Cleveland Heights City Council meeting highlights 9-15-14

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

  • City parking lot improvements
  • Fire prevention code updating
  • Nuisance property
  • Health insurance update
  • Childhood cancer awareness
  • New website features
  • Gas aggregation program
  • Emergency paving
  • City property sale to Honda
  • Tax agreement with health care provider

All council members were present.

City parking lot improvements

A contract has been awarded to Ohio Paving and Construction Inc. of Willoughby in the amount of $268,188.36 for city parking lot improvements. The lots to be paved include numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 23 and 29.

Fire prevention code updating

Council updated the fire prevention code, which will now include updated state laws as well as fees for some initial and repeat inspections and nuisance alarms.

Nuisance property

Council declared the property at 890 Woodview Road to be a nuisance and authorized abatement.

Health insurance update

Council approved a follow-up to a previously approved resolution, which authorized an agreement with Cuyahoga County for the city’s participation in the county’s Benefits Regionalization Program. This new legislation approves an agreement between the city and county for stop loss protection for run-out health insurance claims incurred during the transition period to the new healthcare plan (Jan. 1, 2014 to Aug. 31, 2014) that will be paid between Sept. 1, 2014 and Dec. 31, 2014.

Childhood cancer awareness

Council declared September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, joining with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation and numerous other nonprofit groups and communities throughout the nation.

New website features

New features on the city’s website include the results of the 2014 Residents Survey and, in the police department section of the website, annual crime reporting data from 2011–13 and other statistics.

Gas aggregation program

Council approved a renewal agreement with Integrys Energy Services-Natural Gas LLC for the continued provision of natural gas services to city residents and businesses under the city's gas aggregation program. Integrys will be the service provider for an additional three years, beginning Nov. 1, 2014.

Emergency paving

Council approved an agreement with Ronyak Paving to perform emergency paving work on Thorne, Greyton and Cedar roads. The 2014 street resurfacing contract was awarded to Kokosing Construction Company, which completed all the streets on the city’s list at a lower-than-expected cost, resulting in a surplus of $137,072, which can be used to treat additional streets. Because Kokosing cannot do this work until late October, the city is now contracting with Ronyak to undertake these projects. The cost is not to exceed $137,072, of which about $98,000 will be put toward repairs to Cedar Road, which will be fully repaved in 2017.

City property sale to Honda

Council authorized easement agreements with GMG Cleveland LLC for right-of-way and maintenance purposes as part of the sale of city property to GMG for the Honda Motorcars expansion project.

Tax agreement with health care provider

Council accepted the recommendations of the Tax Incentive Review Council (TIRC) to continue a Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) agreement with HealthSpan Integrated Care (formerly known as Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Ohio Inc.). In 2005, the city signed a development agreement with Kaiser for the construction of a 49,000-square-foot addition to its medical facility at 10 Severance Circle. The agreement provided for a 30 percent 10-year tax abatement on the improvements. The tax benefits of the abatement include more than $5 million in total actual annual payroll (as of Dec. 13, 2013) attributed to the new employment resulting from the tax abatement, and more than $9 million in cumulative property taxes paid over the term of the tax abatement.

LWV Observer: Katherine Solender.

These meeting summaries are abstracted from LWV observers’ written reports. The summaries have been edited and prepared by Anne McFarland, Charlene Morse and Maryann Barnes. To receive e-mail postings of full reports, send an e-mail to mbarnes9515@gmail.com or join through Google groups using “lwv-chuh observer reports” as a search phrase.

These reports contain member observation and selected highlights of public meetings and are not official statements of the Heights Chapter of the League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland. This disclaimer must accompany any redistribution of these reports.

Read More on Cleveland Heights
Volume 7, Issue 11, Posted 1:00 PM, 10.07.2014