The City Council of Hudson, Ohio, held a workshop meeting on Tuesday, August 27, 2024, at 7:30 PM in Town Hall. The meeting covered four major discussion items: a sidewalk project on Hines Hill and Valley View Roads, the future budgeting of Hudson Community Television (HCTV), adoption of the 2024 Safe Routes to School Travel Plan, and potential amendments to the Land Development Code. Council also reviewed the proposed consent agenda and legislation for the September 3 regular meeting. The meeting adjourned at 9:38 PM.
I'd like to call this meeting to order. This is a duly notice workshop meeting of Hudson City Council held in accordance with the Sunshine Laws of the State of Ohio, Section 121.22 for Tuesday, August 27th, 2024. Per ordinance 220.031 titled Workshop Meetings and Item C. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Council President Foster so as to continue through the remaining workshop agenda items. Council President Foster, the floor and workshop meeting is yours. Thank you very much. We will start out with section two, which is correspondence and council comments. If there are any council members that have correspondence or comments to provide to the public, please get my attention and I will call your the floor to you uh to you to speak. Um two brief comments and one will just be a summary. I've heard a lot from a lot of folks. I'm looking forward to apparently hearing from more folks about sidewalks. I think um it's important to know that we're listening and that we have to compile all the information, all the opinions from a lot of varying perspectives, right? So I I think even if your individual question isn't answered tonight, just keep in mind that we are trying to put it all together in the decisions that we're making. Um that that's what I wanted to say about sidewalks was thank you for sharing, it helps a great deal. And the second was I had the opportunity to uh walk downtown with one of our visually impaired residents, somebody who's considered legally blind now, and was walking the route that they get just to use downtown. I know we've talked about safety, et cetera, crosswalks, and we had some vigorous debate about the blinking yellow lights, which scare some people who can't see to death because they are not consistently stopped at. So whereas I'm not advocating to do this with all of them, I would like to add later in our future agenda items discussing a hawk signal, something I brought up with Brad when we were talking about the flashing yellow lights down for that intersection next to the clock tower because I I think it does provide a safe route for somebody who's visually impaired, not just the convenience of stopping traffic, but the confidence that traffic is stopped at that critical infrastructure or intersection. And that's all I've got for today. Comments? I do have uh one comment. Um I do want to correct some misinformation that has come to my attention with regard to the city's existing lease for storage space at City Hall with the Western Reserve Community Band. I was contacted by one of the band members and then later later spoke directly with the band's president. The member asked me why the city was not going to renew their lease for storage of their music files and equipment at City Hall. The member further stated that this was a fact and that this information was communicated to the band by several prominent people. And for reference, the community ban is currently in year two of their lease, and they have an option to apply for a third year, which will cover all of 2025. But the ban has yet to submit their application for year three. As such, the city has not taken a position because there is no application to review, and approval of an application for a year three option only requires the city manager's signature. So I'm concerned that very specific misinformation has been circulating with regard to the process and determination of city lease agreements, and I am bringing this forward today so as to correct the record and clarify the misinformation for both the band and the community. Thank you. That's all. Other comments, Dr. Getz. Yeah, my understanding is that when leases are not when they're finished, they won't be renewed. That was what was brought up when we talked to the um destination Hudson. So my um, and and I'm the one that talked because I'm a member of the band, is I had said when the lease is up, and they were not sure when the lease was up, but I said my understanding is that's what the council had decided. Um, but hopefully we can change that um because we've been talking about that. So I'm sorry if the band member misunderstood me. Um I did not say that their lease was up. I said when it is up. My understanding is it won't be renewed unless the council makes some different opinion about it. I would like to respond to that. And that's why I did my due diligence, uh, Councilor Getz, because uh the president of the band and that member were asking me to look into those details and find out what was going on. So again, I felt it was my duty to look into that. I reviewed the lease. I got the copy of the lease from uh uh the city manager's office. I talked to additional people to find out how does the legislation that was passed almost two years ago apply to this, confirmed with Mr. Sheridan that um all the ban has to do is apply for a third-year lease, which is in um all of the documentation. So if there was that misinformation out there, um people were coming to me very passionately, and I did not want that to reflect poorly upon the city or this council or the city and the staff. So um that's why I did my due diligence to correct that. Uh thank you for helping understand how this process happened, and hopefully everybody is on the same page now.