By Violet Puin

Jonathon Bollas (President of Council and Ward 3)

Christine Cipa (Council At-Large)

Jessica Epstein (Council At-Large)

Nick Rubino (Council At-Large)

Ted Roy (Ward 1)

Donald Pavlik (Ward 2 and Vice President of Council)

Mary Gutman (Ward 4)

Mollie Gilbride (Director of Finance)

Megan Raber (Director of Law)

Carol Siciliano-Kilway (Mayor)

Joe Ignazzitto (Director of Administration)

The meeting began with Pastor Daniel Doty from First Congregational Church of Tallmadge presenting his recent mission in front of the council. He noted that the church would be forming a partnership with a church in Germany. Afterward, the meeting did roll call and the Pledge of Allegiance. The council also corrected and adopted previous meeting minutes from the 2/13/25 meeting. There were no financial reports, no public hearings and no community input. Meeting minutes were adopted unanimously. Monica Caruso was confirmed to the claims commission, appointment of the finance chair, and Jonathon Bollas was appointed to the claims commission. There was a joint motion to accept all three positions to be filled for the claims commission unanimously. Sheetz is requesting a liquor permit for sales in their store, including Sunday sales. The council unanimously decided not to hold a hearing for this matter. AT&T will begin its fiber project; residents may notice yard signs and door tags. The city is still searching for an economic developer and administrative assistant. There is a public hearing on 3/13/25 for “imposing a six-month moratorium on acceptance of any zoning application for vape and/or smoke establishments or shops within the city of Tallmadge and providing for immediate enactment.” Ordinance 2025-33 was passed unanimously to sell unused equipment. Ordinances 2025-34 and 2025-35 were passed unanimously, allowing the mayor to enter a contract for the lease or purchase of a leaf collector through TIPS purchasing program. Ordinance 2025-36 was passed unanimously, allowing the city to purchase a new police cruiser. Ordinance 2025-37 granting the mayor the authority to sign a contract for the acquisition of 28 Southwest Ave. from James M. and Diane C. West. Ordinance 2024-75 was passed unanimously, allowing the mayor to enter an agreement with Local 2764 and The International Association of Firefighters. Ordinance 2024-76 passed unanimously, allowing the mayor to enter an agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police with Tallmadge patrol officers. Ordinance 2024-77 passed unanimously, allowing the mayor to enter an agreement with the F.O.P., consisting of Tallmadge police sergeants and Tallmadge police lieutenants. No other reports for safety, community issues, public services or special reports.

Transcript:
The following is an AI-generated transcript of the meeting. You should expect there to be inaccuracies.

Speaker 1  0:20  
You. Give Me So

Speaker 2  1:17  
good evening Today's Thursday is February, 27 2025 welcome everyone to our regular city council meeting in council chambers tonight, we will have an executive session re pending litigation prior to our adjournment this evening. With that, I will call the meeting to order, and we will start off by welcoming pastor, Dan Dody from first congressional church here in Talmadge, where he will give us our opening prayer, and then follow that with a brief presentation.

Speaker 3  1:52  
Would you join your heart with mine and prayer this evening, gracious among the God we give you for the gift of this day, for this time to be together. Oh God, we give you thanks for these civil servants and city leaders who gather this evening. We give you thanks that they rise every day to do what they can to make this city a better place to live. So surround them in this time. Bless their work together, their deliberations, the decisions they make, we give you thanks for this beautiful city in which to live, to call home, and for the ways that we as citizens can also participate in making it a better place every day. Continue to surround us with your presence throughout this evening and when our time here is over, see us all safely home this evening. We ask this in your Most Holy Name, Amen. Amen.

Unknown Speaker  3:13  
To tell

Speaker 3  3:18  
you, the First Congregational Church is developing a church to church partnership with the German church in Ben, German, German which I'll tell you, is near the town of which you don't know, and maybe even Dortmund, which might not pinpoint for you, but it's in the area of Germany where Dusseldorf Malone and Ben are at. I did send a picture along, if I could have that. We are starting a church to church partnership with the Johannes care gun, and I was there last fall to be in worship with them and to Meet their pastor, Christina, and we took the picture. You

Speaker 3  4:09  
so this is me and Pastor Christina. I presented them with a bicentennial plate from the First Congregational Church. But we're standing in the Johannes deer film, which was built in the year 1150 so I'm pretty sure they have nails in their door, much older than our entire country. So I felt a little ridiculous, but yet they were very gracious to accept this gift knowing that we are a much younger country than Germany. Two German friends from this congregation are here, if you'll stand up, Marco Bros and Jonah kretzler are here. The first thing we do with our partnership is we're going to develop a youth exchange program where we'll start a group of American youths Germany for two weeks, and we'll host a group from Germany. It is not just a First Congregational Church. If you have folks in the city with students in high school or early college, we'd love to have them talk with us about this particular partnership. We. We do. We have fun things. We learn from each other. We stay in German homes. They stay in American homes. We've been to Berlin, we've been to Ben, we've been to Cologne, we've been to main event. Historically, we've been in concentration camp. So it's a wonderful experience for our youth. So if anybody has a youth and those are interested, I just wanted you to meet Mark and Jonah and to get to know the first congregation church as part of this program. Ben our international partners and journalists. Thank you very much for your

Unknown Speaker  5:24  
time. Thank you for being here. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2  5:36  
All right, next up, we'll move to our roll call this evening, Clerk, please call the roll.

Unknown Speaker  5:44  
Jonathan bolus here, Jessica Ben Stein here, Mary Goodman here, Padlet here, Ben,

Speaker 2  5:57  
all right. Thank you. We are all here this evening, moving up, moving along to item four. It's uh cracking and adopting the previous meeting minutes from February 13, 2025 council meeting minutes.

Speaker 4  6:08  
I'll make a motion to approve the minutes as presented.

Unknown Speaker  6:12  
We have a motion and a second, one second.

Unknown Speaker  6:14  
I think, when I looked at it, I think the first line said, February 27

Speaker 1  6:19  
look at it. Real

Speaker 2  6:25  
quick. Do them. Let's see the motion in a second discussion. Okay, so we have a motion and a second, a second to adopt the meeting minutes as presented. Please continue with your discussion.

Unknown Speaker  6:36  
Just on the first line. This is you called the order on February 27 but it was February 13. Ben

Unknown Speaker  6:46  
it says January 23

Speaker 5  6:49  
these are the February 13 minutes.

Unknown Speaker  6:53  
Not a big deal, but just

Speaker 2  6:56  
Oh, I see, thank you. Okay, I see in item one on the actual minutes, the date of the meeting needs corrected to reflect February 13, 2025, all right, so we'll note that and have that corrected before that, before that is uploaded, any other discussion on the minutes. Thank you for that. Observation clerk. Please call the roll.

Unknown Speaker  7:26  
Yes. Jessica, yes. Mary Desmond, yes,

Unknown Speaker  7:30  
yes. Ed Roy, yes. Mr. Ben,

Speaker 2  7:35  
yes. Meeting Minutes are adoptable. I vote of seven to zero with one amendment. Moving on to financial reports tonight. We have none public hearings. We have done community input. This is the time in the agenda where if anybody in the audience would like to speak on an item not on the agenda tonight, you may come to the podium and have two minutes to speak. All right. Item eight, agenda additions, I'd like to welcome Chief Bohan this evening to the podium where we'll be recognizing Sergeant Stover for the Distinguished Service Medal and Officer Quillen for the community service medal.

Speaker 6  8:21  
Again. Thank all of you very much. We really appreciate it. We've had some long evenings this year, so we're very grateful you will allow us to come in here and do this. Madam Mayor, if you'd like to come up here as well as the safety director, is that these metals, that would be wonderful. I think he goes without saying that his chief is probably one of the great privileges that you have in this job is to be able to acknowledge and reward the services of our employees and the great work that they do. First up tonight, I think we do Sergeant silver so Sergeant Stokely, come on up here real quick.

Speaker 6  9:00  
Make sure I write a citation here on Wednesday, November 6, 2024 Sergeant sober was requested for mutual aid from Maga war at a street down there for a suicidal female with the gun. He quickly responded, and he found that the female had barricaded herself in the bathroom with the gun. He quickly assisted the modular officers by requesting borrowed officers for additional assistance, setting up a perimeter, and he had the modular EMS stage nearby, even though the bathroom door was in line with the front door of the residence, which put him at a tactical disadvantage. He began communicating with the female from the front door. She was clearly in a heightened and volatile emotional state. There were times during the conversation and the female church tried to manipulate the gun in the bathroom. However, he maintained a calm demeanor, displayed a genuine concern for the female's well being, and showed great compassion for her situation. This allowed him to build a rapport with the female, which calmed her down, and he talked her to her for. Approximately 55 minutes before she voluntarily came out of the bathroom, unarmed, she was then transported to the hospital where she could get the help, because she desperately needed that day for his actions on November 6, it led to the peaceful resolution of a highly chaotic and vital situation, and undoubtedly saved a life assist. These acts are in keeping with the highest standards and values of the town of police department. Police Department, and they reflect great credit on Rob stover and the city of town while

Speaker 6  10:42  
they get a quick picture, I'll just remind everyone that Sergeant Stover is also the coordinator of our crisis intervention team, the work that he does with ADM board and CSS and all the other community resources that we have out there to handle our mentally Oh, it's quite remarkable. He does a lot on his own time, just out of the goodness of his heart, I think, and something that Terry dear to him and he came to us from Kent State University Police Department. He brought that experience with him. So this medal isn't just for that one moment in time, though it's well deserved for that. It also represents years of commitment To crisis intervention. Sure, very

Unknown Speaker  11:41  
much. Congratulations.

Unknown Speaker  12:02  
Thank say

Unknown Speaker  12:05  
it's also

Speaker 6  12:13  
very awesome that we got here and see all the support that we have from their peers, other employees. We got some kids here for officer Quinn, which is very nice. So Dave, once you come on up here tonight, what we're issuing is a Community Service Medal, which is the first. It was created for us with a couple of other recognition medals that we have some accommodation bars, and this is the first ever community service medal that the police department has ever issued, and it really couldn't be issued to a more deserving individual. I think many of you here know of his work that he does with our schools and our community. It's quite quite extracting. So we go and read the citation. I'll say a few more words, and then we'll get things moving here. So in recognition of your extraordinary dedication and unwavering commitment to serving our community far beyond the call of duty, we award you the community service fund. Throughout your career, you have generously given your time to the citizens of town, the town of city, school district, and served the interests of citizens and groups beyond our borders, many of these hours have come at the expense of your personal time and resources, your selfless service, countless hours of volunteer work, loyalty to the community, and genuine compassion. It positively impacted many lives and are in shining example for everyone, whether through discussing the safety of the children townage, coordinating the annual shop at the COP event, participating in a building cruiser event, Special Olympics, torturings and all while mentoring the youth of towns and supporting those in need, your proactive approach and intentional decisions are a great benefit to our community. Service is sacrifice, and you clearly place service before self. Making our community safer, kinder and more connected, your distinguished actions bring great credit upon yourself and the city of town, which the city of town district, the town of police department, they're on keeping with the highest traditions, values and standards, law enforcement professional.

Unknown Speaker  14:12  
Thank you very much.

Speaker 6  14:22  
Applause. Could have gone on and on about the I've got a whole list here, but that's a

Speaker 6  14:40  
lot. I think we have a lot of children here

Speaker 7  14:44  
from the schools to honor officer COVID as well. If you guys want to come out, Ben, nice picture with them. That'd be great.

Speaker 6  14:59  
People. Earlier this week, we issued a Distinguished Service Medal to Sergeant Patrick Ferro for the work that he did over a number of years in the Executive Bureau. He did not wish to be recognized, but he come here tonight to support his fellow members. I would like to just bring to a brief part of the commendation of his medal, if it's hard with you guys, while serving as a detective and Detective Sergeant from November 2016 through october 2024 Sergeant Fairhurst, exemplary initiative and service brought positive regard to himself. The town of Police Department during his tour of duty, investigated and participated in the successful prosecution of many notable cases, including a man who stole hundreds of 1000s of dollars from his grandfather. He scanned numerous banks and credit card companies of over half a million dollars. He also investigated a Nigerian scammering from Rhode Island, obtaining FBI collaboration, collaboration to prosecute Six Suspects. And for that case and his work, he received recognition from the US District Attorney's Office in Rhode Island, he federally prosecuted a sexual predator who extorted local women and sexually assaulted a juvenile. He attained successful conditions of multiple suspects and rashes of burglaries and bang robberies in our city, even identifying a suspect from Great Britain who hacked social media accounts to extort suspects and coordinating the international investigation with British royal police to successfully prosecute that individual. In addition to some of the exceptional detective work that he did, he also served as the Deputy US Marshal in the Northeast Ohio, vital future Task Force, where he received the Susan graves Task Force officer of the year in 2021 for his work on multiple cases, including one time when they were out searching for a violent felony and a shooting occurred unrelated to who they were looking for, he quickly responded to that area, provided medical aid to the victim, obtained identifying information about the shooter, and that enabled officers to quickly get in there and Ben Guilty Party during his tours of detective, he also continued to serve the town District Police Department as the use of force instructor and reviewer. He conducted countless training sessions and reviews, including the administrative investigation and review of an officer involved shooting in 2023 you may also recall department social media post from May 2024 which highlighted Sergeant Fairhurst attending the STEP program, which is the supervisor training education program in the Ohio Association of Chiefs police, and it's a months long program where they learn leadership. And he graduated with honors and was elected as class president, which was done by his peers. His exceptional performance, work ethic and initiative are in keeping with those high standards the Township Police Department and reflect great credit on him in the city, so well done. Thank

Unknown Speaker  18:09  
you all very much.

Speaker 2  18:12  
Thank you very much. And just echoing congratulations and thank you to Sergeant prayers, Sergeant stover and Officer Quillen. Thank you. Thank you all for all you do. All right. Next item on the agenda is our moral Claims Commission appointments. There's three appointments this evening. These are for two year terms. The first item is confirmation to the claims committee of Monica Caruso. This was a recommendation by Mayor COVID. And then, per the applicable code section, 150 5.01, integration and composition of the moral Claims Commission, the Finance Chair is the one representative of Council, and then there's one additional member of council, and I was respectfully asking for the nomination to fill that other seat. So there will be three seats filled for a two year term on the world Claims Commission. In point of order for from a law director. Do we need to do each of permit per vote. Or could it be one vote per all three? You can do a

Speaker 8  19:27  
joint motion if you want. And then if it happened to not go through, then you could break it up if you need to. Would someone

Speaker 2  19:36  
like to do a joint motion for the confirmations?

Speaker 4  19:42  
I'll make a motion to appoint Councilman bolus as the third representative to the Claims Commission, and then I will make a motion to accept all three individuals to the Claims Commission.

Unknown Speaker  19:59  
Second.

Speaker 2  20:02  
All right, we have a motion and a second, and just to clarify the motion in a second are to confirm Monica cruso is a member of the community, to the Claims Commission to confirm the appointment of the Finance Chair to to fill one vacancy of Council, and then council president to fill the second vacancy of Council. We

Unknown Speaker  20:33  
had a person a second, I guess we'll call the vote. Sorry, Mr. Rubina, all right. Second. Epstein,

Speaker 9  20:44  
yes. Mary Guffman, yes. Catholic Yes. Ed Roy, yes. Nick rovino, yes. Jonathan Bullis, yes. Christine, zip up, yes. All right.

Speaker 2  20:57  
Thank you very much. The Claims Commission appointments are accepted by the vote of seven zero and then third item on Agenda editions this evening, we have a vote on whether to hold or not to hold a hearing For the sheets liquor permit.

Speaker 2  21:19  
Would Mr. Ignacio or miss Raber. Like Comment on this

Speaker 10  21:27  
Good evening council we we were notified just before the last Council meeting that sheets is requesting a liquor permit for beer sales at their site for wine and mixed beverages and for liquor sale, for alcohol sales. On Sunday, they had also originally submitted for beer, beer sales, consumption on premise, they have since withdrawn that you have emailed and the actual bio department, political control system paper in front of you, after finding the permit sheets, discovered that the sale of alcohol has not been approved at their future location, increasing for Ben. So where it is my understanding from talking with their outside counsel that they do intend to circulate petitions for increasing vote for alcohol sales at its future location, that they have missed timelines for the May ballot, so they would have to do their petitions now and meet the guidelines for November. Their anticipated opening date from their outside sales, outsized console and not their construction personnel is probably late September or October if they file for if they put the ballot initiative on and it is approved by the precinct, it would probably be January or February of 2026 before package sales could be done there. So the form that we received from the state, the legislative, legislative notification form that you have in what that only gives them an option to request a hearing or to not request a hearing. If we were to request a hearing, really, the only basis of the ground for that hearing would be that it's not authorized at that location. There my understanding when sheets does, just to clarify when sheets does circulate a petition, it will only be for their location that could change. That's my understanding from talking to their outside counsel. So this form really isn't appropriate for the situation, because most of the time it is already a wet location, and they can sell alcohol. If we go that, if we decide, if the council decides to vote for a hearing, it would really be pro forma, and our only point would be that liquor sales are not authorized. The state of Ohio division of liquid control will not issue a permit for a site that has not been approved at that location by the city and then the precinct. So the if we if we do not have a hearing, what would happen is that the Ohio Department of liquid control will hold on to sheets permit and keep it on file until after the election and pending the outcome of the election for the the ballot initiative for alcohol sales at their location, then they would issue the permit, which would. Still not be until January or February. So in essence, in this case, it's not going to have a determined outcome. Whether we have it's not going to have a determination on the outcome. There is currently liquor sales right across the street at Duke and Dutchess that was voted on in November, 2008 and it was done as a site specific location. So the year to the choices for a vote are to have a hearing, which would basically be pro forma or to not request a hearing, and the sheets will continue on their path. Sheets is going to continue on their path regardless, they do intend to to request to sell alcohol through the process I just explained so what questions do you have? I a

Speaker 4  26:10  
question for law director River, is there any benefit for you going to acronym

Speaker 5  26:22  
to, I think, based on the information that we have, I would only suggest that you request a hearing if you don't think it's appropriate that they be able to sell the care.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai