My Hero of the Week: Highland Heights Council

Kudos to Council
Council deserves a pat on the back for pressing Mayor Coleman to rethink his staffing of the Building Department and for insisting that the Building Commissioner position be publicly advertised.

In taking that stance, they were looking out for you and me and for the city’s best interests.

My Jan. 7th blog posting describes the brouhaha that resulted when Mayor Coleman attempted to get his proposed 2010 city appointments rubber-stamp approved immediately following council’s January 5th swearing-in ceremony. One of the proposed appointees was a building commissioner candidate, whom the mayor had privately tapped while council was out on its winter break.
Although the mayor put heavy pressure on council to rubber-stamp approve his proposed Building Commissioner appointment, council stuck to its guns and insisted that the job be publicly posted and that regular procedures be followed in filling the position.

The result? Well, here is a timeline and some numbers to consider. See if you agree with me that council deserves “Hero of the Week” status.

2008-2009. Mayor Coleman adopts a dual-appointment approach to staffing the building department. He appoints an uncertified “Acting Building Commissioner” (ABC) and a certified, part-time “Interim Building Commissioner” (IBC). Total cost to taxpayers in 2009 for this dual employment arrangement = $76,500 ($62,000 for the ABC and $ 14,500 for IBC).
January 5, 2010. Two of the items on Mayor Coleman’s agenda for the special meeting are approval of his privately-tapped Building Commissioner candidate and adoption of a pay ordinance. The salary that Mayor Coleman wanted council to approve= $78,000 a year to begin with, going up to $ 80,000 on July 1st..
February 9, 2010. Mayor Coleman reports to council that he received applications from around the country in response to the city’s ad for the Building Commissioner position, that he interviewed several good candidates, and that he wanted to hire an individual who was familiar with the city and was certified not only as a Chief Building Official, but also as a residential housing and electrical inspector. The final salary approved for the position: $ 72,000.

Public advertising = good candidates at a cost savings to taxpayers. Way to go, council!

Read more on this topic: http://blog.cleveland.com/sunmessenger/2010/02/highland_heights_names_grabfel.html

Just in time for St. Paddy’s Day
Service Department Director Thom Evans announced to council that the city will be using a new product on the city streets this winter, which contains salt, magnesium and a rust inhibitor. Oh yes, and it has green dye in it too.
The dye will allow the service department to monitor the effectiveness of the product compared to regular road salt. Evans said that to do the comparison, he will put salt on one side of some city streets and the new product on the other side.
Although the new product is 25 % more expensive than regular road salt, it may be worth the cost because it works in much colder temperatures (due to the magnesium content) and it has a longer-lasting effect. Evans thinks it might save the city money because less of the product will have to be used and the streets won’t need to be re-treated as often---which will reduce the number of man hours required to keep the city’s streets safe and dry in the winter.
Green streets, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day! How festive!
Read more http://blog.cleveland.com/sunmessenger/2010/02/green_salt_to_be_tested_on_hig.html

Water, Water everywhere
Service Department Director Thom Evans also reported on the water line leak underneath the stamped concrete plaza in front of city hall (not to be confused with the leaking water main along Highland Road).
It is unclear at this point why the city hall water line has failed (usually water lines last between 40-50 years according to Evans; this one is only 25 years old). The estimate for replacing the water line is $ 25,000—provided that they don’t have to go through the city hall foundation in order to connect the new line up. If they have to do that, said Evans, “the money (cost) will grow.”
Meanwhile, council directed the representative from the city’s engineering firm to apply for an EPA grant to replace the stamped concrete plaza with porous pavers. That took quite a bit of nudging on council’s part. The representative told council: "I don’t want to go through the motions to put in a grant that I don’t feel will be successful.” Apparently he thought it was his decision to make. Council directed him to apply for two grants on the city's behalf: the plaza replacement project and the parking lot project favored by Evans.

Welcome Baby!
Fire Chief Turner and Police Chief Cook regularly provide council with statistics regarding the number of calls their departments responded to during the prior month. Chief Turner had a new statistic to add for January: during one of their runs last month, members of the fire department assisted in the delivery of a healthy baby boy. Congratulations to the parents and to the delivery crew!

Coming Up
There are currently 3 items on the agenda for the Feb 16 COW meeting: the old church building, the city’s sidewalk replacement program and Home Day.
Yes, Home Day.
Councilwoman Lisa Stickan (the council rep to the Committee) reported last week that Mayor Coleman is looking to shrink Home Days to a single day this year and that he has asked Recreation Director Dave Ianiro to head the Home Day Committee.
Post-script: Mayor Coleman has yet to officially appoint the head of the Committee. It could be that he will come up with a different choice for that appointment.
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