I briefly wondered if the crowd signalled the eruption of a city-wide battle over deer culling. It did not.
Most of the people present were there to celebrate two police appointments/promotions and to honor the Highland Heights Garden Club, which received a Resolution of Commendation from Mayor Coleman and Highland Heights Council.
Congratulations to Police Sargent Joseph Stella and Patrolman Andrew Lessick on their promotions/appointments, and congratulations to the Highland Heights Garden Club on its 2010 awards for Best Flower Show and Best Garden Club in Ohio.
Question Answered
At the end of my last blog, I wondered how much Park & Recreation Director Dave Ianiro’s change in policy regarding poolside dining had cost the city, in terms of lost revenue.
We now have the answer: The city took a 33 1/3 % revenue hit.
Some background:
- The city gives a concessionaire the exclusive right to sell snacks in the park. It’s a good deal for the city. The city get a guaranteed amount of revenue each year, while the concessionaire takes all of the financial risk and has the headache of staffing and running the snack bars.
- When the new pool opened, the city implemented a policy that banned eating in the pool area. Basically the policy meant that if you wanted to snack, you had to do it outside the fenced-in pool area. The policy promoted good sanitation by keeping food out of the pool and by keeping bugs and pests away from the grassy areas where pool visitors sit and lounge.
- Last year, however, P&R Director Dave Ianiro began looking the other way as pool staff and others began bringing in food from outside vendors and dining poolside. That change in policy not only had sanitary implications, it also undercut the concessionaire’s business and increased the concessionaire's cleaning costs.
On Tuesday night, Council approved the 2011 concessionaire contract negotiated by Mayor Scott Coleman. The city will receive $2,000 from Snacks and Stuff, Inc. this year---a $1,000 drop in revenue from last year.
By the way, you don’t have to take my word that Dave Ianiro’s decision to permit poolside pizza parties is directly and causally related to this revenue loss. This is from the April 12th Council minutes (as usual, the postings to the city’s website are woefully behind, so these minutes have yet to be posted online. This is reproduced from the print version of the minutes, which Council approved on Tuesday):
"Law Director Paluf advised last year Snacks & Stuff paid the City around $3,000. She (the company’s small business owner) is asking for a reduction to about $1,700. The main reason is people bringing food to the pool has cut into her business; also the season is shorter....Mr. Paluf stated he thought the main reason is people bringing food to the pool. He suggested some type of reduction would be in order."
So let's recap. The city used to require pool-goers to leave the pool area when they wanted to snack---a good sanitation practice that also help protect the interests of the city's exclusive snack bar concessionaire.
Last year, however, the P&R Director David Ianiro began looking the other way when pool staffers and others began holding poolside pizza parties. His decision to ignore the city's long-standing sanitation policy not only increased poolside trash and debris, but resulted in a significant decrease in revenue from the concessionaire contract.
Way to go, Dave Ianiro.
Disrespect
The nine members of the Charter Review Commission (CRC) have taken their task very seriously. Over the past several months they have very slowly and very methodically discussed every section of the city Charter---sometimes more than once.
The Charter, being a legislative/legal document, is not easy reading---even for an attorney. Since eight of the nine CRC members are not attorneys, you can imagine how perplexing some of the language can be at times.
Unfortunately, the CRC has not received the kind of support from Mayor Coleman’s office that it needs and deserves to do its job. For instance, while the mayor provided the CRC members with copies of the city Charter, he did not give them copies of the relevant state statutes and local ordinances. The CRC has been left to read the Charter in a vacuum.
It is almost impossible to comprehend the Charter and how it works by reading it in a vacuum. Some Charter provisions closely track state law---they contain a ton of statutory legalese. Other sections are best understood when read with the local ordinances adopted to implement the legal directives laid out in the Charter. Bottom line, the applicable state statutes, the Charter, and local ordinances really need to be read together, in order to fully understand how the Charter works and why it reads the way it does. The CRC members haven't been able to do that because the mayor hasn't provided them with all the necessary information and materials.
In addition, while the mayor promised that the CRC members that Law Director Tim Paluf would provide them with whatever legal help they wanted or needed, the reality is that Paluf has met with the CRC only once, for about half an hour—and he appeared to be unprepared for that meeting.
For example the one time he met with them Paluf told the CRC that according to § 5.05 of the Charter, the finance director appointment does not require Council’s approval. In making that statement, Paluf completely ignored § 6.03, a more recently adopted Charter provision, which explicitly states that the Finance Director is “subject to..confirmation by four (4) members (i.e., a majority) of Council.”
My sense at the time was that Paluf didn’t mention the conflict between those two Charter sections (which still has the CRC puzzled) because Paluf wasn’t aware of it. He hadn’t bothered to take the time to read through the Charter and become familiar with it before attending the CRC meeting.
I bring this up because two weeks ago the CRC members decided that they had gone as far as they could on their own. They needed some legal questions answered before deciding whether to recommend possible amendments to the city Charter.
Relying on Mayor Coleman’s promise to make the Law Director available to them whenever his help and advice was needed, the CRC Chair, Dan Dombeck, set the agenda of the April 27th CRC meeting to focus on getting the members’ legal questions resolved. Dombeck told the CRC members that he would ask the mayor to have Tim Paluf attend that meeting.
Dombeck seemed a bit flustered when the April 27th meeting rolled around.
Law Director Tim Paluf was a no-show.
Dombeck told the CRC members that he learned for the first time the day before (April 26th) that Paluf wasn’t going to attend the CRC meeting.
I found out later that Paluf was not called away on some sudden, unanticipated emergency. He was off on a planned vacation in Florida.
It strikes me that Mayor Coleman and/or Law Director Tim Paluf showed an utter lack of respect for the CRC members and their time by failing to let Dan Dombeck know about Paluf’s absence sufficiently in advance, so the April 27th CRC meeting could be rescheduled. As it was, the meeting went forward, but little was accomplished given Paluf’s absence.
What a nice way (not) to treat these residents, who have already given up so much of their time to serve the city.
Get Well Soon
It’s getting around the city that Mayor Coleman is recovering from a bout of pneumonia. Get well soon, Mr. Mayor.
