The August Pause

After holding a special meeting last week, Highland Heights Council adjourned for its annual August break, leaving some unfinished business on the table.

City Contracts

Given the current economy, you’d think that contractors would be beating down Highland Heights’ City Hall doors to submit bids for one of the many contracts that the city advertised in July. Or maybe not …

Not a single bid was submitted for the city’s 2011 sidewalk replacement project or for Recreation Director Dave Ianiro’s proposed Park Barn (party) Pavilion. The city received a single bid for resurfacing the park roads and one over-estimate bid for a gazebo in the new municipal center greenspace.

Council decided to re-advertise three of the contracts more broadly (the park road contract excepted) by placing notices in both local weekly and daily newspapers. That did the trick – at least as far as the sidewalk project is concerned. Council accepted a bid for that project during its pre-recess special meeting.

A second round of bid openings for the other outstanding contracts is scheduled for later this month.

Refinancing City Bonds

Late in July Mayor Scott Coleman informed Council that the city could save approximately $500,000 over 12 years by “calling” or redeeming some outstanding city bonds and replacing them with a single, lower-interest rate bond issue. The old bonds (which would have been paid off in full in 2023) financed the building of the new pool and paid for other major infrastructure work throughout the city.  

The lower interest rate means that it will cost the city less to pay off its old debt.  

While refinancing the bonds is a good idea – and it’s good that Mayor Coleman is pursuing that plan – I’m disappointed in his lack of leadership. The mayor could have leveraged the bonds swap as a means to generate new revenue to pay for some of the city’s current, significant infrastructure needs.

Given the lower interest rates, for the same payments it’s making now on the old bonds, the city could have obtained additional money to finance necessary things like major street repairs and replacing some of the city’s aging water lines.

Service Director Thom Evans warned the mayor and Council several years ago that the city’s major water artery – the Highland Road water main – is failing and needs to be replaced. Two weeks ago, a major water line break in a different part of the city caused significant damage to a city street.

Although the clock is ticking – loudly – on the city’s aging, underground water mains, Mayor Coleman has turned a deaf ear to the issue. He has not set aside any money or even begun planning how to get that vital, but expensive, infastructure work done. 

Maybe his mind has been focused elsewhere – like Dave Ianiro’s park barn party pavilion. Certainly that’s what Mayor Coleman’s 2011 budget seems to indicate, as demonstrated by the $200,000 he set aside to pay for that item this year.

Who needs water, and who cares about deteriorating streets, as long as you can party in the park – right?

The mayor’s plan to swap the city’s old, high-interest bonds for a lower interest rate bond is a no-brainer. It’s a move obvious to any resident who has refinanced a mortgage in the last couple of years.

Taking the no-brainer route, however, does not necessarily translate into good financial leadership. Taking the no-brainer route is not the same thing as doing what is right and necessary to get things done in the city.

Taking the no-brainer path is, however, a better political move for someone trying to keep his seat in a contested mayor’s race.

After all, if you were running for mayor, wouldn’t you rather brag about saving the city half a million dollars? Wouldn’t that be easier than explaining to residents why you decided to take on new debt – even if doing that benefited the city more in the long run?  

Are We GetGo?

Lance Osborne recently unleashed a battalion of out-of-towners to collect signatures for his GetGo related initiative petition. One signature collector admitted to a resident that he lived in Sandusky. Two other collectors told me they came here from the Akron area. They also claimed that they were “volunteers” for a group that supported “small business.”

If you buy that, I’ve got a bridge I can sell you.

Although Osborne told Council that he was simply trying to “update” the “local business” rules, his initiative would effectively gut the city’s zoning code. Not only would it enable Giant Eagle to put a mega GetGo (and alcohol-selling convenience store/café) on the Catalano’s property, it would allow gas stations and car washes to be put on any business-zoned property in the city – in places they aren’t currently allowed.  

Osborne rushed to bring his initiative petition to City Hall before Council went into recess, hoping to get his proposed new zoning laws on the November ballot.

Since Highland Heights is a Charter city, our charter controls what happens next. According to Charter section 8.01, Council has 40 days after an initiative petition is submitted to accept, reject or amend it. That leaves plenty of time for Council to act on the Osborne petition after it returns from its August recess.

If Council doesn’t approve the petition, Osborne can either rethink his approach or press ahead – essentially forcing Council to put his proposed legislation before the voters.

According to the Charter, initiative issues go on the ballot of the next general or regular municipal election held more than 90 days after Council files the issue with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.  

Depending on whether Council takes the full 40 days provided by in the Charter, it could be mid-September before Council files Osborne’s initiative petition downtown – well after the Board of Election’s Aug. 10 deadline for putting local issues put on the November 2011 ballot.

And the Race Is On

There will be just three contested municipal races this year: the mayor’s race and races for Council at large and the Ward 4 Council seat. Councilwoman Cathy Murphy and Councilmen Leo Lombardo or Bob Mastrangelo are unopposed this time around.

The mayor’s race is no surprise. Council President Scott Mills threw his hat into that ring several months ago. 

A surprise entry in the Council-at-Large race is Attorney Ken Rapport-Messinger. He joins Mayfield Heights Service Department employee Chuck Brunello and incumbent Councilmen Ed Hargate and Frank Legan, all of whom are vying for three available at large seats.

I wasn’t too surprised to see Ted Anderson’s name in the Ward 4 race. Anderson – who was soundly defeated by Councilwoman (and Assistant County Prosecutor) Lisa Stickan two years ago — pledged in a Nov. 26, 2009 Sun Messenger story that he would run again in 2011.

Two years ago Anderson was nothing but sour grapes about his loss. He seemed particularly bugged that Stickan, an active Republican, received support from Ward 4 Republican voters.  A declared “Independent,” Anderson claimed, “This shouldn’t be a Republican-Democrat race. There should be one side.” Ironically as the Sun Messenger pointed out, Anderson was himself actively supported in the 2009 Ward 4 race by two prominent Republicans – Councilman Frank Legan and former Councilman Jamie Pilla.  

In 2007, Anderson walked in, unopposed, to the Ward 4 council seat. He was able to do that after his predecessor, Jim Austin, decided to file petitions in the city’s at large race, rather than seeking reelection in the ward. (After the election, Austin was appointed to a newly created city position, that of acting building commissioner.)

Anderson seemed to expect that the Ward 4 seat would be handed to him again in 2009 – especially after former Councilwoman Ann D’Amico pulled out of the race at the very last minute. (D’Amico was later appointed, post-election, to a paid position on the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission).

Anderson’s bitter and accusatory comments indicate just how flummoxed he was in 2009 when he found that, instead of another cakewalk, he had to compete against Stickan in a contested political race for the Ward 4 council seat.

“We should all be here for the same reason” Anderson was quoted as saying, which for him meant “… further(ing)  the process of having the former pool house at the Highland Heights park made into a (day camp) facility …(and a) facility for residents’ parties and events.”

As a former Park and Recreation Committee member, it’s not at all surprising that building a new park party pavilion would be at the top of Anderson’s priority list for the city.

Ward 4 voters will have another opportunity in November to tell Anderson just what they think of his priority list.