You will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance first, please.
Mr.
Stans, one nation under God.
April 1st, please.
Mr. Duffett?
Yes.
Mr. Norgay?
Yes.
Mr. Nakarato?
Yes.
Mr. Nell?
Present.
Mr. Pett.
Here.
Okay, I'll call the meeting to order.
The purpose of this meeting is it's an informational meeting to inform residents about the November
ballots that will be on the ballot this November.
So, but before we get started with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mayor Duffett.
He has a little proclamation presentation for us this evening.
Yeah, Mr. Archer, come forward.
Many know Mr. Archer is our assistant superintendent.
Canfield retired, and he's found a new passion which is pickleball,
and he has brought that instrumental to bringing that to Canfield.
So we have a proclamation, we have an exciting event this weekend.
Whereas Rich Archer, a USA pickleball ambassador who is instrumental in bringing this great
sport to Canfield is a pickleball instructor at the Bourbon and Central YMCA.
And whereas Rich Archer is generously offering his time to conduct pickleball instruction
at the newly renovated Pickleball Courts at the city's
Grecile Park on Saturday, September 25, 2021,
from 1 to 3 p.m. And whereas
Pickleball is a sweet sport with a sour name, is the fastest
growing sport in America. It is an intergenerational
low-impact and competitive sport that combines elements
of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong.
And whereas pickleball is easy to learn, inexpensive to play, and promotes camaraderie, team work, kindness, and enjoyment for all.
It can be played indoors and outdoors, singles or doubles, on a court smaller than a tennis court.
Now, therefore, I, Richard A. Dufford, Mayor of the City of Canfield,
State of Ohio, do hereby proclaim Saturday, September 25th, 2021,
as Canfield Pick-A-Ball Day, and recognize the health and wellness and
benefits it provides to Canfield community.
Here, as you set my hand and witness thereof, I cause to seal the City of
campus to be the next. Thank you. Thank you for all you do.
Good. Say a few words. Sure.
Mayor's Outfit Council, Wade, we've all worked very hard to make this come to be.
And I appreciate all the support that you have given this pickleball reality here at Greaseville Park.
You've made Greaseville Park come alive.
And some of you have been up there in the mornings and you'll see 25 to 30 people up there in the mornings.
And you'll see 15 to 20 people there in the evenings playing, making Greaseville Park a great park again.
Because I think it lost some of the oomph that it needed, and pickleball certainly has helped that.
And by the way, I've heard just some rumblings that the fire department has challenged the police department to a pickleball game in the spring.
And the winner of that game will play the council for the pickleball game.
So I hope to see some police in chief get the fire department there on Saturday.
Council members, please join us if you're able to get a nice event and I appreciate all this court.
And I would love to thank you very much.
Congratulations for all of us.
Okay, at this time, I'm going to turn the meeting over to Mr. Calhoun, our city manager.
to just explain to you, brief you what's going on in November here.
Can I jump in for one thing?
I know that several people have been asking about the nets when they might expect them,
the additional nets, so we'll cover that.
I told them we'll get them in the answer.
Yes, we're waiting on the answer.
So the poles have been installed.
Now we're just waiting on the supplier to get out there to direct the nets.
Perfect.
So as soon as we know, we'll relay that.
So, good evening and thank you all for coming this evening.
So the purpose of tonight's meeting
is Council President Mormey alluded to
is we have a number of November ballot items
for City of Canfield residents,
voters that they'll see on the November 2nd ballot.
This is going to be the first of, hopefully,
a series of three of these type of informational meetings
so that we can provide the information
on a number of ballot items
that you all will see on November 2nd ballot.
I see a couple of new faces in the crowd tonight, which is good.
Typically we have a handful of people that come to council meetings,
so it's really good to see new faces and engage more of our residents,
because that's what we're all about in the city of Camfield.
Kind of some quick, I guess, housekeeping items.
We have a restroom if you need to, that's through the door to the left.
Men's and women's restrooms are down the hallway on the right.
If you have questions, so we're going to go through the presentation.
And then at the end, it will take questions, comments.
So if you have questions, run down.
If you have a chance to leave early, you can leave one of us
and we'll be able to correspond back to you
and try to answer the questions.
First and foremost, again, I think the people
that have been here recognize the faces up here.
You can read the names, but our current city council,
council member Tish, council member Neff,
council president John Morvey,
council member Anthony Naparato,
and our current mayor, Richard A. Duffett.
And so unfortunately, Mr. Duffett has not
see three election this year,
so we will have a new mayor in 2021.
So part of this is to kind of give
the three mayoral candidates the opportunity
to introduce themselves to the community,
talk a little bit about why they're running for mayor,
and then we've got a couple other items on the ballot.
10 in total, potentially, for city of Cinnabar Residence.
So we've got the mayor, we've got the tax channels for
our police and fire departments.
There's three proposed charter amendments by petition
that voters will see on the November ballot.
Mahoney County Educational Services Center
has three board positions open
as well as Canada Local School Board.
They have three board positions open.
There's three candidates running.
They're all incumbents.
So we won't spend a lot of time on some of the issues that really don't have a lot of information to provide other than what you'll see on the ballot.
And then finally, Monning County has two issues.
Issue one is a quarter percent sales tax for roads, bridges, and infrastructure repair.
And then issue two is a renewal of the Developmental Disabilities Board.
And then for voters that are increasing one in the city of Canfield, there'll be a local liquor option for beer and wine sales or a restaurant here in town.
But without further ado, we'll start with the city of Canfield election for mayor.
So you'll see three candidates on the ballot this year.
What we're going to do is allow each of the three candidates five minutes.
Again, to speak about introducing themselves, talking about why they're lying to the Mayor.
So what we'll do is just start in the order that they are here on the ballot.
So first up, Mr. Don Dragish.
Thank you, Wade.
I'm going to take him off to a meeting.
Good evening, everyone.
My name is Don Dragish.
And I'm going to go through a few things, kind of letting to introduce myself
and give you a little bit of background about myself and what I've done.
and some of you might know me, some of you might not,
so the people that don't.
I'll give you a little bit of background
and kind of go from there.
Again, like I said, my name is Don Dragish.
I am a graduate of Youngstown State University,
hold a BFA in design marketing advertising,
and also emerging leaders.
SBA, thank you, it was a little dark here, sorry.
SBA, US Small Business Administration Degree
from the Warriors School of Business.
I am self-employed owner of Dragish Marketing,
a marketing and social media company, and also a partner in the Youngston Marketing Company.
Where we've worked with some of the most reputable and recognizable brands by providing marketing solutions that generate results.
We bring a depth of resources and experience that include digital and traditional marketing strategy,
day-to-day management, creative services, advertising opportunities with unique media partnerships,
print, networking, and sponsorships of DO Live, a premier marketing event each year in Youngstown, Ohio that we put on.
this past year we didn't because of COVID and whatnot.
Like I said, I live here in Brook Park.
I'm married. My wife is a teacher and I have two kids.
A son, George, which is 10 and a daughter, Genevieve, who is six
and they both attend CH Campbell here in Canfield.
So I kind of want to step in here too now and kind of let everybody know that
didn't know. I was, I do have experience in the
Canfield government, where I've been here before.
I was elected to council in 2014,
became president of council in 2015,
and maintained that position until 2017.
Let's keep Canfield, Canfield.
This is kind of something that you're gonna hear
throughout this whole thing today.
So one of the things that I'd like to kind of get into
are the things that I'd like to really do
in C4, the city of Canfield.
I'd like to expand our tax base
without imposing extra taxes on citizens
by bringing in the right businesses to the city of Canfield and on the Green.
I want to revitalize for commerce purposes
and to find a way to for retail generation.
I have spoken to several neighbors in Canfield
and they shared with me the way that Green used to look
and only a few years back from 1988.
It's a drastic difference.
I know we can make this happen in the community and I believe I can.
I began also the first successful joint economic development district,
Jed, for the city formed in Canfield Township to bring the Windsor House
assisted living home to the area as a major success for the city
before leaving office in 2017.
My relationship with businesses like these has shown to be on target
and will continue to work towards expansion projects.
At
that time the district facilitated the construction of Windsor House of
Skilled Nursing Community with 72 full-time jobs.
The increase in taxes benefited the community as well as the school district
generating over 164,000 new tax dollars to our schools.
At full employment of estimated gross wages of over $2 million,
totaling new generated taxes will be over $253,000.
Also, the annexation of Township Land and the purpose of developing Redgate Farm among the city's accomplishments during my time as council president back in 2017.
I believe the forward movement of the property has put Canfield in a great position.
It moved forward with the second jet upon my leaving office in 2017.
I began making a long-term plan for the city, and now that one has been done, I look to put a roadmap to the city that will outlast me and the next generation of Canfield residents.
I can be instrumental in getting developers and advanced infrastructure and development here to bring revenue back to the city, like we had once before.
We need to get our city wired with broadband and fiber optics to generate more white collar and technology companies to come here to Canfield so our young residents can work here.
Now, I believe there's been some disconnect in our city government as we've kind of seen over the past few years.
And I believe that I can bring our city government to be more cohesive, cooperative and collaborative so that we can run efficiently.
I also am against outside union forces coming to our community.
We can't let them destroy our charter and its intentions.
Let's keep Canfield, Canfield.
I will continue to also work closely to support our police department,
which is by far the finest in the area,
and fire departments to keep the streets and neighborhoods of Canfield safe.
Again, let's keep Canfield, Canfield.
I continue to work with zoning and design boards to keep Canfield the best place to live and raise a family as I have two children.
Again, let's keep Canfield Canfield. And I continue to work with Canfield schools and boards for their needs moving forward also.
Let's keep Canfield Canfield. Vote on Dragosh for Mary in November. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Next
up is a familiar face, Mr. Bruce Neff, who is currently a council member.
Bruce Neff, candidate for Mayor of 68 West Main Street.
I presently serve on City Council, having been elected in 2017 and again and re-elected in 2019.
I'm part of the Planning and Zoning Committee. This has been an important experience for the future development of our community.
I am from one of Canfield's founding families who moved here in 1805 from Pennsylvania and
that was 216 years ago.
A seventh generation Canfield resident proud and focused on the continual development of
our city.
I cannot stress enough how important our great school system is for our community.
It's standards and achievements are undeniably superior from athletics to speech and debate.
Our bands, music and our choirs, our service clubs and the drama department all make our school system the magnet and effective educational system that it is.
I was the first class to graduate from the new school, which that was nearly 55 years ago, you still call it new.
our system needs new buildings, perhaps a campus, and needs our support. I attended
kindergarten through 12th grade in our local schools, class of 67. I graduated
from Ashland College in four years with a degree in biochemistry and went to YSU
to attain a teaching certificate. I taught at MCCTC, which back then was
called Mahoning County Joint Vocational School. I left to start my own
company in the electrical industry. For more than 30 years I have been in the
professional video business in system design integration installation and now
we specialize in LED display sales and rentals. I've lived in many other cities
in different states and bring those that valuable experience to Canfield. My
career has taken me from Cleveland to Pittsburgh to Miami for 10 years to
and Jose for five years, Vegas to Dallas, and then Phoenix to Washington, D.C. Finally
back to Central Florida. These were wonderful, there were wonderful amenities, good and bad
policies, and interesting challenge in each of these world class cities.
We should actively
promote our community, recruit more new business to help our tax base, new residents
from Lordstown Motors, LG Chem and Youngstown's new additive manufacturing facilities.
Since 1999, my wife Claire and I both have run successful businesses in Canfield,
LED3 and Village Quilts. We know financial and business best practices.
Now is an important time for Canfield. There are many challenges and new developments,
new development in the works. Our new comprehensive plan,
changes in zoning, improvement for parks and recreation, revisions for our design and review
standards and better communication with our local school board and joint fire district.
Those are essential. We need experience, sound thinking, wise decisions and fiscal responsibility.
My commitments are to continue the Mayor's Business Forum that Mayor Duffett began,
improving policies and conditions in Canfield, recruiting new businesses while promoting our existing ones.
I feel that we should continue to improve our village green, adding more activities and infrastructure,
Wi-Fi, improved audio, and perhaps restaurants.
The most important, which I cannot stress enough, is good planning with smart development.
I'm proud to be able to say, talk to our past five mayors, Richard Duffett, Bernie Kosar,
Bill Kaye, Lee Frye, and Scott Hunter, they all support me.
Since I've returned to my hometown, my interest in history and politics has become a passion.
I'm a founding member of the Canfield Heritage Foundation, a member of the Canfield
historical society, the sons of the American Revolution national member, and the current
member of the Canfield Sportsman's Conservation Club. I will strive for smart, controlled
growth in Canfield, emphasize analysis of budgeting, continue to continue and expand transparency
and accountability in city management. I encourage and appreciate all your candid input for
government improvement and moving our city forward and I asked for your vote on
November 2nd. I'll do a good job for you.
And lastly we have Ms. Catherine Young.
How do I follow that? That was great. Hello, I'm Catherine Young and I would like to be
the next mayor of Canfield. I've lived in Canfield for over 30 years. I've raised
three grown children and I'm working on the next generation with three
beautiful grandchildren. When I'm asked what do I do, I reply, I'm a homemaker. My education
background is in accounting and I have a bachelor's degree from St. Bonaventure University in
New York. I graduated with an ROTC scholarship and served as a finance officer in the 82nd
airborne at Fort Bragg. During the late 80s, I served on an extended mission in the Middle
East as the only woman officer attached to an infantry battalion serving on a multinational
peacekeeping force, task force in Egypt. So I know what it's like to work alongside
men of strength and honor.
I worked in finance, in government, public accounting,
and smaller local accounting firms here locally.
I recently, I've been serving as a co-chairman
on the Parks and Rec Board for the city of Canfield.
And I have been many homesteading here
with chickens and honeybees in the city of Canfield
while attending the council meetings in person
and remotely for the past five years.
As a bonus point of interest,
I recently won the Blue Ribbon at the Canfield Fair
for my golden amber honey, which brings me full circle as serving for mayor here with
the understanding and the opportunity for change.
So what do I bring to the table as a homemaker, a mother, grandmother, a person of a unique
life experience not found with my fellow candidates?
If I had to boil it down to one thing is that I dream big.
I have attended some comprehensive plans that are being worked on and currently by MS Consulting
and I do believe these plans will bring positive changes to the city of Canfield.
If I was your mayor, I believe in the people first.
It is through the people that the city establishment came into being
and it's through the people that it will succeed.
I believe I'll be a good mayor because I understand the duties of mayor as it is laid out in the current charter.
I do believe the current charter can stand improvement.
And I see that the current items on the ballot as an opportunity for change here in the city.
I am an advocate for turn limits.
I do believe that two years would be enough to serve on council.
It was in this room, the full room of citizens who spoke when the first levy was passed,
that the people spoke and they wanted term limits.
I was there when the council said they didn't want that, so they turned around and changed it.
So currently there is a levy on there to go back to the term limits that the people approved prior to well my coming on board which is 2017.
I think through term limits you bring fresh ideas.
It's through stagnation and career politicians that don't leave any room for the younger set of eyes to look at what our city is moving towards.
And I've spoken to other people on the council that I have served on some of these councils,
excuse me, boards, where I've seen other people on the boards. They're young, they're smart,
they're sharp. Any one of them could tap and be a council member. And I believe we're all
We're all playing the same sheet of music. We all want Canfield to succeed, yet we all
play different instruments. So that tag team and the knowledge that we can do this together
in two years, I believe, is an adequate time. When you get reelected, it could be up to
eight years, excuse me. But under the current system, it's 16 years.
In my opinion, I would
take a look at some of the legislation that has been passed in the five years that
I've seen. Some of the legislation has not been in the full interest of the people.
And just like some would argue that people from outside are putting a ballot on, I believe
that some people that initiated our legislation were from other legal districts that maybe
Maybe it just should be looked into if I was to come on.
Now as an accountant,
my life revolves around accountability.
I would, and I have, gone to meetings where they have the fixed asset budgeting for the
last two years.
I've expressed my opinion.
We talked about Redgate and the money that's spent with that going in and going out.
I have been an advocate for accountability when it comes to water.
I was there in the room full of people when they said 20 years is too long.
I was there when people said why do we pay for water we don't use.
And I am an advocate for the OP-OUT program for the smart meter.
I have challenged the COVID money allocations recently.
And as far as the how the money is spent,
And I understand how the direction comes from the administrator, and I respect that.
And I respect that you listen to my opinion, but I do believe there should be more money spent on the village green.
I do believe there should be public restrooms.
And I'm very happy that the gazebo will be updated this year, and it will allow for
the sound system and a bigger display of what can happen there.
and the activities that will happen on the grains.
Catherine, to be fair to the other candidates, you're on seven minutes, so you can wrap up.
Okay.
I appreciate it.
This is a great opportunity for the City of Canfield to have their voices heard and their votes counted.
I believe nothing in this world happens to us, it happens for us.
Let's grow closer, stronger, and wiser through the events in this point in history.
I appreciate your vote for me, Catherine Young, on Election Day.
Thank you.
Next two items we'll have our police chief and fire chief talk about briefly the renewal levies that you all will see on the ballot this year.
So first up is the Chief Hutchinson with the Cardinal Joint Fire District.
Thank you for inviting me. Appreciate it.
Thank you for showing up here today.
I'm very much appreciated.
I'm Don Hutchison, I'm the fire chief here in Cardinal Joint Fire District, Gampard, Ohio.
I've been the chief since 2011.
This is a renewal levy that we've had on the ballot since 2006,
and at that time it was a 0.42 no levy,
and that was for the general fund.
At the current taxing rate through the Mahoney County Auditor,
it is now down to 0.345415, how about that?
Equalling $12.09 per year for every $100,000
valuation, so we're dropping it down. Started out at $14.70, but the grand total the money
brought in by this renewal levy is $226,866. So we get a little bit of a quarter of a million
dollars every year. So what do we do with this money? Number one, it pays for fuel in
the truck. Number two, what's it do? It puts tires, especially on the ambulances. The
ambulances, each ambulance right now is averaging 20,000 miles a year. We're running
over a thousand calls a year with those ambulances and moving on from there.
Also with the money we're also, as I said, paying the insurance, also general fund, whether
it be paper towel in the fire station or medical supplies, we're using it all for that and
pushing it through there.
So the one thing I just want to tell you is where's the fire department going?
Where are we at right now?
where we're going right now we are an ISO 3 which is 10 is the worst meaning you
don't have a fire station within 10 miles of your house one being the best and
there are three ones in the state of Ohio and that's Cleveland just got
announced there'll be a one in January of next year city of Columbus and the
City of Toledo. Michael, we're currently a three, we're shooting, working towards a
two. So what does that do for you the homeowner? Not a whole lot, maybe fifty, seventy-five dollars
a year off your homeowner's insurance compared to the three, but what it does if you bring
any industry in, it lowers their insurance ratings considerably whenever you have a
one or two and going from there so that's that is our goal that's what we're
looking for also making sure we have enough people on staff to run the calls
that we need use may have seen we had to close the station for 20 hours but it
really wasn't closed and I'll tell you why I'm saying this is we had people
call off people get sick and we couldn't get people to fill in so what
happens, the deputy chief and I and the few other firefighters then respond from home.
So, sort of go back on the Chuk Tish Day, right?
And as a matter of fact, the last hour of the 20 hours, we did have three calls all at once.
And I was on the ambulance on the third call and we were at the hospital for, well, an hour and a half.
hospitals with that back. Also responding to COVID calls, our COVID
calls are up as everybody can imagine. Last month we ran, I believe it was 17 in
the whole month of August. We've already ran 20 in the first two-thirds of
September and so it's here back again rearing up and might even be a little
bit worse because what I'm hearing from the paramedics is they're younger,
they're sicker and going from that what you're hearing too so otherwise thank
you for your time the the renewal levy is every five years like it's always been
and this is our I'm sorry so hopefully you can vote yes for the fire
levy thank you thank
you Chief Hutchison next up we have another renewal levy so
So this is for the City of Canfield Police Department.
Chief Kalucci with our Canfield Police Department will discuss
where we started and where we are.
Good evening.
My name is Chuck Kalucci.
I am the Chief of Police for the Canfield Police Department.
I've been Chief since 2009
and a member of the Police Department since 1996.
I can't even imagine my career being anywhere else.
I love the community.
I love the students.
loved the schools and the people we work with and I will say that he ends down I
think we're blessed that we have three credible people running for mayor,
residents that anyone of the three are going to do a fine job we're blessed to
have that choice.
Chief Hutchison in his fire department is I say the best but
you know I get I got a little bit of a different perspective because I get to
to work with a lot of different fire departments
in the local police departments
and campfire departments always there,
they're always in the middle of everything,
keeping us relevant.
And I don't know that this topics for now or for later,
but in an attempt to save money,
Chief Hutchison and I have been working together
on something significant,
that I hope we have the opportunity to present to you
that will reduce our costs further.
That's part of our dispatch expansion, and I could get into that in a little bit.
But let's take it back to 2017.
We decided that we needed to put a police levy on the ballot.
I'll be honest with you, I wasn't comfortable with it.
I'm not a politician.
And, you know, I feel that the community is very generous in what we get in our income tax
and allows us to do a great job and provide excellent service to our
community. It was a difficult decision to have to go out and ask for a police
levy. However, a lot of it was out of our control. Back in 2017, local government
funds were decreased by 47 percent. Again, from 2010 to 2015, local
Well, government funds were decreased by 47%.
And the inheritance tax allocations were decreased by 95%
from 2010 to 2015.
Income tax collections increased by 29%.
And investment income tax revenue decreased by 98%.
What did that all mean to us?
That meant we had to really take a look hard and look
at where we were at and how we were going to operate,
how we were going to be more fiscally responsible.
From the moment that my group, I took over as chief,
but I'll call it my group, we work together,
we work collectively.
We've done everything we can to reduce overtime,
and we've been successful every year in reducing overtime.
In fact, one of the glaring stats that comes out to me
Let's see, over the last five years, we've only experienced a 2% growth overall and personal
cost for the police department.
So in 2015 it was 2.1 million, 2020 it's 2.2 million.
One of the things that we've done, or that the city was faced with a lot of options.
What could we do to reduce costs?
And I didn't like the tactic back then, but there was talk about no leaf pickup.
That turned into be the most significant problem that we've ever faced.
Our town appreciates leaf pickup, and our town deserves leaf pickup.
That's what they want.
Remember, talk about not cutting the local parks grass, let it grow.
So people could see where it's going, and that didn't sit well with any of us.
me especially.
So we decided to ask for a police levy and we had a couple options. It was a
permanent levy where it would be on there forever or asked for a five-year levy. And
our group decided that we were going to ask for a five-year levy. One, at the time we
needed it to pass really bad and I felt like we were hurting our chances by asking for
are forever levy. Two, I believe in our city government and I believe in what we
could do to bring in more business and generate income in other ways that we
hadn't otherwise done to get that money there. So we knew it was going to take a
little bit of time. Unfortunately I don't have much to do with Redgate but I
do believe that there's a promising future at Redgate. I would have been
naive or maybe even idealistic to think that in 2017 when we asked for this levy
that within five years we wouldn't have to stand up here and ask for it again but
that was the goal you know the commitment that we made we had town we had
four or five town hall meetings we went door-to-door we spoke to everybody in
my promise our department's promise was if we don't need to ask for this you
For some miraculous reason, the state, besides to give the city a little bit more money, we don't have to ask for it.
I didn't want to ask for it, but the growth at Redgate or anywhere else within the city boundaries, it takes time.
And for the most part, we make sure that we let our financial situation, our financial status, kind of be the guiding light to whether or not we needed to do this again.
I could sit here and I could stand here and tell you that I believe that in five years from now,
we really should be there. I hope we're there. I'll do everything I could do.
The city will do everything they could do. A hard working group.
Right here, they put a lot of time in, they put a lot of effort in, and so the past councils,
and I believe we will get there. But currently where we're at is, we need to ask for the renewal,
and I'll say it again, I hope that in five years we don't have to ask for it again. I
hope that it can come off. You work hard for your money, and I appreciate that. And
And I know that our officers appreciate that.
So what have we done with the money
that we receive from the police levies
over the last five years?
We filled vacancies and returned our staff to full staff.
Our levy funds five full-time police officers.
We've been able to consistently replace police cruisers.
We've also been able to replace
our equipment, such as tasers, portable radios, mobile radios, body cameras, body cameras was
a demand, I'll say it was a demand by the majority of our country. In 1997 we had cameras
in our cruisers, we still have cameras in our cruisers, we now have them synced with
body cameras so we've kept a very strict and clean outline of what we've done
with the money and again just to reiterate we only increased our
spending by two percent two percent over the last five years it's I don't know
I would have told you five years ago would have been higher but we've
done everything we can to reduce spending and make sure that we are
accountable for everything that we do and we're able to explain everything that we
do.
Those were the things that we told you we would do with the money if the
levy was passed that's exactly what we did with the money and moving forward so
one of the talk that you know quite something I've heard quite a bit was we
already have too many police officers why do you need so many police officers
officers and currently we are at, so how it works nationally is they categorize it by
how many officers per 1,000 residents. Is that consistent with fire? Maybe? Probably?
Okay. So we are currently at 2.2 officers per 1,000 residents. The national average
is 2.5 officers for 1,000 residents.
And then the national demographic for cities under 10,000
is 3.1, 3.1 officers per 1,000.
We're comfortable with the number we're at.
We will not be increasing our staff.
We're planning on maintaining and again,
continue to make sure that we are on a recycling,
you're an annual cruiser update or computers or radios so
with that being
said you'll be asked again to support the police level I encourage you that the
money is spent for what we need to spend it to keep careful careful that was
probably a common slogan for us in 2017 it is today and I know that
everybody in this room wants to keep Canfield, Canfield.
If you look across the country,
the police departments have fallen under great scrutiny
for lack of training, for lack of education,
for putting the wrong police officers out in the field.
It's a liability issue,
not only for the people that are in charge
of those officers, but for the city government.
And we take that very serious.
I've participated in several town hall meetings
in Youngstown, where all our local agencies were down there participating, not all, most of the police departments.
And I am very confident we weathered that storm. Our policies, our procedures are in line.
We are at the highest level in the state of Ohio for policy and procedure compliance.
And we continue, we will strive to do everything we can to stay there and get better.
We have excellent police officers, excellent fire department, and excellent schools.
And we do need to keep Canfield, Canfield.
I like how safe it is.
I'll say this, I was in a council meeting not too long ago.
And the resident was upset about traffic on North Broad and said that they would rather be living in the city of Youngstown.
City of Youngstown is a nice place.
It's a lot of good people, a lot of quality.
We will keep you safer.
They're short staffed, they're underpaid,
and they're in a true struggle right now.
We're going to do everything we can to keep camp,
build camp, keep you safe.
And that's our goal, that's our mission,
and that's why we need your support.
And again, in five years, I hope
that I'm not standing here.
And I hope that we don't need it.
and that's our promise to you is that once we get into a situation where we
could support ourselves through outside growth and each and every one of the mayor
or candidate spoke on it and I'm sure either of the three are going to do
everything they can to make sure it happens we won't be back up here we
won't be asking for additional funds so the goal is to keep it game field keep
safe and I appreciate you passing the levy in 2017 and we look forward to
meeting you again I'm sure we're gonna have more public meetings that are
solely focused on the police department if you have any questions or anything we
can we will talk then where you could contact me at any time otherwise I
appreciate your time I appreciate your support good luck to everybody here
and hats off to the fire department in the schools and you know that's why
I can't throw this camp to schools and your safety services and local government.
Thank you.
Thank
you, Chief.
So the next portion we'll get into are what city of Canfield residents will see
are three charter amendments that have been proposed by petition to change the
city of Canfield charter.
The first one you'll see there is deals with section 3.01,
which is the council terms section adding a new section 5.08,
which looks at a recall of the city manager process and then a new section 11.09
which is restrictions on the use of municipal resources. So before we get
into the details of the charter amendments themselves, a lot of people
always ask questions about the city charter. What is the city charter? Why
does camp don't have a city charter? Various number of questions come up
when you start talking about city charters. Basically they're the
constitutions for cities. Charter cities are, they meet the requirements of the
Ohio Revised Code where they can adopt a home rule, we are a city. If I believe
that you have to have at least 5,000 residents before you can declare yourself
as a home rule city and once you do that you adopt a charter. The City of
Canfield residents did that in December 6th of, sorry, December 5th of
1968. So the Charter for the City of Canfield has been in place since
The charter lays out a numerous number of things, basically in the 12 sections describing the form of government, which is a council manager form of government, the powers and duties of the city council, the mayor, the organization of the administration branch, the civil service, taxation, finance, qualifications for office, and the various other general provisions that you find in any of the services that the city of Canfield provides our residents.
It also discusses the requirements of the open meetings, public information laws as well as the charter review process.
So that leads to sort of the next question is with charter amendments, again like the Constitution or like with any document or agreement, there is the ability to amend the charter.
So there are currently three ways that charter amendments can be proposed in the city of Canfield.
The first one being by ordinance passed by a majority of city council members at any time.
So if council wants to amend the city charter, they take a vote.
If it passes, that charter amendments get placed on the ballot.
The second one is the charter review commission, which I believe is typically the most common way that charter amendments are proposed in the city of Canfield.
So from the outset of the charter review commission, the city charter itself back in 1968,
It laid out the parameters of the Charter Review Commission.
They meet every five years.
There are five members appointed by city council,
and they basically have six months when they're appointed
to go through the city charter line by line with our city law director.
And then through those open meetings to the public, work sessions,
they come up with any recommended alterations, revisions,
or amendments to our city charter.
They submit those recommendations to council.
Council looks at it, determines how many, if any, that they want to propose to put on
the ballot for the next election, which is covered under Article 18, Section 9 of the
Ohio Constitution.
The third way is by petition.
And so that petition requires that 10% of the electorates from the last municipal
election sign a petition proposing charter amendments.
So if you look at the November 2019 election, there were 1,684 people who voted in the municipal
election.
So Charter Amendment requires 165 signatures of registered voters in the city of Canfield.
Who can propose Charter Amendments?
Anybody?
Anyone can propose a Charter Amendment.
They do not have to be a resident of the city of Canfield.
They don't even have to be a resident of the state of Ohio.
So and then what can be proposed as a charter amendment anything our law
director go gives a good example of if a charter member was proposed that for
every council meeting everybody must ride in a donkey and take a shot whiskey the
charter amendment if it had a hundred sixty five signatures it would go on
the ballot if the majority of us and said yes that's a good idea that would
be written into our charter and then you would have very very interesting
And another question is, all the due charter amendments always have to appear on a ballot.
And the answer is yes.
So whether it's initiated by any of those three means, they always have to go to the vote.
Yes, sir.
They have to meet the requirements of the charter before they go down.
Or the number of petitioners signing.
Correct.
So they have to meet the restrictions or the requirements of Article 18 sections.
9 of the Ohio Constitution. So if they meet all of the status order requirements and again
what we do is, and we'll get into it, there's a process of verifying signatures, how many
signatures are needed, and then those are placed on the ballot. So when was the last
Charter Amendment? The last one was done in November of 2018, which I believe one
of the candidates for Mayors spoke about. So the Charter Review Commission met in
in 2018 and recommended four charter amendments.
Recommended those to city council.
City council looked at those and accepted two
of those charter amendments to be placed in the 2018 ballot.
One was to amend section 3.01 of the charter
regarding the terms of council that previously
had been changed from four year terms,
which they were since the installation of the charter
in 1968 until I believe 2013 or 2014
through petition and on a ballot
but it was passed to change those terms to two.
So in 2018, that measure was put on the ballot once again
through the process of the Charter Review Commission,
excuse me, and then the second one,
another dealing with section 3.01,
which was placing the term limits
of four consecutive terms for council members.
Both those items were placed on the ballot in 2018,
passed by the Canfield voters.
So those amendments became written into the City Charter and again undid or added new sections to whatever wasn't currently written into the City Charter.
Questions regarding this year's amendments, how were these Charter amendments proposed?
They were proposed by petition.
So 10% of the electors from the last municipal election, 165 signatures, 165 registered voters in the city of Canfield,
signed a petition in initiating the three proposed charter amendments. So there's a
petition process. So every petition or every proposed charter amendment must
meet the requirements from the Secretary of State. There's a there's a form 6B.
It requires basically a statutory request to the governing body, the
description of what the proposed amendments going to be, designation of
of persons serving as the committee
to represent the petitioners.
Obviously the signature pages of gathering those signatures
and then the circulator statement of the person
that actually witnesses the signing of those petitions
from each of the residents.
Again, that process, once those signatures are gathered,
it is submitted to the governing authority.
The county then verifies that we hold them
for statutory 10 days to allow for public inspection.
We then send that to my own County Board of Elections.
They verify the valid number of signatures.
Once that's done, it goes to city council.
And again, following procedures laid out
in Article 18, Section 9 of the Ohio Constitution,
city council must pass those ordinances,
placing those proposed charter amendments on the ballot.
As I alluded to, so these 20.1 charter amendments,
the initiator of said charter amendments
is an individual out of Nashville, Tennessee.
He approached City Council back in June to indicate that his organization was going to
initiate the
These charter amendments in the city of Canfield. The committee that was representing the petitioners,
we have one Canfield resident and then one that is an Ellsworth Township resident. And
then the circulator of these petitions was a Mr. Chris Hughes out of Columbus, Ohio. So
again, kind of going back to some of the questions, you can see it doesn't have to
be a citizen that wants to initiate change in the city of Canfield. It doesn't have
have to be a state resident.
It could be anybody proposing anything at any time.
So again, just to walk everybody through the timeline,
June 2nd, Mr. Brooks approached the city of Canfield
initiating the proposed charter amendment
for section 301.
Later that month in June, in discussions
with our law director, asked for advisement
on any legal or technical issues proposed
with two charter amendments.
Then during the week of August 9th through the 16th,
Mr. Hughes circulated these petitions to the city of Canfield.
On August 18th, Mr. Brooks then returned back to the city
and initiated three charter petitions
that he submitted to the city.
Like I said, we held down for the statutory 10 days
and then sent them for the County Board of Elections
for verifying those signatures.
Once that process was done, on September 1st, 2021,
the city council passed ordinances placing
and proposed charter amendments on the November 2nd ballot.
Anybody that wants the details of that meeting
and sort of some of the comments
that were exposed during that evening,
this September 1st, 2021, council meeting is online.
Go to canfield.gov, go to live stream council meetings,
click on the date and you can watch the full meeting.
So you can really understand, I guess,
some of the background as far as the specific charter amendments.
So first, you'll see, so to amend section 3.01,
which is years in council terms.
So regarding the number in the term of council members,
the term of council members to provide the council members
elected in the next general election,
which for city council that will be in November of 2023
for an office start date of January 1st, 2024,
changing the council members terms
from that municipal election back to a two year term.
Section, a new proposed section 5.08 discusses the process for the city manager to be recalled
by the electors.
So the elector shall have the power to remove from office any city manager.
The procedure for the removal of office by, of the city manager shall follow the same
procedure as in the case for the removal from office by recall election of any elected
official in the city of Canfield.
As provided in Section 8.05 of the City of Canfield Charter.
So the city manager position is not currently elected, it is appointed by the governing
body that is elected by the citizens.
And that is the way that the City of Canfield started in 1968 and has functioned substantially
since that point in time under the council manager form of government.
So what does Section 8.05 say?
So what are we talking here?
So a petition of 25% of the total votes cast for the office of mayor in the last preceding
missable election at which a mayor was elected.
So this number will be updated after this year's election.
However, going back, looking at last municipal election, the 25% would be 421 signatures.
So anybody could petition in the City of Camfield if this was to pass that 421 signatures, which would be a substantial voting minority of voters in the City of Camfield could propose a city manager be recalled or placed on a ballot to be recalled.
So then it would be left up to the voters to remove or retain the city manager of the section.
Next, there is the new added section of 11.09, which is the restrictions on the use of municipal
resources for improper purpose.
Again, I'm not going to read verbatim, but again, it lays out no manager or employee
of the municipality may use authorized, the use of funds, resources, including any
staff time for the purposes of supporting opposing denomination of any elected candidate
for the office, any levy initiative, referendum, Charter Amendment, or any petition to place
before the electors, any initiative, referendum, recall or Charter Amendment, and then codifies
a penalty for doing so.
There are already various state laws that deal with the improper use of municipal resources
that cover all employees within any organization in the state of Ohio.
This particular Charter Amendment is only focused on the managerial employees of the
city.
So, again, I would just encourage everybody to look in, educate, inform yourself on these
three proposed charter amendments, the next three slides, or just what you will see on
the ballot in November.
Like I said, there's 10 items, so there's going to be a lot of things on the ballot,
there's going to be a lot of words, there's going to be a lot of reading.
So, with any election, everybody should always have all of the information they need
before they walk into that voting booth and you know punch the tag push the
button whatever the case might be. So again it's first amendment will be
section 3.01 which deals with city council terms. You'll have the question
shall the city of Campfield charter be amended as proposed by the petition.
Same thing with the second one adding the new section 5.08 which deals with
the removal of the city manager shall the city of Campfield charter be
amended as proposed by the petition. And then lastly again you'll see there is a
lot of information that's contained in there but it basically deals with the
restrictions on the use of municipal resources by managerial employees
specifically dealing with the previously mentioned items.
So lastly we
have the other five items that are on the city of Campfield ballot for our
voters. So you have both board educational board elections, the Canfield local school district.
There is three candidates, three open positions. You'll see the names there, Mr. Nader Atway,
Mr. Mack Campbell, and Mrs. Tracy Kinkade, the capital. All of those are current Canfield
Board of Education members, so therefore they're the three running, the three incumbents.
I don't believe there's writing candidates or how that works. Same thing with Mahoney
County Educational Services Board. Vote for Mount Northern 3. You'll see three
names on the ballot. You'll have three choices. Those will fill the three
vacancies on that board. Finally, issue one from Mahoning County, which I
mentioned earlier, it's proposed sales news tax of one quarter percent for the
purpose of repair, maintenance, and improvement of roads, bridges, and other
infrastructure located throughout Mahoning County and Townships
municipalities. And I know that the County Commissioner's Office or the
county engineers had similar type public informational forums that they provided
information as it relates to what that money will go towards and how it will be
utilized in terms of every section of Mahoney County what paving projects
roads or bridges that may get repaired as a result of that. Issue two that you
will see on the ballot from Mahoney County is a tax levy renewal of the
Mahoney County Board of Development Disabilities. Again it's a renewal
levy and then the first collection year to five year levy like I believe the two
other public safety renewal levies are on the ballot and again you'll be able to
vote for the tax levy renewal or against the tax later. And then lastly for
specifically our precinct one residents so on your voter ID card or when you
when you go to vote you see kind of your your precinct you should you
You should know what precinct you're in, but if you're in precinct one, you will have the
option for a local liquor option for beer and wine sales at Broad Street Diner LLC or
doing business at Broad Street Diner.
The applicant for a C1C2 liquor permit and they're engaged in the business of Broad
Street Diner carryout at 464 South Broad Street in Camp Hill, Ohio.
So again, you'll see that if you only, if you live in precinct one.
So if you don't live in Precinct 1, you will see 9 items on the ballot, all of the previously
discussed items.
However, if you are in Precinct 1, you will have the one additional item to consider on
the November ballot.
So like I said, this was sort of the first of, hopefully, we want to do at least 3 public
informational forums like this.
If you know people that are interested in the information, this presentation will
be posted on our website.
It has been live streamed this evening.
So, again, it will also be available for live streaming for anybody that wasn't able to attend tonight can rewatch it at their convenience, as well as the presentation.
We'll have hopefully at least two more of these in November.
We may change venues, change days and times to try to get as much reach as possible.
Again, I think our job as city government is to educate our residents on what decisions they will be making that affects all of city government.
You know, this year is a unique year.
You're talking police and fire safety service.
You're talking school boards.
You're talking city council government
and a couple of Macon and County issues.
So I think this is a unique year
that gives everybody the opportunity
to engage themselves, fully understand
what's happening in the city of Canfield
and what certain things will do
to impact the city of Canfield
in the way we provide services
and the way we operate in the city of Canfield.
So with that, I'll allow council to make any comments
they wanna make.
After that, we can definitely entertain questions
or comments from the audience.
Okay, thanks, Wade.
So, I'm gonna start with council comments first
and then I'll open it up to residents
if you have a question or a concern.
Then I'll start with Mr. Tish.
My comment has to do with the Charter.
I happen to have a copy of the original charter which was passed by the electors November 5, 1968.
However, in November 7, 1967, there was an election to place 15 members on a charter review commission
to establish a charter in the city of Canterbury.
Or, in essence, to decide what kind of government
the city of Canfield was going to operate on here.
Because at that point, Canfield was still a village.
And with the growth in Canfield, it
was going to get close to 5,000 population.
At that point, the local government
would have to make a decision as to whether they were
going to become a charter or a charter village
or Charter Municipal Corporation in Charter City, or whether they're going to be statutory.
And the statutory form of government follows state law.
That's fine and damning.
In the Charter form of government, the local government gets choices in how they want to run their local government.
And overall, these 15 learned people, all except two of them are now deceased,
chose the chartered form of government and did a lot of research in doing that.
They also thought that it was a great idea to have members of council serving four-year
terms.
And they would be staggered in four-year terms in that two members of council initially
were being placed or would be elected for a two-year term and then two
members of council would be elected for a four-year term and then subsequent to
that all members would be recommended for or selected for a four-year term. So
you had four-year terms each two years you had somebody else newly elected
and proceeded in that way. The mayor was always elected for a four-year term
So in essence, what you've had was three members of a five-member council being elected for a four-year term in one year.
Two years later, you had two of those members elected for a four-year term.
So you always had consistency in the terms of office and you had consistency on council of things that were going on.
I think that they showed great wisdom in doing that and having carryover members of city council.
continuing and the whole concept of the charter form of government as it was
established at that time has been something that is adopted by many other
cities throughout the country and has been a very professional way of running
local government. You get away from the situation of having an election every
two years of an individual's order to serve on city council so then you're
always have the question of if in fact you have two-year terms who's going to be
your boss next year how are things going to run if you're an employee and I was
one because I served a city council when they had two-year terms I served on
city council I served as an employee in the city when they have two-year
your counselor, the discussion was,
geez, do we need to support individual A or individual Y?
He's saying that, you know, if I don't get elected,
things are gonna change.
Well, that always created a problem for me in my mind
and for the couple of friends that I had
that I was working with.
And so the concept of the charter form of government
seemed to be a very professional way
of looking at government.
It takes the politics out of it, it establishes a professional administrator with professional qualifications
to make professional decisions and make professional financial decisions on behalf of everybody in the city
and not just in the minds of individual A or individual B who may look at a specific sector of things that they want done
and not the overall benefit.
So I think any change from that, in my view, is a step backwards from the city council.
And I would urge you to defeat every one of these items that are on for charter amendments for this year.
The other thing that really bothered me, and I would recommend that we have a charter amendment with regard to how charter amendments can go on the ballot.
In my view, I don't believe that anybody other than the city can feel to be able to propose a charter amendment.
And I don't care what it is, I don't believe that a representative that represents a union
or any other special organization that's not a resident city should not be able to put things
on the agenda.
I mean, what authority does somebody coming in from Timbuktu have to decide how we're
going to run our local government?
Chuck Tisha's opinion?
My nickels work.
Thank you.
Mr. Nett?
I wanted to clarify, you mentioned that we're going to have several more meetings in November.
You met Octo.
I'm sorry, we're leading out to the November elections.
I think it's too late.
I just want to thank everybody for coming and I think it's wonderful that people were involved in politics.
And I think we're going in a great direction.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Yes, I'd also like to thank everybody for coming.
I think we all realize we have a good police department,
we have a good fire department.
These are important renewals,
and I think we need to vote yes for those.
Also, I'm concerned about the charter amendments
that were brought forth, as Mr. Tisch said,
about outside people trying to tell the city how we should operate.
So I would encourage you to vote no for those three that were proposed.
Thank you, Mayor.
Mr. McGrath.
Well, I would like to say I first thank everyone for coming out.
We do have a wonderful police department.
We have a fantastic fire department and I wholeheartedly support the renewals of their levies.
And I echo Mr. Titian in what he said and the way our charter is set up.
It's set up in such a way that the people of our community run our community.
And by their electing us to our positions, that's the only way that I feel that this city can keep moving forward.
For term limiting, down to two years, I'm in my second year as city council.
proposal, and I still have so much more to learn. I cannot say that I could be very effective
if I did not have enough time to learn everything I need to learn in order to serve the people
of our lovely city here. So I also disagree with the amendments and feel that they'll
only be detrimental to our community.
Thank you, Mr. McBrother.
I have a few comments.
First of all, on term limits, we have the right as citizens,
if one of us is not doing our job that come election time,
you pull the trigger and you get rid of us.
So you have that right by enacting term limits.
you actually take that right away from you.
Now I'll give you an example.
I sat on this council and I came in with Mr. Andy Strabola.
I don't know if you know Andy or not.
One of the smartest men that I've ever been around.
He taught me how to read a financial statement
and how to work with non-profit government affairs, financial.
And Andy Rian, a steel company, he was a CFO.
it probably got paid a half a million dollars or more and we're paying them a
hundred dollars a meeting or two hundred dollars a meeting I don't even know
what we get paid but but we don't we don't have health benefits here we
don't have any other perks I don't get out of speeding tickets and so there's
no there's no other reason that these gentlemen are up here and I'm up here
other than we want to serve the city and do right and move it forward. And so by
any kind of a term limit, you're taking away one of your rights because we could
have kept the Indy on council but we had to let him go because he turned out
and that's a shame. So think about that, just think about that. And you
You know, if we were in making some exorbitant amount of profit up here or some gaining, some kind of a gain, I would agree with you.
Maybe there should be, but really think about that.
The fire district, I've been, ever since I've been on this council and even before I was on, I sat on the fire board.
I've worked with Chief Hutchinson for many years.
and we've had a balanced budget every year and every year Hutch comes in below
his budget and he's very frugal with our money and from what he's asking for
this renewal I please I would encourage you to support him we've done a
wonderful job there it was Hutch Chief Hutchison that brought in the idea for
the ambulance we needed ambulance there was several board members that were
against it and but Chief Hutchison showed us that hey this need is real and
God darn it we've proved that we run a lot of EMT calls and if you ever get a
bill from if you're a citizen of the city can't feel and you get a bill from
the fire district rip it up because we will look at your insurance company
we'll take money from your insurance company but you've already paid taxes
because we will not take a dime from you.
So that's a service that we're providing to the citizens.
And so kudos to the fire district chief,
keep doing that job.
Chief Kalerchi, I walk down my street
and I have no fear, nothing.
And I thank you for that.
I live in a city that I'm blessed,
that the people, the safety
And just the environment that we have here in this city, we have to pay for that.
And that's okay. I'm alright with that. And I'm willing to pay for it.
And I'm here to say I'm going to support the police, Levy.
And I'm encouraging everybody to do so. And Chief, keep up the good work.
Chief didn't, I don't know, he doesn't tout this, but every one of our officers is college educated.
I don't know if that resonates, you know, some kind of extra safety services or whatever,
but it tells me that these people that we have employed here are dedicated people of their profession.
And so they're not only a police officer, but they're educated people and can make decisions.
And Chief, I'm going to support you and I hope that the community supports you.
These Charter Amendments, they came from an outside organization, every one of them.
In my personal opinion, this is not my colleague opinion, but I believe it was
invidictive to get back at Wade for negotiating with this union. And Wade, I
applaud you for protecting our city, our assets, and our ability to run this city.
Because Wade didn't give in and was didn't give in to the demands that
union wanted well here we go and so now we got these three charter amendments on
our ballot that can change our charter as Mr. Tish alluded to and puts Wade the
number one the 508 we can recall a city manager so okay you didn't get the
garage variance that you wanted or you got it you didn't get something that
petitioned for and so now vindictively you can go out and get signatures and put
weight on a ballot and get rid of them. That isn't what our Charter wanted it to
do. The Charter wanted the power to be with these people right here to hire and
fire that guy and keep him out of the political arena. And so by voting yes
for this amendment change that's exactly what you'll do. You'll put him in a
political seat, and then he'll make decisions based on that.
Let's keep our charter, our charter,
let's keep Canfield, Canfield dying.
301 is term limits, I addressed that already.
1109, we already have state laws that regulate this.
This is nothing more than, again,
of indicative somebody, you know, that's not real happy with the way the negotiations went
and put this amendment on here.
So on all three charter amendments, please vote no.
The other thing, and I said this at the last council meeting, please get informed,
get educated, don't take, don't go to the hairdresser
and take the word of the guy sitting in the next booth or whatever, please read,
understand what it is that we're doing here. A couple colleagues of mine said,
well, I signed that. I signed his petition. Well, why did you sign it? And they
didn't read it. And then later on they said, well, I shouldn't have done that.
I shouldn't assign that.
Please get informed, understand where,
when you go into that booth, what you're voting for.
That's all I'm asking.
Take a ball.
See you on the 25th, September 25th.
This is a great thing.
I've kind of been learning the game and understanding it
and it's, aren't Richard, if you're still here.
Great, great things are happening with that, so hope to see everyone on the 25th.
And with that, I'm going to open it up to any comments that residents may have.
And for the record, when you come up to the podium, state your name and address for the record, please.
Mr. McKiea.
Hi,
Frank McKiea, 220 Glenview.
I was here when the two-year term limits were passed, and I can tell you that each council
person said the exact same thing they said tonight.
We're opposed to it, but it passed, so much for being in touch.
Then a couple years ago, we had the Charter Review Commission made up of people who these
people appointed decide we're going to have four-year terms in that past.
However, nobody has discussed the fact that each of these persons could be in office for
16 years.
How do you justify 16 years?
That's unbelievable as far as I'm concerned.
So I encourage everybody to pass the two-year term limits.
16 years is the Achilles heel of this amendment.
All right.
going on.
About two years ago, in September, at a school board meeting, there was an incident
at the school where a student had threatened to shoot another student. And at the school
board meeting in September, our safety force has made a presentation that was a bombshell.
Okay.
That's all I have to say. Thank you.
Thank
you. Open it up. Residents, any comments, questions?
Ashley,
just for the record, please name and address it.
Kim Hooper, 95 Russo Drive.
I just have a question about the charter review.
First of all, I know people that were on the charter review that were appointed by our council,
and they had no idea what they were looking at.
They went through each and every item on there and they're like, yeah, they did not care about it
So whoever was appointed did not take it seriously and
There's there's no way to really review it if people are not taking it seriously better appointed from the council
Because they specifically said to me that they had no idea what they were looking at that
They did not know what they were reviewing and they just went right through it. Yeah, sounds good
They had no idea what they were doing and I'm not going to say the names of the people
People that were appointed. But I spoke to these people and they were like, wow, I had no idea. No clue.
They didn't even know really what it was for. So to have an outside source come in and put things,
maybe it takes somebody to do that because a lot of people just kind of walk around and, oh, it's fine.
It's fine. Another thing, the last thing that was on the, for the charter review,
Was there a specific situation that people like for the management like waste what was that for for the last one?
for the management using their time or you would have to speak to the
The one that we're voting on so so is there information the representatives
of the petitioners as to what warranted what they believed was a Charter Amendment.
Okay, so there was no, like, leading up to any of the Charter Amendments.
There were no situations that occurred for them to bring that up?
I can't speak to why they initiated the Charter Amendments.
Okay, that's all.
I, and I, you know, I respectfully disagree with you because they had this Charter Review
Commission, they had a structured meeting and so they sat in a room and had a meeting.
With the city attorney?
With the city attorney and they, I can't believe that they would say they didn't
know what the heck they were doing, I just, I find that hard to believe, but, yes
from the record, please,
address, and...
General Lewis, 412 South Bratcliffe.
The, I was here when they,
he petitioned for the term limits last time
and the charter that you read,
that isn't the way it is anymore.
So somewhere along the line, it changed.
And when we were talking about term limits before,
the room agreed one way
and the council agreed another way and you said let's have put our faith in the
people and so I still say that that is exactly where our faith should be in in
the people and I think that some of your comments were biased to try to sway
people in a certain way and I get that I understand that but not just you
everybody and I understand that and but I still believe that we have a voice
and that we know what we want to do and we know what we can do with our
money and with our town and it is a good town and nobody has to fluff it up or
fluff it down. It doesn't matter. It can talk for itself and I think that all the
people should speak at the ballots on their own and do what they know is
right and I do think that, like Frank said, that certain term limits should
apply and I don't think 16 years is, I think that's way too long.
Do you agree though that if we're not doing our job to vote us out?
So it's not necessarily a 16-year stay if you don't vote us back in.
Then, you know, do anything.
Get elected, get it reelected, you know?
So I did have a question, too, with the charter.
Who is human resources?
HR, human resources.
For the city, you mean?
Yeah.
City manager? You're a human resource. So if somebody wants to complain, they go to you about you?
Well, if it complains about me, they would have a councilor or a city manager.
And so human resources, they do the hiring, right?
City manager, hire and fire all employees in the city.
If you have a complaint about the city manager,
come to them and talk to members of council.
We have the ability to hire and fire the manager.
Okay, so would that be why somebody put a charter on
that they didn't feel that they could speak freely
or something?
I don't know.
I wasn't here during those meetings,
but if he's the city manager and HR,
there seems to be a conflict there somewhere.
I think the conflict is that the union didn't get their way with the contract in there.
So now their repercussion is they're going to try to get to the city manager.
That's arguable, but so we'll let the people decide on that.
Collective bargaining is a collective bargaining process, and
there's a process to go through and reach resolution.
The city manager doesn't have ultimate control of that.
You've got boards that they go to if the agreement has not worked out,
and the board makes a determination.
And who did the people have to talk to about that?
The people don't have anybody to talk to.
This is a process, as far as the employees of the city,
they are bargaining with the city manager.
Okay.
And they...
So why did Union guy come in?
Why?
He is the employees representative.
Okay, so I'm giving you his messages.
So there's Union rep that represents the employees
and he does.
Yes.
The union representative is bargaining on behalf of the employees of the city.
He is bargaining with the city manager, who is city council's representative.
Right.
If they can't reach agreement, they then go to an arbitration board in the state of
Ohio.
Okay.
The arbitration board makes a determination.
But you also said he's in charge of the employees, so the employees, if they can't go to him,
they got to a union rep. That's great. Okay, so then I'm like oh for them let
them have their union rep. They have their union rep. They are arguing over and I'm not
sure what all the issues are. They're arguing over whether or not they have to
come to work on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday or whether they can come
on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Okay. And if they can't reach
agreement on that. The manager says no, and they want it, then they go to the arbitration
board. And the arbitration board is going to make a decision. And we have to live by
the decision. They did not like the fact that the city manager was not agreeing with their
representative. And if I was in his position and you didn't agree with me, I'm not changing
because I disagree with you, as you can tell.
So you're assuming that if that charter does get amended,
that he's going to behave differently
because now he's liable to the union rep?
I mean, like, he still has to behave a certain way,
whether he's the manager, the employee size.
The manager's going to continue to do his job
So a collective bargaining agreement or a collective bargaining unit does not change the personnel
management within the city of Canfield.
Okay.
But it was insinuated that the police department has a collective bargaining agreement and
has had a collective bargaining agreement in place for 20 plus years.
That collective bargaining agreement covers certain conditions related to the employment
of the members of that bargaining unit.
Okay.
But it was insinuated that your decisions on the end
of if this got passed would be you might behave differently
because now it's politicized.
I would disagree with that.
You should behave the way you behave, period.
End of conversation.
Why should that change your behavior?
It won't change my behavior.
OK.
So I operate under the code of ethics
from the international scene, county managers,
association.
And that's the way it should be, yeah.
So, if the employees feel they need a union rep, something happens somewhere, that...
All the pieces of those programs have nothing to do with the collective bargaining process,
or the collective bargaining agreement, or the collective bargaining proposed collective bargaining unit.
So, any employee or any group of employees can elect to collectively bargain.
There's a process for that.
They elect a certain representative or a organization to represent them in collective bargaining unit matters with their employer, public or private sector.
So that process is collective bargaining.
Once a collective bargaining agreement is reached, that agreement covers certain aspects of those employees.
There's, I can't remember the section of Ohio Rights Code,
certain rights that are guaranteed to management
as well as the collective bargaining unit.
So any items that are not subject
to collective bargaining is managed by rights.
So we're not anticipating the collective bargaining unit
process, that's not what this Charter Amendment's about.
I would encourage you to, again, read that last code.
So that's all I was gonna ask you.
There's gonna be more meetings
about this specific topic.
For the Charter of Amendments, there'll be more information on it if it's correct.
So I can go back and see.
But what I'm asking too is, so all the employees wanted the same thing or no?
No. And again, we're kind of getting into a whole another topic under the Charter of Amendments.
The collective bargaining unit proposed was for the sixth public works employee.
The police department has a collective bargaining unit that is comprised of two units, the rank-and-file police officers, and then there's a bargaining unit that covers sergeants, lieutenants, and then there's a bargaining unit C which covers the dispatchers within the police department.
That was the only collective bargaining unit the city had since its inception or since the collective bargaining unit was starting from the public safety side.
All right, I'll read up and I'll educate myself on what happened here.
Well, it went down because some puzzle pieces aren't lining up here, so I'm going to put my faith in the people.
That's where I'm putting my faith, because that's where we always had it.
council meeting minutes online. Everything that we do is open and transparent to the public to get
any and all information they need to make any and all decisions. And I would encourage more
people to pay attention and listen and read up and show up. So I think that it needs to be a little
more like modernized to like why not have like the I mean it live feeds more
often I mean COVID sort of right I know it created new changes which I
streaming me completely encourage worry yeah so I applaud that yay so I hope more
comments are coming on the feed I hope you guys really take notice and and good
luck all the people running from there. I'm very excited about the feature. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Okay, anybody? Mr. McKeehan? Oh, go ahead, Catherine. For the record though.
For the record, I have a 570 bar lift drive.
In an effort to open
the books up for truth, I have
I've been in this council sitting here for five years and I did say it was a conflict of interest to give the human resources to the chief.
I did say it was a conflict of interest to give the human resource to you. Sir.
Are these related to the church?
Yes, yes they are.
We have to stay on top of that work.
Because as accountability and an accountant I did open up the books.
open the books.com. And these six individuals that felt like they needed a
union, they were being paid less in 2017 than they got paid in 2020. Now they're
hourly employees, so they count on the hours in order to have a certain amount
of pay. The collective bargaining unit process was initiated in 2018. Part of
collective bargaining deals with wages okay but they did have reason why they
would feel like they were again is this really to determine I would encourage you
to get to these comments otherwise we're discussing so in the effort well I
encourage you to come in and sit down with the either the finance director
or wait and see the wages, Catherine.
For clarity.
Mr. McKee.
Evening again, Frank McKee, a 220 glad to see you.
Could I ask that each of the mayor or may oral candidates briefly state how they are
not in control of this forum?
This is a public forum for the presenting topics.
This is a question and comment section related to the presentation.
Okay.
I'd like to make a comment.
And we have three May Oral candidates here.
Would it be out of order to ask each of them to give their opinion on how they were on their relationship with the city manager?
Thank you.
Make it address that at the next forum.
And that's up to council.
I mean, yeah, I mean, if you guys just want to answer that, you want this forum to be kind of yes, whatever you want.
Anybody open it up to the residents, anybody else comment, question?
Okay, with that, stay tuned for our next one.
And I encourage you to go back, look at minutes, read, understand, and we're adjourned.