LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS / University Heights City Council meeting highlights [online 4-4-2016]

APRIL 4, 2016

  • Purvis Park
  • Annual base pay range
  • Joint dispatch center
  • CompManagement
  • Street improvement
  • State audit


Councilman Phillip Ertel was absent.

Purvis Park

Council approved the pricing of activities at Purvis Park. Only the price of swim team has been increased, from $35 to $40.

Annual base pay range

Council amended the ordinance specifying the annual base pay range for all non-exempt full-time employees enumerated in 2008 legislation, which set the July 1, 2009 rate of compensation. A recent audit revealed that a position that had been included as foreman in the 2008 ordinance had been changed to assistant service director, and that several other positions were not included. This ordinance lists the pay range of non-union positions. Only some of the ranges needed to be adjusted given the current pay scale. Positions being updated included crossing guards, part-time labor, and the building secretary.

Joint dispatch center

Presented on emergency was an ordinance authorizing a regional council of governments agreement with Cleveland Heights, South Euclid and Shaker Heights for the purpose of forming and operating a joint dispatch center for police and fire departments. Each of the participating city councils are reviewing the same ordinance. Dispatch centers must be consolidated to four centers by January 2018 for the cities to continue to receive 911 funding. This is still in the early planning phase with a location still to be determined. Staffing will be adjusted through attrition, as the level of actual need is determined. Dispatchers will be able to take calls for both police and fire instead of being separate operations. As the 2018 deadline approaches, mandates for cities to merge will begin, but University Heights wanted to be proactive and form a group that shares similar operations and procedures. These four cities currently provide backup support for each other and are accustomed to working together.

CompManagement

Council authorized CompManagement to administer the city’s workers’ compensation program at an annual cost of $7,350 for the city’s Group Retrospective Rating program. The city sends representation to each of the workers’ comp claims hearings each month, and oversees the administration of the claims. Finance Director Larry Heiser noted that six claims were filed last year by members of the service, police, and fire departments, and one claim thus far this year.

Street improvement

Council authorized the 2016 street improvement program with Ronyak Paving at the revised amount of $1,100,689.60. The paving of Cedarbrook Road, included in the original Ronyak bid, will now be paid for by a grant from the Community Development Block Grant program. As an alternative, Ronyak will repave the parking lots by Purvis Pool and the park, which are included in the revised cost.

State audit

Finance Director Heiser reported that the state audit has been completed, and he is awaiting the final report. No significant issues were found.

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.

League of Women Voters

Observer Corps editor for the Heights Chapter of the League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland

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Volume 9, Issue 5, Posted 9:27 AM, 04.22.2016