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The meeting was called to order at 10:15am in the conference room of the Brunswick Library. The minutes of the last meeting have been posted on the website and were approved as written. The Treasurer, Gloria Tews, reported a balance of $131.70. Also, many thanks to Gloria for providing refreshments. Form of Government Change: President Karla McIntosh reviewed the proposed charter change to a ‘Strong Mayor’ form of government. Council would no longer be responsible for hiring/supervising a city manager. Council’s legislative responsibilities would remain the same as they are currently. The Mayor would be responsible for the hiring/firing of city employees (as the city manager is now). The only current requirement to run for Mayor is to be a registered elector in the City of Brunswick (which of course includes residency). There was discussion of adding educational requirements, and requiring Mayor to have resided here a particular length of time, for example, three years. Several members had strong feelings there should be minimum educational requirements; there followed discussion of exactly what level these should be, and that this could in fact exclude candidates well qualified by their life & business experiences. It was pointed out that part of CBB’s goal is to put decision-making power back in the hands of the citizens. CBB can make a point of educating citizens how to evaluate candidates. Discussion turned to the need for more and better qualified choices for council seats, as well. One of CBB’s goals is to offer a ‘How to Run for City Council’ seminar at some future date. Members who are so led are encouraged to run. No specific educational or additional residency requirements for mayor were included in the charter change proposal. Council would be responsible for determining the mayor’s salary, but consensus was that there should be guidelines such as it being a certain percentage above that of the highest paid city employee. Further discussion included that it should be commensurate with the full time job of running a city the size of Brunswick, or it would be unlikely any business or professional people of quality would be willing to run. Numbers from $80,000 up to $100,000 were suggested. For further specifics of the proposed charter change, see the attached copies of the ‘Q &A’ paper on proposed charter change and the packet Karla provided to Council when CBB requested them to put this issue on the ballot. Cliff shared a strong personal goal to reduce council’s terms from four years back to two; and to include this change along with the switch to Strong Mayor. The change to 4 year terms is relatively recent, 1995. There was considerable support for this idea as it would likely make councilpersons more responsive to the public. Our attorney has advised, however, not to change more than one aspect of the charter at a time to avoid citizens voting against the change because they are against one aspect of it. It was agreed to put reducing council terms on CBB’s list of longer range goals. Vince noted, while we were discussing council, that the Hills trustees make more than our council; perhaps there should be an increase in council stipends. Ray suggested we couple that increase in council pay with the addition of two council people. Brunswick’s population now warrants a nine, not seven, member City Council based on Ohio’s guidelines. More councilpersons would likely result in better responsiveness to the citizens. There was consensus that this should also be a CBB goal. Frank Tibbits shared his opinion that CBB was incorrect, per an opinion he has from the city law director, Tim Reid. Frank indicated we do not need to be changing the charter because it IS possible for the mayor to become city manager. I shared my belief that, even if it was possible, it was highly unlikely the current mayor would ever be hired by the current council. Frank further stated his belief that the only reason CBB was changing the charter was because we don’t like Mayor Hanes. He also stated that the mayoral form of government ‘kicked him out’ years ago when he worked with the city engineer, and that past mistakes with the mayoral form have not been corrected. Ray pointed out that, though Frank had been unfairly suspended, the Civil Service Commission had restored his job. Others attempted to share that the desire to change the charter was not based on any particular like or dislike of Mayor Hanes, but on dislike of how the city had been run under the city manager form. Other discussion of Strong Mayor charter changes involved whether to include a specific ‘line of succession’ in the event of the temporary or permanent disability of the mayor. It was decided that in the event of an absence of more that 72 hours the mayor should designate in writing who would be in charge, and that a majority of council would have to approve the mayor’s selection. If perchance a mayor died or became disabled without specifying a successor, a full-time department head approved by a majority of council would run the city until an election could be held. It was decided not to put any specific length upon a long-term/permanent disability of the mayor, because this might result in him & his family being left without health benefits, etc. at an already very difficult time. If it were specified in the charter exactly when the mayor had to be let go it could prohibit appropriate, compassionate handling of the situation by council. It was further noted that there are not any such specifics currently. We decided it could still be left to council to decide when to replace the city’s leader under these unlikely circumstances. The only additional cost we could discern to having a full time mayor over a city manager is that ‘Mayor’s Court’ might have to be handled entirely by a magistrate. We already have a part time magistrate to handle the court when there is an overload of cases; this would probably have to become a full time position. The voting members present unanimously approved CBB beginning a petition drive to put the proposed change to a Strong Mayor form of government on the ballot in November this year. Positive suggestions for petition passing include: pointing out what’s in it for the citizens…signing the petition does not commit them to approving of the charter change, but merely gets it on the ballot so that everyone can have a choice…they will have plenty of time to research their decision by November…it won’t raise taxes!…the individual citizen will have more voice in and control over how the city is run…an elected mayor by definition has more interest in moving projects forward energetically because has to show progress during the term if wants to be re-elected…if an elected mayor’s performance is unsatisfactory, one can campaign/vote against him or her in the next election, not have to bring grievances in public to council as we do with an unsatisfactory city manager… Fundraisers and CBB presence at Community Events: Our next meeting will include forming a Political Action Committee (PAC)/ Ballot committee as all funds associated with putting an issue on the ballot must be kept separate from our general expenses budget. CBB will have a table at the Brunswick Days Yard Sale May 18-19, as well as having a sale at Jon & Nicole McKinley’s home on Myrtle. Reminder to members to clean out your basement/ attic/ garage, and get your stuff to the McKinley's by the 17th. Proceeds will benefit CBB, including the PAC if it is set up in time. Petitions and brochures will be available at both locations. Who can work a few hours? It will cost us $7.50 for a permit, and $25.00 for the table at the Rec Center. We debated about being in the Old Fashioned Days parade. It might be better to circulate petitions and discuss CBB among the crowd. To have a table in the tent at Old Fashioned Days will cost $145.00, plus $10 more if we want electricity. Also, we need to have $1 million worth of liability insurance for our group to participate. Policies run $400-500 for several days for a specific event like Old Fashioned Days, and usually about the same for an entire year. Nicole and Karla will continue to shop for a policy. Consensus is that we may as well get coverage for the year. Hopefully we will make enough on the Yard Sale to cover most of this. There is a possibility of a fundraiser at Buffalo Rings and Things. Also, we continue to pick up a few new members each month. We will be getting a list of registered voters (it’s available on disk) from the Board of Elections as soon as it is available after the May 7th election, so we can conduct the petition drive as efficiently as possible. Donna reported the effort to have next Monday’s Committee of the Whole (C.O.W.) meeting/work session on the latest plans and legal agreements for Brunswick Lake televised. C.O.W. meetings are not usually on cable but hopefully the council and administration will acknowledge the intense public interest in the topic and grant our request. Also, thanks to email correspondence with webmaster Tony Capstick, the ‘pending legislation’ section has been updated. It is not listed in the Council section, but under ‘what’s new’. The positive Chamber of Commerce-facilitated meeting between City Council and Township Trustees last evening (April 5th) was briefly reported. Their focus is how the City and Township can cooperate to better develop the commercial areas on Routes 42 & 303, for the benefit of the entire area. The group, comprised of township, City, and Chamber members, will be called the ‘Greater Brunswick Corridor Development Commission’ and will continue to be chaired by the Chamber. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 12 noon. Respectfully submitted, Donna Rehman, Secretary, CBB |
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