Cleveland Heights City Council meeting highlights 8-3-2015

AUGUST 3, 2015

• Public comments
• Fall and winter recreation
• Server performance
• Zoning variance
• Regional business development practices
• Public engagement
• Mayor’s comments on the city
  
  

Council Member Jason Stein was absent.

Public comments

General complaints: Three residents registered a variety of complaints about the city and city council, including a decline in quality of residents, a desire to return to the past, decisions by the past mayor and city council, the lack of Republicans on council, and problems with the schools.

Personal trainer at recreation center: Three residents spoke about the personal trainer program at the recreation center. They were all enthusiastic supporters of the current trainer and how the program has helped them. One speaker complained that the city has not replaced the current [trainer], who is expected to leave on Aug. 15. The city manager and Council Member Jeff Coryell responded [indicating that] this is a valuable program and their intention is to make it larger. The city will hire two additional staff as contract employees and they will be supervised by the current trainer, who has more credentials and has agreed to remain on staff. 

Fall and winter recreation

Council heard a first reading of proposed rules of use and fees for the community center and city parks for fall and winter 2015–16.

Server performance

Council approved the purchase of a Storage Access Network from AdvizeX, which would increase the city’s server infrastructure performance, at a cost of no more than $110,025 of capital improvement funds. The price is 28 percent lower than that available through the Ohio Administrative Services Cooperative Purchasing program.

Zoning variance

Council approved a sign variance for Cube Workspace, a business at 2460 Fairmount Blvd.

Regional business development practices

Council authorized an agreement with the county to establish a business attraction and anti-poaching protocol that supports a regional approach to economic development and discourages competition among communities. Council Member Kahlil Seren expressed reservations about the language of the agreement and voted no.

Public engagement

The city has launched a public engagement campaign to help educate the public about the need for increased income taxes. [Engagement] activities can be found on the city website. [The campaign] will allow more than 1,000 to participate without leaving their homes.

Mayor’s comments on the city

Mayor Dennis Wilcox addressed the tone of the public comments and noted that, while the community has real issues, “we” work hard to resolve them. He said that the negative comments do not capture the quality of life in Cleveland Heights, [and that] in his 16 years on council and 41 years as a resident, he finds many more positives. He expressed his support for the schools and their quality, and [said] that he is not ashamed of having supported school levies.

LWV Observer: Susie Kaeser.

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.