The election season has officially begun. The first one out of the box was Mayor Scott Coleman, who confirmed on Tuesday that he is running for re-election. Coleman may have a challenger this time around. According to rumor, Council President Scott Mills will soon throw his hat in the ring for the mayoral race. http://blog.cleveland.com/sunmessenger/2011/02/highland_heights_mayor_scott_c_3.html
What does that mean for you and me? It means that the time of politicians’ pandering and making promises to Highland Heights voters has begun.
For fun, let’s keep track of some of those promises--and let's see how many of them are really kept.
Since he’s already a declared candidate, let’s start with two recent promises/pledges made by Mayor Coleman. Are you ready? Here we go....
Promises Made/Promises Kept?
Promise One:
Mayor Scott Coleman promised residents at the Feb 15th Committee of the Whole meeting that he would speak to the city’s landscape architect “by the end of the week” about developing plans, proposals and drawings for the city’s new green space.
Promise Kept?
At the Feb. 22nd Council meeting, Mayor Scott Coleman reported that he hadn't spoken with the architect yet.
Promise Two:
The city’s online calendar was discussed at the Feb. 22nd Council meeting. Like the rest of the city's website, the online calendar is frequently incomplete and is rarely updated.
To give you an example: A listing for the Feb. 16th Charter Review Commission meeting was not added to the online calendar until after that meeting took place.
Mayor Scott Coleman pledged during the council meeting that he would make sure that the calendar is “as up to date as it can be.”
Promise Kept?
I checked the online calendar today. While it seems pretty complete as far as the month of February goes, there is currently only one meeting listed for the entire month of March (which starts Tuesday). Can you guess which one? Why it's the March 8th Charter Review Commission meeting. No other council or city meeting was listed for March.
Updates:
- Topics for this Tuesday’s (March 1st) Committee of the Whole meeting include the new FEMA floodplain maps and the city’s new green space.
- Brian Mader from the city engineer’s office reported at the Feb. 22nd council meeting that he had received the water flow data that FEMA used to determine flood boundary areas and that he had contacted ODNR regarding previous map revisions that the city received for the Williamsburg and Hawthorne Drive neighborhoods. Those flood maps were revised in 1988 and 1995 respectively, based on flood control infrastructure (water detention basins, swales, etc.) installed in those neighborhoods.
- Giant Eagle is apparently proceeding with a traffic study of the Catalano’s area---the first step in putting together a concrete development proposal for that parcel. Law Director Tim Paluf indicated that Giant Eagle was no longer in a rush, having finally accepted that they would not see a zoning issue put on the May ballot as they originally hoped.
More from the Park & Recreation (P&R) Committee
Recreation Director Dave Ianiro apparently showed during the last P&R meeting that he prefers to keep his head in the sand, thank you very much.
Council’s P&R representative, Councilwoman Cathy Murphy, reported on Tuesday night that Ianiro asked that the issue of the petition---signed by some 30 pool workers (along with some parents) last September---be “put to bed” without any further investigation, discussion or action.
Councilman Bob Mastrangelo wasn’t happy to hear that. “That’s a significant number of employees,” he commented, “to say that the issue is closed with no action.”
Councilwoman Murphy also dropped a new P&R bombshell. Instead of renovating the Old Pool House, P&R is now exploring the idea of demolishing the building and putting a new P&R facility in its place.
As always, it comes down to money...and priorities.
To be continued....
I am one of the "lucky" residents who suddenly found themselves in a 100 year flood zone, according to FEMA's latest flood maps----even though FEMA removed my street from the flood zone 20 years ago, when the street was put in.
There is some relief for residents like me.
There is a form---which someone from the City Engineer's Office must sign---that will qualify you for reduced flood insurance rates for two years, while the FEMA mess is being sorted out.
Once the City Engineer's Office has signed the form, you need to give it to your insurance agent.
If you want a copy of the form, I will email it to you.
Just use the email link provided (Look for the "Feedback" section in the panel to the right) to contact me.
I’ll leave it to you to decide.
The Charter Review Commission’s (CRC) first discussion meeting was scheduled for Wednesday February 16th at 7 pm in the City Hall Council Chamber.
The CRC’s work is very worthy of public attention, given the Charter’s important role in our city’s governance. Akin to a constitution, the Charter provides the legal and governmental framework for our city. In fact, all city rules, ordinances and laws are subservient to the Charter--they are illegal and unenforceable if they conflict with what the Charter says.
CRC meetings are public meetings. This doesn’t mean that the public necessarily has a right to speak, but members of the public certainly have the right to come and listen to the CRC discussion. That being said, it is a matter of common sense that a meeting can’t possibly qualify as a “public meeting” if public access is to the meeting is barred, impeded or denied.
Regular readers of this blog can probably guess what’s coming next....
I thought it might be interesting to sit in on the CRC meeting last Wednesday night. When I arrived at City Hall, shortly after 7 pm, I found that the doors to City Hall were locked up tight. The CRC meeting was held, but the public was barred from attending it.
It’s not like no one was there to let the public in.
Mayor Scott Coleman was inside the building before the CRC members arrived. As the only city official present, it was his duty and responsibility to make sure that the City Hall doors were unlocked and that the public was given access to the CRC meeting—in other words, to make sure that state Sunshine Laws were complied with. Naturally, Mayor Coleman has the keys to City Hall. But he didn’t unlock the City Hall doors at 7 pm. Instead, he hid out inside the building, keeping his keys firmly in his pocket.
And let me tell you more.
Not only was Mayor Coleman present in City Hall before the start of the CRC meeting, he actively participated in that meeting, as an ad hoc 10th member of the CRC .
How do I know that? After standing outside for quite some time---unsuccessfully pounding my fist on the City Hall front doors, ringing the City Hall door bell, calling the Highland Heights police non-emergency line to request entry into the building, and being ignored by Mayor Coleman and several CRC members, who stood inside the City Hall front lobby----I finally managed to get inside the building, quite by accident. 20 minutes into the meeting, one CRC member temporarily exited the building. I managed to grab the door before it shut tight behind him.
Ironically, after I succeeded in entering City Hall Mayor Coleman suddenly appeared, keys in hand. He unlocked the doors---so that the exiting CRC member could get back in the building.
Why the closed doors?
To answer that question we need to start at the beginning.
Charter § 13.01 states that the mayor is supposed to appoint “nine (9) qualified electors not holding other Municipal office or appointment” to serve on the CRC. The fact that CRC membership is limited to residents without any direct (appointed or elected) connection to the city is clearly aimed at ensuring the CRC 's independence from politics and direct political influence when reviewing the city Charter and making recommendations to change/update it.
Some long time residents told me that--in the past, at least—the CRC did just that. It operated as an independent citizens group. Neither the mayor nor council directly participated in the CRC. The CRC conducted its business free from direct political influence.
Not this time around. Mayor Coleman---a resident who holds not just “a“ municipal office” but the city’s top “municipal office”---not only sat at the Council table with the CRC members, he fully participated in Wednesday night’s CRC meeting.
Here’s another important fact to keep in mind. Charter § 13.01 also states that “Council shall submit, without alteration, to the electors any such proposed alterations, revisions, or amendments to the Charter at the next regular November election.” In other words, Council has no power to modify, alter or veto the CRC’s recommendations. The changes the CRC wants made to the Charter automatically get put on the November ballot.
So let’s turn again to Wednesday night, keeping § 13.01 in mind.
The mayor, who has the City Hall keys in his pocket, chooses not to unlock the front doors, thereby preventing the public from listening to the CRC’s first substantive discussion meeting---a meeting that the mayor not only attends, but fully participates in.
You might ask: “Doesn’t that violate both Charter § 13.01 and state Sunshine Laws?”
and “Why would Mayor Scott Coleman--our mayor---the mayor of Highland Heights, do that?” Those are good questions.
As always, you are free to come up with your own guess, but here’s one theory:
Imagine that you are a mayor who has to work with an independent City Council---a Council that doesn’t act as a mayoral rubber stamp. And imagine, too, that you are a mayor who has publicly admitted that he likes to “fly under the radar”---you are someone who prefers to do business behind closed doors, away from the prying eyes of the public. And suppose, too, that you have a couple of things you want to see changed in the Charter. Given the fact that, by law, Council can’t mess with the CRC’s recommendations, you might see an opportunity for advancing your own personal and/or political agendas --- if you can get in and influence the CRC and its work. How to do that-- “under the radar” so to speak?
First you hand-select the CRC members, rather than soliciting volunteers from the community. Then you make sure to arrive at City Hall early on Wednesday night. After that, you simply “forget” to unlock the front doors. A police officer lets the early arriving CRC members in, but does not unlock the doors. The result? A "public" meeting is quickly and easily turned into a private discussion—one that you fully participate in, out of public view.
That’s just one theory, of course.
Another theory is that, despite his decade of experience as an elected Highland Heights official---Mayor Coleman was simply absent minded and “forgot” to unlock the City Hall doors on Wednesday night---even the persistent pounding of someone trying to get in apparently was not enough to remind him that he needed to unlock the doors.
Or, then again, maybe Mayor Coleman’s keys malfunctioned. You know, in this high tech era, it happens all the time.
Here are some facts to consider when trying to put last Wednesday night’s events in perspective:
- During the Feb 8th Council meeting, after announcing the February 16th Charter Review Commission (CRC) meeting, Mayor Coleman told Council that the CRC “wants to talk by itself first” and that it would open a meeting to the public sometime in the future, after that. One Council member followed up on the mayor’s implied message---namely that the CRC intended to meet and discuss things in private and that the public should wait for a formal invitation before attending any CRC meetings. Councilwoman Cathy Murphy, a lawyer, asked Mayor Coleman to confirm whether or not CRC meetings are public meetings covered by state Sunshine Laws. In response to that question, Mayor Coleman acknowledged that CRC meetings are (supposed to be) public meetings.
- The city is required to give advance notice of all public meetings. There is a Calendar of Events on the city’s website that lists all city events and public meetings each month---http://www.highlandhts.com/calendar/calendar.phpI checked the city’s online Calendar of Events on February 16th and again on February 17th---the Feb. 16th CRC meeting was not listed. (I have a screenshot of the Feb. 17th calendar documenting that fact.)Amusingly, if you check the city’s online calendar today, you will see the Feb. 16th CRC meeting listed. Why the belated posting? Well maybe the powers that be figured that post-dating a calendar is just like post-dating a check---no one will notice, but you cover yourself, just in case.
It goes without saying that adding a meeting to the city’s Calendar of Events after the meeting takes place does not constitute giving proper prior notice of that meeting to the public.
- A quick geography lesson. What county is Highland Heights located in?
Answer: Cuyahoga County, of course.
There are two local Cuyahoga County media outlets that regularly cover Highland Heights meetings and events: The Sun Messenger and http://www.patch.com/.
The city did not publish a notice of the February 16th CRC meeting in either of those sources. I hear, however, that a notice was placed in a Lake County newspaper that covers and serves cities and towns in Lake County.
So, only those select few Highland Heights residents who had the foresight to scour an outside-county publication would have received notice of last Wednesday's CRC meeting.
If all of the above doesn’t tell you that major games were afoot with regard to the February 16th CRC meeting, I don’t know what would.
Patch.com ran a story on this, but neglected to report the mayor's presence inside City Hall:
I expect that the games will continue---but, hopefully, behind open doors the next time around.
That was the opening comment made by the Highland Height Garden Club’s Noreen Paradise at the February 15th Committee of the Whole meeting.
Paradise was referring, of course, to the 3 acre plot of land that sits between Highland Road and the Community Center, where the now-demolished Old Church Building used to sit.
She told Council that Garden Club members would gladly serve on a planning committee and that the Garden Club was enthusiastic about turning part of the new greenspace into a community garden. She said that Garden Club had already contacted the Highland Garden Center on Wilson Mills Road, to see if a they would like to participate, perhaps by selling plants and providing advice to residents interested in exercising their green thumbs.
Judy Dearden, founder of the new Highland Heights Green Task Force, pledged her group’s help and support and told Council that the group was “wholly behind doing a community garden.” She suggested that rain barrels could be utilized to provide water for the community gardens and other greenspace plantings.
Sean Milroy, who lives along Highland Road with his wife Amy, two sons, several chickens and a new dog, told Council: “My boys would love to see a playground.” He said that the greenspace was a “community center,” and that “the point was to use it to strengthen the community”.
Most exciting was the vision shared by Larry Nudleman of the Lion’s Club. He explained that the Lion’s Club had earlier hoped to put a gazebo in the Community Park, “but the new pool got put in its place instead."
Rather than throwing a party to celebrate the Lion’s Club’s 50th Anniversary this year, the group decided that it would like to donate money to put a gazebo in the city’s new greenspace. Nudelman brought brochures to give Council a better idea of what the options were and what the gazebo might look like. His concept was to erect a 15’X20”rectangular gazebo, made of maintenance-free, recycled plastic-wood material, on the western edge of the greenspace, facing the police station.
In Nudelman’s imagining, the gazebo would serve as much more that just a bandstand for summer concerts. “People could get married there and then walk over to the Community Center for their reception.” In other words, it would be more than just beautiful and useful; it might even generate some revenue for the city too.
While not every Council member participated in the discussion, those that did---including Councilman Frank Legan, who fought long and hard for more than two years to keep the decrepit, substandard Old Church Building standing---expressed their enthusiasm for the ideas pitched by Paradise, Dearden, Milroy and Nudelman.
Councilwoman Cathy Murphy said that she liked the idea of forming a planning committee and that she thought it was “important to develop a plan, an overall scheme, even if the city can’t implement it all this year.” She also suggested that any plan include a path or walkway for foot traffic between the greenspace’s auxiliary parking lot and the Community Center.
Council President Scott Mills told residents that the city’s landscape architect could be enlisted to draw up plans and possible designs for the greenspace—an idea that Murphy later repeated. Mayor Scott Coleman promised Council that he would speak with the architect by the end of the week, to get that process started.
Councilman Leo Lombardo opined that it would be “nice to get a drawing of the property to see how everything would fit in there”---an idea that Legan and others immediately agreed with.
It was Councilman Bob Mastrangelo, however, who addressed a concern shared by many residents in attendance—that it would take as long to get things started in the new greenspace as it did to make the demolition decision that created it.
“Let’s keep it on the front burner,” Mastrangelo said. “We have a tendency to put things on the back burner. Let’s keep it going. It’s not necessary to wait for the budget to be finalized to move forward with this.”
Council President Scott Mills pledged to put the greenspace on the agenda for further discussion at another Committee of the Whole meeting in the near future.
UPDATE: despite Mayor Coleman's promise that he would speak with the city's landscape architect by week's end, Coleman admitted at the February 22nd council meeting that he had not yet had a conversation with the architect. The greenspace is on the agenda for the March 1st Committee of the Whole meeting.
Read what patch.com said about the meeting:
http://hillcrest.patch.com/articles/gazebo-garden-proposed-for-green-space-by-highland-heights-city-hall
Mark Your Calendars
Tuesday Feb. 15th. 8 pm. City Hall. Discussion about what to do with the city’s new green space.
Council has invited interested residents to come to their Feb. 15th Committee of the Whole meeting to discuss possible uses for the newly created green space in front of the Highland Heights Community Center (where the Old Church Building used to sit).
What a great way to begin the discussion.
In honor of its 50th anniversary, the Highland Heights Lions Club recently announced that it will make a donation to enhance the city’s newest green space.
http://hillcrest.patch.com/articles/highland-heights-lions-club-making-plans-for-50th-anniversary
Wednesday, February 16th . 7 pm. City Hall.
Charter Review Commission meeting.
The 9 individuals selected by Mayor Scott Coleman to serve on the Charter Review Commission will meet to discuss making changes to the city Charter.
When he announced the Commission’s upcoming meeting during the February 8th council meeting, Mayor Coleman stated that a Commission meeting would be opened to the public “sometime in the future”—giving the very distinct impression that residents were supposed to stay away until then.
When asked about his comments, the mayor conceded that all of the Charter Review Commission meetings are public meetings, open to the public.
Makes you wonder what the Commission is planning to discuss on the 16th, doesn't it?
Is the City of Highland Heights Really All Wet?
As the Plain Dealer reported this week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued a new set of flood plain maps in December 2010. Banks and other mortgage lenders use those maps to determine whether homeowners need to purchase flood insurance—which can be a significant additional expense for property owners.
Brian Mader from the City Engineer’s office couldn’t explain the whys or wherefores of FEMA’s mapping. During the February 8th Committee of the Whole meeting he pointed out several examples, including that FEMA has now declared the Rutland Drive area to be located in a 100 year flood plain---even though there are no open streams and storm sewers have been handling water run-off in that neighborhood for decades.
Mader has asked FEMA to disclose the data they used, so that he can get a handle on how they came up with their flood plain determinations.
Mayor Coleman and members of Council jointly expressed great concerned about the issue. What they will have to decide--after they hear back from Mader-- is whether to use taxpayer money to pay for the kind of detailed study that would be required to rebut FEMA’s flood plain determinations—not a cheap proposition.
In the meantime, residents have the option of hiring a civil engineer to prove that their homes sit above 100 year flood spillage levels . There are no guarantees, but if an engineering firm concludes that a home sits above the flood level, it can issue a flood elevation certificate and request that FEMA amend its map to exclude the property from the flood plain.
Unfortunately this will take some time to sort out. In the meantime, impacted residents have very little time to purchase flood insurance, as demanded by their lenders.
Additional stories:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/02/new_flood_maps_will_cost_resid.html
http://hillcrest.patch.com/articles/highland-heights-officials-question-flood-plain-map
Drill Baby, Drill? The Saga Continues.
On Tuesday night Law Director Tim Paluf indirectly confirmed a rumor that had been floating around lately, namely that after Council received the final report from the Gas Well Committee on January 11th they instructed the city’s outside council to share the Committee’s park map with Bass Energy, to see if Bass would accept any of the drilling sites selected by Mayor Scott Coleman and three of the seven members of the Gas Well Committee (the other 3 members of the Committee--including Council President Scott Mills--concluded that there were no safe drilling sites in the park).
Bass Energy apparently didn’t like what it saw. According to Paluf, “Bass doesn’t appear happy with the sites because they are not far enough apart. “ Paluf indicated that Bass wants to place gas wells at least 1200 feet apart–twice the state law spacing requirements.
As a practical matter, given current state setbacks, a 1200 foot spacing of wells would mean drilling a gas well either in the middle of the ball fields or in the middle of the forested area of the park.
Although Mayor Coleman had no problem recommending that Bass drill a gas well in an identified wetland next to the new park parking lot, he adamantly pledged during several Gas Well Committee meetings (as did the rest of the Committee members) that he did not want any gas wells to be drilled in the woods.
I guess we’ll have to wait to see if that’s one promise the mayor will keep.
Personnel Issues? What personnel issues?
Park & Recreation Director Dave Ianiro gave a very brief report to Council on Tuesday night. He discussed some upcoming equipment purchases, told Council that P&R wants to build a large storage shed, and also emphasized, once again, that P&R is looking to Council to foot the (quite large) bill for renovating the Old Pool House. Ianiro also mentioned that summer program registration is now underway.
When asked how online registration was going, he quickly admitted, “We don’t do that.”
Why not? Ianiro didn’t explain.
Most significant was the one thing Ianiro chose not to discuss with Council: a letter he recently received from the contractor who runs the pool concession stand. Councilwoman Cathy Murphy (council’s P&R rep) brought the letter (which both she and Mayor Coleman also received) to Council’s attention during her own report to Council.
The contractor involved pays the city $3,000 a year for the privilege of selling snacks at the pool. She hires Highland Heights kids to work at the concession stand (one of Mayor Coleman’s daughter worked there in the past). Apparently the contractor---like the life guards and their parents who signed a petition last September---also has some significant concerns about how the pool was managed and staffed last summer.
When asked to report on his efforts to address the concerns raised in the lifeguards’ petition. Mayor Coleman told Council that he,
“looked into it but didn’t get to the bottom of it. It (the petition) was never addressed to Mr. Ianiro or myself.”
That last statement is true. The petition was apparently addressed to the city’s Park & Recreation Commission--the city-paid group that manages the park. Of course the reality is that Mayor Coleman and Dave Ianiro also received copies of the petition---and that they are the individuals utimately responsible for everything that happens in the park.
But take a moment to think about what Mayor Coleman really said here: that he assumed no real responsibility for addressing the concerns raised by the lifeguards and their parents because they did not put his name at the top of their petition. Basically, the mayor's position seems to be that he doesn't feel obligated to deal with issues if residents do not follow (what he considers to be) correct (though unwritten) procedural rules in presenting their concerns. Residents should take note. The lesson here is: if you want to get Mayor Coleman to pay attention to you, you need to put his name on top of your petition.
The drums are beating louder and louder about issues at the pool. First the lifeguards’ petition and now the contractor’s letter. And don’t forget the nonresident male swim coach who abruptly resigned mid-season last summer. (The results of the investigation into his alleged inappropriate behavior have never been made public.)
Whether they want to deal with them or not, Recreation Director Dave Ianiro and Mayor Coleman are now clearly on notice that some serious problems may exist.
The summer hiring season is almost at hand.
Residents are wondering: Will Recreation Director Dave Ianiro and Mayor Scott Coleman finally address the issues that have been brought to their attention or will they continue to keep their heads in the sand?
