On Thursday, December
13, 2007, the Board of Trustees of Nimishillen Township met in regular session
at 7:00 P.M. at the Nimishillen Township Hall located at 4422
Trustee Shafer called the
meeting to order and led the staff and audience in the pledge of allegiance.
Trustee Shafer introduced new
Fiscal Officer, Barry Evans. Mr. Evans
acknowledged Tillie Kinsley and thanked her for stepping to the plate during
the transition.
Invocation: Trustee Lynch gave the invocation.
FIRE DEPARTMENT: (Chief Rich Peterson)
New Hires:
Approval for hiring of Fire Department personnel: After
the introduction and swearing in of the new hires, TRUSTEE LYNCH MOTIONED TO
APPROVE HIRING Firefighter/EMT Dale Freitag at $10.13 per hour, Firefighter/EMT
John Tack at $10.13 per hour, Firefighter/EMT David Truex at $10.13 per hour,
P/T Civilian Dispatcher Matthew Moulton at $10.00 per hour, P/T Civilian
Dispatcher Timothy Ray at $10.00 per hour with the effective hire date of
December 14, 2007 seconded by Trustee Gress. Roll call voting: Lynch – yes, Gress – yes and Shafer –
yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-418
The new hires received a
round of applause.
Before moving on with Fire
Department agenda items, Trustee Shafer commented on the work session held on
December 4, 2007 regarding the Dispatch Analysis Report compiled and presented
by Christy Bresson on behalf of the CBNT members.
Trustee Shafer said before
turning things over to Chief Peterson, she reminded everyone in attendance that
there would be no disruption or interruption or attempt to talk over each other
while the board or Chief Peterson speak.
Trustee Shafer said she finds
it very disheartening that a group that claims to be for the betterment of the
township is subjecting our entire community to such criticism and wanted to go
on record that the report presented is one that she would classify as fiction.
Shafer said after reviewing
the report, she composed a letter to Mrs. Bresson requesting the names,
addresses and contact numbers for members of CBNT. The analysis presented was brought forward
“on behalf of the members of the Citizens for a
Shafer also wanted to ensure
the public that the fire department bookkeeping is above bar and said all
records are open to the public for review by calling the township office and
requesting to do so. She stated that the
Stark County Prosecutor submitted a written opinion about our fire department
financials and all is legal. With the
opening statements at the work session on 12/4/07, Trustee Gress made it clear
that he would like to change the look of our financial report contrary to the
prosecutor’s opinion.
Shafer continued stating
Trustee Gress said he is unable to decipher the fire department financials in
their current form and asked if this is a reason to change the format. She suggested that he meet with the fiscal
officer or fire chief and ask for clarification. She stated that Carlene Harmon and Tillie
Kinsley had always been available as well as Barry Evans, who is coming on
board now.
Trustee Shafer said Bresson
states in her analysis that she has had “personal interviews with township
staff and the fiscal officer”.
Shafer stated Russ Goffus
spoke at the December 4th work session about the importance of
department heads and their ability to relay information to the Board of
Trustees. He also mentioned the department
heads are the experts in their fields.
Shafer continued stating Mrs.
Bresson’s analysis was complete in September 2007 and said she found it odd
that it was such a secret report that she chose not to disclose the items to
the board nor did she disclose her concerns to the fire chief. Shafer sated she has an email (which is
public record) that Mrs. Bresson sent on October 16, 2007 to Elaine at
In addition to the email,
Shafer said Bresson also followed up with a phone conversation (per Elaine)
advising that the Perry Township Trustees should be knowledgeable before
renewing the Nimishillen Dispatch Contract.
Mrs. Bresson indicated to Elaine that she is part of a group of 20 people
who are challenging the budget of the Nimishillen Township Dispatch Center.
Trustee Shafer said Bresson
made the following statements (per Elaine), which are all outlined in the
email, which is available by contacting the Nimishillen Township office:
At the end of the email,
Bresson also welcomed questions, concerns or input from the Perry Township
Board and gave her personal phone number so that she could be reached.
Shafer said that while Bresson
claims in her analysis “that personal differences are set aside”, if this was
actually true, things could have been handled differently such as:
Shafer said nothing was
brought to the board’s attention.
Instead, Mrs. Bresson contacted agencies, with Perry Township being one
of them, which in Trustee Shafer’s opinion she was
attempting to sabotage a
dispatch contract with misinformation and all the employees of the fire
department.
Shafer then brought up the
fire levy. She said everyone knows the
fire levy failed several times. She said
this Board of Trustees had made statements regarding misinformation that’s been
out there. Shafer said the ‘analysis’
shows all the misinformation.
Shafer said Goffus made a
statement at the work session on 12/4/07 about the fire levy and how it has not
passed. Shafer said what disgusts her is
that Goffus stated that the fire levy would most likely have passed and should
have been placed on the ballot after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. According to his comments, the board could
have got anything passed after 9/11. The
CD from the 12/4/07 work session is available to the public by calling the
township office at 330-875-9924.
Shafer said she hopes that
everyone realizes that Chief Peterson and this board will only ask the voters
to approve a levy if it is absolutely necessary. At the time of the September 11th
attacks, a levy was not needed which is why Chief Peterson did not ask for
it. Shafer continued by stating it
disgusts her to think that someone would prey on the terror that people lived
with after the attacks. She said it’s
inconceivable that someone, in this case Russ Goffus, would make such a
statement.
Before turning it over to
Chief Peterson, Shafer personally thanked the fire department staff for the
exceptional service they provide to the entire community stating they are all
well qualified employees with hearts of gold.
She said they all place their lives in danger with each call to ensure
public safety, they attend hours upon hours of training and she said she stands
beside them as we continue to move forward.
She said it’s time to dispel the non-sense that has been going on.
Chief Peterson stated this is
not the way he likes to handle concerns of residents. He said he knows there have been concerns
regarding the communication center. Some
people in attendance tonight have sat down with him over a cup of coffee and
all their questions and concerns were answered.
The Chief said he’s been here a long time and has seen good and bad
things in the township. He said when
this was being talked about and presented, he didn’t agree with it and stated
there are other avenues in which this could have been handled.
Chief Peterson continued
saying he does not want to talk about personal issues but said he does want to
dispel some of the things that were reported on at the December 4th
work session. One is the fire department
staffing. Peterson stated there has been
a misconception that he cut the staff or somehow the township reduced the
staff. He said this is absolutely not
true. The Nimishillen Township Board of
Trustees and Fiscal Officer had a work session on August 8, 2007.
During that meeting, information was presented and all was discussed
such as schedules dating back to 2002.
Peterson had given a list of employees who had moved on to other jobs
and hours that they had worked and it showed how the schedule had been
depleted.
Chief Peterson said the
individuals tell him when they are available.
As they were forced to find other jobs, the availability became less and
less. The reason there are open shifts
isn’t because of cuts or the money doesn’t exist, it’s because the firefighters
just aren’t putting in their availability.
The Chief stated he put forth
a plan and when the levy went down in February, he had a commitment to this
board and told his firefighters that the reason it was put on in a special
election was to eliminate any
other doubt, whether it was school levy related or anything else. After that levy failed, Peterson said he
would no longer come to the board to make that request. He said he was going to start shifting gears
in the fire department, start putting together a package whereby our
firefighters who had left would be replaced by new people and P/T people. Peterson
reiterated it is not a funding issue.
It’s an issue of availability.
Peterson said as he looked
over the document presented by CBNT, there’s information within the document
that is correct but the areas that are incorrect or numbers that are incorrect
are used to prove a point. Peterson said
unfortunately he needs to go through some of this now.
Peterson said first of all,
there are a lot of opinions. He wants
everyone to understand that this has not been validated. He said he knows there was research done, but
the data for the study was obtained from a variety of sources, which are
listed, including personal interviews with the township staff and the fiscal
officer but notably the fire chief was never consulted. Because of this, the information is not
factual such as subsidizing other dispatching for other local government. Peterson said fire and emergency services
historically have survived on relying on neighboring communities. This is locally as well as Statewide /
Nationwide Response Plans and has been pushed by elected officials. Subsidizing is the area everyone is going
into - shared-services are a regional concept.
Another topic in Bresson’s
analysis is the dispatch center not being manned 24/7 by two dispatches at all times. Peterson said this is not true. From day one, there have been two certified
trained dispatchers on post 24/7. This
has never been an issue. Chief Peterson
gave a detailed explanation which is available on CD.
Training: In Bresson’s analysis, it was stated the
dispatchers are not trained to certain standards. Peterson stated that five (5) of our
dispatchers are trained to the APCO Certification
level and those dispatchers train the new people. Is everyone APCO trained? Absolutely not. Is that our goal? Absolutely.
Other subjects discussed are:
Detailed information is on
the CD and can be obtained by contacting the township office at 330-875-9924.
In summary, Chief Peterson
said a lot of the information presented just isn’t true and said we need to sit
back and move ahead. Peterson said he’s
really tired of the negativity and said that Nimishillen Township has so much
that it should be proud of and that we should be positive regarding all the
good things going on. He said we have a
beautiful community to live in, have a wonderful fire department and road
department. He said he and Trustee
Shafer attended the Safety Council meeting today and people are making jokes
about this. He said this is embarrassing
and we should be proud of our township.
Update on Fire Station No. 3: Attorney
Robertson gave an update on Fire Station No. 3 stating the current status of
litigation is there’s a trial set for February 25, 2008 and a final pre-trial
for February 20th. Motions
will be filed next week to hopefully resolve some of these issues.
He explained monies were
withheld from R. P. Babik. They sued the
township and the fire chief personally.
He said they were retained prior to that and represented the township
and made claims for the insurance carrier for the township to defend the
township. They denied coverage on these
issues based on the fact that these claims arise out of contracts which
normally are not covered by insurance because it’s mainly a liability issue and
not contractual. Discussions had been
held to resolve this case. One of their
other contractors (the electrical contractor) then sued the township, which has
complicated this case. That attorney
recently filed a motion to withdraw as the attorney for that client based on
irreconcilable differences, part of it being an issue about his fees.
Record requests from R. P. Babik: Attorney
Jakmides said Mr. Babik’s office is requesting information from the
township. Jakmides said it is preferable
that Attorney Robertson handle the information released to Mr. Babik because
the township staff and fiscal officer do not know what should / should not be
disclosed. Attorney Robertson agreed.
Approve fee for Attorney Robertson: Trustee Shafer
stated Attorney Robertson has been working non-stop on this case.
TRUSTEE SHAFER MOTIONED TO
APPROVE PAYMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF $17,915.25 to Attorney Jim Robertson seconded
by Trustee Gress. Roll call voting: Shafer – yes, Gress – yes and Lynch –
yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-419
Approve contract for legal services regarding R. P.
Babik Const., et al. v. Nimishillen Township, et al.: TRUSTEE SHAFER MOTIONED IN THE CASE OF R. P. BABIK
CONSTRUCTION VS NIMISHILLEN TOWNSHIP with Attorney James T. Robertson and
William S. Pidcock being retained at a rate of $125.00 per hour, which is a
significant discount from their normal billing of $180.00 and $200.00 per hour
for work of this nature, seconded by Trustee Gress. Roll call voting: Shafer – yes, Gress – yes and Lynch –
yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-410 (Resolution attached)
EXCUSE STUDENTS:
Trustee Shafer dismissed the
Louisville High School Government Class students, and the elected official
signed their papers.
FIRE DEPARTMENT (Continued):
Approval of applicant as employee candidate (Civilian
P/T Dispatcher): TRUSTEE LYNCH MOTIONED TO APPROVE APPLICANT, ANDREW
SHUSTER, as employee candidate (Civilian P/T Dispatcher) seconded by Trustee
Gress. Roll call voting: Lynch – yes, Gress – yes and Shafer –
yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-421
Fire training scheduled for 12/16/07: Chief Peterson
reminded everyone training is scheduled for Sunday, December 16th,
at 8 AM on Gephart, weather permitting.
He will contact the board with details.
Monthly Incident Response Report for November 2007: After
discussion regarding the report, TRUSTEE LYNCH MOTIONED TO APPROVE THE MONTHLY
INCIDENT RESPONSE REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 2007 seconded by Trustee Gress. Roll call voting: Lynch – yes, Gress – yes and Shafer –
yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-422 (Copy attached)
ROAD DEPARTMENT: (Interim Road Superintendent, Jamie May)
Road Report: TRUSTEE
LYNCH MOTIONED TO APPROVE THE WRITTEN ROAD REPORT FOR DECEMBER 13, 2007
seconded by Trustee Gress. Roll call
voting: Lynch – yes, Gress – yes and
Shafer – yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-423 (Copy attached)
ZONING DEPARTMENT: (Keith Lasure, Zoning Inspector)
Zoning Report: TRUSTEE LYNCH MOTIONED TO
APPROVE THE WRITTEN ZONING REPORT FOR DECEMBVER 13, 2007 seconded by Trustee
Gress. Roll call voting: Lynch – yes, Gress – yes and Shafer –
yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-424 (Copy attached)
Zoning Report for Stark County Auditor: TRUSTEE LYNCH MOTIONED TO APPROVE THE NOVEMBER 2007 ZONING REPORT FOR THE STARK
COUNTY AUDITOR as presented seconded by Trustee Gress. Roll call voting: Lynch – yes, Gress – yes and Shafer –
yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-425 (Copy attached)
Installation of Oil Wells: Discussion was
held regarding the State installing oil wells in the township.
EPA: (Keith
Lasure, EPA Coordinator)
Replacing Septic Systems: Keith Lasure
reported with the cooperation of the Health Department, Nick Hammer reported 15
– 30 septic systems have been replaced in the township.
CONCERNS OF THE FISCAL OFFICER: (Barry Evans)
Transfers per Res#07-021:
November 30, 2007:
$4,500.00 from 01-J-03 Zoning Other Expenses
to 01-J-01 Zoning Salaries & Fees
$1,000.00 from 01-A-21 Election Expense to
01-A-17 Auditor’s & Treasurer’s Fees
Stale dated checks:
TRUSTEE LYNCH MOTIONED TO APPROVE STALE DATED CHECKS – check #5174 for $18.42
to James Joseph on 3/22/07 and check #5297 for $83.92 to Maria Digiroloma on
4/12/07 seconded by Trustee Gress. Roll
call voting: Lynch – yes, Gress – yes and Shafer – yes. MOTION
CARRIED. RES#07-426
Approve 2008 Temporary Appropriations: TRUSTEE LYNCH MOTIONED TO APPROVE THE 2008 TEMPORARY
APPROPRIATIONS seconded by Trustee Gress.
Roll call voting: Lynch – yes, Gress – yes and Shafer – yes. MOTION
CARRIED. RES#07-427 (Resolution attached)
Excuse Fiscal Officer from 12/27/07 Meeting: Fiscal Officer
Barry Evans asked to be excused from the December 27th meeting. He will be on vacation. The board agreed.
Approve attendance and expenses for the 2008 OTA
Winter Conference: After
discussion, all three trustees and fiscal officer expressed interest in
attending the OTA Winter Conference. It
is mandatory for the fiscal officer to attend the training.
TRUSTEE LYNCH MOTIONED TO
APPROVE ATTENDANCE AND EXPENSES FOR ALL THREE TRUSTEES AND FISCAL OFFICER TO
ATTEND the Ohio Township Association Winter Conference in Columbus, Ohio
January 30th to February 2nd seconded by Trustee Gress.
Roll call voting: Lynch – yes, Gress –
yes and Shafer – yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-428
Reinstate Tillie
Kinsley as Assistant Fiscal Officer: TRUSTEE SHAFER MOTIONED TO REINSTATE TILLIE
KINSLEY as Assistant Fiscal Officer effective December 1, 2007 seconded by
Trustee Gress. Roll call voting: Shafer
– yes, Gress – yes and Lynch – yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-429 (Copy attached)
CONCERNS OF CITIZENS:
Resident Terri Huckels signed
up to speak but declined to speak at this time.
CONCERNS OF TRUSTEES: (Lisa Shafer, Mike Lynch & Allen Gress)
Approve payment for attorney fees: TRUSTEE LYNCH MOTIONED TO APPROVE PAYMENT TO ATTORNEY
JAMES MATHEWS REGARDING SELECTIVE INS. in the amount of $2,943.00 seconded by
Trustee Gress. Roll call voting: Lynch – yes, Gress – yes and Shafer –
yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-430
Amend Resolution #07-388: TRUSTEE LYNCH
MOTIONED TO AMEND RES. #07-388 TO INCLUDE ‘The Board sets her salary /
compensation to be the same as that of the fiscal officer as fixed by ORC
507.09. Her term as Deputy Fiscal
Officer will be from November 1 through November 30, 2007 seconded by Trustee
Gress. Roll call voting: Lynch – yes, Gress – yes and Shafer –
yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-431 (Copy attached)
Dispatch staffing: Trustee Gress said no one thinks what the
Firefighters / EMT staff do is not important and valuable. He said we have good, qualified people. The report presented at the December 4th
work session was about the financial side of the fire department – not the
quality of personnel.
Gress said had the funds been
separated, this wouldn’t have been an issue.
He said there was a fire meeting scheduled on December 4th
when Christy Bresson presented her report and that’s why Chief Peterson was not
in attendance but had he been there as expected, a lot of these issues could
have been resolved at that time and there wouldn’t have been all the publicity
on it tonight.
Gress said tonight’s report
was interesting and said there was an awful lot of it and quick (hard to
digest). Gress feels we owe it to look
at the issues that were raised and allow Chief Peterson, Tillie or Barry to
respond. He said the plan was that we
would take one issue a meeting and discuss it and digest it in 15 to 20
minutes.
Gress said the issue he’d
like to deal with tonight is staffing but Rich responded to those concerns.
Gress continued stating that
he doesn’t know if Bresson’s report is accurate or not and said he doesn’t know
if what the Rich said is correct. He
said concerns were raised about single staffing at the dispatch center and said
he had some questions about this. He
also stated Rich
does the scheduling and he
should know if there’s double staffing at all times, so it’s a dead issue.
Gress said his position as
one of the three people responsible for the overall operation of the township,
he was concerned when he heard that there was only one person there. He said apparently this issue has been
resolved.
Trustee Gress said at the
next meeting, he would like to bring up the issue of the split funding and go
through that and after four or five meetings, the Bresson report will have been
gone through and hopefully all questions will be answered.
Trustee Lynch said he
questions whether or not this is all being taken personal or if the townships
best interest is really at heart.
Discussion was held on
separating the fire funds. Lynch said
Chief Peterson said if the funds are separated, he cannot administer it and run
the dispatch center. Discussion
followed.
Trustee Shafer said the
meeting with CBNT should have never occurred.
She told Mr. Gress he should have gone to the fire chief and fiscal
officer if he had questions. Shafer said
instead of Mr. Gress doing that, he chose this path. Discussion followed.
Trustee Shafer said there are
a few things left in Christy Bresson’s report but she feels the facts are not
there to back it up. It was suggested
that Gress and Chief Peterson get together and discuss any concerns that Gress
might have.
Shafer said the SCOG study
will be out hopefully in February 2008, which will clarify quite a few
things. She suggested to Gress if he has
any questions specific to this, he should get together with Tillie, Barry and
Rich to answer questions / concerns.
NEW BUSINESS:
Newman Property: Attorney
Jakmides reported there’s a Contempt of Court hearing set for the Newman
property on December 28th at 10:30 AM with Judge Brown. The board and Keith Lasure agreed to let
Attorney Jakmides talk to Mr. Newman to explain exactly what might happen if he
does not comply with the court order.
APPROVE MINUTES:
TRUSTEE LYNCH MOTIONED TO
APPROVE THE WRITTEN MINUTES FOR NOVEMBER 20, 2007 seconded by Trustee Gress. Roll call voting: Lynch – yes, Gress – yes and Shafer –
yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-432
APPROVE PURCHASE ORDERS, FINANCIAL REPORT AND PAY
BILLS:
TRUSTEE LYNCH MOTIONED TO
APPROVE ALL PURCHASE ORDERS, FINANCIAL REPORT AND PAY BILLS IN THE AMOUNT OF
$52,486.80 seconded by Trustee Shafer.
Roll call voting: Lynch – yes,
Shafer – yes and Gress – yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-433
SIGN CHECKS AND ADJOURN:
TRUSTEE LYNCH MOTIONED TO
SIGN CHECKS AND ADJOURN seconded by Trustee Gress. Roll call voting: Lynch – yes, Gress –yes and Shafer – yes. MOTION CARRIED. RES#07-434
The meeting adjourned at 8:45
PM.
______________________________ __________________________________
ATTEST:
Barry Evans, Fiscal Officer Lisa
R. Shafer, President
__________________________________
Michael L. Lynch, Vice President
__________________________________
Allen
E. Gress, Trustee