ANOTHER WEATHER-RELATED COUNCIL RECESS

THE WINTER THREW ANOTHER CURVE AT COUNCIL THIS WEEK
The January 28th Council meeting was cancelled after temps dipped, once again, below zero.
Unlike the last weather-related cancellation, this one was reflected on the city's online calendar and on the Council Meeting Agenda & Minutes webpage.
Glad the message got through.
The best way to communicate with residents is to use all the tools at the city's disposal.

ONE INTRIGUING AGENDA ITEM
The January 28th Agenda, posted online, contains this intriguing item:

 Motion to adjourn into Executive Session to discuss employee compensation.

Why is this intriguing?
Last year Council approved union contracts and pay ordinances, which set salaries and benefits for every city employee for the next several years. 
Council also changed Jean Buchak, the Clerk of Council, from an hourly to a salaried worker.
So what "employee compensation" is left to discuss? And for whom?
Residents will have to keep their eyes and ears open on this one.
An executive session means that it will be a behind-closed-doors discussion.
The results of that session, if any, will appear as an action item on an upcoming agenda.

WE FEEL ABANDONED. YOU HAVE LET US DOWN
Residents Jack and Victoria Thomas addressed Council at the January 14th Council meeting.
The Thomases live in a lovely model house, sitting at the corner of Highland Road and St. Charles Place.
Next to their home is an abandoned "pump house" that was built when the Glen Eden subdivision was developed.
Behind the pump house is the Glen Eden water detention basin---a large, non-buildable area that collects and holds rainwater and storm runoff from the Glen Eden neighborhood.
Mr. Thomas told Council,

"When we bought the house we were told that when the (Highland Road) sewers came though that the pump house would be ..torn down and the land reclaimed.
No action was taken about the pump house.
We patiently would ask. We heard many messages from Council and from this administration. ...
We feel abandoned. That you have let us down.
In good faith we've been patient, and with so many promises we felt we had to come to you and tell you that we feel you really haven't represented us. We've lost any hope of you following up at this point.
Trucks are coming in after midnight dropping off roofing materials, and the banging going on---if you lived next door to it you would have done something about it.
I do feel I don't have a representative among you that is willing to represent us."

When Thomas finished, Council President Cathy Murphy turned to Law Director Tim Paluf and asked him to comment on the pump house situation.
Paluf said:

"We had (an eminent domain) hearing more that a year ago. I still havent' heard from the judge..I'm not normally inclined to push a judge or magistrate but I'll do what I can."

The Thomases are right to be frustrated.

I first wrote about the pump house and water detention basin in a February 5th 2010 blog posting.
It turns out that the Glen Eden developers never applied for a tax exemption for the pump house and water detention basin.
Taxes were assessed, but never paid. They went into foreclosure.
A woman bought them for $400 at a tax foreclosure sale, then promptly erected a "for sale" sign.
According to a news report, a realty ad described the property as "1.2 acres wooded with ravine. Stable house on land."
What a ridiculous ad.

The Glen Eden Homeowners Association offered to take care of the basin if the city bought the property.
Council debated purchasing the pump house and detention basin from the woman----for far less than her $5,000 asking price. Councilman Ed Hargate opposed the idea of the city taking ownership of the property.
While Council dithered, the woman sold the pump house and basin, at a profit, to several investors, one of whom turned out to be former Mayfield Heights Councilman Howard Sonnenstein.

The new owners tried to cut a deal with the Glen Eden homeowners' association---offering to maintain the detention basin for a fee----and when that deal fell through they threatened to fill the basin in and sell the land as building lots.
I heard that the feds---namely the Army Corps of Engineers---eventually got involved and notified the new owners that they couldn't fill the basin---a dedicated flood control area--- in.
The owners' next gambit was to rent out the pump house---which is where all the truck noise comes in.

Years after it gave up the opportunity to purchase the property for a song, the city finally bit the bullet and began costly proceedings to acquire the property by eminent domain.
The new owners demanded a lot of money, claiming that the pump house and basin are commercially viable.
Hence the hearing before the magistrate over a year ago.

It's not just Jack and Victoria Thomas who are frustrated.
Residents should be frustrated, too, by the city's failure to address the situation early on, when it would have cost taxpayers hundreds, rather than tens of thousands, of dollars to resolve.

Here's a link to a news story describing the early stage of this sad tale
http://blog.cleveland.com/sunmessenger/2010/02/homeowners_association_wants_h.html

LOUSY COMMUNICATION/COMMUNICATORS?

The newly reconstituted Council finally held its first business meeting of 2014 this week, following a one week weather-related delay.
 Last week’s cold weather turned Council’s scheduled 3 week holiday break into a month-long recess.
With the frigid temperatures and the school closings, I wondered if last week’s Council meeting would be cancelled.
I kept checking the city’s website and official calendar on Monday and Tuesday.
The answer was always the same: “business as usual”.  
The Council meeting remained on the city’s online calendar, and there was nary a word about any weather-related closings.
Thank goodness someone with real information contacted me to let me know that the January 7^th Council meeting had been cancelled.

Unfortunately I never heard about any garbage pickup delays.
Turns out, I wasn’t the only one.
 Everyone on my street braved subzero temps to put their garbage out on Tuesday night….a day early as it turned out.

Sometime later I discovered that the city did post some weather-related information----but not on the city’s official website.
It was posted on the city's Facebook page.
Most Facebook users probably assume that everyone else in the world uses Facebook too.
That’s really not the case.
Lots of people avoid online social media sites due to privacy and data-mining concerns.
Which raises the question:

Given Facebook’s self-selected, limited audience, why would the city decide to post vital emergency-related information on Facebook---and not on the city’s official website?

I raised that issue with Council this week, but got no answer.
As I see it, it’s just another example of the administration’s communication incompetence.

There’s been a lot of discussion at Council meetings over the last few years about the quality and usefulness (or lack thereof) of the City’s website.
Those conversations have resulted in some minor tweaks, but that’s about it.
A local consultant told Council a year ago that it would cost $100,000 to create a spiffy new city website.
That’s absolutely absurd.
Cuyahoga County’s Department of Information Services offers website services at a very modest cost....a fraction of the consultant's estimate.
Several local communities have taken advantage of their services, and the results are easily accessible online.

So why hasn't anything been done?

The city’s website is entirely within Mayor Scott Coleman’s (not Council’s) wheelhouse.
Council can talk, but that doesn’t mean Coleman has to (or will) listen.
Coleman maintains tight control over all of the city’s communication with residents, including the city’s main communication devices… the Highland Highlights newsletter and the city’s official website.
The buck stops with him.

And stopped it has….for quite some time now.

2014 TO BRING  (CONTINUED) MAJOR CAPITAL INVESTMENT IN MUNI CENTER BUILDINGS
A couple of years ago Council spent over $200,000 shoring up the Community Center after it was discovered that the below-ground portions of several supporting beams had deteriorated.
On Tuesday, Council authorized bids for other capital improvements to other Municipal Center buildings.

The Police/Fire building has had long-standing problems with water leakage in the basement.
Service Director Thom Evans told Council that soil borings done when the Building was originally constructed showed there was a lot of “siltstone” at the site.

“A lot of the problem is from the siltstone. It’s a natural material in the soil..it moves with the water table. It has been clogging up the filler drains and the sump pump.”

A consultant has recommended that the city:  fix a load-bearing retaining wall at the rear of the police building; replace several window sills; perform some  brick tuck pointing; and install filter fabric around the foundation to deal with the sill stone problem.
The price tag?
Evans recommended that $500,000 be set aside in the 2014 budget to pay for that work--- and to cover the cost of replacing City Hall’s “inefficient, antiquated” HVAC system.

CITY APPOINTMENTS: REVOLVING DOORS AND MUCH THE SAME
This week Councilwoman Cathy Murphy was unanimously reelected to serve as Council President for the next two years.

Most of the Council appointments remained the same, except the Councilman Chuck Brunello will take Councilman Ed Hargate’s place on the Legislative & Finance Committee.
That committee will continue to be chaired by Councilman Leo Lombardo.
Newly elected (returning) Councilwoman Ann D’Amico will take over as Chair of the Drainage Committee, filling the spot vacated by former Councilman Frank Legan.
Legan, meanwhile, has been appointed by Mayor Coleman to serve on the city’s Board of Zoning & Building Appeals.

One appointment that shouldn’t go unnoticed:
Mayor Scott Coleman has appointed Anthony (Tony) Valentino to the city’s Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z), to replace Don McFadden.

McFadden, a local attorney, brought a great deal of professional knowledge and competence to P&Z.
That’s something P&Z desperately needs.
Understanding and appropriately implementing zoning laws is tough stuff.
Zoning ordinances are technical and complicated----it’s not something that most lay people can handle….or at least handle well.

Valentino’s name should be familiar to most residents.
 
Most recently he was named a 2012 " Citizen of the Year" by the Mayfield Schools for his leadership role in the Wildcat Park Foundation.
Mayfield School Superintendent Dr. Keith Kelly recognized Valentino for:

"...step(ping) forward as the Assistant project leader and fundraising coordinator for Wildcat Park.."

http://www.mayfieldschools.org/mobile/News/Details/0?newsId=1052

According to a recent news report, that could be a very dubious distinction indeed.
Among other things "Wildcat Park" involved removing all of Mayfield High School's tennis courts in order to install expanded football stadium parking.
The tennis team was thrown under the bus for the football team.
Paying the price for the expensive, gussied-up football facilities, high school tennis players now have to travel offsite for every practice and match.

Even more disturbing, the news report indicates that Valentino's "Wildcat Park" may be a huge taxpayer rip-off.
Valentino's group has raised only a fraction of the $3 million the Foundation pledged when initially selling the project to residents.
The reporter who investigated the situation wrote:

I found that taxpayers paid for much more of Wildcat Stadium than I initially realized. And I feel a bit misled. The campaign that raised private funds for the project blurred the line in public statements between what it hoped to pay for and what was actually already embedded in district's plan.
The sports complex cost the 4,000-student district about $3.5 million, district treasurer Scott Snyder says. About $650,000 was raised through private donations.

http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2013/10/mayfield_wildcats_stadium_gets.html
http://www.news-herald.com/general-news/20110826/wildcat-park-project-is-focus-of-fundraisers

Valentino's name should also be familiar to Highland Heights residents because he is also a longtime appointed city official.
Coleman appointed him to serve on the city’s Park & Recreation Commission (P&R) years ago.
 Valentino, in fact, served as the P&R Chair for several years.
It was during those years that a Valentino-affiliated company (Valentino at one point identified himself as the company’s “owner and President”) became the city’s exclusive HVAC services provider.
That company even performed work in the park ---work that Valentino, as P&Z chair, was legally authorized and required to approve.
City records show that Mayor Coleman approved most of the company’s invoices.

Council, however, was apparently unaware of the cozy business arrangement.
That’s significant because city law clearly states that Council’s prior approval has to be obtained before services are purchased from and/or payments are made to any business affiliated with any elected or appointed city official.
Highland Heights Ordinance 117.04(b)(1) reads:

"….no goods or services can be purchased from and no payments made from city funds regardless of amount without prior approval of council acting on motion ordinance or resolution at a regular meeting if the purchase is to made from and payment made to an elected or appointed official of the municipality or any business entity in which that person has a direct or beneficial interest in the business."

Council minutes do not show that Valentino ever disclosed his business affiliation before his affiliated company began providing exclusive HVAC services to the city.
Nor do city records show that Council passed any ordinance or resolution approving the arrangement or authorizing payments to be made for the company’s services, as required by Ordinance 117.04(b)(1).

After the scandal broke Council asked the Ohio Ethics Commission to look into whether any ethics laws were violated---a request that, apparently, resulted in no action being taken.
As far as I know no formal investigation into the legal propriety of the financial arrangement between the city and the Valentino-affiliated company was ever undertaken.

There was no apparent fallout from the scandal.
No heads rolled.
And Coleman continued to reappoint Valentino to his paid P&R position.
Now he has appointed Valentino to an even more lucrative and prestigious position---as a member of the city’s powerful Planning & Zoning Commission.

That appointment raises some questions about Coleman’s judgment and personal ethics.
After all:

If it's the mayor’s duty to enforce and obey the city's laws, should he  reward political appointees who don't do the same?

To read more details about the scandal:http://www.news-herald.com/general-news/20100430/highland-heights-officials-accused-of-running-afoul-of-ordinance
http://highlandheightsohiohappenings.blogspot.com/2010/05/matter-of-very-serious-concern.html

HAPPY NEW YEAR: WHAT’S GOING ON?

I escaped the cold and snow in December---for a little while at least.
Instead of snow drifts and snowplows, I saw this:

CATALANO’S REDEVELOPMENT (FINALLY) BEGINS

The first piece of the redevelopment process (finally) fell into place almost five months after Council rushed to approve (minus any substantive public input) an $800,000 economic development package for the Catalano’s project.
The timing was somewhat ironic given that the rush to approve the package was purportedly necessitated by developer Lance Osborne’s pressing redevelopment timeline.

Do you suppose the sense of time and urgency is different for developers---and Council?

The Catalano’s property----which was legally divided into 2 parcels a few years ago---was sold by a Giant Eagle-affiliated company on December 10^th.
BRAINARD CROSSING HOLDINGS, LLC is now the record title holder of the front parcel (adjacent to Wilson Mills).
BRAINARD CROSSING HOLDINGS, LLC and OSBORNE CAPITAL CORP. own the back parcel---where the old grocery store building sits.

Demolition of the front part of the old grocery store building has begun.
All of the additions---including the glass dome displaying the neon “Catalanos”sign---have been removed.
It's rumored that Fitworks---which will do its own interior build-out--- is hoping for a grand reopening an early April.

I've also heard rumors that a Chipotle restaurant may be a possible tenant.

That leaves one very thorny issue remaining to be resolved….

STILL UNRESOLVED: SIGNAGE

There are several well-established businesses at the Bishop/Brainard/Wilson Mills intersection---all of which were limited, by the city, to erecting modestly-sized ground (“monument”) signs.

Existing commercial sign at Bishop & Wilson Mills

It remains to be seen whether Osborne will receive similar treatment or whether the Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) will give him carte blanche----i.e., whether Osborne will be allowed to erect bigger and flashier signs than surrounding businesses.

The economic development agreement seemed to indicate that might be the case.
It explicitly states that:

“…signs in accordance with the Signage Plan previously approved by the City and attached as Exhibit F to the (9/14/12) Development Agreement…will be permitted upon approval thereof by the City Planning and Zoning Commission.”

 “Exhibit F”  displays a huge 18’ x 5’10’’ monument sign--a much larger sign than existing commercial properties were allowed to install at the Bishop/Brainard/Wilson Mills intersection.

Exhibit F

According to Law Director Tim Paluf, P&Z will have the last word on signage.

Interestingly, a Highland Heights commercial property owner recently asked the P&Z for permission to install an electronic sign on his property.

A resident told me that Osborne indicated at that meeting that he was interested in installing electronic signs too.

Even more interesting is the fact that P&Z’s December 9th agenda listed the request simply as a generic request for a “variance to sign requirements”---the agenda didn’t say anything about electronic signs.

I've been told that Council caught wind of what the request really entailed and, at the last meeting of 2013 , responded by adopting a six month moratorium on electronic signs, thereby preserving the status quo--- at least for the time being.

Even though the city installed two partially electronic signs in front of the Community Park and the Municipal Complex several years ago, it doesn’t appear that the city’s sign ordinances actually allow electric signs.
Highland Heights Ordinance 1145.03(c) states:

Light sources to illuminate signs, where illumination is permitted, shall not be of excessive brightness, shall not be of a flashing, moving color, bare bulb, neon tube or intermittent type and shall be shielded from adjacent residential streets and vehicular traffic. ( emphasis added)

And there’s the rub.

Electronic signs theoretically aren’t allowed under the city's sign ordinances, but the city installed some anyway.

If I was the commercial property owner I’d sure think that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander…

And if I was Osborne, I’d definitely want to be a gander too.

HOLIDAY LIGHTS

I consider myself lucky because I live across from one of the most spectacular Christmas lights display in the city.

Anyone driving by Hawthorne Drive needs to only look down the street to see what I mean.

You couldn’t miss it if you tried.

This was taken early in the process and doesn't reflect the full final display.

My neighbors-- Ivan and his son Andrew--- outdo themselves, keeping the electric company in business each December.

Obviously I’m not the only one who’s impressed by their handiwork.

Santa himself has been a regular nighttime visitor---visitors to the street could watch (and listen to) Santa as he conducted music and moved around in front of a large downstairs picture window.

Even the Grinch made an occasional visit when Santa was off taking care of business.

My neighbors didn't provide the only show in town.
Far from it.

There were lots of lovely, if not, spectacular displays in the city.

It makes hard work for the Lions Club, whose members are tasked with selecting lighting display winners in each ward each year.

Although my own neighbors didn’t win an award this year, they were happy for a Hawthorne alum who did, for a lovely Miner Road Ext. white lights display.

Congratulations to John and his bride, Eszti!

WORD OF ADVICE: KEEP YOUR TEMPER AND WATCH YOUR TONGUE

Council recently repealed portions of the city’s weapons ordinances at the recommendation of Law Director Tim Paluf.

Council took that action after an outside group contacted the city, complaining that the city’s ordinances---which, for example, banned carrying concealed firearms---conflicted with Ohio law.

The city’s ordinances now comply with state law---

Which means that licensees can now legally carry concealed firearms in the Community Park.

That’s something residents should keep in mind before losing their temper and saying things they might regret at baseball games, tennis matches and swim meets this summer.

Let courtesy and common sense prevail!

SHOULDN’T PUBLIC RECORDS BE ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC?

On November  12^th Council President Cathy Murphy reported that Council records—which are public records---have  been digitally scanned and “can be viewed online”.

She added one caveat, however: the records are available by “internal access only”.
What does that mean?

Only Council members and city employees have access to the online public records.
No provision has been made to give the public access to them.
Which raises the question:

Are records really public when they are available online but the public is not given access to them?

LOTS OF WATER--- IN PLACES IT DOESN’T BELONG

Council is pursuing state grant (“Issue One”) money as a way to replacing the Highland Road water main.

A good thing too.
That water main runs to our west, through the City of Richmond Heights.
A significant number of Richmond Heights residents went without water for some 36 hours this week after the main ruptured.

The water main under Highland Road isn’t the only one that needs some attention though.

In the past few years the water main under Kenbridge Road has also developed some major leaks.
The most recent one---near the intersection of Kenbridge and Esther Roads---occurred before Christmas.

Water has been gushing up from the seams in the cement road--- and the cold weather turned parts of Kenbridge into a skating rink.
It made the street unsafe for cars and pedestrians alike.

The Cleveland Water Department is supposed to fix the leak…but didn't get to it until January 4th.

Enough said?