So Is There Anything Else You Haven’t Told Us?

Announcements from the March 23rd Council Meeting

• The Senior Wellness Fair is scheduled for May 5th at the Community Center. Details TBA.
• Mayor Coleman appointed Chuck Brunello (former council-at-large candidate) to be head of the “Home Day” Committee.
  Councilwoman Lisa Stickan referred to it as “Community Day” in her report to council, but Mayor Coleman (a traditionalist I guess) insisted on calling the event “Home Day”---a label that isn’t nearly as friendly or welcoming, although it certainly communicates the reduced stature of the event.

The Park & Recreation Commission (P&R)---again
Councilwoman Cathy Murphy reported that P&R discussed their deficit-spending 2010 budget at their most recent meeting. (The $ 20,000 deficit figure might have to be increased. More on that below). Murphy also reported that Recreation Director Dave Ianiro is planning to attend the April 13th council meeting---as required by city law.
As requested, Murphy also passed along a message from P&R to council:

"P&R wants council to know that rehabbing the old pool house (cost $ 300,000+) remains their # 1 priority and that they believe that doing that should come before any expenditures on the (decrepit, mold-ridden and unsafe ) old church property."

That’s P&R for you--- always thinking that their wants should take priority over other city needs--and ignoring the fact that the city may soon be handed a very large bill for fixing the pool leak--- a leak that P&R has failed to deal with for many years.

Guess what’s not in the budget? I’ll give you a hint. It's that nepotism issue again...

Several weeks ago Finance Director Tony Ianiro gave council members copies of what was purported to be the final version of the mayor’s 2010 city budget. I asked for, and received, a copy of that budget too.
Since then, the only adjustments that council was told had to be made were changes in the permanent improvement fund (the “404 fund”), to adjust for Service Director Thom Evans’ inadvertent omission of $ 35,000 in street striping costs.
The budget was all set to be passed at the March 23rd council meeting.
You can imagine my shock when, during the final budget discussion, it was revealed that Finance Director Tony Ianiro left one very significant and telling expense item out of the Park & Recreation budget.

What was the omitted item? Unemployment benefits that the city has been paying to his brother, Recreation Director David Ianiro, since January 2010.

Yep. You heard right. In addition to his $ 17,000 Rec Director salary, Dave Ianiro will also collect at least $ 3,200 in unemployment benefits from the city in 2010---courtesy of Highland Heights taxpayers, of course. And that’s just the initial figure--- Finance Director Tony Ianiro admits that he doesn’t know what the final cost of his brother’s unemployment benefits will be.

The background.
Dave Ianiro has been working continually for the city for several years. He was reappointed to his part-time Recreation Director job in January. During his tenure as Rec Director, Dave Ianiro has pursued other employment outside of the city.
State records show that he filed articles of incorporation for a carryout pizza business in 2006 (Calogero’s in Euclid). Dave Ianiro also reportedly runs a Wickliffe ice cream shop.
Apparently the pizza business failed last year, which caused Dave Ianiro to apply for unemployment benefits last fall.
I am not familiar with Ohio unemployment law, but Dave Ianiro was able to claim benefits from the city, even though his unemployment was completely unrelated to his city job, he still works part-time for the city and his city employment has not changed.
The Finance Director typically handles unemployment claims for the city. From what I can tell, Tony Ianiro never told council that his brother had applied for unemployment benefits, nor did he inform council when he received a letter from the state informing him that the city had to pay $ $3,203.72 in initial unemployment benefits to Dave Ianiro. Dave Ianiro started receiving unemployment benefits in January 2010.

Which bring us to----Tony Ianiro’s Glaring Omission From the Budget
Why didn’t Finance Director Tony Ianiro include his brother’s unemployment benefits in the budget? It could not have been mere oversight. After all, Dave Ianiro received his first unemployment check in January, a month before Tony Ianiro put the budget together. Also telling is that fact that Tony Ianiro answered “yes” during a February Legislative & Finance Committee budget meeting (which I attended), when he was asked whether the budget reflected all of the city’s known unemployment liabilities for 2010.

And while Tony Ianiro chose not to list any unemployment benefit expenses in the P&R portion of the budget, he listed unemployment benefit expenses for other city departments, including the building department ($3,000; 101-4410-52164), the service department ($10,000; 101-6610-52164) and the general administration department ($0; 101-7780-52164).

I guess the fact that his brother was collecting unemployment benefits from the city just slipped his mind.....right? Or was Tony Ianiro deliberately trying to keep the payments to his brother under wraps, by leaving them out of the budget?

When asked at the council meeting whether the P&R budget shouldn’t be amended to reflect the fact that the city is obligated to make unemployment payments to Dave Ianiro and a part-time summer rec department worker in 2010, Tony Ianiro said no. Those expenses didn’t have to be listed in the budget.
I guess if they aren’t listed, they don’t exist, right? Out of sight, out of mind?

Anti-nepotism policies are designed to avoid the conflicts of interest and divided loyalties that inevitably result when related individuals work together in the same small city. Tony Ianiro’s handling of Dave Ianiro’s unemployment benefits is a good illustration of why Highland Heights needs such a policy. Are you listening, Mayor Coleman?
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Extra Tidbit From The March 9th Council Meeting

NOTE: March is a month with five Tuesdays, which means council takes a Tuesday off. They did not meet on March 16th. The next council meeting will be held on March 23rd.

The Illuminating Tidbit

As I noted at the bottom of my last blog, at the March 9th council meeting I presented council with a packet of material pertaining to a matter of serious concern.
Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I do not tend to fly off the handle or engage in wild speculation. I always do my homework. So it should not surprise you to hear that I spent quite a bit of time doing various kinds of research before addressing council. One of the things I did was to read all of the council meeting minutes from 2005 through 2009.
Here's an interesting tidbit that I came across from the Sept. 11, 2007 council meeting. It's a report from Jim Austin (he was the Ward 4 councilman before Mayor Coleman appointed him as the city's uncertified Acting Building Commissioner in Jan. 2008). Austin gave the following Park & Recreation Committee report:

Mr. Austin advised Park & Recreation has discussed Whiteford Park and actually talked about selling the park and using the money generated by the sale toward the main park.

http://www.highlandhts.com/docs/city_council/minutes/2007/09-11-07_city_council_minutes.htm

Whiteford Park is, of course, owned by the city (not P&R), yet apparently P&R thought (or perhaps hoped) it was theirs to dispose of.

Given the report above, it seems pretty clear in retrospect why the residents of Highland Woods (where Whiteford Park is located) got such a runaround when they asked P&R to replace the worn and dangerous playground equipment in the park---.P&R wasn't interested in renovating Whiteford Park---they wanted to sell it to fund even more spending in the Community Park. My oh my.

Fortunately council stepped in and assisted residents in their quest to have the Whiteford Park playground equipment replaced. I witnessed former Councilman Ted Anderson's outrage (Anderson, a former P&R member, served as the P&R council rep) when he learned that council expected P&R to use what Anderson called "their" money (i.e., funds from the taxpayer-financed P&R fund) to pay for that equipment.

LOGS had heard rumors about P&R's plan to sell Whiteford Park. That is why language was added to the LOGS-sponsored Charter amendment, requiring prior voter approval before any city parkland is sold, leased or exchanged. Highland Heights voters overwhelmingly approved that Charter amendment in Novermber 2008.

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Happy, Happy Anniversary!

This blog began on March 6, 2009.
It's a year later, and I'm still going strong. I hope you find it informative and thought provoking.
Happy Anniversary, blog fans!

Department Head Reports

• Police Chief Cook reported on the conviction of Dr. Essa, who murdered his wife using cyanide capsules. The Highland Heights Police Department was very involved in the case, as the car accident that led to Dr. Essa's arrest occurred in Highland Heights.
  Chief Cook expressed his satisfaction with his department's performance and gave his condolences to Rosemarie Essa's family.
  Mayor Coleman and Councilwoman Lisa Stickan (an Assistant County Prosecutor by day) lauded the chief and his department for their good work on the case.
• Our new Building Commissioner Dale Grabfelder reported that 7 new residential building permits and 13 commercial permits were taken out last month. A sign of some economic recovery perhaps?
  
  Grabfelder also reported that under new Health Department rules, contractors working on older buildings are soon going to have to be EPA certified to deal with lead paint removal and remediation--which will limit the number of contractors who can work on older buildings.
  
  That made me wonder whether it wasn't time for council to stop sitting on the fence and to make a decision about the decrepit, mold-ridden old church building, which will definitely be subject to the new rules once they take effect.

Budget News---Or Come on In, the Water's Fine

• The budget is due to be passed at the next council meeting on March 23rd.

Council decided to hold an additional short discussion about the appropriations in the permanent improvement fund before the vote is taken. Apparently Service Director Thom Evans neglected to add the $ 30,000 cost for annual street striping to his budget request, and to make up for that cost, he changed the appropriations that the Legislative & Finance Committee had previously approved---without discussing it with council beforehand. Council wanted an opportunity to discuss those changes before it formally approves the budget. 

• L&F Chairman, Councilman Leo Lombardo, reported that the overall budget reflects a 12% decrease in income and a 7% decrease in spending, resulting in a $ 350,000 deficit in the overall budget.

After hearing that report: an image immediately came to my mind:

The Park & Rec Committee Members sitting in water and waving Mayor Coleman over, yelling:  "Come on in! The water in the (deficit spending) pool is just fine!"

Apparently that image also occurred  to Mayor Coleman, as he quickly chimed in that the general fund is projected to have a $ 150,000 surplus.
However, Mayor Coleman neglected to note that the cost of the City Hall water line repair (almost $ 30,000) and the undisclosed cost for settling a labor grievance (council approved that settlement at the March 9th meeting) had not been included in the budget. Both of those items will have to be subtracted from the projected surplus amount. And, of course, the surplus is based on the assumption that city employee salaries will be frozen in 2010--an assumption that may or may not hold true. Labor negotiations continue to drag on.

•  There were 2 speakers at the public portion of the meeting. Former Mayor Tom Hughes spoke about preserving the high quality of our residential neighborhoods and about ongoing drainage problems in his back yard.  I presented packets to council detailing a matter of serious councern.

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Quick Hits

The Feb. 2nd Committee of the Whole meeting

Disclosure: I had to miss the meeting. The report below is based on information provided to me by individuals who attended the meeting.

MIA : Mayor Coleman ( # 3 in 2010). (Okay, only 99 % MIA. He arrived just before the meeting broke up.)

• Polling Place change. Last fall, right before the November election, Council discussed reducing the number of polling places and moving one polling location from Millridge School to the church next to Catalano's. Council revisited that discussion after Mayor Coleman (during his very brief appearance at the tail end of the meeting) announced that one polling location, Wellington's Restaurant, would no longer be available to use. The consensus apparently was to stick with the city's remaining two polling places---Millridge School and the Community Center.
• The Old Church Property. A individual pitched the idea of using the decrepit, mold-ridden building as a learning center, stating that he thought that volunteer donations could be used to pay for the center's operating costs. The individual, who apparently is not a structural engineer and has not been inside the building, also said that he disagreed with the cost estimates for restoring the building that were provided to the city in 2008---by a professional structural engineer, who did go inside and examined the building thoroughly.  As the old song goes: "I'm just wishing, and hoping, and dreaming that my wishes will come true..."
• State drilling laws. The state Senate passed amendments to the state's drilling bill that were essentially written by and for the drilling companies (the Neihaus bill). That bill is now being considered by a committee in the House. Council voted to send a copy of the resolution that it passed last fall, asking for the restoration of local control over drilling, to the House committee. Councilman Bob Mastrangelo also suggested that the city provide more education to residents about fractional drilling.
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