Elyria council ratifies NOPEC application, creates EMS advisory committee and approves administrative travel

Elyria City Council on Tuesday night voted by voice to ratify a mayoral NOPEC grant application, establish an EMS feasibility study advisory committee and approve several administrative travel requests.

Mayor Brubaker told the council the city plans to use $100,000 of Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council (NOPEC) funds to create a grant program for emergency HVAC and hot-water-tank repairs. The ordinance ratifying the mayor’s NOPEC application and declaring an emergency was moved and passed by voice vote. Council did not record individual roll-call tallies in the meeting record; the motion passed with 'aye' votes and no opposing voices announced.

In the same session the council approved an ordinance to establish an EMS feasibility study advisory committee and declared it an emergency so the committee can begin its work promptly.

Council also approved two staff travel requests. Police Chief Walsh asked the council to send Sergeant Adam Garvin, the department’s new CALEA accreditation manager, to a CALEA conference in Arizona March 10–14 to prepare for the department’s next accreditation cycle; the travel request was approved by voice vote. Law Director Dery requested permission for himself and records staff member Rachel Branham to attend an Axon vendor conference in Nashville in the first full week of April to remain current on hardware, software and records-subpoena processes; that request also passed.

The meeting record shows motions were moved, seconded and passed by voice vote; the clerk and president announced 'aye' and recorded no opposing votes during the proceedings. No roll-call vote counts were provided in the transcript.

What’s next: the council scheduled committee follow-ups and the NOPEC-funded program was listed by the mayor as on a referral list for additional discussion and implementation steps in upcoming committee meetings.