County committee withholds recommending NEFCO appointments
By Kathleen Folkerth
A Summit County Council committee held off recommending reappointments and appointments to a policy board after Councilman Nick Kostandaras (D-District 1) was not among those being reappointed.
Kostandaras said he has been a member of the Northeast Ohio Four County Regional Planning and Development Organization (NEFCO) for more than a dozen years. He said County Executive James McCarthy never communicated with him about removing him from the group.
The Personnel and Intergovernmental Committee briefly discussed the matter at its meeting March 27. Kostandaras said he was disappointed “after being on it for over a decade and faithfully serving Summit County well.”
Councilman Tim Crawford (D-District 7) suggested recommending the legislation so that it could move forward, but Pete Crossland (D-District 4) disagreed.
“I think it should be defeated,” Crossland said.
The committee voted to put the appointments on next week’s meeting agenda without a recommendation.
“We’re going to defeat it,” Kostandaras said in a phone interview March 28. “We’re going to send McCarthy a clear message.”
McCarthy did not return a request for comment by press time.
Council’s Rules Committee heard from two representatives from local scrap yards, who spoke to the committee about new pending legislation that would crack down on those caught trying to sell stolen materials such as copper pipes.
Bill Lowry, of Annaco, said the county’s current ordinance is fine the way it is. It just needs to be enforced.
“The sentencing of scrap thieves is very lax,” Lowry said. “It’s very difficult to get someone prosecuted. There’s very minimal jail time and no fine.”
Randy Katz, co-owner of City Scrap, said he has worked closely with law enforcement through the Scrap Alert program to find those who have illegally obtained valuable scrap.
“If police call [about stolen items], I request they e-mail me a photo and I send it out to 80 different members of our organization,” Katz said.
Council member Michael Callahan (R-at large), who co-sponsored the new legislation with Daniel Congrove (D-District 6), defended the proposed changes.
“The thought behind this is to make it more difficult for criminals,” he said to Lowry and Katz. “There’s a little more inconvenience, but we don’t want to make it unduly difficult for you.”
“The reality is we’ve got people who buy scrap who don’t comply [with the current law],” Lowry said. “They’re not necessarily going to comply with a new law.”
The committee kept the legislation on time.
Also during the meeting, the Planning, Buildings and Economic Development Committee discussed a plan to convert empty storefront space in the county’s Ohio Building on South Main Street for extra storage space for the county’s Child Support Enforcement Agency. Committee Chairperson Paul Gallagher (D-at large) raised concerns about the location.
“I just don’t think this is good urban design,” Gallagher said. “This space could be used for a restaurant, coffee shop or bar that attracts people and helps revitalize downtown on evenings and weekends.”
Gallagher also questioned the amount it would cost to fix up the space — about $200,000.
Jim Sawyer, with the county’s administrative services office, said the space needs heating, air conditioning and lighting.
“That space has been vacant a long time,” Sawyer said. “The work we’re doing now will bring it up to code.”
In 2004, council approved a $40,000 architectural study of the space, which Sawyer had in hand Monday. The committee agreed to keep the legislation on time and asked Sawyer to show how the $200,000 in the estimate would be used.
Summit County Council is scheduled to meet April 3 at 5:30 p.m. for caucus and 6 p.m. for the council meeting in council chambers on the seventh floor of the Ohio Building, 175 S. Main St.
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