1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP 8 BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING 9 * * * 10 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS 11 * * * 12 DATE OF HEARING: Tuesday, December 2, 2003 Beginning at 6:59 p.m. 13 PLACE OF HEARING: One Business Parkway Drive 14 Dayton, Ohio 45427 15 BOARD MEMBERS: Angela R. Jones Edgar Ramsey 16 Brice C. Sims Allen Elijah 17 18 ADMINISTRATOR: Robert E. Bradley 19 * * * 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 1 MS. JONES: I'd like to call the 2 meeting to order. 3 (Thereupon, the Pledge of Allegiance 4 was recited.) 5 MS. JONES: Roll call. 6 MR. ELIJAH: Trustee Sims? 7 MR. SIMS: Here. 8 MR. ELIJAH: Trustee Jones? 9 MS. JONES: Yes. 10 MR. ELIJAH: Trustee Ramsey. 11 MR. RAMSEY: Here. 12 MR. ELIJAH: The record should 13 reflect all trustees are present and seated at 14 the December meeting of the Township. 15 MR. SIMS: I make a motion to 16 approve the meeting minutes of 10-7-03. 17 MS. JONES: I second the motion. 18 MR. ELIJAH: So the motion has been 19 properly moved and seconded for the October 7 20 meeting minutes. How do you vote, Mr. Ramsey? 21 MR. RAMSEY: Yes. 22 MR. ELIJAH: Ms. Jones? 23 MS. JONES: Yes. 24 MR. ELIJAH: Mr. Sims? 25 MR. SIMS: Yes. 3 1 MR. ELIJAH: Please let the record 2 reflect the passage of the minutes from October 3 the 7th. 4 MS. JONES: Clerk's business. 5 MR. ELIJAH: No new business. 6 MS. JONES: Old business, none 7 indicated. New business. Mr. Bradley? 8 MR. RAMSEY: He's not here. 9 MR. ELIJAH: Actually, he's making a 10 couple copies. 11 MS. JONES: He's making copies for 12 this. We'll be patient and wait a few minutes 13 for him. 14 (Pause in proceedings.) 15 MR. ELIJAH: New business. 16 MR. BRADLEY: New business. We have 17 a couple items here, approving an amendment to 18 the agreement for participation in the Miami 19 Valley Fire/EMS Alliance. 20 We joined the organization back in 21 '94-'95 and each year you have to basically renew 22 your participation and that's what we've received 23 an agreement from them for our signature. I just 24 need a motion for approval. 25 MR. SIMS: I make a motion to 4 1 approve. 2 MS. JONES: I second the motion. 3 MR. ELIJAH: So the motion for the 4 approval for Jefferson Township's participation 5 in the Miami Valley Fire and EMS Alliance has 6 been properly moved and seconded. How do you 7 vote, Mr. Ramsey? 8 MR. RAMSEY: Yes. 9 MR. ELIJAH: Ms. Jones? 10 MS. JONES: Yes. 11 MR. ELIJAH: Mr. Sims? 12 MR. SIMS: Yes. 13 MR. ELIJAH: Please let the record 14 reflect the passage of the agreement to 15 participate in the Miami Valley Fire/EMS 16 Alliance. 17 MR. BRADLEY: The next item we have 18 is for 2004 through 2005 with Montgomery County 19 Animal Shelter. 20 Again, each year we have to renew 21 our agreement with them whereby the animal 22 shelter will come to the Township and pick up 23 dead carcasses, dogs, cats, and other animals. 24 And I need a motion to approve. 25 MR. SIMS: I make a motion to 5 1 approve. 2 MS. JONES: I second the motion. 3 MR. ELIJAH: So the motion has been 4 properly moved and seconded. Is this a renewal 5 contract? 6 MR. BRADLEY: Yes. 7 MR. ELIJAH: So renew the contract 8 with Montgomery County Animal Shelter. How do 9 you vote, Mr. Sims? 10 MR. SIMS: Yes. 11 MR. ELIJAH: Ms. Jones? 12 MS. JONES: Yes. 13 MR. ELIJAH: Mr. Ramsey? 14 MR. RAMSEY: Okay. Yes. 15 MR. ELIJAH: Please let the record 16 reflect passage of the motion to renew the 17 contract with Montgomery County. 18 MR. BRADLEY: And the last item is 19 historically, we establish a date and time for 20 the annual reorganization meeting whereby the 21 president and vice president are appointed for 22 the upcoming year. 23 MS. JONES: I would prefer that it 24 is on the first of this year because that's what 25 the Board chooses to do. So if we would like to 6 1 go with what we've always done, it would be the 2 first of the year, January 1. 3 MR. SIMS: What time, 10:00? 4 MS. JONES: (Nods head up and down.) 5 MR. ELIJAH: No motion required for 6 that? 7 MR. BRADLEY: No. They just agreed 8 on date and time. 9 MS. JONES: So it will be January 1 10 at 10:00 a.m., Mr. Bradley. 11 MR. BRADLEY: Thank you. I'll give 12 the proper notices. 13 The next item on the agenda is just 14 a resolution for consideration. Prior to your 15 consideration for adoption, Mr. Katsuyama would 16 like to make some comments. 17 MR. KATSUYAMA: Thank you very much. 18 This resolution was first prepared on October 11, 19 2001 after the September 11 attacks. 20 Meeting with other Asian-Americans, 21 leaders of groups throughout the Miami Valley, it 22 came to our attention that there were many biased 23 incidents that were occurring often to people of 24 South Asian or Greek decent who were -- who have 25 really no connection with the Middle East, as 7 1 well as Arabs and Muslims in the area. 2 And we felt that this was a sign of 3 something very unhealthy brewing, and we wanted 4 to take a stand and ask for a regional approach 5 to a potential problem. 6 Some have asked well, there have 7 been no hate crime that has national importance 8 or attention so why such a solidarity resolution 9 against hate, why is it necessary? And it's our 10 position because that things haven't escalated to 11 that point where we want to take a stand because 12 we feel that without a strong statement by 13 leaders, that things could escalate and get out 14 of hand. 15 So we announced this resolution on 16 October 11, and by October 20, twenty-seven 17 organizations throughout the Miami Valley signed 18 on, including nationally prominent organizations 19 such as the NAACP, National Conference Community, 20 and Justice League of Women Voters and so forth. 21 I have materials that I'll leave for 22 you, the October 20 press release, the list of 23 the twenty-seven endorsing organizations, the 24 supporting statements, and the cities and 25 municipalities that have so far adopted this 8 1 formally as a resolution. 2 Some may ask, is it still relevant, 3 is it still needed, and I brought my friend here, 4 Mr. Tarif Hurani from the Arabic-Muslim community 5 to speak on that issue. 6 MR. HURANI: My name is Tarif 7 Hurani. I am a member of the Council on 8 American-Islamic relations. I was born in the 9 City of Damascus, and I've been a U.S. citizen 10 for close to twenty years now. So that would 11 make me an Arabic-American, and I am an 12 American-Muslim by faith also. 13 As you well know, there is obviously 14 a big difference between the Muslim and the 15 Arabic. Half -- half of the American-Muslims are 16 African-American Muslims and half of the 17 Arabic-Americans are Christians and the other 18 half are -- are Muslims. 19 The events of September the 11th 20 touch every one of us, especially the 21 Arabic-Americans and the American-Muslims. We 22 were victimized twice on that day. Number one, 23 like everybody else, we were all attacked, 24 America was, was attacked. And there were people 25 from Arabic countries in that building, there 9 1 were Arabic Christians and Muslims who were 2 perished on that day. There were Muslims and 3 visitors from other countries who were killed on 4 that day, but what makes it more difficult is 5 that we were looked upon by some. I do want to 6 emphasize the word some, some of our fellow 7 citizens that we were to blame for what happened. 8 We were discriminated against by our own 9 Government. We were attacked by our own media 10 and radio and TV on a daily basis. We were not 11 given the proper protection by our own law 12 enforcement to some municipality levels. 13 Not a long time ago, the Department 14 of Justice issued an F.B.I. report on hate crimes 15 saying that the hate crime is on the decline in 16 the past year. And not only that, it says that 17 Dayton, Ohio had zero hate crime in the past 18 year. 19 I'm going to leave you with one 20 comment here. In the last year, there was zero 21 hate crime in our area here according to that 22 report. So this is a -- a report that sounds 23 good, but really want good news, not -- and use 24 that that sounds good. 25 We are calling for a true healthy 10 1 community that has no hate. And the reason for 2 appealing to your Board and others, other City 3 councils and community boards, we want to get the 4 commitment to the current laws and to the current 5 fight against hate crime. 6 And we are also calling for an 7 education for our law enforcement so they can 8 mark the proper crime and they can classify the 9 hate crimes. Thank you. 10 MR. KATSUYAMA: May I just follow in 11 closing, a brief statement? There are three 12 action items we're asking you to follow upon 13 besides the solidarity resolution. 14 We would like to have a brochure 15 disseminated to the public. We're preparing this 16 for distribution next year, and hopefully all of 17 the school children would receive this, hate 18 crimes, what are they, what can you do with 19 useful information. 20 Also, we're preparing a little card 21 for law enforcement officers, response protocol, 22 how to handle a hate crime when they're 23 investigating one. And thirdly, we're announcing 24 an association with help link, it's a 25 twenty-four/seven hot line where people could get 11 1 information and access to resources. 2 So we'll be sending that materials 3 to you later. Thank you. 4 MR. BRADLEY: And now I have -- 5 would like to entertain a motion for Resolution 6 O3-36 solidarity, a resolution to further the 7 cause of democratic processes and protect human 8 dignity and rights. 9 MR. SIMS: I'll make a motion. 10 MS. JONES: There is additional 11 information that you said goes with this, right? 12 You have additional -- 13 MR. KATSUYAMA: This is on our 14 website. 15 MS. JONES: My concern is since we 16 have not had an opportunity to review all the 17 information that we not make a motion on this 18 now, not that I have a problem with any of it, I 19 just would like the opportunity to get to read 20 and to educate myself a little bit more on this. 21 I was trying to read through the 22 resolution while you were speaking and thought 23 that was rude and didn't want to do that then. 24 So I would like the opportunity to have more time 25 to review this. So I guess I have to bring it up 12 1 to the Board, we have a motion on the table. 2 MR. SIMS: I had a motion to -- 3 MR. ELIJAH: I have a question. Is 4 the information you just brought up a part of the 5 resolution or is that just additional information 6 that you would like to disseminate at some point 7 in time? 8 MR. KATSUYAMA: It's just supporting 9 letters. It doesn't have any additional 10 information that affects interpretation or 11 anything. The resolution stands on its own, but 12 there were various support letters we thought 13 would just kind of enhance the meaning. 14 MS. JONES: There's a motion on the 15 table to accept the resolution. 16 MR. ELIJAH: Is there a second? So 17 is the wish of the committee to table this? 18 MS. JONES: I'd like to now make a 19 motion to table this until we all have the 20 opportunity to review the information and 21 resolution that's been put before us and maybe 22 look at it at the first of the year. 23 MR. ELIJAH: I'd like to call for 24 the vote then on the tabling of Resolution 03-36 25 until such time as it and all of its supporting 13 1 materials could be properly reviewed by the 2 Board. I'd like to call for the vote. Mr. Sims? 3 MR. SIMS: Nay. 4 MR. ELIJAH: Ms. Jones? 5 MS. JONES: Yes. 6 MR. ELIJAH: And Mr. Ramsey? 7 MR. RAMSEY: Yes. 8 MR. ELIJAH: Please let the record 9 reflect that Ms. Jones and Mr. Ramsey affirm the 10 tabling of this Resolution 03-36 and that 11 Mr. Sims said nay. 12 MS. JONES: Trustee report. 13 Mr. Ramsey. 14 MR. RAMSEY: I have nothing. 15 MS. JONES: Mr. Sims? 16 MR. SIMS: Yes, we had a -- 17 (Thereupon, the Notary interrupted 18 the proceedings.) 19 MR. SIMS: We had a citizen in the 20 township co-sponsor Jefferson Township Day that 21 passed, Ms. Sharon Perry, and I'd like to give at 22 least a moment of silence to her because she was 23 an outstanding citizen. Could we just have three 24 minutes of silence, Madam President? 25 MS. JONES: Yes. 14 1 (Pause in proceedings.) 2 MS. JONES: Thank you. Do you have 3 any information that you need to share? 4 MR. SIMS: The Board of Trustees 5 would like to send her some flowers. Her funeral 6 will be at Weiss Funeral Home at 11:00 Thursday. 7 And I would like the Board of Trustees to send 8 flowers. Do I need a motion on that, to send 9 flowers? 10 MS. JONES: No. I think that the 11 Board agrees that we would like to do that for 12 Sharon Perry. I'd also like something to send to 13 the family, and maybe we can put together a 14 letter showing Sharon's support in the community. 15 MR. SIMS: I think the Leaf Program 16 went off pretty good this year. We did a lot of 17 things with the Leaf Program. I think that was 18 outstanding for us to do that this year. 19 The other thing that I'm very 20 concerned with is the Drexel area. The Drexel 21 area has been my pet peeve. I was in Drexel the 22 other day, and we need to get involved in some of 23 the homes over there. We need to get involved 24 with our zoning lady to get into homes to find 25 out how we can do something with those violations 15 1 over there. It is terrible. And I need -- we 2 need to get over there fast to find out what we 3 can do to try to straighten that area up. Okay, 4 Madam. 5 MS. JONES: Thank you, Mr. Sims. 6 Risk management. 7 MR. BRADLEY: There were no risk 8 management activities for November. 9 MS. JONES: Citizens' comments. 10 MR. BRADLEY: Yes. We have three. 11 And Mr. John Cores, 5121 Germantown-Liberty Road 12 would like to discuss minutes and carcass 13 disposal. 14 MR. CORES: The minutes, it says 15 transcript not yet received. Did you have 16 minutes? Have you reviewed the minutes? 17 MS. JONES: We have minutes, but we 18 don't have the full transcript sometimes. 19 MR. CORES: Did you have minutes in 20 front of you approved tonight? 21 MS. JONES: We approved the minutes 22 of the business, but the transcript is not here. 23 And that's word per word. But we approved the 24 minutes of the business. 25 MR. CORES: Did you have a copy of 16 1 the minutes to review and approve? 2 MS. JONES: We have minutes. We 3 have minutes. 4 MR. CORES: Carcass disposal, I'm 5 not familiar with that. How does that work? 6 MR. BRADLEY: If I may, each year 7 the Township or all the jurisdictions in the 8 county actually have to sign an agreement with 9 the animal shelter to have dead animals picked 10 up. And there's an odd little fee, twenty bucks 11 for a dog, ten bucks for a cat. So -- deer, I 12 think it's seventy-five bucks. But that's the 13 agreement. So each animal that they pick up, you 14 get a bill for each month whatever they pick up. 15 Last year, I think they did ten. 16 MR. CORES: How about individuals? 17 My dog dies. 18 MR. BRADLEY: No, this doesn't cover 19 that. 20 MR. CORES: Because I tell you what, 21 the county -- I guess the State has shut down all 22 the private -- 23 MR. BRADLEY: No, this is basically 24 removal on the Township roadways. 25 MR. CORES: I understand. What do I 17 1 do with a dead dog or dead lamb or dead sheep? 2 MR. BRADLEY: I can check on that, 3 John, if you'd like. 4 MR. CORES: Would you? Because they 5 quote a big price at the landfill. 6 One other thing on this resolution. 7 I talked to these gentleman a little bit. I 8 don't object if it makes people feel better, but 9 we just pledged allegiance to the flag and that's 10 with liberty and justice for all. And if there's 11 a flaw in our Constitution or flaw in our laws, 12 let's approach that. 13 I don't know -- I don't disagree 14 with anything in here. I don't know what it 15 does. I would suggest you go to the schools and 16 maybe put together a course lesson and have the 17 schools provide that kind of teaching to the 18 youngsters. I didn't receive anything like that, 19 I don't know about the rest of you, about 20 religion and how they're related as opposed to 21 unrelated. Jews, Christians, Muslims, all the 22 same God, right? All children of Abraham. How 23 many people know that? 24 MR. BRADLEY: Next, we have a Ms. 25 Barbara Harris. I didn't get her residence. And 18 1 she wants to speak about the cable building. 2 MS. HARRIS: Good evening. One 3 thing I wanted to mention about the cable 4 building was the CDC is planning this year for 5 this Christmas holiday to collect our winter wear 6 garments for children, women, and men. And we 7 wanted to -- well, we had anticipated on having 8 the drop location at the cable building which is 9 at 59 Germantown Pike. But it's so cold now that 10 we cannot use that now because the electric is 11 not on. And that was one of the questions I was 12 wondering, when would the CDC be able to actually 13 go into the building for their meetings, you 14 know, for this winter, or are we going to have to 15 continue to use the administration meeting room? 16 That was one question. If you want to answer 17 that now or I can go on with the rest of what I 18 would like to -- 19 MS. JONES: Yeah, go on. The cable 20 building had been ready for you guys. I think 21 they hadn't turned on the utilities because CDC 22 wasn't actively having meetings for a long time 23 again. And I've talked with Alan and Robert 24 Hamilton, and I guess you guys are just now 25 starting back to have your regular meetings. So 19 1 it will just be a matter of notifying us and 2 actually letting us know that you're meeting 3 there because there was a point where there 4 wasn't any activity. 5 MS. HARRIS: Well, we've meet up 6 here in the warmer months. 7 MS. JONES: You -- 8 MS. HARRIS: Not last Saturday, last 9 month, we met here because it was too cold. 10 MS. JONES: Yeah, Mr. Hamilton 11 called. I think it was the first time that you 12 had met for a while. 13 MS. HARRIS: And we have another 14 meeting coming up on the 13th, which I believe 15 Robert or Alan will be contacting Mr. Bradley. 16 If it's no problem, until that situation with the 17 cable station gets taken care of, we'll just meet 18 here. Do you need a letter or anything from us 19 about our meetings because I've sent notices? 20 MS. JONES: (Nods head up and down.) 21 MS. HARRIS: I'll continue to send 22 the notices of our meetings. 23 MS. JONES: I think the concern is 24 that you're going to be consistently doing that. 25 MS. HARRIS: Hopefully we will be. 20 1 We're shooting for new members. We're getting 2 them. People are beginning to realize now that 3 they'd like to participate with the CDC and get 4 some things done here and help out with the 5 townships so you guys don't have to work so hard, 6 you can put us out there. 7 And I wanted to make a comment to 8 the high risk -- is it the risk management, is 9 that the correct name? 10 MR. KATSUYAMA: The Federation 11 Against Intolerance of Racism. 12 MS. HARRIS: I guess intolerance of 13 racism. Okay. I thought that was a very good 14 presentation you gave and information is very, 15 very needed. Also, if I can share with you, it 16 sounds a lot like what the Dayton Dialogue does. 17 Are you connected with them? 18 UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: Yes. We have 19 members. 20 MS. HARRIS: You have members from 21 the Dayton Dialogue? 22 UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: Judge Riley 23 who runs that is one of our members. 24 MS. HARRIS: Okay. You know, it's 25 an organization for the people and just me, 21 1 myself would like to see something, you know, 2 like this happen to make people aware of what's 3 going on and how other many organizations that we 4 have, whether they're religious or nonreligious, 5 and people working together of all sorts and 6 sorts of racism. We need to come together that 7 way. So I hope everything works out good for us. 8 That's all. Thank you. 9 MR. BRADLEY: The last speaker's 10 request form is a Ms. Howard of 863 South Snyder 11 Road. She'd like to speak to the financial 12 report. 13 MS. HOWARD: Good evening. This is 14 something that's been ongoing. We have been 15 asking for a monthly financial report and so far, 16 we haven't gotten that. Is there a problem that 17 we, the citizens of Jefferson Township, cannot 18 get a financial report as to what is going on? 19 And who does the financial, who does that report? 20 MS. JONES: You've asked for a 21 report in meetings? I think at one point we said 22 at any time the citizen could come to the office 23 and see that financial report. You would have to 24 give the staff notice to be able to have that, 25 don't just come in and stand there and want it 22 1 that day because they then have other things to 2 do. 3 MS. HOWARD: But why can't -- you 4 have an agenda here. 5 MS. JONES: I don't know if we would 6 be able to -- 7 MS. HOWARD: Why can't you give the 8 financial report and pass it to the citizen? 9 MS. JONES: Well, when the new clerk 10 comes on, we can talk about how extensive of a 11 report he would want to give. It would be an 12 extensive report that would have to be done for 13 every meeting for everyone. And we can talk to 14 him at the first of the year and maybe -- 15 MS. CROSS: They used to give a 16 financial report. They discontinued that. I 17 think Mr. Elijah somewhere near half of his term, 18 they discontinued. We used to get one. They 19 used to give one when we had our trustee meeting. 20 We used to get one. And I asked -- it's been 21 about six months ago, and Mr. Elijah says go to 22 Channel 13. Everyone can't get Channel 13. So 23 it would behoove them, I think, to have one, a 24 financial -- 25 MS. HOWARD: I don't see the problem 23 1 either. Every organization gives you a financial 2 report. Every organization. 3 MS. JONES: We'll talk about that. 4 Maybe it could be in the minutes. Do we have any 5 more citizen comments? 6 MR. BRADLEY: No. 7 MS. JONES: Can I have a motion to 8 adjourn? 9 MR. SIMS: I'll make a motion for 10 adjournment. 11 MS. JONES: I don't even know what 12 he said. Do you want to make a motion to 13 adjourn? 14 MR. RAMSEY: I'll make a motion for 15 adjournment. 16 MR. SIMS: I said I'll make a motion 17 to adjourn. 18 MS. JONES: I second the motion. 19 MR. ELIJAH: Properly moved and 20 seconded. We stand adjourned. 21 (Thereupon, the proceedings were 22 concluded at 7:29 o'clock p.m.) 23 24 25 24 1 STATE OF OHIO ) 2 COUNTY OF MONTGOMERY ) SS: CERTIFICATE 3 I, Michelle A. Elam, a Notary Public 4 within and for the State of Ohio, duly 5 commissioned and qualified, 6 DO HEREBY CERTIFY that the above-named 7 hearing was reduced to writing by me 8 stenographically in the presence of the parties 9 and thereafter reduced to typewriting. 10 I FURTHER CERTIFY that I am not a 11 relative or Attorney of either party nor in any 12 manner interested in the event of this action. 13 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set 14 my hand and seal of office at Dayton, Ohio, on 15 this _ _ _ day of _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, 2003. 16 17 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ MICHELLE A. ELAM 18 NOTARY PUBLIC, STATE OF OHIO My commission expires 5-02-2005 19 20 21 22 23 24 25