Meeting Details: The Board of County Commissioners met in person at 9:30 am on January 31, 2023. The meeting was held at the Geauga County Administration Building, 12611 Ravenwood Drive, Room B303, Chardon, OH. This meeting was in person only and there was no link to a recording.
Attendance: Commissioners James Dvorak and Ralph Spidalieri were present, as were Commissioner’s Clerk Christine Blair, County Administrator Gerard Morgan and Finance Director Adrian Gorton. At 10:25 am Commissioner Lennon joined the meeting.
County Representatives: Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand, Soil and Water Commission Director Carmella Shale, PE, Gina Hofstetter, Director, Department of Community and Economic Development. Geauga Public Health Administrator Adam Litke was in attendance in the public
The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer led by Mr. Dvorak.
Minutes from December 13 and December 20 were presented and approved. Reviewer Comment: As of February 2, 2023, minutes are posted on the BOCC website through December 20, 2022.
Report from County Administrator - Mr. Morgan reported that he had approved hires in several departments , including two in the Department of Aging. He also approved a promotion in the Maintenance department and there was a resignation in Water Resources. Water Resources will advertise first internally for this vacancy until Friday, February 3rd, then advertise externally.
Financial Report: Mr. Adrian Gorton reported the following and all were approved:
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Supplemental (no figures mentioned) from the Auditor’s office for the remainder of the American Rescue Act (ARPA) funds to fully appropriate the remaining balance of the fund.
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Travel approved for Common Pleas, Transit and Engineer’s office.
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Vouchers included for the BOCC.
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$44,721.09 from the Commissioners to Trumbull County for Geauga County’s share of the 2022 11th District Court of Appeals expenses (last year it was $59,628.34) Observer Note: The 11th District Court is located in Trumbull County but because it covers Geauga, the County pays a portion of costs, based on our population. ORC2501.181(B)
The County Engineer’s Office received approval for the following: to execute the Highway Easement between the Geauga County Commissioners and Michael A. and Joyce Ann Cathan (Parcel #01-117217) for roadway improvements to Washington Street (CH 0606) in Auburn Township in the amount of $972.00 and a Highway Easement between the Geauga County Commissioners and Carapace Management Limited (Parcel #01-118042) for roadway improvements to Washington Street (CH 0606) in Auburn Township in the amount of $325.00. This is for the Washington St. bridge replacement.
The Sheriff’s Department received approval for the following:
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to execute the Office of Criminal Justice Services (OCJS) In Car Camera Replacement Grant Pre-award Conditions and Standard Assurances forms for Grant #2022-JG-A03-6468E in the amount of $47,066.88 ($35,300.16 from OCJS and $11,766.72 local County match). This grant is for the period January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2023.
Sheriff Hildenbrand stated that the Department is switching over to these new cameras a little at a time with these grants.
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to execute the Office of Criminal Justice Services (OCJS) VAWA Grant (STOP Violence Against Women Act) Pre-award Conditions and Standard Assurances forms for Grant #2022-WF-VA2-8214 in the amount of $59,162.58 ($44,372.62 from OCJS and $14,789.96 local County match). This grant is for the period January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2023.
The Soil and Water Conservation District received approval to execute the 2023 Local Agricultural Easement Purchase Program (LAEPP) Cooperative Agreement between the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Geauga Board of County Commissioners (Local Sponsor) regarding funding to be allocated for the protection of Ohio farm lands against conversion to non-agricultural use in the amount of $125,004.00 for the acquisition of Agricultural Easements approved by the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
Director of Soil and Water Ms. Shale reported that they will be accepting applications until the end of February.
The Department of Development (Community & Economic) received approval to execute the Subrecipient Agreement between the Geauga County Commissioners and ICP Geauga Lake, LLC under the Ohio Department of Development, Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program Grant for properties located on the North and East Sides of Geauga Lake within Bainbridge Township (Parcels #02-126000, #02-126600, #02-125900, #125600, #02-126200, #02-324000, #02-324100, #02-324300, #02-323800 a.k.a. the former Geauga Lake Amusement Park) during the period January 1, 2023 through May 1, 2023 in the amount of $4,120,941.00.
Director of Community and Economic Development, Ms. Hofstetter explained that this award was just announced on Friday and includes 9 parcels. She also said that the announcement of awards also included $21,700 for Chester Township.
The Maintenance Department received approval for Tammy Kuhn, Maintenance Administrative Coordinator, to use the Commissioners’ Office credit card, a Geauga Credit Union Visa, for all expenses related to the training at the Brightly Conference during the period January 31, 2023 through March 16, 2023
Outside Counsel: BOCC approved executing a Letter of Legal Representation: Outside Counsel with Meyers, Roman, Friedberg and Lewis for the Year 2023 in an amount not to exceed $50,000.00. Observer Note: there was no discussion of the purpose of this contract or how it might fit into existing contracts for legal services.
Geauga County Office Building - The Commissioners’ Office received approval to execute the Request for Partial Payment #26 for Donley’s Independence, LLC for the Geauga County Office Building for GMP Phase #1 and Phase #2 in the amount of $421,963.04. Observer Note: There was no explanation as to how many more partial payments will be required or the type of additional work that is still being performed.
County Commissioners Association of Ohio - BOCC chose Mr. Dvorak as the primary, and Mr. Lennon as the secondary representative and for the Purpose of Voting at meetings of the County Commissioners Association of Ohio in 2023.
Capital Projects Fund - BOCC approved Resolution #23-014 Amending Resolution #21-128 to Further Specify the Amount of Money to be Accumulated in the Phase Two Capital Projects Fund, pursuant to and as allowed by Section 5705.13 (C) of the Ohio Revised Code. Mr. Morgan stated that the Phase Two Fund has $13.5 million now and the original resolution authorized $15 million. This resolution will raise the limit to $25 million
BOCC approved Resolution #23-015 Approving Transfer of Standard Allowance Funds from the American Rescue Plan Act Fund Account to the General Fund ARPA Lost Revenue Reimbursement Account and then to the County Capital Reserve Phase II Fund.
Executive Session - The Board adjourned to Executive Session for the purpose of discussing the employment and compensation of a public employee.
Following this session, but before the BOCC resumed public session officially, Newell Howard of South Russell asked Commissioner Spidalieri about NOACA. Observer Note: At the January 24 meeting of the BOCC, there was a long discussion with members of the public about NOACA and their proposed Climate Action policy. At that meeting the Commissioners proposed several public forum ideas. These were not on the Agenda for today’s meeting. Mr. Spidalieri listened and interacted with Mr. Howard and asked for the source of his assertion that Geauga County sent $30 million in gas tax money to NOACA every year. Mr. Howard was not able to point to a specific source. Mr. Spidalieri has previously stated that as BOCC President this year there would not be public comment.
Public Meeting Resumed: After the public meeting resumed the Commissioners approved several motions related to the Archives Department. They created a new position of Temporary Part-time Director for the Archives for 25 hours a week at a pay rate of $35/hour. They then approved the hiring of Linda Berhenne to this position. Observer Note: It is not clear how they identified this candidate for this position or how long the temporary position would be in place. Clair Wilson, the current Archivist/Records Manager/Supervisor was not present at the meeting.
Not on the Agenda - Commissioner’s Clerk, Christine Blair brought up the fact that tomorrow there would be a meeting of the Geauga/Trumbull Solid Waste district. It appeared that none of the Commissioners could attend. It was decided that Mr. Ken Burnett would continue to be Mr. Dvorak’s representative and that Mr. Litke would be the representative for Mr. Spidalieri and would go to the meeting tomorrow.
Phase 2 Courthouse Project - Contractors that submitted a Proposal for the Phase 2 Courthouse Project presented their proposals to the Board as follows: 10:15 a.m. Panzica Construction, 11:00 a.m. Infinity Construction and 11:45 a.m. Independence Construction. Observer Note: This observer was present for the Panzica Construction presentation only. At that presentation and at 11:00 am when Infinity Construction began, there were no members of the Chardon City Council or employees from the Courthouse present. It is not known if they were not invited or if they chose not to attend. No bids were being awarded today and in the Panzica presentation no amounts were discussed. In prior sessions BOCC has awarded the contract for architecture to Then Design and the Owner’s representative contract to NV-5 (these were also the architects and owner’s representatives for the new County Building.) Both NV-5 and Then Design had representatives at the presentations today.
The presentation by Panzica included discussion of their staff, their experience, the timeline and approach and they also elicited comments from the Commissioners.
Mr. Dvorak stated that his concerns would be scheduling, site control and coordination.
Mr. Spidalieri expressed his concern about how the construction would proceed while still maintaining services at the courthouse. He stated that “full disclosure, I don’t necessarily support this whole project . . “ He then stated his opinion that a better alternative would have been to start from the ground up with a brand new building and possibly a new location. His concerns were about the traffic and parking and lack of space. He also said that he believed there would be additional costs. He said that he thought the decision was made on the basis of emotion. “I’m going to go along with this, because I get it that this is the road of movement, but I have to give you my honest opinion (and if I can’t be honest I can’t be anything) I think we’re making a mistake.”
The timeline, as stated by Panzica, is to start March 2024 and be completed July 2025 with three phases and avoiding times of greatest activity..
The schematic presented showed the majority of the new portion will be north of the current courthouse.
Mr. Lennon asked about the budget for the project and Mr. Panzica said that the budget seemed right. Lennon then said that there is a finite amount. “We’re going to stick to it.”
This observer left at this point before the next two presentations.
More Information and Posted Minutes: Available on BOCC website
Next Meeting: Tuesday, February 7, 2023 at 9:30 am
Observer: Gail Roussey
Editor: Shelly Lewis
Reviewer: Anne Ondrey
Submitted 2/1/2023
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