Welcome to Tom McMasters' blog about local politics & life in Huber Heights

Anyone still interested in moving the city forward?

The program I use to construct this website implemented a complete new edition one and a half year's ago. I am hoping to implement that upgrade soon. With luck that will allow me eliminate all the robots that post ads for overseas shoe companies and soccer matches which will allow me to open the site up again to those that like to comment and discuss local issues.

Until then keep an eye out for an article or two and keep in touch via 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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News

PSE should not be given an extension on the City Attorney Contract

I provided the following read ahead material for the discussion on the City Attorney Contract:

Even after the change in the person named to be the City Attorney, Pickrel, Scheaffer & Eberling has provided biased advice detrimental to the best interest of the City and I recommend terminating the working relationship.

The office of Pickrel, Scheaffer & Eberling chose to endorse the City

…

Back in the July, August time frame I reached out to the City Manager in order to start a discussion about his position with the city. I indicated I would be in favor of waiving the contract requirement that said he needed to give the city six months’ notice before putting in for retirement. Since his putting in for retirement also terminated his contract, I also indicated this would offer the city a gentlemanly way to transition to the next city manager.…

The discussion occurred as schedule on the 21st of November. You can watch the entire 53 minute discussion from the city website.

It is frustrating to go through the effort of talking through an issue and getting real information on the record, only to have discredited reasoning brought up again and again. Normally, I see this on Facebook and it is the same people that continually repeat things…

If you look at this chart you will see three different ways the Alcore TIF could have been created and the amount of money the school board would receive under each method.

Alcore TIF to Schools first 10 year options

You can see from this chart that if a Non-School TIF were created it would have generated $2,561,588 dollars for the schools, over the first ten years of the TIF. Instead Tyler tells you the school board voluntarily signed…

I have been distributing a flyer with condensed statements on the candidates for office. Here are my expanded thoughts on the Ward 5 candidates.

	Flier Thoughts		Expanded Thoughts
Linda Morin	Positives: Decent work experience, independent, down to earth, willing to talk issues and provide insight into her analysis Negatives: Inexperienced in government,

…

Older news

October 29th 2017, 8:33 PM The Mayoral Race -

October 16th 2017, 2:26 AM Why are the Lane Park and Family Dollar TIFs irresponsible?

October 14th 2017, 12:18 AM Clarifying TIF by examining Mr. Gore's misunderstandings

September 26th 2017, 4:20 AM Chambersburg and Fishburg Road improvements

August 26th 2017, 8:33 AM Annual Sidewalk Program

July 11th 2017, 8:19 AM Energy Aggregation Discrepancies and Questions

July 9th 2017, 9:04 AM Message and Thanks from Mayor Tom McMasters

July 9th 2017, 7:57 AM Swing for the fence

June 16th 2017, 12:43 AM Brandt Pike Revitalization Plan Discussion

June 11th 2017, 10:07 AM How bias is the Mayor?

April 30th 2017, 1:57 PM Vote no on 11 to vote yes on transparency

April 30th 2017, 12:22 PM Issue 7; Residency requirement Yes or No

April 27th 2017, 11:49 AM Rick Stan for Council at Large

April 23rd 2017, 9:20 AM Can we afford a Parks and Recreation Master Plan?

April 22nd 2017, 1:18 PM Dave Wilson and Albert Griggs in November

April 20th 2017, 3:36 AM Mayoral Debate - much appreciation for the work of the LWV's

April 18th 2017, 3:11 AM Child endangerment, charter amendments and transparency all in one article?

March 19th 2017, 11:53 PM 19th Amendments considerations

March 4th 2017, 9:15 PM Parks and Recreation Master Plan Proposals

February 26th 2017, 3:09 AM Hiring PS&E is a big mistake

February 20th 2017, 11:25 PM No lawyer associated with PS&E is a viable candidate as our new Law Director

February 9th 2017, 12:09 AM Let's give $1.8 million dollars back to the schools

February 5th 2017, 5:08 AM We need accurate ballot language this May.

January 11th 2017, 6:59 AM Mayor's Vision - Part .2

January 8th 2017, 6:51 PM At least one of the proposed amendments should be rejected.

January 3rd 2017, 4:02 AM Salary increases and Campaign reform; Could this bring in better council candidates?

December 15th 2016, 7:45 AM Do half the job now. Do half later. Costs 2 times as much.

December 11th 2016, 8:39 AM If council messes up your water pressure will you pay to fix it?

November 11th 2016, 11:38 AM Should Thomas Cloud be baseball only?

October 23rd 2016, 9:03 PM Charter Amendments other than Issue 29

Thoughts on Signing of the 18th Amendment

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.

Missing page that recently made the news

Why did you send the email to the news?

Vice Mayor Starline missed the point in his opinion

Mr. Mayor,

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.

http://hh-cdn.cld3.bitstormweb.com/images/huber/council/rules_of_council_2016.pdf

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.

Council needs to strengthen my authority to enforce the requirement…

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.

Carriage Trails discussion

I am a resident of Carriage Trails and also a resident of Huber Heights, as Carriage Trails is in Huber. With that being said city council is doing their due diligence by gathering as much information on this subject as possible. From what I have seen and gathered over the past couple weeks; are people seem to reacting with a lot of emotion, which in my experience can cloud critical thinking and ideal perception from sound decision making. Looking at this as a big picture standpoint as the City of Huber Heights, not just Carriage Trails, it is imperative to take into account whether or not the government subsistence is needed to further the development of Carriage Trails. The reason being; if the money is not needed to further develop and sell lots in Carriage Trails then the reality is the City could use that money for many other important things such as paying off debt for the aquatic center, the rose music center, and for water & sewer. However, if the research shows the sale of homes will diminish, slow, or stop if the subsistence is not paid then it may be a benefit for the City to pay the subsistence. With all of that being said, things I would like to know; are there other developers; or has the city entertained the idea, to look at other developers to see if there is any interest to take over the project if DEC pulls out? Is $199,000 the minimum DEC would take to continue to develop the 25 lots or has the city thought about offering a $50,000 or $100, 000 as a counter offer to DEC? That is not to say they can't pay the full asking price of $199,000 but this is simple negotiating tactics. As a citizen who has to manage my family budget if I can save money somewhere I am going to take advantage of it and do it. City council, in my opinion, has the same mentality which is why they are looking into this in order to make an informed decision. Other things I've heard from others representing some of Carriage Trails residents is if the developer pulls out the home values will drastically drop, HOA fees will quadruple, and the current residents will lose horrifically. This could all be true; however, I have not seen any facts to back up those comments. Dry Run LLC is the current company who cuts grass for the HOA, owned by Ken Conaway, who also is a stakeholder in DEC, to my understanding. I would be confident if the HOA were turned over to the residents and the mowing bid was publically open for contracts the free market system would prevail and a company would be willing to cut grass for less; therefore, not quadrupling the HOA fees. These are simply my thoughts and opinions. I do not want to see Carriage Trails fail as I have a vested interest; however, I do not want to see Huber Heights fail because we are all Huber residents. I will stop with this; if the new lots being developed are sold for more money than what earlier residents paid for their lots then in the long run this can/will raise property value for the residents of Carriage Trails. Obviously, this assumes the lots would still be sold at a higher price; however, if the lots would sell then not only does create a higher value for the existing homes already built it increases the revenue stream for the city…

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Site Purpose

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.

Tom McMasters

Announcements

Web Designers, Authors, Ideas Wanted

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

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Robbery - the police and citizens shine

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…

Narcan Training at HH Library

The Huber Heights Library will be holding a Narcan training session. 7 Pm Tuesday Feb 6 2018. Advance registration is required. The training is free.

Narcan is the antidote used during an Opiod oveverdose.

Register online at DaytonMetroLibrary.org/Events or call 937-463-2665

http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/library-hosting-free-narcan-training/nsCvkuHMxIZGIi8zuqqWVM/