City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. We're going to open our council meeting this evening at 6:23 p.m. We will now do the pledge of allegiance. Please rise to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation.

Here we go again. Damn it. Get rid of that. Okay. Roll call. Here. Law director Moore present. Finance director Frank here. Councilman Large Elliott here. Councilwoman at large Kelly here. Councilman at large Castanzo present. Ward one councilman Curiosis here. W two, Councilman Kelly, present. W three, Councilman Snitzki, present. W four, Councilman Mororrow, Director of Public Service and Properties, Brighta,

here. Building Commissioner Graci, present. City Engineer Gerson, present. I'm going to move to excuse Councilman Mororrow from this evening's meeting. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? Any opposed? I'm going to move to amend this evening's agenda and add ordinance number 19 as 8A on the agenda and wave the 24-hour rule and declared an emergency. Do I have a second? Brian Kelly second. All in favor? Yeah. Any opposed? We're now going to go to the reading and disposal of the minutes.

Thank you, Council President. Having read the minutes of the regular meeting of March 10th, I find no errors or omissions and I therefore move to accept the minutes as submitted. Kira has a second. All in favor? Yay. Yay. Any opposed? We have no resolutions of condemnation this evening. We now go to reports of committees. Planning, zoning, economic development. Councilman Snitzky. Yes. Planning, zoning, and economic development met this evening. Uh minutes are pending. Next meeting will be April 28th. Thank you. Public works council prom Castanzo. Thank you, Mr. President. My last meeting was on Tuesday, March 10th. The meeting minutes are on file and my next meeting is Tuesday, April 14th.

Thank you. Community services council person Kelly. Thank you, Mr. President. Our last meeting was March 10th. The minutes are on file and our next meeting is April 14th. Thank you. Police and Safety Councilman Elliot. Thank you, Mr. President. Last meeting was held on uh March the 10th. The minutes are on file with the clerk. The next meeting will be held on April the 14th. Thank you. Parks and Recreation. Thank you, Mr. President. Our last meeting was this evening. The minutes are pending and our next meeting is April 28th. Thank you. Rules are ethics. Councilman Kelly. Thank you, Council President. Last meeting was this evening. Minutes are pending. Next meeting is April 14th.

Thank you. Finance, Civil Service, and Personnel. Last met this evening. Minutes are pending. Next meeting is April 14th. We have no appointments or confirmations this evening. We have no communications, petitions, or claims. Council open to the audience on legislation only. Hearing none. We now go to the reading of ordinances and resolutions. We now go to the first reading of ordinance number 19-2026. An ordinance authorizing the council. Mr. President, Mr. President Councilman Niski I move to suspend the rules of council and read ordinance number 19-2026 by title only for its first and final reading. Elliot second.

All in roll call. All in favor? Any opposed? An ordinance authorizing the mayor to enter into an economic development job creation and job retention agreement with Nixon Mo mot Motion Group and declaring an emergency. Is there a further motion? Mr. President. Councilman Snitzki. I move to approve the emergency clause in the last section of ordinance number 19-2026. Elliot second. Roll call. All in favor? Yay. Yay. Any opposed? Is there a further motion? Mr. President. Councilman Sinski. I move to pass ordinance number 19-2026 as an emergency measure. Elliot second. All in favor?

Yay. Any opposed? Ordinance number 19-2026 has passed. Council open to the audience for comments. Please uh state your name and your address. Yes.

Okay. Please state your name and your address. My name is Michael M. Spurio. So, Mr. Spurio, you have uh three minutes, please. Okay. and make sure you um acknowledge all council not individuals and uh no disparing remarks please.

Okay, I'll try. Uh my name is Michael Mspurio. My family and I have lived in Seven Hills for 30 years except for my son. He's only been here for 26. Uh my latest neighbor west of me at 295 East Road moved in around 2018. We got along very well, although his divorce hit and we were kind of sending plates of food over and uh we even I even got him a job. Um and we became somewhat close. Um his boys played wreck baseball for me on my teams. He team 20 in 2023. Um, I went by and started noticing there were more and more clutter and junk uh like lawnmowers, riding mowers, bicycles, uh, big air compressors, and even an industrial lift for cars and trucks in the yard. All these things were there all year. Um, so I went to him and I asked him, I says, "What are you going to do with all this stuff?" He said, "Anything I want, this is my property." So I said, "Okay." So I called the building department. They came out and they found he had 20ome plus violations, city violations. And uh they summoned uh the health department to come out also. So Denise Romano came out and reported and told me that there's a good possibility of rodent infestation uh at the property. as well as since the past one and a half years, my cat has called caught seven mice inside my house where my family lives. Um, also my neighbors, my two neighbors have also had the same problem with mice. Uh, the owner has been cited many times by the building department uh in these five to six years going to court in

Parma, slapping the man's hand, judge gives him 30 days to clean it up. So, he moves things around to make it look better and uh the building department uh comes out, checks it out, and says, "It looks a lot better. Okay, we're done." But after that, here comes the truck. Here comes a flatbed trailer. And guess what? Things start all over again. So, I started talking to the neighbors and their concern was the value of their property going down. said if I would get a petition um had one wrote up that they would sign it. So I did that back in June of last year. Um the um they were very concerned uh because of this ongoing unresolved issue at this property located at 295 East which the owner continues to operate with disregard to city ordinances and neighborhood standards. I emailed copies of the petition to city officials last year. Um, I want to thank Tony Terry uh for his guidance in suggesting I call Justin Constanzel uh and also Phil Casares. Uh they met me at my residence um and then they seen the unacceptable standards there at 295 East. Uh this situation is just recycled in the department courts every year.

Thank you, Mr. Spurio. Anyone else? Please state your name and address. And you have three minutes, sir.

Uh Mike Keniki, 381 East Road. And I'm Mike's neighbor to the east. So, I see a lot of what Mike has uh already brought to the attention of the city. Uh the biggest thing that um I find disturbing uh on the weekends uh during the summertime uh when that neighbor he has a hydraulic jack outside, you know, which lifts cars up and they're doing work. Uh I mean, something like that should be in a commercial garage or even in his garage. Uh, and could also be uh, you know, it's not on level ground. Uh, could be an accident waiting to happen. And I have uh, issues too with, you know, more uh, mice that we're dealing with. We have traps set around the house. Uh, this is the third year a third year that we're using this service. And um and it's it'd be nice to see that even that front yard cleaned up a little bit. For example, there's there's a like a twoerson wooden swing on the front lawn, you know, and the swing is, you know, hooked up on one side and just laying on the ground on the other side. It's just it's a little bit of an eyesore. That's all I got. I thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Kicki. No one else. Okay, we now we go to the reports of u communications from the mayor safety director.

Thank you, Mr. President. Um, on a a lighter note, want to invite everybody to the Easter egg hunt this weekend. Um, also want to acknowledge that the morning of April 14th, we're going to be doing a ribbon cutting for the rehabilitation hospital in Rockside. So, everybody is invited to that. Uh, the exact time is not set, but the tenative working time will be 10 a.m. on April 14th. And certainly all of council and our directors and uh those members of the public that are interested are invited. Um, I want to thank Mr. Sto, Mr. Sporio, and Mr. Kcki for coming to meeting today. Uh, I was aware of the petition. Uh, the administration's aware of the problem at 295 Sprig. Um, I'd say give it a second look, but uh, we'll give it a fifth look. Uh, I don't have much control that the courts continue to give them. That's out of our hands. Um, but I could uh I'm failing to have the right words at the moment. Uh, but we'll continue to be diligent on the property and uh we'll send an inspector out tomorrow morning for anything that might be new. Uh, that might those words might not be comforting. Um, but we haven't forgot and we won't give up. And u Mr. Graci, if there's anything you'd like to add when we get to you tonight, uh, great. If not, um, we'll put together a report for you, two gentlemen and your neighbors over the next week and kind of give you uh, what

we have been tracking. Um, so that you and your neighbors know that we have not taken it lightly. Um, but we are a little beholden to the court. And this happens in housing maintenance from time to time that people um play the game. They'll plead not guilty. They get the court. They'll work out something. Most things are done on a plea deal. The judge then gives them the time. And we see this vicious circle. Um can I ask one follow-up question? What what's attracting them the mice?

Is there strewn garbage that they're feeding on? I mean, I'd like to instead of a sometimes a rifle, a sniper shots better than the machine gun. And if I knew an exact problem, I could we could focus. I believe it's the health department was saying that it's just how just how everything is put together that it's like areas for them to hide or you know. All right. Matter of fact, she was asked she was asked if she was asked to get off the property.

All right. Um thank you for coming today. Uh and I thank you. I know you've done a lot in the community volunteering as a coach and stuff and I know you love your home and um I promise we're going to give it another look and we're going to do it right quick. Um, if if you or your neighbors have suggestions on what laws can be tweaked, like this hydraulic jack, uh, that would be different because the administration enforces the current law. But if there's some law that's maybe lacks currently, uh, that council could change a law that would enable us to enforce differently, we'd be open to that, too. But, um, that, u, like I said, the council makes the laws and we enforce them. And if there's anything currently being broken, we're going to get on it tomorrow morning. And if there's anything we could do looking further ahead by changing or tweaking a law, um I'm sure my colleagues up here would be agreeable to that as well. Thank you, Mr.

And if that's currently allowed, that's something our rules committee which meets at the very next meeting can take a look at and saying, "Hey, that uh maybe that's not a good idea to have here." So, there's a two-prong uh attack, for lack of a better word. Uh um take a second look at the enforcement of our current code and what codes can be tightened up where there might be some loopholes uh that's creating this mess at 295. We apologize and uh thank you for coming tonight. That's all I have this morning, evening, Mr. Mayor, I have a question. Please fire away. Just for clarification, is this issue still a pending court matter?

Uh, I would defer. I don't know. Do you know? I don't know. Uh, we'll follow up with you tomorrow morning. Okay. Just just curious. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, mayor. Reports from directors. Do any directors have any reports this evening? Hearing none, we will now go to the moral claim. Under miscellaneous, uh the finance committee voted to deny the moral claim. So when we vote on this, uh a yes will be to deny it. A no would be to approve it. So all in favor to deny it. Yay. All council. Yay. Any opposed? Moral claim denied.

We now go to miscellaneous comments from council. Council person Kelly. Uh yes. I would like to just uh take a moment to wish my condolences to Jenburgger and her family on the passing of your dad. I'm so sorry to hear that and my thoughts and prayers go out to y'all. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Snitzky. Yep. I got a couple things tonight. Um Jen, um sorry about your dad. Thank you.

Um I buried my parents within three months of each other. keep an eye on your mom. She's going to need a lot of support in the next few months. Um, I'm also going to recommend, and I'm guessing everybody did this, but uh, the zoning minute meetings from Wednesday, February 11th, Joe Granadetti went through with the zoning board, and it's a very, very detailed account of what the zoning board should be looking at and how they should um, deal with people that come to them for variances. It's a very very since we still vote on this, this would be a good idea if you read these minutes if you haven't already. It's very very um informative. Um the last thing is is that and I the mayor isn't here right now, but uh I I you know I had a the only condemned house in the whole city for two years was two houses away from it. Condemned. Okay, somehow this has got to be tightened up. I'm not blaming law. I'm not blaming anybody, but if there's a way that we can accelerate these things, take it to a higher court, I don't know. But I I I I it terrifies me that I could end up with a house right next door to me because I live on a a circle with another house that has a 90-year-old man in it. He's a great guy, but I know the inside of the house looks like a grenade went off in it. And I'm terrified that this could happen to me or any of us. And we somehow we have to get a hard-nosed attitude about these type of properties. And I I I can't for the life of me suggest how how uh unfortunately property owners the rights seem to be mostly with the property owner. But

somehow we have to tighten this up and get tougher with it. This is this is appalling and it's happening more and more. I have a couple properties near me right now that maybe could qualify to be a a nuisance and um we've got to get harder nosed with this. That's all. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Snyski. Councilman Elliot, I have nothing this evening. Thanks. Thank you, Councilman Kelly.

I'm gonna kind of go off of Tom Schnitzky a little bit. I I think that is one key area u with the homes that we really do need to take a very close look at and um because there are homes out there from time to time and but then I think we have to put ourselves in their shoes a little bit too sometimes because we have elderly people in homes and so on. But I think a lot of that all has to be combined and see what the reasonings are. But um I think just as a from my saying I think yeah it does need to be looked at and and Jen I am very sorry for your family and one last one for Jeff. Thank you. Reached out to you about the trees as well too and you did a great job with that through the the last storm. You were very quick on that you and your team. So thank you. And that's it. Council president.

Thank you Council Prom Castanzo. I mean, at the end of the day, we want to keep Seven Hills beautiful. We want to show some pride in our city. And I commend these two gentlemen for actually coming up and speaking because it's hard to talk against your neighbors. Um, as Tom said, as Brian said, I think we really need to look at some teeth to this, whe whatever that looks like. Uh, secondly, Jen, my thoughts are with you. And then a little inside joke, uh, Director Gear, you do an amazing job.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Council Prom Castanzo. Uh, Director Burger, offer my condolences. May his memory be eternal. U, I want to thank Mr. Spurl, Mr. Kiki for, uh, coming tonight to enlighten us what's going on. Um, I was over there at the house last week, so I actually seen it in person, so I know what's going I believe Justin has also been there, so we're I've been trying to both of us have been trying to work with them to try to rectify the situation. Um the Easter egg hunt is on Sat I mean on Saturday at 12:00 noon at the rec center. Right, Jen?

Remind everybody. And one last thing um I don't know if any everybody realizes this is but the city of Seven Hills uh we're a member of NOA Northeast Ohio uh city council association and um about two years ago I went on one of their virtual meetings and uh that was the only time I've ever been on there. Anybody's welcome to go. Do you guys question do you guys get emails from them about their meetings?

Yeah. Okay. So, um, they had a meeting back in end of February, uh, on a Friday night at Ridgewood Event Center, the new golf course. So, I was invited to come by, I had gotten an email, but I was invited to come by one of the city council members of Parma. So, I went and, uh, it was a great night. There was about 50 people there and it was a meet and greet and got to meet uh, council people from other cities, finding out what they're doing in their cities, what legislation they're passing. And I was elected onto the executive board that night as one of seven members. So, um, I'd really like for some of our council members to start going. We have, uh, four in-person, uh, forums a year, and the next one's going to be June 20th. It's going to be a breakfast. I'm not sure where it's going to be yet, and I'm not sure who the speaker is, but it's very informative, and it's a nice networking to get along with other council people and find out what's going on in their cities. One person that's on executive board, he's from Brook Park, and he knows everything that's going on about the Brown Stadium. And we have uh people from South Uklid, Cleveland Heights, Warrenville Heights, uh Strongsville. So if anybody's interested, when you get the email, just call me. Maybe we can go together. Or if anybody's interested, I just thought I'd let let everybody know it's a very interesting organization. So that's all I have this evening. I'm going to motion to adjurnn at 6:46 p.m. Do I have a second?

A second. All in favor? Yay. Any opposed? Meeting adjourned.