SPEEDY COUNCIL MEETINGS: QUICKLY SPENDING MONEY

The two Council meetings in June were quite brief.
They lasted only about 30 minutes each.

For the most part the business at hand involved spending money.

Council approved: 

• a contract for police department technology and IT support services; 
• a 5 year postal machine lease;  
•  the purchase of a new police department SUV;
•  and the purchase of a new pickup truck, a cab and chassis, a dump body and a snow and ice control equipment package for the service department.

All those items were included in the city’s 2015 budget.

NEW LADDER FIRETRUCK HAS ARRIVED

Fire Chief Bill Turner reported that the city took delivery on a pricey new ladder truck, replacing the one that the city purchased, second-hand, from Mayfield Village some time ago.

Turner stated that the new ladder truck

“…should be a 25 year plus vehicle for the city”

 Given the cost, residents should hope so...

KIMBLE DISPOSAL'S LETTER TO RESIDENTS:
VITAL FACTS OMITTED?

Residents received a letter from the city’s garbage collector this week, warning them that two large Kimble-supplied “Rubbish Carts” or (as Service Director Thom Evans called them, “toters”) were going to be delivered to their homes in the next few weeks.

In the letter’s “Enhancements to the Rubbish Program” section, residents were asked to use 95 gallon super toters for garbage, “immediately upon receipt.”

The toters, Kimble states, take up

“…less floor space than 2 or more rubbish cans….”

In its letter Kimble doesn’t mention a couple of other pertinent facts.
For instance, Kimble doesn't mention how much taller and bigger the 95 gallon toters are than regular garbage cans

Nor does Kimble mention the fact that, fully loaded, the 95 gallon toters could weigh up to 66 pounds.

That will be fun, dragging through the snow this winter, won't it?

The Kimble letter also doesn’t mention one other salient fact:

Residents don’t have to use the 96 gallon mega-toter.

Residents are still allowed to put out one bag of garbage a week (weighing up to 40 pounds).

No toters required.

NEW PATROLMAN SWORN IN

Scott Cupar was sworn in as the city’s newest Police Department Patrolman at the June 26^th Council meeting.

Police Chief Jim Cook shared some of Cupar’s background with Council.

He is a Villa Angelo-St. Joe’s graduate and was named a Lakeland Police School Outstanding Cadet.

Family and friends were there to witness the event.

POOL DECK LITIGATION UPDATE

Common Please Court Judge Michael Donnelly held a hearing this week on the pool owners’ motion to dismiss the neighbors’ suit challenging the monstrous, towering deck installed by the pool owners a mere 11 feet from their rear property line.

The pool owners argued that the neighbors should be thrown out of court because they didn’t timely, properly serve the city.

An individual in attendance reported that the pool owners’ attorney argued that service on Mayor Scott Coleman, Law Director Tim Paluf, Building Commissioner Dale Grabfelder wasn’t enough.

He apparently contended that each of the part-time, once in a blue moon, city-appointed zoning appeals board members had to be individually served too.

It's true an error made in the Notice of Appeal, which initiated the suit.
That Notice didn't list the city as a party.

But the reality is that city was aware from the start that the zoning appeal had been filed, challenging the Board of Zoning Appeals' split decision to uphold the deck permit.

Building Commissioner Dale Grabfelder---who told the neighbors' attorney that he was the proper city official to accept service--- was served on the same day the Notice of Appeal was filed
Grabfelder said he would inform Paluf once he was served, and the attorney also emailed Paluf a copy of the Notice of Appeal on the same day, putting him on notice of the suit.

Nine days later, the neighbors' attorney filed a Corrected Notice of Appeal, adding the city's name as a required party to the zoning appeal suit.
Grabfelder was served (again), along with Paluf and the mayor.
Additionally, a copy of the Corrected Notice of Appeal was emailed to each Board of Appeals member.

It couldn't have been more clear to Paluf and the city, right from the start, that the neighbors were exercising their right to seek judicial review of the zoning appeal board's decision.

During the hearing Judge Donnelly aptly noted that it was the pool owners, not the city, that filed the dismissal motion...a puzzling circumstance given that service on the city was the basis for filing the motion.
Paluf responded by telling the judge that the city would join in the motion too.

The judge also asked Paluf if the city had objected to similar service in prior zoning-related cases.

Apparently Paluf admitted that the city had not objected before.

At the end of the hearing the judge suggested that the parties should consider compromise and settlement if he denied the dismissal motion.
Apparently the pool owners’ attorney signaled that---at least to-date---compromise wasn’t an option for his clients.

The dictates of thriftiness, common sense, neighborliness… and a judge…be damned.

The neighbors heard from their attorney on Friday.

The dismissal motion was denied.