Minutes of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission/Solid Waste Policy Committee
February 11, 2010
ATTENDANCE
Attachment A lists the attendance at this meeting, at which the following matters were discussed.
CALL TO ORDER
Commissioner Hagan called the meeting to order.
MINUTES
On a motion by, and seconded by, the minutes of the November 12, 2009 meeting were adopted.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS
On a motion by Mayor Mulcahy, seconded by Mayor DePeiro, Commissioner Hagan was unanimously selected as the
Chair for both the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission (CPC) and the Solid Waste Policy Committee (SWPC)
for 2010.
On a motion by Mayor DePiero, seconded by Mayor Mulcahy, Mayor Michael Procuk was unanimously selected as the Vice-Chair for the CPC and the SWPC for 2010.
Commissioner Hagan announced that in order to be respectful of everyone's time he was making a commitment to start the meeting on time and that the meetings would last one hour. He stated that issues that drag on past the one hour time would be tabled until the next meeting.
COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL ISSUES
Mr. Alsenas noted that on January 1, 2011 the new County Charter would take effect and there were two
issues to that he wanted to bring to the member's attention at this meeting and that would be followed up
on during the course of the year. The first issue was what entity would have the authority to make
appointments to the CPC, would it be the county executive or the county council. Mr. Alsenas stated that
a series of options and issues would be presented to the CPC at a future meeting. The second issue was
how to align and conform the CPC to the new government and what role the CPC would have in the new
government structure.
Commissioner Hagan stated that the Transition Advisory Group and its subcommittees are working on a set of recommendations; however, he stated that the county executive can ignore these recommendations. He stated that he was not opposed to the CPC making recommendations but he didn't want the members to think that whatever they recommended would be automatically adopted. He suggested that the CPC put together an outline of issues and talking points and meet with the new county executive before that person takes office.
Mr. Alsenas highlighted the sections of the county charter that impacted on the CPC. In addition to the appointing authority that there is the issue of the CPC regions versus the new County districts. Additionally, there is the Ohio Revised Code Section which states that the CPC can be reorganized or shut down because it is not a mandatory function.
Commissioner Hagan stated that the CPC still has a role in township issues so this group should operate on the assumption that the CPC and the SWD will remain in existence. Mr. Alsenas agreed that who makes the appointments is not as important as the role of the CPC in the new government structure.
Mr. Alsenas passed out the CPC's 2010 work plan and reviewed the six (6) priorities for 2010.
Mayor Patton asked if there was one group tasked with looking specifically at county planning that the CPC members should be talking to. Mayor Welo stated that the mayors should feel engaged and make sure their voices are heard.
RESOLUTIONS
General
On a motion by Mayor Blomquist, seconded by Mayor Mulcahy, Resolution 100211-A, approving Personnel
Actions was unanimously approved.
On a motion by Mayor Kelley, seconded by Mayor Mulcahy, Resolution 100211-B, authorizing a contract extension for planning services with the Cuyahoga County Department of Development in the amount of $25,000.00 for the period February 28, 2010 through February 28, 2011, was unanimously approved.
On a motion by Mayor Mulcahy, seconded by Mayor Welo, Resolution 100211-C, authorizing an agreement with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health for the Creating Healthier Communities project in the not-to-exceed amount of $15,000.00, was unanimously approved.
On a motion by Mayor Mulcahy, seconded by Mayor Welo, Resolution 100211-D, approving an Inter-Agency Agreement with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health to implement the components of "Communities Putting Prevention to Work Initiative," was unanimously approved.
On a motion by Mayor Mulcahy, seconded by Mayor Kelley, Resolution 100211-E, authorizing a contract with the Cuyahoga County Department of Justice Affairs in an amount not-to-exceed of $8,000.00 for the period December 15, 2009 through December 15, 2010, was unanimously approved.
On a motion by Mayor Blomquist, seconded by Mayor Patton, Resolution 100211-F, approving an amendment to the contract with ParkWorks, Inc. for the development of a Management Plan and Site Plan for Wendy Park at Whiskey Island to amend the scope of services and extend the time of performance to December 31, 2010 was unanimously approved.
On a motion by Mayor DePeiro, seconded by Mayor Kelley, Resolution 100211-G, approving a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ohio Department of Development for the administration of the Ohio Job Ready Sites Program for State Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011, was unanimously approved.SOLID WASTE REPORT
Commissioner Hagan complimented Ms. Diane Bickett on her job as director. Ms. Bickett explained that
there were three (3) major issues for the SWPC. The first issue was updating the master plan. Ms.
Bickett indicated that this update will be a bit harder to complete because of the district's declining
revenues and the issue of waste to energy. Ms. Bickett reported that the City of Cleveland has a plan
to gasify waste to create electrical power for Cleveland Public Power by building a waste per day to
energy facility which are very popular in Europe but have not been built in North America. She stated
that the City has a problem because it needs more than 2,000 tons of waste to operate the facility
which is much more than the City generates. She stated the City is planning to go to the suburbs for
the additional waste. Ms. Bickett explained that is a legally tricky issue and asked if the SWPC was
interested in hearing a presentation from Commissioner Ivan Henderson from Cleveland Public Power.
Commissioner Hagan noted that Commissioner Jones had arrived and voted yes to all of the actions that had been taken by the CPC.
Ms. Aveni stated that the Europeans which have had these types of facilities for years subsidize these facilities at great public expense.
Ms. Bickett stated that this facility, in her opinion, was a risky undertaking especially since the city will own and operate the facility. She stated that the City wants to be first in the country to build one of these facilities as part of their green energy portfolio.
Continuing her report, Ms. Bickett stated that the District had been approached by several east side communities to develop a recycling consortium and that the District's convenience center was getting closer to reality. She reported that the District had received responses from five communities and the SWD staff had toured all of the facilities; with two facilities being very favorable.
CPC PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Mr. Alsenas referred the CPC members to the Project Highlights in the meeting binder and highlighted
the most important issues since the November meeting which were the development of a municipal energy
audit grant program using ARRA funding, the HUD housing study that had just been completed that would
direct $70 million in HUD funding to the county, the CPC's intervention with the Greater Cleveland
Regional Transit Agency to save the transit services that assisted 2nd and 3rd shift workers getting
to their jobs in the suburbs, and working with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers on the development of
a dredge management plan and the agency's involvement with the Biomimicry Guild.
Commissioner Hagan stated that the change in county government will possibly bring a resolution to the governance issue about the Port Authority. He explained that the port authority uses funds from a county-wide tax, but a majority of board is appointed by the Mayor of Cleveland who governs less than the majority of the taxpayers who are taxed. Commissioner Hagan stated that the new county executive will have to address this issue along with the GCRTA sales tax and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District Board. He directed the mayors to get involve with these issues to make sure that the status quo does not prevail.
Commissioner Hagan asked for everyone's support for the Health and Human Services Levy and stated that if this issue does not pass it will be devastating for the county. Mayor Patton brought up several issues that were happening in Fairview Park that illustrated the devastating situations of the suburbs and that many communities are dying on the vine and nobody is paying attention.
Commissioner Hagan announced that the next meeting was scheduled for April 8th and adjourned the meeting.
Cuyahoga County Planning Commission/Solid Waste Policy Committee
| February 11, 2010 Attendance Record | |
|---|---|
| Member | Present |
| Mayor Robert Blomquist | Yes |
| Mr. Robert Brown | Yes, by Mr. Danek |
| Commissioner Jimmy Dimora | Yes, by Mr. Smock |
| Mayor Dean DePiero | Yes |
| Commissioner Timothy Hagan | Yes |
| Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones | Yes |
| Mayor Edward Kelley | Yes |
| Mayor Kathy Mulcahy | Yes |
| Mayor Eileen Patton | Yes |
| Mayor Michael Procuk | Yes |
| Mayor Georgine Welo | Yes |
| SOLID WASTE POLICY COMMITTEE | |
| Ms. Virginia Aveni | Yes |
| Mr. Martin McGann | No |
| Others: Paul Alsenas, Diane Bickett, Claire Kilbane, Dan Meaney, Rick Sicha, Carol Thaler | |
