MINUTES OF MEETING OF
IRONTON CITY COUNCIL
June 25, 2020
6:00 p.m.

A regular meeting of Ironton City Council was held on Thursday, June 25, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. via video conference. Present was Vice Mayor Craig Harvey, who presided and members: Cleary, Haney, Hock, Kline, Pierce, Rist – seven.

Everyone stood for a moment of silent prayer, and then for the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The Minutes of the Regular Meeting of June 11, 2020 and the Finance Committee Meeting of June 11, 2020, stood approved as submitted. Mr. Hock said there were a couple of points that were miscontributed to him. Mr. Harvey told him to email those corrections to the Clerk. (These were later emailed to the Clerk by Mr. Hock and were so corrected in the minutes).

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

Mr. Harvey said the Mayor was the only person he has heard from, and he can address Council after Chief Wagner, who wants to speak about Ordinance No. 20-41. She said she wanted Council to consider passing Ordinance No. 20-41 in emergency measure, which does extend their age limit on their civil service testing for new hires for the Police Department. She said they have had one officer already retire, and we have another officer who will retire, and Friday is his last day. She said this will leave them with two openings—one of those is our Drug Task Force Leader and one is our Detective. Mr. Harvey told Chief Wagner that he hadn’t forgotten that they still need to get together to talk about her capacity for checking decibel levels, if that is even possible or cost effective, when they are amending the golf cart ordinance. Chief Wagner said she has no problem with that, but at the present time they are very short-handed.

Mayor Cramblit said they are actively looking for police officers, and he wanted to wish Jamie Pruitt and Chris Bowman well on their new journeys. He said they have served the City for decades of service. He said he would like to have an Executive Session following this meeting to discuss contracts, with Dennis Gumbert and Brett Thomas. He said they have a floodwall tractor going out for bid. He said if Mike Pemberton is on the call, he might be able to explain it a little bit. Mike Pemberton said it will be replacing the old Case tractor, which is just a two-wheel drive machine. He said this new tractor is a four-wheel drive and is much safer. He said the Case tractor is about 20+ years old, and it just needs to be replaced because of the safety issue. The new tractor is a four-wheel drive; and it will be a quicker time to get the levies cut. Mayor Cramblit asked Mr. Elam if he wanted to elaborate on what was budgeted originally for the mowers and what we have spent to date. He said Mike purchased the smaller mower a couple of months ago. He said there was money that was budgeted for flood mowers. He said with the purchase of a second mower, that we would be under budget this year. He said the mower that Mike is looking at right now will need to go out to bid because it exceeded the bid limit, but there is money in there for that mower. Mr. Haney said he knows there were some discussions about getting a second mower that they already purchased. He asked if we would be purchasing this on top of that second mower, or is the second mower that we would be purchasing? Mayor Cramblit said this is the second one. Mr. Pemberton said it is mainly the tractor. Mayor Cramblit said the first mower they had purchased was more for the slopes—the tractor covers a lot more ground. Mr. Pemberton said the small mower that they bought first does an excellent job on North Second Street, where the profile was changed on the flood levy, which made it a lot steeper at the walking trail. He said the small mower is excellent for trimming around all of their stations and gate heads, and it makes it look a little better than what the flail mower does. But he said what they are doing now is replacing that old Case tractor that the flair mower is behind. Mr. Cleary asked Mayor Cramblit if we bought a road grader for doing alleys? He said he knew they had talked about it a couple of meetings ago. Mayor Cramblit said they were in an RPO program, lease-to-purchase. He said right now they get the 6 months free, zero interest, with the option to buy. He said they will have to put that out to bid as well. Mr. Cleary asked if he was saying that we do have one. The Mayor said yes. Mr. Cleary asked if he had a monthly figure on the cost. The Mayor said the monthly figure to rent is $5,011, but that comes off of the principal as well. Mr. Cleary asked where that was from. The Mayor said Boyd Cat in Cannonsburg, Kentucky. Mr. Pierce said he had a follow-up question for Mike. He said the mowing mechanism that you pull behind the tractor, he assumes it runs off of a power take-off, and asked if it is in good condition and if it will fit this new tractor. Mr. Pemberton said absolutely—he said it is a refurbished flail mower, and it will go right behind the new tractor. He said it has also had a new roller put underneath it; and maybe next year if our funds are looking good, maybe we can buy a finish mower that can go behind this tractor.

Mr. Harvey said they will jump out of order here because it looks like their clergy member from Central Christian Church, Rev. Willie Purdee, has joined them. Rev. Purdee gave a short invocation for Council.

Mr. Kline asked Mr. Elam if the mower was originally budgeted to come out of Fund 9 or Fund 10. Mr. Elam said it was Fund 9.

Mr. Haney said while Mr. Pemberton and Chief Wagner were on here, he wanted to ask a question. He said recently he has had a couple of people asking him about bushes blocking the view at tree lawns at the intersections. He said he wanted to know first if there were any State laws that prohibit bushes from being in the tree lawns. Chief Wagner said usually that is handled by the Street Department, but there are some specific laws, ordinances and regulations. She said they have a particular issue at 7th and Vernon. She said that is an issue all the time about a bush or something growing where you can’t see the Stop signs. She said most of the time if someone would just contact Mike or somebody at the Street Department, it is usually taken care of in a day; but there are specific laws and rules about what you can and can’t put in the tree lawn or blocking intersections. Mr. Pemberton said if it is obstructing any traffic device, the City probably should act on it as soon as they are notified about it and/or let the property owner know that it is their responsibility to maintain any trees, grass, etc. in the tree lawn area. But if it is blocking a traffic control device, then the City should probably go immediately and have that corrected.

Mr. Elam said he wanted to let Council know that they should be receiving the funding for the CARES Act next week. He said also, Council has received their May 2020 financial statements.

COMMUNICATIONS –

Mr. Harvey said Mr. Hock presented them an email from Michael Lutz regarding nuisance laws at the last meeting, and it is part of the meeting minutes tonight.

REPORTS – None

ORDINANCES

ORDINANCE NO. 20-41 – EXTENDING THE MAXIMUM AGE LIMITATION FOR AN ORIGINAL APPOINTMENT TO THE IRONTON POLICE DEPARTMENT AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given first reading.

Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Haney, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 20-41 second and third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 20-41 was given second and third reading. Mr. Cleary said he didn’t get a chance to read this and asked Chief Wagner or the Mayor to explain it a little bit. He asked what the age limit is now and what it will be if this ordinance passes. Chief Wagner said their age limit now is 35. She said as Council is probably well aware, in the last several years they have had a lot of difficulty in getting police officers and getting people to apply. She said this is not just a problem for the Ironton Police Department, it is nationwide. She said with this ordinance, it will extend the age to 40, and hopefully, they will get somebody with a little experience and help our department to grow, although they do want younger officers, and their younger officers are doing a great job. Mr. Kline said he would like to say thank you to the Ironton Police Department, and he says it now because in his opinion being a police officer is becoming more and more of a thankless job. He said it takes a lot of guts to put on a uniform everyday knowing that you’re going to be out there putting your life on the line to keep our city safe. He said this ordinance is going to aid in bringing quality experienced police officers to our community. He said he is happy to sponsor this. Chief Wagner said also, she wanted to let Council know that they are hoping to get more candidates and to get more people in the recruiting field with this ordinance. She said if anyone sees Officer Steve Wilson out, please give him a high five. He made the national publication of Ohio Going Blue with his work with the kids at the playground at our housing detail. She thanked Council for their consideration and Brigham and Mack for getting this ordinance together so quickly.

Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Mr. Cleary, to adopt Ordinance No. 20-41. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED

ORDINANCE NO. 20-42 – AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO THE ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER TO THE EXISTING CONTRACT WITH REBUILD-IT SERVICES GROUP, LLC, NOT TO EXCEED $14,995.00 AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given first reading.

Mr. Cleary said this ordinance was favorably recommended by the Finance Committee. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Beth Rist, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 20-42 second and third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Ordinance No. 20-42 was given second and third reading. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to adopt Ordinance No. 20-42. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED

AMENDED ORDINANCE NO. 20-39 – ENACTING CHAPTER 1052, “SMALL CELL TECHNOLOGY IN THE RIGHT OF WAY”, OF THE CODIFIED ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF IRONTON, OHIO was given second reading.

Mr. Harvey said this was given a favorable recommendation in Finance, but they are going to let it go to third reading to get Ms. Dooley’s input on it.

RESOLUTIONS – NONE

MISCELLANEOUS

Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to receive, file and make a part of the minutes the May 2020 financials. Motion passed unanimously.

Mr. Hock said they initiated a contract with Dave Lucas Communications in December, and he thinks there have been three meetings where they haven’t shown up to record the meetings. He said he thinks they pay them around $350 a month, and he is wondering if they can possibly have a discussion on that contract or if we can get a refund for the services not being provided. Mr. Haney said he would be in favor of discussing that contract in the Executive Session following the meeting. Mr. Harvey said he would also recommend that. He said he knows that at least one of those times where the meeting invitation was not sent to them on our end, and that was our fault. He said he is not sure of the status of the others, but it does seem to be an issue. He said the Mayor is recording through BlueJeans tonight and probably will post that to the website. He said if it is something that we are self-sufficient to do, it is definitely worth analyzing.

Mr. Kline said he would like to have a brainstorming meeting about how we can possibly get back to having live sessions. He moved, seconded by Mr. Cleary, to go into Executive Session to discuss contracts, three different points, with no action afterwards. He said on the first one he would like to have Mack Anderson, Mayor, John Elam, Brett Thomas and Dennis Gumbert. He said Brett Thomas and Dennis Gumbert are not needed for the other two contracts. Mr. Harvey said he recognizes the motion and second, but just for clarity, on Mr. Kline’s first point, for Jacob and Beth, they did discuss in Finance last night about meeting live and the logistics. He said it is not just about spacing, it is also about our ability to record and be transparent and limit the audience size. And then additionally, the Mayor mentioned to him tonight about the department heads attending to answer questions; because as you can see on our broadcast right now, we have 19 people, so how do we facilitate 19 people in Council Chambers? The Mayor said he had spoken to the solicitors today about July 31st being the deadline to end that as of right now, so they are at least covered until then to continue to meet here online until we figure out the logistics. He said he fully anticipates that that will be extended by the legislature, especially with the number of cases rising again. But nonetheless, they will do what they have to do.

Motion to go into Executive Session passed unanimously.

Minutes were taken by Marta Leach, Clerk.

In attendance: John Elam, Finance Director, and Mayor Cramblit.