What happened at Thursday's City Council meeting

My notes from tonight’s meeting are posted below:

ATV Ordinance

Numerous residents spoke against the ATV ordinance tonight. The proponents of the ordinance also spoke. As neighbors of an allegedly rowdy rider, the proponents told the crowd that, because the rider has been so disruptive, they believed that it would be useless to ask him to stop.

Brian Lowdermilk went the extra mile. He did what the neighbors refused to do; he knocked on the rider’s door and spoke with him and his mother. They were both apologetic and absolutely willing to cooperate on riding times, track placement, etc.

This information from Lowdermilk made council’s decision even easier. Brian D’Antonio made a motion to withdraw the ordinance, and that motion passed 5-1 (Costello). So that issue is dead. The law department and police chief will work within our existing ordinances to ensure compliance — which is really how it should have been to begin with.

This is just another instance of how both Brians have been great assets to city council in their first terms. I absolutely and unconditionally hope they continue to serve on city council.

I also admire the residents who showed up to every meeting to speak their mind. Without them, this legislation could have gone the opposite direction.

Other Issues

– Law director Brian Reali announced that the city will begin exchanging discovery materials electronically — not with paper copies. Discovery, for the lay person, is the exchange of documents and information in litigation. Criminal defense attorneys won’t get printouts anymore, but e-mail or disks instead. This is part of a larger initiative that Brian and I are working on to modernize the way the city does business. Stay tuned on that one. I’m excited for the additional transparency and savings that we are going to achieve.

– There will be a meeting on Monday at 6 p.m in city council chambers to discuss Kent State Airport’s proposed Master Plan. I plan to attend.

– The ordinances I discussed on Monday were passed, including the waiver of fees for the Stow-Kent Shopping Center redevelopment and the resolution to regain local control of oil and gas wells.

– City council extended the contracts for Mike Miller (as Human Resources manager) and Jim McCleary (City Engineer).

– City council will meet during the week of March 11. In the interim, please join Matt Riehl and me for our monthly meeting with residents this coming Tuesday (March 5) at 5:30 p.m. in the second hall conference room at City Hall. We truly enjoy speaking with residents, so please drop by!