MINUTES
OF THE
SPECIAL MEETING OF
LAKEWOOD CITY COUNCIL
HELD IN THE AUDITORIUM
12650 DETROIT AVENUE
AUGUST 23, 2002
6:00 P.M.

Special Meeting of Council called to order at 6:00 P.M. by President Seelie.
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Present: Councilmembers Denis P. Dunn, Edward FitzGerald, Thomas J. George, Nancy J. Roth, Robert M. Seelie, Michael J. Skindell.
Motion by Mr. Seelie, seconded by Mr. FitzGerald, to excuse the absence of Councilmember George..
Motion adopted. All members present voting yea.
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Also Present: Mayor Cain, Law Director Spellacy, Police Chief Malley, Health Commissioner Evans, and Human Services Director Carey.

Motion by Mr. Seelie, seconded by Mr. Dunn, to appoint Mary Coleman acting Clerk of Council.

Motion adopted. All members voting yea.

****OLD BUSINESS****

1. Committee of the Whole Oral Report regarding Ordinance No. 134-02 and 135-02

Mr. Seelie reported the following:

Called the meeting to provide clarity to a serious situation. He said this was the third meeting, that there was a public meeting Tuesday, where individuals were able to write down any comments, questions or concerns and those were answered accordingly. There was a public meeting then on Wednesday. The Meeting on Wednesday produced a report, chaired by Councilman FitzGerald, head of Health and Human Services Committee and also Councilman Dunn. That letter will be read into the record and that will be the end of the oral communication. The Committee of the Whole met earlier and voted 5 to 1 to pass Ordinances 134A-02 (Corrected numbering occurred after this meeting) and Ordinance 135-02.

Mr. FitzGerald first indicated that one of the questions that was brought up at the Public Hearing was whether or not there were patients at Lakewood Hospital who were awaiting test results to indicate positive or negative for the West Nile Virus. He said that Dr. Carey and Dr. Kilroy from Lakewood Hospital were present at the Wednesday Public Hearing. Prior to this Meeting Dr. Kilroy was asked that question again and one of the patients that was under observation at Lakewood Hospital and actually was referred to Fairview Hospital has tested positive for the West Nile Virus. He said he was not aware if they were actually a Lakewood resident at that time. There was also a letter signed by Dr. Carabella, from Lakewood Hospital, the CEO of the western region with the Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Chapman was expressing the opinion of Lakewood Hospital that the prevalence of the West Nile Virus infection justifies spraying pesticides.

He said it isn’t normal to be handed this long of a communication just prior to a meeting and he apologized stating the report was just recently finished. He said immediately after the approximately four and half hour public hearing the report was drafted. He reads report:

In past two weeks, Lakewood City Council as well as our community at large has been struggling with our response to the West Nile Virus. Lakewood City Council has held several emergency meetings in recent days in an attempt to fashion a coherent health response. On Wednesday evening, August 21st, the Health and Human Services Committee conducted and informational public meeting on the various preventative strategies and risks associated with West Nile Virus, WNV. For nearly four and one half hours the Committee heard testimony from physicians and medical personnel, Mayor Cain and representatives from the Lakewood’s Division of Health, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health and the Shaker Heights West Nile Virus Task Force. West Nile Virus is a complex public health issue and much is still unknown. Further the public health, safety and welfare of our community is not well served when City Council, under conditions not of its own making, is forced to condense our normal, deliberative process and make recommendations during the panic of a perceived public health emergency. Nevertheless, we believe that the following is a rational, scientifically based West Nile Virus prevention strategy that will reduce the threat of West Nile Virus while also ensuring the long term public health of our community.

The Members of the Health and Human Services Committee agreed on a strategy comprised of nine elements. Some are recommendations to the Administration, which we can only hope that they will take as constructive and seek to speedily implement them. Others are initiatives that this Council can adopt in future legislative sessions. The safest, most effective approach to combating West Nile Virus is a three part, integrated strategy. Number 1, Larvicide, which is the aggressive employment of biological agents to kill mosquito larvae. Two, source reduction, which identifies and eliminates sites where mosquitoes breed such as standing water and bird baths, gutters, etcetera. Three, intensive public education on how to prevent West Nile Virus.

Given the current threat level of West Nile Virus in Lakewood, we strongly recommend that Mayor Cain in her capacity as Director of Public Safety undertake the following course of action immediately. First, it is uncontroverted that larviciding is by far the most effective West Nile Virus Prevention measure. Lakewood’s larviciding protocol, while superior to Cuyahoga County’s, is not sufficient to the task at hand. All City catch basins and sewers should be larvicided without delay. This should be repeated every other week and after every rainfall similar to the successful effort undertaken by the Shaker Heights Health Department. This approach shall not cease until the end of the mosquito season that coincides with the first frost. Second, conduct and intensive source reduction effort throughout Lakewood with every available non-essential service employee as practicable, walking our community in a door to door campaign intent on identifying and eliminating pools of free standing water that breed mosquitoes. This effort must be comprehensive and engage every residential homeowner, commercial property owner and all municipal properties and buildings. Since the current generation of mosquitoes has a life expectancy of ten to fourteen days and will not be effected by the increased larviciding the intensity of the source reduction efforts should last at least two weeks and continue thereafter as necessary. Third, mass public education is a key preventative strategy intent on ensuring that residents are full aware of the potential risks of the West Nile Virus. Residents should be advised to purchase non-toxic mosquito repellants and to take other, reasonable precautions. Public communication should take place via the City’s website, through conversations with City employees via the door-to-door effort, and through a city-wide mailing. Such a mailing, unlike the Administration’s previous letter to residents must identify any pesticides being used and should full disclose any adverse health effects associated with its use. Fourth, the City’s utilization of mosquito prevention measures must be predicated upon the principle of risk management. The panel of experts assembled Wednesday evening were in full agreement as to the preventative measures outlined above. The spraying of pesticides on adult mosquitoes, however, has prompted disagreement among both the panel and the community at large. Although recent data collected by the Cuyahoga County Board of Health is encouraging it cannot be definitively stated how efficacious the spraying of pesticides is in reducing the West Nile Virus positive mosquito population. Correspondingly, it is reasonable to be concerned with possible, long-term public health consequences of pesticide exposure. Further, while it is not a certainty that a more aggressive larviciding policy would have negated the need to spray it is none-the-less true that Shaker Heights which like Lakewood has its own Health Department has employed just such an aggressive larviciding policy and to date is not considering the spraying of pesticides even though they have the option to do so. The ethics of spraying the homes and yards of a significant non-compliant population and chemically sensitive residents, children or asthmatics heightens the duty of the City in considering whether the broadcast use of pesticides is appropriate. The current City policy fails to clearly delineate a standard as to when pesticide spraying might be employed. We recommend that the City adopt a policy of spraying only as a last resort and as part of a policy of risk management which balances the dangers of West Nile Virus with the risks of pesticide exposure and only when there are indicia as determined by medical personnel of possible human West Nile Virus infection in Lakewood or surrounding communities. Even at this stage, the spraying of pesticides is not required and should be undertaken with the greatest caution and to the least extent possible. Targeted ground spraying whenever feasible should be the preferred method if pesticides are ever used. Fifth, City Council should sponsor the creation of an Environmental Protection Board whose mission will be to assess the environmental health of our city and propose standards to improve it. And adjunct to this Board should be a West Nile Virus Task Force which can monitor our efforts to combat this problem and suggest improvements. Sixth, as was demonstrated at the Public Hearing, the approach other government entities adopt regarding West Nile Virus Prevention also effects input (Check on “input”). We strongly urge the Administration to engage the leadership of the Metroparks in particular to ensure that Lakewood residents are protected. Seventh, we urge that the Administration actively explore the use of bio-pesticides with the goal of eventual replacement of pyrethroid-based pesticides. Eighth, City Council should consider re-doing relevant ordinances to determine if additional authority should be given to our Health Department to combat diseases such as West Nile Virus. Specifically, we recommend that Council consider the maintenance of persistent, standing water a cite-able offense during mosquito season. Ninth, the governmental process followed by the Administration in this entire matter was deeply flawed. The failure to request contracting authority for West Nile Virus preventative measures in a timely manner led to public consternation, an attenuated and confusing public debate and a waste of taxpayer dollars. The Administration is urged to examine the root cause of these failures and enact appropriate controls to prevent its repetition. In particular, the decision to send a letter to Lakewood residents stating that the spraying of pesticides would take place and the expenditure of public funds to finance that letter prior to the authorization of funds to do so is a serious error that cannot be allowed to happen again. The resulting false alarm has made the task of preventing the spread of this virus all the more difficult. We believe that these recommendations are firmly based on the principles of sound science and good government. We have a duty to our residents to provide them the safest environment possible and to respond to public health dangers be they natural or synthetic. With the adoption of these recommendations Lakewood’s public health strategy will become a model for other cities to follow and will have fulfilled our missions as public servants. Sincerely, Edward FitzGerald, Chairman and Denis Dunn, member from Health and Human Services Committee.

Motion by Mr. Seelie, seconded Mr. Dunn, to receive, file and concur with the oral report and written communication.

Mr. Dunn said he believed the recommended provided was consistent with the Center for Disease Control guidelines. He referred to page 37 of guidelines referencing flexibility was required.

Ms. Roth indicated she favored the Environmental Protection Board for the long-term, and said the option to spray should be allowed because of the number of seniors in the community and because of a case of a person being infected

Mr. Skindell said he would vote against the motion because he disagreed with some of the statements made in the report. He said he was also not comfortable with the recommendations in that he thought they were arrived at in a process that was skewed, lacked public participation and lacked an in-depth review of the topic.

Mr. Corrigan said the statistics Dr. Kilroy presented at the meeting Wednesday night were chilling in comparison to the 1999 New York outbreak of West Nile Virus. He said in considering the objective criteria before them with the high positive counts of mosquitoes the expectation was that there would be more high counts in the future. He said he would be supporting the allocation of funds to combat this. He said the CDC recommended action, that it had been studying, researching the virus for years and that their recommendation should be given credence, serious thought and should be followed.

Comment from public said the report left out the health effects of the pesticides.

Dr. Patrick Carey, resident of Lakewood, spoke about Lakewood Hospital’s position regarding broadcast spraying of pesticides. At the Leadership Council at the Hospital a recommendation was approved - to proceed with broadcast spraying of pesticide due to the presence of human cases of the West Nile Virus case in the Westside community and the threshold that far-exceeded that established by the Center for Disease Control for when spraying should occur. He said there was no mention that pesticides should be phased out or discontinued. He said they are used as common household pesticides and flee bombs, bug sprays of all different sorts. He said the absence of a controlled study that has given pesticides in large doses to pregnant women is a criterion which can never be met, because noone would purposefully administer a potential teratogen to a pregnant woman. We don’t know one way or the other but we do know that the pesticide has been available for over twenty years and there is no evidence to support that it is a teratogen, that it causes central nervous system complications in the unborn or born. He said further that there is no evidence to report that it increases the risk of breast cancer or breast cancer as proposed by phychiatrists form Shaker Heights Wednesday.

Question is – if appropriations approved that evening – if the Mayor had authority to spray that night. Answer was yes- question of if notification would take place for future spraying – answer was yes and how much of an advance notification was asked – answer was provided was as much as possible.

Mr. FitzGerald indicated the Mayor had to be the person to decide whether to spray or not and that she had to decide the method of notification. He said Council could not really say how many days notice.

Mr. Seelie said that we could assure the public that if spraying took place, it would be notified – by mail or any other measure possible.

Amy Ryder from Ohio Citizen Action stated she opposed spraying. She said that she had been fighting pesticides for ten years and was stunned to hear Lakewood Hospital would endorse spraying.

Others spoke in opposition of spraying, asking where evidence showing spraying adult mosquitoes reduced incidence of WNV in people. Chris Trepal from Sierra Club provided two suggestions in addition to the report - referencing the CDC recommends increased surveillance and data collection said she would like to see that increased – by our own Health Department – students. Also- would like City to consider when and if – Mayor sprays – make sure residents have information on pesticide exposure.

Human Services Director Carey, - Dr. Richard Barry from the Ohio Department of Health provided an article regarding a critical review ultraviolet, low volume aresols of insecticides applied with vehicle mounted generations for adult mosquito control.

Dr. Kilroy, resident, - said a timeline of the West Nile Virus infection was not provided in the report. He said that in every epidemic that has occurred since 1999 the peak number of cases was the last week of August, the first week of September. There is a delay between the initial bite and infection of about one week which means the cases that are presented this week, and have gone from two CDC confirmed cases to ten CDC confirmed cases since Wednesday were all people bitten last week which is the week after the initial spraying date. He said the people who are being bitten this week will be the ones presented next week and this is a geometric progression. He said there really was no time to do a lot of theoretical things that may have an effect down the road because right now we’re approaching a outdoor holiday – the Labor Day weekend where a large segment of the population out and being bitten by mistakes. There is a direct relation between number of mosquitoes and bit rates and numbers of infections. At this point in time because this is basically a non-treatable disease, the only thing we can do is decrease the mosquito population in order to decrease the number of patients that are bitten, to decrease the number of viral infections. There is always an interesting thing where the opponents to the aggressive management of mosquito control tend to look at just death rates which is about one in 150 of the 1000 people in Lakewood who will have active vireneas. He said they fail to mention the twenty percent of the 1,000 meaning 200 people in our community who will have an exacerbation of an underlying medical problem and will die from that. For example the gentleman who was just confirmed by the CDC an hour ago - his primary problem isn’t actually the fever, the shakes and the weakness from the WNV it’s the fact that he’s an in state COPD patient with having trouble breathing fast enough to keep up with his fever. He is at risk of death from his COPD exacerbated by that. He said this is not a one in a million thing. He said Dr. Holmes did not do mathematics very well because when she said one in a hundred times one in a hundred is one in a million. It’s actually one in ten thousand. She was predicting deaths so by her numbers she would have predicted five deaths in our community which to me is significant. He said he thought that the physicians leadership group this morning that met about this issue believes that we are behind because we have not suppressed our mosquito population thus far.

He said one of the agents that will be used in pesticides is that they’re under the control of the EPA. He said the best scientific data is there, and we know it’s a small risk. He said that pumping gas at gas station is a small risk. He said that we know what a real risk is and that’s what West Nile can do to this community if we don’t’ protect it. He said if we can prevent one or two deaths from occurring from an uncontrolled epidemic would you take it or should we worry about balancing the budget. He said he didn’t think in that report the urgency of action was brought up. He said there was no time to try new agents. He said the medical staff concluded that they should act to prevent death and disability that they can see in their hands and in our beds and not worry about things that are theoretical – that are basically based on psuedo science.

Mr. FitzGerald said that the report did not – most difficult period of time would be over the next ten to fourteen days. He said if the City adopts a more aggressive larviciding policy it won’t have an effect on the current, ambient adult mosquito population. He said he did not dispute Dr. Kilroy’s point. He said the report does say that we shouldn’t be glib about the release of pesticides. He said that’s what the mayor would have to do.

Dr. Kilroy said that if you go to the Ohio State Action Plan – that 85 page document, it will reference the EPA site that will tell you what the risk is and the risk is miniscule to what the risk of the West Nile Virus is.

A person smoke about all the years of the Chemlawn trucks, and was puzzled why number of people fearing spraying. Several members of the public responded that they had concerns of those too.

Question to Mr. Skindell was what specific parts of the report he disagreed with.

Mr. Skindell responded that he received the report only moments before the Committee of the Whole and said he did not have time to digest the report. He said he was concerned that the ordinances do not in any way set up a protocol for the City to deal with WNV. He said that the protocol we have employed, and I believe we have larvicided much more than other communities, don’t think larviciding has been most effective. He said a week ago today, rain, no efforts were made after larviciding was washed away. He said the report does not go into detail about the spraying, it was broad. He said how the notice and time frame were not provided in the report. He said with he took issue with the reference to the governmental process in the report being characterized as a major flaw. He said that he did not agree that the actions the Mayor took led to “public consternation”. He said he did not agree with everything the Administration has done but thought it was inappropriate for the report.

Question was asked if larvicide, was a pesticide was not considered as dangerous beause because it was not airborn. Increase larviciding after rains, increase education of residents and only as a last resort recommend spraying. Mr. FitzGerald said the questioner was correct.

Mr. Seelie said he would like to take back his motion and would like to make the motion to receive and file the communication. He said he imagined there were some sentences he may not have written or totally agreed with but in principle agreed with the report. He asked if the seconded would take back the sentence and just receive and file the report. Response was “sure”.

Motion by Mr. Seelie, seconded by Mr. Corrigan, to receive and file the report.

Motion adopted. Five members voting yea.
Nay: Mr. Skindell.
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2. ORDINANCE NO. 134A-02 – An Emergency Ordinance adjusting appropriations for expenditures in the General Fund and the Hospital Fund for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2002 for the purpose of taking measures for West Nile Virus prevention. (FIRST READING & DEFERRED 8/12/02, PLACED ON SECOND READING & REFERRED TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 8/20/02).
Motion by Mr. Seelie, seconded by Mr. Corrigan to adopt Ordinance No. 134-02.

Mr. Skindell said he would be voting against the two ordinance stating that Council should take time to amend the ordinances to include some of the items brought forward by Councilman Dunn. He said he was concerned that the ordinance did not emphasize the larviciding in the City – that could be mandated. A time frame of the notices could be inserted into the ordinances should decision by the Mayor and the Public Health Officials in the community to spray. The manner of the notice and the content could be provided in the ordinances. He said the ordinances failed to do that. He said the whole matter is still unclear as far as the strategy aside from just go and spray.

Mr. Corrigan said that he will be supporting the ordinances because the money is needed here and now to combat this virus – it is needed for larviciding and any other measures deemed necessary to combat this.

On the motion to adopt:
Yeas: Corrigan, Dunn, FitzGerald, George, Roth, Seelie,
Nay: Skindell.
Ordinance No. 134A-02 Adopted.
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3. ORDINANCE NO. 135-02 – An Emergency Ordinance authorizing the Mayor (Director of Public Safety), the Director of Public Works, the Director of Law, the Director of Finance, and/or the Procurement Officer to enter into contracts for professional services, and to purchase any and all supplies, services and equipment as necessary for the West Nile Virus Prevention Program as authorized by the 2002 Appropriation Ordinances and the Administrative Code of the City of Lakewood. (FIRST READING & DEFERRED 8/12/02, PLACED ON 2ND READING AND REFERRED TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 8/20/02).

Motion by Mr. Seelie, seconded by Mr. Corrigan, to amend Ordaincne 135-02 by deleting in Section 1 “with the lowest and best bidder or as otherwise provided by law” and inserting, “as necessary to control West Nile Virus” and Section 2, deleting “the contracts for supplies, services and equipment in excess of $7,500 for professional services in excess of $5,000 shall be awarded except as approved herein or further approved by resolution of Council” and insert; “Council hereby determines that these contracts are necessary to meet the emergency arising in connection with the operation and maintenance of the City Department or agency or that it is either impractical to award the contract under competitive bidding procedure or cost effective and it is in the best interest of the City to award the contracts without competitive bidding”.

Yeas: Corrigan, Dunn, FitzGerald, Roth, Seelie
Nay: Skindell
Motion adopted.

Motion by Mr. Seelie, seconded by Mr. Corrigan to adopt Ordinance 135-02 as amended.

Mr. Skindell said he wanted to not for the record that the ordinances were be passed in accordance with three readings according to the Charter.

Yeas: Corrigan, Dunn, FitzGerald, Roth, Seelie
Nay: Skindell
Motion adopted. Ordinance No. 135-02 adopted.

Meeting adjourned 7:45 PM.?

Approved:___________________________ ____________________
PRESIDENT

____________________
CLERK