Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) Regular Meeting – August 9, 2022
BOCC met on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at 9:30 am at Geauga County Administration Building, 12811 Ravenwood Drive, Claridon. This meeting was in person only and there was no link to a recording.
Commissioners Dvorak and Lennon were present. Mr. Spidalieri was absent.
Also in attendance were Christine Blair, Commissioner’s Clerk, County Administrator Gerard Morgan and Finance Director Adrian Gorton.
Other members of County Government in attendance were Shane Hajir, Engineer’s Office, Office on Aging representative, Sheriff’s Deputy not identified, Gina Hofstetter, Director, Department of Economic and Community Development, and also in the public Adam Litke from Geauga Health District and Nick Gorris, now the Sanitary Engineer.
The meeting began at 9:35 am
Financials - BOCC approved the financials for the meeting of August 9, 2022 which included:.
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Transfers from the Sheriff’s Department and Office on Aging
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Encumbrances for NV5 for change order # 5 for the new County Building and travel for the Court of Common Pleas and the Planning Commission
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Vouchers for $38,581.71 from the Commissioners to Then Design and $8,657 from Water Resources to NOACA. It was stated that an additional $34,000 will be paid as a combined payment from the Commissioners and Engineer’s Office to NOACA
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Acknowledgement of a Certificate for the Opioid Settlement Fund.
County Engineers Office – BOCC approved the following actions at the request of the County Engineer’s office:
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to execute Change Order #2, and Final increase of the Contract with Ronyak Paving, Incorporated for the Asphalt Resurfacing of Aquilla Road (CH-0005, Sections A-B) and Butternut Road (CH-0021, Sections F-H) in Burton and Newbury Townships in the amount of $9,145.50.
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to execute the Unit Price Contract with Eclipse Co., LLC for the Replacement of the Farmington Road Bridge (Structure #0018-01.960) in Auburn Township in the amount of $315,786.00.
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to request the County Auditor to encumber the amount of $100,000.00 for the North Cheshire Street Improvement Project in the Village of Burton, as final, detailed plans have been submitted and approved to the County Engineer and the project meets the requirements set forth in the Policy and Guidelines for the Application and Distribution of Geauga County Municipal Motor Vehicle License Tax, adopted March 22, 2022.
Mr. Lennon asked about the Fairmount Road project and Mr. Hajir stated that it would be next year.
The Sheriff’s Office - BOCC approved the following requests of the Sheriff’s Office:
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To execute Resolution #22-147 Declaring County Property as Surplus and Directing its Sale to Chester Township, Ohio as authorized by O.R.C. 307.12, for a 2013 Chevrolet Impala and to acknowledge receipt of Resolution #2022-244 from Chester Township who wishes to purchase the 2013 Chevrolet Impala in the amount of $3,000.00 and further approve and execute the Agreement for the Sale of Vehicle to Chester Township and
The Department on Aging received approval for the following:
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to approve the revised Organizational Chart to increase the number of positions for Part-time Recreation and Education Assistant (#1005-1) from one to three positions and decrease the number of positions for Full-time Recreation and Education Assistant (#1005) from six to five positions, to be effective August 9, 2022 and to increase the current posting for the position of Part-time Recreation and Education Assistant (#1005-1) from one to three positions. These positions will remain posted until filled.
The Department of Development (Community & Economic) received approval for the following:
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to advertise for Bids for the DDC Clinic Generator Replacement Project under CDBG Grant #B-F-21-1AZ-1 to be held on Wednesday, September 7, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. Notice of this Bid Opening will be advertised on August 11, 2022 and on the County website.
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to advertise for Bids for the Camp Ho Mita Koda Cabin Winterization Project under Grant B-F-21-1AZ-1 to be held on Wednesday, September 7, 2022 at 2:10 p.m. Notice of this Bid Opening will be advertised on August 11, 2022 and on the county website.
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to advertise for the position of Full-time Office Coordinator (#1412). This position will remain posted until filled.
Mr. Lennon asked if Century Village in Burton would be able to utilize the grant used by Camp Ho Mita Koda and Ms. Gina Hofstetter stated that they could and that it could be considered with next year’s grant projects.
OneOhio Rep appointed: BOCC approved and executed Resolution #22-148 Appointing Ilona Daw-Krizman as the Initial Region 13 Unincorporated Representative Member to the OneOhio Governance Board. This is the Board that is charged with administering the opioid settlement funds. This appointment was for the unincorporated entities (Townships) and the next one will be for municipalities. There were two equally qualified candidates and Mr. Dvorak flipped a coin to pick Ms. Daw-Krizman as there was no other way to make a decision since the Township Association was also not able to decide which one to appoint. It was stated that both candidates were very qualified. Mr. Lennon asked if they could appoint a representative from the Sheriff’s office, but it was stated by Mr. Morgan that the appointment had to come from the entities. Mr. Morgan did further state that the Commissioners could communicate their desire to have someone from the Sheriff’s office, but that they could not determine who the Incorporated group wanted to recommend.
The following items were not on the Agenda:
Mr. Lennon stated that he had a conversation with Kim Carter from NAMI about a program called Stepping Up which is a collaboration between the County jail and various mental health providers. He stated that he had just read an article from the State County Commissioners Association that praised this program and he wanted to ask the Commissioners to look into it for Geauga County. Mr. Dvorak stated that retiring Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice O’Connell has recommended this and he also thought it sounded like a good program for Geauga County. It was decided to set up a meeting to investigate the program.
Mental Health and Recovery Board (MHRB) levy
At this point Mr. Lennon talked about the prior day’s Special Meeting (August 8, 2022). Mr. Dvorak could not attend that meeting due to a Board of Revision meeting but there was a quorum as Mr. Lennon and Mr. Spidalieri were present. However, no action had been taken. No action had been taken because they did not have the certificate from the Auditor’s office. It was further stated that the Certificate had been received on August 8th (yesterday) at 2 pm so they could now vote on the necessary resolutions today or have an Emergency meeting the following day. Mr. Lennon asked Mr. Dvorak if he would vote to take this to the next step since it had been approved at a prior BOCC meeting (with Mr. Dvorak not voting in favor but passed with the 2 votes of Mr. Lennon and Mr. Spidalieri.) Mr. Dvorak said he would agree to it going forward. He stated, “Let the voters decide.” At that point a motion was made to accept the certification from the Auditor’s office. The revenue to be expected (as per the Auditor) was $1,614,266 per year based on projected revenue.
A second motion was made and approved to declare it a necessity for a levy in excess of 10 mil and to place it on the ballot. These two resolutions will be delivered today to the Board of Elections by Commissioners clerk Christine Blair.
Public portion
A question was asked by Diane Jones of Auburn Township regarding whether there would now be a need for the Emergency meeting and Commissioners answered that there would be no emergency meeting.
This observer asked for clarification of the amount of the levy as it could not be heard in the room during the reading of the certificate by Ms. Christine Blair. The correct amount was read and is stated above in the report.
Motion to adjourn at 10:05 am.
Board Minutes are posted here: https://bocc.geauga.oh.gov/meeting-minutes/#group=documentlist&doc-category=&doc-year=0&docspagination=0-15https://www.co.geauga.oh.us/Departments/Commissioners/Meeting-Minutes
Note: Board minutes are available through May 10, 2022
Next meeting will be Tuesday August 16 at 9:30 am. In person only. The meeting will be at the County Administration Building, 12811 Ravenwood Drive, Claridon
More Information: https://bocc.geauga.oh.gov/
Name of Observer: Gail Roussey
Name of Editor: Betsy Kubbins
Reviewer: Shelly Lewis
Submitted 8/9/2022
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