News archive

City Manager's complaining about my blog post

The City Manager and Mayor made references to two of my earlier posts (Rose Music Center Financial Reports & Deceitful Spin - hiding a $5,000 fee increase) during the Feb 5th discussion on the Rose Music Center update.  You should watch that discussion not only because it will help you understand why I addressed council on Monday, but also because there are some other points made during that discussion

Rose Music Center Financial Reports:

I am glad to see the city published the 2017 and 2018 Music Center Financial Reports as part of the March 5, 2018 work session read ahead materials[1].  People keep telling me they wish that I were still mayor.  There are a couple things that drive those discussions to the possibility of changing the City to a Strong Mayor form of government and me to serving as the first strong mayor. 

One item

Deceitful Spin - hiding a $5,000 fee increase

While I was mayor, I would not have allowed Mr. Schommer to try and avoid the hard discussion that a responsible public servant would have with residents of a community.  But this council allowed him to sell them on raising the water main assessment for residents on Chambersburg Road from nothing to $5,000 without notifying residents council intended to authorize the impending change.  

This 29

Thoughts on Ward 2 Appointment Process

Update-----

I just listened to last nights discussion (Tuesday Dec 4th). I like to commend the commitment to holding the interviews in public. 

I thought the discussion on whether the council discussion should be held in public as well was interesting. I like that Ms Bryge advocated for the discussions to be in public. I think Mr. Morgan's point that these discussions typically reveal everyone's

Transparent Ward 2 Appointment Process

The Huber Heights City Charter does not specify a process for appointing a replacement council member.  Here are a couple suggestions that would make the process transparent and allow residents to get the best look at the potential candidates:

The first suggestion is to hold the interviews in public and to put them on video so that residents can go back and watch them.  In the past it has been

Recall discussion - City Attorney not at the top of his game

I listened to the Council discussion on the ordinance to put the recall on the November ballot.  It was especially painful because the City Attorney was off in many of the assertions made:

Listen to the discussion on the city website:

Here is what the charter says about council's obligation:  


   (C)   Action by Official.  When a recall petition has been determined sufficient, the City official

Keep Republic

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…

North Zone Water Project

North Zone Water Project Inquiry
This is a link to the article on WHIO: 


The link tells us that in June the City expects there to be issues with brown water.  They also advise that you do not do laundry if you are experiencing an issue with brown water.  They do not state which area of the

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

A full service hospital here in Huber Heights?

Every now and again, someone's bad news turns out to be another's opportunity. 

Good Sam's complex in Huber Heights

Aquatic Center Contract Comparison

In the article "Mr. Schommer is a $90,000 a year employee the city pays $140,000".  When talking about the Aquatic Center Management contract I talk about the $100,000 difference between the proposal received from one company and the actual cost to the city that occurred through a different company.   In that discussion I give the impression that if the analysis were to be done fully it would provide

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

 Mr. Schommer is a $90,000 a year employee the city pays $140,000

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.

THANKFUL FOR ALPACAS Open House here in Huber Heights

You are invited to join Collene Miller  and the Purdy Lil' Suri Alpaca Farm for :

THANKFUL FOR ALPACAS

Open House

Thanksgiving Weekend
Friday, Nov 24 from 10am – 5pm
Saturday, Nov 25 from 10am – 2pm
Sunday, Nov 26 from 1pm – 5pm
Purdy Lil’ Suri Alpaca Farm
9454 Taylorsville Rd
Huber Heights, OH  45424
Have family visiting for the holiday weekend? 
Why not bring them out to…

Mark Ave Water Main Discussion Updated 25 Nov 2017

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

What is TIF?

Tax Increment Financing is a tool cities can use to improve infrastructure.

When a TIF is created it baselines the current value of a property and locks in the amount going toward property taxes. When development occurs this changes the valuation of t
he property and the property owner gets an increased "tax" bill. However, instead of the increase in "taxes" going to those that get the normal levies,

Tyler Starline implies the Huber Heights School Board are idiots

 
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

Ward 4 - Andy Hill


The Ward 4 race is between Carl Urbanas and Andy Hill.  My choice for that race is Andy Hill. 
 
The reason is because Andy was the one candidate of all the candidates in all the races that was willing to go on the record as being against the deceptive tactics counsel was using in order to try to get some of the ballot measures passed.  This went a long way to sway my opinion and shows he is

Ward 5

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, brings novice

The Mayoral Race -

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


 

  Flyer Thoughts   Expanded thoughts
Dave Wilson Positives:
Enough experience as former council member and current committee member to gain insight into the inner working of the city, but too independent to be considered an insider

Why are the Lane Park and Family Dollar TIFs irresponsible?  

I  decided to explain why the Lane Park TIF district on Bellefontaine road is an irresponsible TIF.  I hope you will join my call to ask council to convert this TIF to a Non-School TIF. If we are successful it will result in the Huber Heights City Schools getting $1.8 million more over the next 10 years.  With that I'll start with a little background on the Montgomery County TIF. 
 
 
The Montgomery

Miami Valley Young Marines annual Birthday Ball - Recognized with N…

Young Marine Press Release

Miami Valley Young Marines Win National Award

On Saturday, 28 October the Miami Valley Young Marines (MVYM) and the Dayton Marine Corps League (MCL) will celebrate the end of their operational year at the annual Birthday Ball.  This year’s celebration is very

Clarifying TIF by examining Mr. Gore's misunderstandings

When I listened to Mr. Gore's interview with Matt Truman on Inspired and Admired, I thought this interview would be a perfect opportunity to address a lot of misconceptions about TIFs.  Specifically, Huber Heights TIFs.  Mr. Gore was way off track on almost everything he said.  In the table below, I have analyzed the 10 minutes that was spent discussing TIF districts.  I highly recommend listening

Chambersburg and Fishburg Road improvements

I almost titled this article, "I don't like politicians".  I have made myself a calendar reminder for the 2019 elections because of that feeling.  


Reminder to create Flyer for 2019 election




New developments 

Annual Sidewalk Program

I think residents would benefit if during the discussion of the Annual Sidewalk program our read ahead material pointed to a webpage that showed how well it worked during the previous years.  This could be done by publishing a table like the one below that included every address in the previous year’s program and a short paragraph that explains the Max Invoice and Deduction column’s:
 

Energy Aggregation Discrepancies and Questions

Two items came up in the discussion of the Energy Aggregation  Plan and Governance that I believe needed more supporting documentation before council proceeded.  First, we finally got a copy of the contract we signed with the consultant and nowhere in that agreement does it address the .005/KWH fee we thought the consultant would receive for their services.  Second, the Plan and Governance tells

Message and Thanks from Mayor Tom McMasters

McMasters Family

Swing for the fence

In this article I 

Swing for the fence      with a long shot proposal that will take a lot of quick work.  
Those of you that really want to see this city improve, here is an opportunity
to hit a home run for Huber Heights
 
 
Last election the residents of Huber Heights confirmed they know a Chief Administrative Officer that lives in the city will be invested and committed to making that

Town Center and Home

I just returned from visiting my parents on Father's day.  My parents still live in the house they bought in 1969.  Saturday night we were out on their back porch and we could hear music coming from a house a mile away.  It was the exact music I would be listening to when I was in high school.  I am not one that reminisces very much, but sitting there looking out on their back yard, I could not