8/10 Special Meeting/Workshop & 8/17 Meeting Recaps
Hello and happy Friday! It is ALMOST the weekend!!!
On August 10th, the City of Hudson held both a special council meeting followed by our regularly scheduled workshop. Below is a summary of both.
Additionally, the same agenda was used for both and the minutes for the meeting can be found here, and the city’s summary of the meeting can be found here.
8/10 Special Council Meeting
This meeting was called so that council could consider agreeing to the terms of an opioid settlement through the OneOhio Agreement. To participate in the settlement, which would award Hudson with money to be spent on opioid remediation, Council had to pass legislation authorizing Hudson to sign the OneOhio Participation Form and agree to the terms of the proposed settlement. The notable detail of the settlement is that it releases all future claims by the city against the three participating distributors (McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health). We got this information at the eleventh hour, so since the deadline was August 13, Council called a special meeting for the consideration of this matter and pass this legislation with an emergency measure.
Council expressed some reservations with the settlement (which was a very long document that several of us had not read all the way through), because they were afraid that there would be future ramifications for the city should there be any provisions which were unclear to us at this time. Council ended up passing the legislation, therefore agreeing to enter into the settlement, with a vote of 5-0. I voted “YES” because I have seen how the opioid epidemic has hit communities so hard, and believe that we can do some good things for the residents of Hudson with those funds. One of the things staff mentioned they thought they could use the funds for is for additional training for our safety services.
8/10 Regularly Scheduled Workshop
This was pretty uneventful. We went over the agenda for the upcoming meeting and there isn’t much to report from this considering we have already voted on any actionable items this past Tuesday, August 17, for which a summary can be found below.
August 17, 2021 Council Meeting
The agenda for this meeting can be found here.
Public Comments
The League of Women Voters read a statement regarding Hudson Public Power’s contract with Prairie State Energy and one resident spoke to us regarding the short-term rental legislation Council passed early on in 2021.
Correspondence & Council Comments
I gave an update that at the recent HCTV meeting, the committee decided to leave the “must air” requirement in place and leave public access rules unchanged.
Councilman Foster expressed concern with the rules of the Farmer’s Market in regards to candidates campaigning at the market. This is due to the fact that the market is held on city owned property. Staff noted that the Farmer’s Market is its own entity with its own rules, and they are in charge of enforcing those rules. One Council member stated that the rules of the Market should be in alignment with those of the city in regards to the First Amendment.
Consent Agenda
9. B. 21-86 A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO ENTER INTO A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CONTRACT WITH ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN GROUP FOR THE DESIGN OF THE BARLOW FARM PARK TENNIS & PICKLEBALL COURTS IMPROVEMENT PROJECT.
Brief Description: At the direction of City Council, Public Works Staff has solicited and reviewed requests for proposals (RFP) from qualified Architectural and Engineering firms for the design of the Tennis & Pickleball Courts Improvement Project at the Barlow Farm Park. Staff requests City Council authorization to award the design contract.
My Take: The mayor made a motion to pull this item to be considered separately.
Because the Mayor is not part of the legislative body, the Mayor is not permitted to pull items from the agenda.
I politely asked the City Solicitor for a procedural clarification, to expound on whether or not the Mayor is permitted to pull items from the Consent Agenda. The City Solicitor confirmed he is not permitted to do this and his motion to pull the item would need to be seconded by a Council member.
Why is this important?
Recently, there has been a push in our community to change our form of government from a “Mayor-Council- Manager” form of government (see Section 2.01 FORM OF GOVERNMENT of our Charter) to a Strong Mayor form of government. This is a very complicated topic, but you can read a few of my thoughts on it in this blog post (see section 4) I wrote in 2020.
While I am sure Mayor Shubert’s intentions behind pulling this consent agenda item were good in that he was trying to draw attention to the cost of the project, it is important that we follow procedure in meetings to maintain order. I also do not want any Mayor, regardless of who they are, to hold any legislative authority in meetings that the Charter/our city’s administrative code does not grant them simply because a precedent was set and no one said anything about the importance of following procedure at the time it happened.
This is not the first time the Mayor has pulled an item from the Consent agenda, and following the times previous to this I gave this issue a lot of thought. Do I bring it up? Would this be perceived as an attack on the Mayor, even if that was not my intention? Ultimately, I felt that Council following procedure was important enough for me to bring up should it ever happen again. My purpose behind this was not to be confrontational, by any means, which is evident if you watch the exchange, but rather to reinforce the appropriate roles by asking for a simple procedural clarification. I have previously gone on record that I do not believe we should change Hudson’s form of government, and I still believe that.
It was suggested I did this to prevent the Mayor from sharing his thoughts, to silence him. That could not be farther from the truth. I value all of my colleague’s opinions. The fact is, the Mayor could use his time during “Correspondence and Council Comments” to bring up his thoughts on upcoming legislation, as he and members of Council have done in the past.
Anyways, back to tennis and pickleball. If you’ve read this far, just know, IT’S HAPPENING! :)
9. C. 21-87 A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO ENTER INTO A TWO-YEAR EXTENSION TO THE THIRD AMENDMENT TO THE DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT WITH THE ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY; AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.
Brief Description: In 2021 City Council approved an extension of the current “E” rate development agreement with the Allstate Insurance Company located on Executive Parkway in Hudson Ohio. To allow for the completion of the 2021 electric rate and cost of service study, Council temporarily extended the agreement from July 1, 2021 to September 1, 2021. As the Rate Study has now been completed, and based on the consultant’s recommendation, staff seeks to continue the current “E“ rate for an additional two (2) year term.
My Take: A motion was made, and passed, to amend this to 90 days rather than two years so that we can have the discussion related to rate changes before voting on a full two year extension.
Summer Town Hall
Thanks to those who attended! While the group was small, a lot of good questions were asked. This is the fourth forum I have held since being sworn in to represent you, and I truly value the regular communication with residents. I believe it helps me maintain a perspective on what is important to all of you, so thank you for making your voices heard.
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Have questions? Want to share your thoughts with me on any of the agenda items or issues listed above? As always, I would love to have a conversation! Email me directly at nkowalski@hudson.oh.us.
