The Tiffin City Council Finance Committee approved changes to its pending legislation regulating sweepstake terminal cafes.
The proposed ordinance now says the cafes are to pay $100 per terminal annually, instead of a monthly fee of $25 per terminal. Marvin Dabish, owner of Player's Club in Tiffin Mall, said $25 a month was too expensive for his business.
One issue the committee has with Player's Club is that it still does not have an occupancy permit, said Councilman Brian Bilger.
Dabish said his Tiffin location is the only one of his 19 cafes that does not have a permit.
Fire Chief Bill Ennis said by state law, businesses are required to have an occupancy permit and the city could legally shut down the business, but the council has been willing to work with it.
Dabish said Player's Club would have the building up to code by the end of the month.
Mayor Aaron Montz said he would like to see a quarterly inspection because he has "seen problems in the past."
Fees are to be charged annually, but the cafes are to inform the city when they get more machines, which must be licensed. The city also is to have random inspections on the cafes.
Council is to hear the third reading of the proposed ordinance at its meeting Monday.
The committee is also looking at regulating skill games and games of chance, but Howard said the council should make a separate ordinance for those games.
John Davoli of North Central Ohio Educational Service Center proposed a local government innovation fund loan application for information technology consolidation.
The committee also approved the transfer of $59,191.65 from the Fire SAFER Grant Fund to the General Fund.
This transfer already has been appropriated in the 2012 budget, but the city's auditors recommend the actual transfer be approved with separate legislation, Finance Director Gwynn Reinhart said.
