MINUTES OF MEETING OF
IRONTON CITY COUNCIL
July 22, 2021
6:00 p.m.
A regular meeting of Ironton City Council was held on Thursday, July 22, 2021, at 6:00 p.m. in Council Chambers. Present was Vice Mayor, Craig Harvey, who presided and members: Cleary, Haney, Hock, Kline, Pierce – six.
All persons stood for an invocation from Rev. Sallie Schisler of Christ Episcopal Church, and then the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of July 8, 2021, and Finance Committee Meeting of July 8, 2021, stood approved as submitted.
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
Mr. Harvey said they have special guests this evening from the Ironton Senior Little League State Championship team. He asked Manager Tim Aldridge to come forward and introduce the coach and any of the players that are here, and then the mayor is going to present a Proclamation to them. Mr. Aldridge introduced Brady Medinger, Tommy Sheridan, Mark Hodges, Ryan Jackson, Brandon McKenzie and Clay Porter. Mayor Cramblit then read a Proclamation which proclaims July 14, 2021 as Ironton Senior League Champs Day in the City of Ironton.
Mr. Elam said Council has received copies of the June 2021 financials at their workstations. He said those will need to be approved if Council sees fit to do so. He said also, they did receive the ARPA funds. They received about half of what they thought their allocation was going to be—it was $551,619.08, and those monies have been deposited. He said their 2020 audit is still in final review. He said there were a couple of questions that the auditors had yesterday. He said he has told Council before that income tax collections and water collections are his leading indicators for revenues within the city, and they are up somewhat on both from where they were in 2020. However, he said it is almost a false-positive because there were no shut-offs in water until July, and income tax payments were postponed until July. So as the months go on, he will continue monitoring, which he does on a daily basis, so they will know the utility collections, which includes a multitude of funds that are on the utility bill. He will continue to let Council know how they are progressing with where they were in 2020. He spoke to Mike Pemberton yesterday and asked him about Pump Station #6, which is one of their big items that they had on the Flood Improvement Fund. He said the install is supposed to happen in October, and hopefully they will see that happening then. He said they have had that purchase order encumbered for quite some time. Mr. Pierce said when looking through the June budget, he saw that the overtime in the Police Department was almost 14% over where they were this time last year. He asked if that was a major concern? Mr. Elam said yes, it is a concern, however, they have known about that because Chief Wagner has given them several updates about being down police officers. He said it is one of those extraordinary items that they talk about that they really can’t foresee. But he thinks they are getting close to full staffing and asked Chief Wagner if that was correct? Chief Wagner said they just hired one officer and have an interview for another one. She said they have been two short for several months; and she had an officer who had a serious injury and has been on light duty for the last four months. So, they are down three road officers, and they have replaced one, so right now they are down two officers. Mr. Elam said yes, that does concern him. He feels comfortable in telling them that there will need to be a budget amendment for police overtime due to those reasons. Mr. Cleary asked Chief Wagner if the one officer who got injured and is on light duty, still comes to work every day and puts their hours in? Chief Wagner said yes, they just can’t work the road. She said that officer has been working evidence and working with the Detective Division. She said they always have a lot of overtime in the summertime, and they have a lot of older members in their department who have a lot of weeks’ vacations. She said people are not wanting to go into police work. They are looking everywhere trying to get candidates to come in and apply. She said this time they had two apply, and she has two openings. Mr. Elam said the final thing that he would like to mention is 2021 is almost as odd a year as 2020 was. He said everyone is aware that there are 26 pay periods in a year—they can generally break that down and say, the first half of the year will have 13 pay periods and the second half of the year will have 13 pay periods. He said this year is not happening that way. The first six months had 12 pay periods, and the last six months will have 14 pay periods. He wanted to let them know that there may be some adjustments. He said right now things look pretty good with the exception of some of the overtime, which is generally due to having short staff. Mr. Harvey said the mayor had told him that Mr. Elam needed a budget amendment soon and a Finance Committee meeting, is that correct? Mr. Elam said yes, he anticipates needing one. Mr. Harvey said they are going to need a day next week for ABM to do a presentation, and they requested Thursday of next week. Mr. Elam said he can have his amendment prepared. Mr. Pierce said he saw where the ABM bond money had been deposited. He asked if they had received the street paving money? Mr. Elam said yes, that has been deposited, and also, they have received both bonds. He said they are broken down separately—one is Fund 50 and one is Fund 51. He said that is also in the financials. Mr. Pierce asked if the bike trail has been finished and have we been compensated for that? Mr. Elam said yes, that project is complete and fully audited.
Mayor Cramblit said he had a couple of updates for Council. He said they are going to have the Ironton Water Asset Management Plan that was provided by ARCAP available on the website. He said there is an executive summary and a detailed analysis available. He said if you go into irontonohio.org, click on City Departments, and go to Public Works, you will find it as you scroll down the page. He said Kevin Wood will be here at the August 12th Council meeting to give a quarterly update, and August 26th meeting they will have Bill Dingus or Jeremy Clay from LEDC here to give an economic development quarterly update. He said since their next meeting is also not until August 12th, an update for September: there are a couple of events going on downtown and the riverfront on September 11th. He said there will be an Ohio River Revival Music Festival happening that day and evening. He said there will also be a 20-year memorial-type event at the Farmer’s Market that evening. Mr. Harvey asked the mayor how the clean-up day went? Mayor Cramblit said it went well. He said they are still wanting to do one in the fall. He said he is actually meeting with the Judge tomorrow because he wants to do something as well out in the community. Mr. Kline asked Mr. Elam if he had those numbers back on Clean-Up Day and were they in the Budget? Mr. Elam said he thinks the first one was within budget. He said he does not have those numbers and he hasn’t looked for them today. Mr. Kline asked him if he could send those out? He said if they are going to do one in the fall, that would probably give them a good estimate. Mr. Elam said that he would. Mayor Cramblit said he thinks the Judge has some good ideas, too.
Mr. Pierce said he had some people talk to him. He said it has been over a year since they asked for the alley to be graded on North 4th Street in the 2000 block in front of the old Sta-tan pool. He said they were wondering if that could be accomplished. He said it is mostly the garbage truck that runs through there, and they have dug deep ruts, and people have a hard time maneuvering their cars and getting them in the garage. Mayor Cramblit said he will check on that. Mr. Pierce said there is also a house in the 2200 block on North 4th, and there are enormous weeds in the alley and a tree is down as well. He said last year there was a problem with snakes there, and he can only anticipate that that is going to happen again. He asked if maybe Jon Sites could check that out.
COMMUNICATIONS – None
REPORTS – None
ORDINANCES – None
Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Mr. Pierce, to take Ordinance No. 21-35 off the table. Motion passed unanimously. Mr. Kline said he wanted to thank the mayor for putting the ARCAP report on their website to show citizens, if this would pass, what those funds would be dedicated to. High level summary would be to fulfill some unfunded EPA Federal mandates for water lines and valves and to sustain operations to bring quality water and to improve water lines in our city, which he thinks is much needed. He said they have outlined ARCAP very well and the investment that needs to be made for them to continue to provide quality water to their residents. He said he is in support of Ordinance
21-35 and thinks it is much needed. He said overall in the fund right now they have had to borrow over $100,000 from the General Fund just to sustain operations, and they cannot continue to operate by borrowing money. Mr. Cleary said he is not in support of this ordinance. He said Mr. Kline said it was over $100,000, and he asked Mr. Kline if he was adding the $80,000 in 2020, which is actually 2019 that carried over into 2020? And he presumes he is using the $30,000 that is projected right now for 2021? Mr. Kline said yes, and they are at a zero balance pretty much right now in that fund. Mr. Cleary said what he has researched and found is that Hecla Water is spending more money with us, and he is not so sure that that $30,000 is just a projected number for this year. He wouldn’t include that. He has done some studying on this the best he could do on his own, and he based a 4,000-gallon utility bill; and if this ordinance passes the way it is, they are going to have a $9.36 increase immediately for this next billing cycle once this goes into effect. He said in all the years of being here, he has supported increases in any of the funds, water, sewer, etc. He said the Enterprise Funds have to pay their own way. But he said he thinks what they are looking at here for a 10-year process is that everyone is going to take a hit, if this passes, of almost $10.00 if you’re using 4,000 gallons; he said if you’re using 6,000 gallons, it is going to be more, and if you’re using 1,000 or 2,000, it is going to be a lot less. He said he would be in support of increasing the water bill, but not with the scales they have here. He is thinking that maybe they could take another look at it and maybe increase it $2.00 a year for a 10-year average, and it would come out close to the same amount; and the citizens wouldn’t have to pay $10.00 on this first bill for this year. He said he knows they have to meet on Enterprise Funds, but they don’t need $9.00 to make ends meet. He said they only really about $2.00. So, he will not support it the way it is for those reasons. He thinks a lot of Ironton citizens have had a lot of difficulty with COVID and with paying their bills, and he doesn’t feel right in his mind and thinks $2.00 would take care of the problem and add it every year for the next 10 years, and that would be a lot easier for the citizens to do. He said when he looks at the chart, in 2022 there is $1.83, and in 2023 there is $1.16. He said it runs about $1.00 to $2.00 increase every year, and to him that would be a whole lot easier for the citizens to pay rather than starting out with a $9.00 increase, which is only the water and sewer—you still have the other garbage, etc. on that water bill that you have to pay. He said over the 10 years you are going from $28.00 to $49.00, but if you do $2.00 per year, it is the same thing, you’re still going to be at that $49.00; but it would just be a lot easier on the citizens, and it would keep the budget in balance for every one of those years down through there. He said that is his feel on it, and the way it stands he will not support it; but he would support some kind of an increase. Mr. Kline said that $30,000 has already gone through—they have already borrowed that from the General Fund because that was used in the last budget amendment for severance for somebody who was leaving. They didn’t even have enough to pay that out—they’re less than $1,000 balance in their fund. He said it is very difficult for them to even operate on that. He said he understands Mr. Cleary’s concerns, and yes, people are in different positions financially; but he thinks when they went into this, they solicited ARCAP to do this study for two reasons: one, the EPA has pretty much mandated them to do that, and two, they saw the benefit of having an independent party outside of people who are sitting here and people who are working for the City, to evaluate where their rates need to be to accomplish these things. He said he is going to trust the experts as far as where it needs to be and rely on them. He said they, as a city, invested money for that opinion, and he thinks it is valuable. Mr. Haney said he has listened to both sides of this, and he was under the impression that they were still looking into not tying their storm water into the potable water. He said also he thought they were going to look into some of the other fees that they deemed unnecessary or extreme. . . without adjusting any of the other fees or untying storm water with potable water. He said he thinks they can do better than what is proposed. He said he would like to take a longer look at it like Bob said and maybe adjust some of the fee structure that they currently have. He said he thinks what Bob was using as reference, they had us going over the per dollar. . and he thinks it was like $1.something, and the person from ARCAP said, that is over what the income base is. . . Mr. Harvey said that was the affordability index. Mayor Cramblit said you don’t qualify for grants until you reach 1.5 or 1.9. Mr. Haney said he thinks they were over that. He said he is willing to take a longer look at everything. Mr. Harvey said he has been out of town for two weeks, but he told Mr. Haney that he is firmly committed to analyzing all of the other fees. But he said, for clarification, this doesn’t affect the storm water rates as is, but he 100% agrees that it is always been asinine to tie potable water with storm water. He just doesn’t want them to have an independent party, ARCAP, come in and tell them, this is what your future looks like, this is what your future could look like, and this is what you need to do based on our expert opinion to invest in your infrastructure to get it right and to make sure your fund is healthy. He said ironically enough, Bob has always been a “yes” on Enterprise Fund increases, and he (Mr. Harvey) has always been a “no” for a lot of the same reasons that Mr. Cleary is talking about. He said the reason that he supports it this time is because this is getting it right instead of throwing a dollar or two dollars at it and taking an educated guess—they are actually following guidance from people who get paid to do this. He said they have always been reactive—they take a look at the bottom line and say, we’re in the red, we need to raise it $2.00 so we can get it in the black. And all the meanwhile their pipes underground go unaddressed and their infrastructure goes unaddressed. He said he likes the idea of being proactive and not reactive and investing in their infrastructure because it is not getting any younger. Mr. Cleary said Mr. Harvey was talking about looking at the other fees, and he remembers vividly that they talked about the economic development. He said if they are going to take this up $9.00, they would eliminate that, which is $1.50. He said as far as the experts bringing back these numbers, he recalls Mr. Elam talking about his numbers that he ran, and it is almost right on target with them, so their expertise just strengthened what we do internally anyway. He is going to hold strong and is not going to support it. He said he would support something, but he thinks it needs to be further looked at and see where they can cut costs. Mr. Haney said he agrees with Bob. He said instead of fixing just one part of the utility bill, he would like to take a look and fix the entire thing. He said he is willing to compromise, but the side that is looking to lower some fees isn’t getting anything from the side that is wanting to increase the fees. Mr. Harvey said he doesn’t think it needs to be one way or another, and he fully agrees with Mr. Haney. He said if Mr. Haney is willing to sponsor something to take the economic development fee off or rearrange the storm utility, he is all for it because he gave Mr. Haney all the work he did on it. But he doesn’t want that to stand in the way of this. Mr. Pierce said when Mr. Cleary is talking about a $9.00 increase, he is talking about the overall increase of the utility bill? He said they are actually increasing the water rate from $6.44 per 1,000 gallons to $7.49 per 1,000 gallons. Mr. Cleary said he doesn’t have it broken down that way—he said if you have 4,000 gallons usage, it would be $9.36. But he said, if you only use 1,000 gallons, then it is going to be a whole lot less. He said he would guess that there are very few 1,000-gallon accounts. He asked if the average is about 3,000 or 4,000 gallons? Mr. Harvey said ARCAP told them it was 3,500 gallons, and one of his questions was, are you rounding up or rounding down? Mayor Cramblit said it says $8.76 but then next year it is a $.40 increase. Mr. Harvey said it is $8.76 from $6.44 and water admin, from $2.50 to $2.58, so $.08. Mayor Cramblit said and the years to come, it is like a $.20 or $.30 increase instead of $2.00 per year. Mr. Pierce said he agrees with most of that. He said the only thing is adding a dollar or two every year for the next few years, if something catastrophic happens or they need critical infrastructure, they don’t have the money to deal with it, and they will have to borrow from the General Fund. Mr. Cleary said the only thing he can address with that is they have had issues in the past, and it seems like any time they get into catastrophic situations, there is always funding out there for it—there’s 0% OWDA money a lot of times to help communities, there’s grant money—they have never created a danger area for the citizens of Ironton. He said they always find a way to do it. He feels like at this point, if they do this $2.00 deal that he has been talking about, there may be something catastrophic happen, but there may not either, because if they had water plant people here, they would probably tell us the problems we have had and how we dealt with it. But to charge residents money to put in the bank in case there is some catastrophic event, he feels like they should tackle the problems as they occur. He said he doesn’t like an account to run dry or go in the red, but he also likes to maintain a balance. He said as council members, they are charged with keeping the Enterprise Fund from going into the red. He said in all his years, he has never voted against a raise in any Enterprise Fund that wasn’t disparately needed. He said like when Nate was talking about them being $30,000 in the red, that is today; and John has told them in other meetings that Hecla Water is purchasing more. . . he is not sure exactly what term he used, but he said it concerned him but things are doing better now than what they projected. . .and he wonders if John is saying, what if this is the last month for Hecla to buy water from them. He said you can’t base your life on the “what if’s”. He said he just doesn’t like the terms of what they are presenting.
Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Mr. Pierce, to adopt Ordinance No. 21-35. Ayes: Harvey, Hock, Kline, Pierce – four. Nays: Cleary, Haney – two.
RESOLUTIONS – None
MISCELLANEOUS
Mr. Harvey said he would like to call a Planning Commission meeting for the City of Ironton for 5:30 p.m. next Thursday, July 29th. He said since that involves the ordinance that Mr. Kline sponsored, he (Mr. Harvey) could speak to it, but if he would like to be there, he would like for him to be there, regarding the family zoning. Mr. Kline said he would. Mr. Harvey said a Finance Committee meeting would follow at 5:45 p.m. for budget amendment, and then a Special Meeting at 6:00 p.m. for three purposes: the Budget Amendment, a Proclamation for the Ironton Little League Junior League State Champions and for ABM presentation. He said ABM specially requested next Thursday as the day to come and present to them.
Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Mr. Harvey, to receive, file and make a part of the minutes, the June 2021 financials. Motion passed unanimously.
Mr. Pierce moved, seconded by Mr. Hock, to go into Executive Session to discuss litigation and personnel, with Council, the Mayor, Solicitor and Finance Director, with no action to follow. Motion passed unanimously.
Minutes were taken by Marta Leach, Clerk.
In attendance: John Elam, Finance Director, Mayor Cramblit, Mack Anderson.