University Heights City Council meeting highlights 4-20-2015

APRIL 20, 2015

• Announcements from the mayor
• Medical director
• Purvis Park
• Arborist
• City’s engineer
• Aspen Energy
• Authorized signatories
• Assistant finance director
• Council’s iPads
  
  

Susan D. Pardee, vice mayor, was absent.

Announcements from the mayor

Arbor Day: Arbor Day will be celebrated April 24 with the planting of a tree at the police department.

Cedar-Warrensville: A public meeting with NOACA planners will take place on April 21 to discuss options for making Cedar-Warrensville more pedestrian- and bike-friendly.

City park: There will be a public meeting on Wednesday, April 22, to review the design updates for the new city park.

Medical director

Council approved an agreement with Dr. Arnold Feltoon for the position of medical director of the city jail, at the rate of $500 per month. Feltoon has been the city’s medical director since 1994 and his rate has not changed. Councilman Mark Wiseman noted that there was no contract for Feltoon, other than the city’s vendor agreement, while both the city engineer and arborist each have contracts with clearly stated scope of service. Law Director Luke McConville said that, in his experience, there isn’t usually a scope of service for a doctor, as they often don’t want to have their tasks specifically stipulated. Police Chief Hammett explained that in the case of an emergency the city would transport the patient immediately, and call Feltoon while en route. Feltoon might also ask the EMTs to step in and provide specific treatments based on the information he is given. Wiseman asked that all future contracts include terms defining the scope of services, comparable to the contract with the arborist.

Purvis Park

Council authorized the revised pricing of activities and refreshments at Purvis Park for 2015.

Arborist

Council approved a contract with Thomas Morgan for professional services as the city’s arborist. Councilman Wiseman said he had received calls from residents asking for clearer notification when specific trees were going to be cut down.

City’s engineer

Council approved a contract with Joseph Ciuni, of the GPD Group for Professional Services, as the city’s engineer. Wiseman asked how council could know more clearly when engineering services [would] entail additional costs. Mayor Infeld noted that those would be included in Finance Director Larry Heiser’s monthly financial reports, and also stipulated in any bids for specific work to be done.

Aspen Energy

Council approved the solicitation of bids for electricity supply services through Aspen Energy, to enter into an electricity sales agreement with the lowest and best supplier for a term of one to three years. Aspen Energy is a broker, seeking bids from electricity suppliers for the amount of electricity needed for the streetlights in University Heights. They will present bids from providers for one, two and three years. Because of the volatility of pricing in commodities, the mayor and finance director need to be able to accept a bid quickly. The city is currently paying 7 cents per kilowatt-hour and should be able to reduce that cost to 5 cents. First Energy will continue to provide the poles and transmission lines, and will maintain the equipment. The city will still be considered a NOPEC [Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council] Community Provider.

Authorized signatories

Council approved new signatories in the city’s agreement with FirstMerit Bank. There is no change to the terms of the agreement with FirstMerit. This was simply to change the authorized signatories to reflect the current law director. The only people authorized to sign checks for the city are the finance director, the council clerk, and the law director. The mayor does not sign checks.

Assistant finance director

Finance Director Larry Heiser announced that Jackie Vigliucci, assistant finance director, resigned her position two weeks ago. Applications are being reviewed.

Council’s iPads

The city’s technology commission and Councilman Wiseman provided training for council members in the use of their new iPads. Tonight’s information packs were distributed electronically and iPads were in use during tonight’s meeting.

LWV Observer: Wendy Deuring.

These meeting summaries are abstracted from LWV observers’ written reports. The summaries have been edited and prepared by Anne McFarland, Charlene Morse and Maryann Barnes. To receive e-mail postings of full reports, send an e-mail to mbarnes9515@gmail.com or join through Google groups using “lwv-chuh observer reports” as a search phrase.

These reports contain member observation and selected highlights of public meetings and are not official statements of the Heights Chapter of the League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland. This disclaimer must accompany any redistribution of these reports.