GIRARD Employees must live in county

The rental inspection issue will be addressed at a committee meeting next week.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- City leaders have determined where future employees will have to live.
Council members, at their Monday night meeting, unanimously rescinded an ordinance requiring city employees to live within the city limits and installed new legislation requiring city employees to live within Trumbull County.
Council, under the advice of the civil service commission and Law Director Mark Standohar, were given three options for new residency legislation.
Council could have allowed employees to live anywhere in the state, within Trumbull County and its four adjacent counties, or strictly within Trumbull County.
Civil service commission members were waiting on a residency decision from council before administering the next civil service exam. A new state law made the change in legislation necessary.
Both police and fire chiefs urged council to resolve the matter as quickly as possible so that a valid list of candidates for both departments would be on hand. A police officer is scheduled to retire in May and a firefighter has retired in the last two weeks.
Fire Chief Kenneth Bornemiss said the city has not had a civil service exam in more than three years, making the last test results invalid. He said the city needs a new list of candidates immediately.
Commission members will meet in the coming weeks to determine a date for the civil service exam.
Property inspections
In other business, dozens of landlords attended the meeting asking for changes in how the city conducts rental property inspections. There is a committee meeting scheduled for next week to discuss the issue, but many of the landlords wanted more immediate answers.
City landlord Samuel Finelli, on behalf of a group of city landlords, asked council several weeks ago to eliminate the yearly inspections and reduce the fees associated with the inspections. On Monday, he told council the landlords were unhappy with lawmakers' refusal to make the changes and were asking that the legislation making the inspections and fees possible be rescinded immediately.
Finelli said if council did not rescind the legislation he and other landlords would not be attending the committee meeting scheduled for next week.
Council, however, told Finelli rescinding the legislation immediately would be illegal. Council instead voted to place the issue on the agenda for its next meeting in hopes that some resolution will be reached during the scheduled committee meeting.
Finelli said he and the group of landlords do plan to attend that meeting.
"I am happy with the way council voted," he said. "I might not get the legislation I want, but at least we are a part of the process and we are moving forward."
jgoodwin@vindy.com