 – AUTHORIZING THE SELECTION OF ABM BUILDING SOLUTIONS, LLC THROUGH THE GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION (GSA) IN ACCORDANCE WITH OHIO REVISED CODE SECTION 9.48 TO CONDUCT AN INVESTMENT GRADE AUDIT IN ACCORDANCE WITH OHIO REVISED CODE SECTION 717.02 was given first reading.
Mr. Harvey said Ordinance No. 20-65 was given a favorable recommendation by Finance Committee this evening. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Haney, to amend Ordinance No. 20-65 in Section 2, to say “. . . requiring the City of Ironton to pay the sum of $65,000 to ABM Building Solutions, LLC, if program not utilized”. Motion passed unanimously. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Haney, to suspend the rules and give Amended Ordinance No. 20-65 second and third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Amended Ordinance No. 20-65 was given second and third reading. Mr. Haney moved, seconded by Mr. Pierce, to adopt Amended Ordinance No. 20-65. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
ORDINANCE NO. 20-66 – ESTABLISHING THAT ALL FEES COLLECTED, PURSUANT TO ORDINANCE 13-62, SHALL BE TRANSFERRED AND ACCOUNTED FOR IN FUND 26L AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given first reading.
Mr. Harvey said he wanted to thank Mr. Kline for doing that since they just passed the legislation regarding the utility terrain vehicles, which is going into Fund 26—it only makes sense that this would as well. Mr. Haney moved, seconded by Mr. Cleary, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 20-66 second and third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 20-66 was given second and third reading. Mr. Pierce moved, seconded by Mr. Cleary, to adopt Ordinance No. 20-66. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
RESOLUTIONS
RESOLUTION NO. 20-64 – ADOPTING THE ALTERNATIVE TAX BUDGET FOR THE CITY OF IRONTON, OHIO, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING JANUARY 1, 2021 AND SUBMITTING THE SAME TO THE COUNTY AUDITOR OF LAWRENCE COUNTY AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was read.
Mr. Cleary said this resolution was given a favorable recommendation in the Finance Committee this evening. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Kline, to pass Resolution No.
20-64. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED
MISCELLANEOUS
Chief Wagner said she wanted to thank Council for passing the Amended Ordinance. She said they do incur most of the cost on that, and that will help them out. She said she also wanted to give thanks—they got some gently used office furniture throughout her department today at a very minimal cost, less than $200, to outfit their whole department, which they needed desperately. She said she wanted to give a shout out to Jonda Vaughn from the Finance Department and Cindy Prater, from the Police Department, for heading that up. She said she also wanted to thank Mike Pemberton and all of his guys for their muscle and the Police Department for their muscle. She said she wants Council to know that all departments work together in the City, and they sure do appreciate their efforts and help.
Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Mr. Haney, to go into Executive Session with Council to discuss contracts with the Mayor, Finance Director, Brigham Anderson and Mark Dickess, with no action to follow. Mr. Hock said he also has a contract to discuss with the same group, excluding Mark Dickess. Motion passed unanimously.
Minutes were taken by Marta Leach, Clerk.
In attendance: John Elam, Finance Director, Mayor Cramblit and Brigham Anderson.