Click the download icon to the right to get updated city water pressure contour map presented at the Jan 3rd Council Work session. It is 8 mb and takes a long time to render on most computers.
If you are unfamiliar with the discussion of the North Pressure Zone you can read this article. Here are some of the points made:
Water Pressure
After the project is complete the average water pressure in this new pressure zone will be 80 psi [1]. The typica…
The Huber Heights Comprehensive Plan is presented in three parts:
Part I: Introduction: introduces the purpose and intent of the plan, the planning process and the
background research and key findings.
Part II: The Vision: presents the vision statement, goals and objectives for the community and a
physical plan including the character action areas, the future land use plan, and the infrastructure
description and recommendations.
The attached file is a scan of papers the city provided as the response to my Freedom of Information Act request. In that request I asked for two items:
1. The audit/report done by the Montgomery County TID in 2011 that showed the city would be able to finance the Aquatic Center using TIF funds.
2. The report done by city staff that showed the city would be able to finance the new Music Center using TIF funds.
The city authorized $140,000 in order to do due diligence to determine if the Music Center was an economically feasible endeavor. This report was the result of the last $40,000 spent. Download is in .pdf format
The Music Center Validation study available here at HuberResidents.org has not be published by the city and the content raises concerns about the operation and revenue expectation.
Here are the notes I used when I spoke to council. You can…
This document also available directly from the city's website: Public Works Meeting Agenda 10/17/2012
Introduction
Currently, Huber Heights’ residents living in single family homes, have the opportunity to choose their own waste collection provider. There are several companies who service the city and residents can choose the options and services that best meet their needs. The Huber Heights City Council has requested that City Staff look into the fea…
Update:
The council approved the ordinance on April 8, 2013. Here is a link to the agenda item. You can find the Resolution as an attachment as well as the contract.
Original ________________________________________________________________________________
The city has been looking into contracting with a single trash hauling company to provide residential service for the city. Three companies responded to the Request for Proposal (RFP). This documen…
Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is a substitution for traditional property taxes. This is a map of the TIF Districts in Huber Heights that was provided by the city in early 2012.
Executive Summary:
The Heights retail, hospitality and office development will significantly increase the economic activity in the region and generate millions of dollars of public funds for the City of Huber Heights, Huber Heights Consolidated School District, Montgomery County and the State of Ohio.
This document was revealed on the day the residents first learned about the Heights Development Project
The download is still of the 2013 proposed budget. Here is a link to the 2014 budget long version
and 2014 budget short version
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This is a compressed copy of the 2013 Huber Heights Budget as proposed in the Nov 2012 Administration Committee meeting. The first reading of this budget will be done in the 26 Nov 2012 City Council Meeting. Approval of the budget will occur in the Dec 10, 2012 meeting.
In 2010, the City of Huber Heights contracted with the Center for Urban and Public Affairs (CUPA) at Wright State University to conduct a random telephone survey to assess resident perceptions of parks and recreation in Huber Heights, as well as waste collection services and water softening. This summary report will provide an analysis of the data collection which occurred from August-October of 2010.
The city council often quoted this survey to justif…
Welcome to Tom McMasters' blog about local politics & life in Huber Heights
Because we are still interested in moving the city forward!
It took awhile but I finally upgraded to the new version of this web design program. I intend to write a little more often now this is accomplished. Also, if you would like to collaborate on keeping the residents of Huber Heights updated on what is happening in the city, let me know and we can discuss how to make that happen.
On the Facebook page HuberResidents.org I mirror a lot of the content here. More importantly, you can find quick thoughts and shares of public events. Follow or like HuberResidents.org on Facebook.
Tom McMasters
As important as I'd like to think this website can be, if you really want to keep up with City government regularly look at the agenda items found on the City's Meeting Information & Audio / Video page
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During Monday night's council meeting there was a 40-minute discussion[1] by council to decide if they want to spend money and hire a lawyer to investigate whether they want to try and invoke Section 13.08 (2)[2] of the Charter where is says an official can be removed from office for “Intentional violation of the prohibitions set forth in Section 4.06 of this Charter”.
This Monday Council will vote themselves a pay raise. Though I believe these council members are grossly overpaid for the quality of work they perform, I argue that they are not raising it enough to pay for the quality we need.
In what range should we set pay for a city council member? First, I will address my friend and city podcaster, Matt Truman’s contention that dedicated public servants…
I was beginning an article about the corruption indictments that made the news the other day when I decide to document another example of deceptive spin to reference in that article. This incident occurred during council’s discussion on blackmailing the school system. Caption:
If that were to occur today that would be impactful because we have no dedicated
revenue to take on that a couple hundred thousand dollar a year expense.
So that expense was taken on basically from the general fund.
So we're just depleting general fund dollars to maintain that payment.
Because there's no dedicated revenue for it.
So we're not collecting tax or not collecting millage or anything on that value.
We're just basically extracting it from what we already collect.…
In this article, I will talk about the important items about the TIF that should have been discussed during the April 16th work session, but council did not address. Then I give a couple kudos on the smart things that were said. Then we will talk about the contract the city has with the school to make the pilot payment for the deferred property tax. After all that, I will address Seth’s silly…
In regards to your first objective… I think it is reasonable that you ask those types of questions. But I also think you should ask yourself this… why should the city get to sit back and provide nothing, but reap all the benefits? TIF is a pretty common thing used all across the country and in the rest of the world. The whole purpose of it is to encourage develepment.
As for your suggestion to slow down development…. this has already been going on for how many years now and still has many more to go. How long exactly do you want this to last?
Have you considered what happens if the city stops contributing and the developer pulls out? The developer is currently paying millions in debt on behalf of the city are they not? If DEC pulled out…. the city would have to start paying that debt again? Or find a third developer at that point to take all the risk because the city doesn't want to help.
Your second objective is basically just to prove a point that you have power or to get some revenge on what some council members told the news in the past? Tell me I didn't just read that. You should be less concerned about what some PAC is doing and more concerned about the city. That is just politics. That PAC failed to even get enough signatures to support their movement 2 years ago.
Can you please provide the specific rules in which you make the following 2 claims:
1. The 3 ways that an item on an agenda (. 2. The mayor can reject any agenda item for any reason
You claim those to be true, but what backs that up?
The rules of council referenced by Starline seem to back up his claim that the mayor has no such authority. Section N of the document below.
I have to agree with Starline's conclusion unless you can back up your claims. All that document says is the Clerk of Council is responsible (consulting with city manager and presiding officer) or an item can be compelled by 3 council members.
If the council itself doesn't want this "requirement", which doesn't seem to be anything official, why make such a big deal about it?
If you think the lack of a read aheads waste the council's time… then that is their choice. It is their own time they are wasting. The few public people who attend the meetings don't seem to care. They probably get more information out of it the way it is, because they have to hear all the clarifications.
I've found that when people talk to our current city council they listen. I also believe council both needs that scrutiny and they don't like it. In fact, they proclaim they want public input but then their actions discourage it. I’ve been trying for a year and a half to get more people to learn about what council is doing because I know with our feedback the city will end up with better government. This website is new online and I have a great vision on where it can go! Right now you can review the beginning of the Aquatic Center or “The Heights” or you can create a profile and start adding content to this site. This is a great project and I look forward to working with you to ensure we get good government here in Huber Heights.
Tom
Flier
If you've come to this website because of a flier you probably want to see the City Lawyer's opinion paper first. At the very bottom of that page you can find a link to the flier for you to download it and pass it out yourself.
This website theme has great potential especially since it is open source and free but I can see I'll need help to make it work. If you believe in the vision and you can write code for a website as sophisticated as this contact me. As useful as this site seems it loads pretty slow so if you know of another open source theme that does the same things contact me.
Also, I think if there are 8 of us willing to rotate through the committee meetings and then write about the key events we can improve this city. Contact me if you are interested.
Finally, if you have pictures of City events, construction, public areas or services I'd like to show them. Send them to me and I'll incorporate them into the site.
Tom McMasters
There probably are a couple more years on the City's trash contract with Republic but I do not think it is too early to compliment the job Republic is doing.
This week the garage got clean and I had a lot of items out front. This morning Republic came and took it all away. I have said it before, Karen Kaleps did a good job organizing the RFP and Jim Borland did a great job in choosing the right…
The other day seven armed men robbed the AT&T store on Old Troy Pike. Except for the original decision of the seven individuals, the actions taken and decisions made by all that got caught up in this event were outstanding. The store owner had the foresight to have excellent video surveillance which will be invaluable. The employees and customers were calm and made the right choices when it…
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