VW City Council OKs operating changes

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert City Council on Monday approved legislation making significant changes to the way City Council operates, while also approving the 2018 tax budget, and passing a measure allowing Van Wert Area Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Stacy Adam to seek renewal of an expired job incentive program.

Council unanimously approved four pieces of legislation that would mandate Council meetings start at 6:30 p.m., rather than 7:30 p.m., allow for consent agenda items, and to pass some ordinances as part of a consent agenda, and end the requirement that all pending legislative items be referred to a committee for a hearing prior to passage.

Council members hope the changes will help streamline City Council meetings.

City Council also placed an ordinance that would enact trash hauling regulations on second reading.

City Law Director John Hatcher also provided a legal opinion related to use of.22-percent Safety Capital Tax funds and maintaining minimum staffing levels in the police and fire departments.

According to Hatcher, the language of the legislation does not preclude the fire and police departments from falling below their minimum staffing levels of 19 and 21 employees, respectively, but should that happen, up to two-thirds of annual Capital Safety Funds must be used to pay for salaries and benefits until minimum staffing is restored.

“In summary, the City of Van Wert can reduce safety department staff below ‘minimum staffing levels’ and still trigger the usage of the .22 tax funds for payment of up to two-thirds of the total amount collected to help pay police and fire salaries and fringe benefits,” the law director wrote in his opinion.

Council also authorized Adam to seek renewal of a jobs incentive program that would allow businesses that provide a minimum of $250,000 in new gross local wages to deduct 30 percent of city income taxes owed.

Also Monday, City Council also approved a request for a temporary liquor license to serve alcohol on public property during the Town Creek Live! event in the downtown area, and also heard information noting that patrons from a downtown billiards hall were urinating in the entranceway of a neighboring realty office.

Mayor Jerry Mazur noted that, if owners of the billiards business can’t control their patrons, he would recommend that the business’s liquor license be turned down the next time it comes up for renewal.

The mayor also said another meeting was needed to look at options available if the .28-percent tax increase does not pass in November.

Mayor Mazur, who also provided Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming’s report in his absence, noted that police and fire contracts have been successfully negotiated. The contract would provide a zero percent increase in the first year, as well as a 2-percent hike in the second year, and a 2.5 percent increase in the third and final year.

Also included is a $300 stipend to police officers to pay a firearms test fee.

Councilman At-Large Bill Marshall, who chairs Council’s Health-Safety-Service Committee, noted that an ordinance mandating that curbside trash collection be done on the same day as recycling is picked up, would be placed on the agenda, although with some minor changes.

Third Ward Councilman Ken Markward, who chairs the Parks & Recreation Committee, noted that a group that is seeking a dog park in the city has raised two-thirds of the money needed for the project.