City Council brief for Feb. 12

On Monday, the city council had its first meeting for the month of February. A large variety of topics were discussed during both the 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. sessions. The 1 p.m. work session of the city council began with a special presentation from City Manager Joe Fivas, who introduced newly-appointed Fire Chief, Chris Bates.

“I think Chris is going to be a great addition to the leadership team in Cleveland,” Fivas said.

Fivas also gave an update on several projects in the downtown area. Those updates included projects such as the 25th Street landscaping project, Inman Street Corridor and the rehabilitation of the Cherokee Hotel into the new city hall.

During the 1 p.m. session, Jeremiah Million, president of the Cleveland Professional Firefighters Association, gave a presentation on issues he is seeing in the Cleveland Fire Department.

“The issues we’ll touch on span from months to years and were discussed many times with our current administration. Oftentimes and most times, when issues are brought before the administration, an acknowledgement is made that there is a problem. However, there tends to be a delay in addressing the issues,” Million said.

The first issue Million addressed was that it took almost a year for the city government to appoint a new fire chief. Former Fire Chief, Bobby Gaylor, notified the city government in February of 2023 that he would be retiring. Fire Chief Chris Bates was not appointed to his role until January of 2024. It took 11 months for the city administration to find and appoint the new fire chief.

In the interim, Battalion Chief Rocky Eulo served as fire chief. Eulo was able to perform the day-to-day duties of fire chief.

However, in terms of the entire fire department, Million said, “he wasn’t able to make long-term goals.”

The various other issues that Million brought up during his presentation were related to pay and benefits. According to Million, there is what he referred to as “leap-frogging” occurring in regards to the pay-scale of the fire department. In some cases, a person newly hired to the department will be promoted and make more money than someone of the same rank who has been with the department for several years. Million explained this devalues the promotions of long-term employees within the fire department.

During the 3 p.m. session, several items were voted on, including Zoning Ordinance 2024-06, which relates to the empty plot of land next to El Maguey restaurant at 3700 Michigan Avenue Rd NE. The ordinance was to change the plot from being zoned for General Construction to being an R-2 Low-Density Single and Multi-Family zone. Several community members spoke against the rezoning during the public hearing. The community members brought up several concerns, with the most significant being water runoff to their property.

Councilman Bill Estes of District 2, reassured them.

“Mr. Berry is very correct. Nothing will go in there that will give you runoff. If it does, there’s going to be an engineer’s stamp on there, where you can take them to court,” said Estes.

Mayor Kevin Brooks drew attention to the Stormwater Division of the city government, as part of the Department of Development and Engineering Services. If there are any stormwater or water runoff issues, local residents can contact the office for help with those problems.

The next city council meeting will be held on Monday, Feb. 26, with sessions at both 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.