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…

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…

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…

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…

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

…

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. 


 
You can see from this chart that if a Non-School TIF were created it would have generated…

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.  







 …

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:
 
…

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…

You can find the Brandt Pike Revitalization Plan Final Report here.
 
There are many interesting parts that we can use going forward and many scary parts that we need to put a stop too and many parts that are good ideas but suggested for the wrong part of town or wrong timing.
 
I will start with the scary parts.
 

Traffic Calming

Divert Traffic from Brandt Pike to Troy Pike

Advocating

…

In my response to complainants that will be discussed at Monday’s council meeting I included a section entitled “Issue of Bias”.  The last sentence of that section reads “I have spent 45 minutes trying, without luck, to compose this section in an appropriate way for this document, so I will move on.”  I wrote that sentence because I know there are a lot more considerations that I wanted to be able to tell you about but could not figure out how to do it in a non-political…

Rick Stan is the best choice for Council at Large because of his knowledge of finances.  Since my appointment of current Council Member Nancy Bryge is the worst decision I have made on behalf of the residents of Huber Heights, it should not come as a surprise that the best result of the May primary would be a November contest between Chase Warden and Rick Stan.
 
Even though Mr. Stan has been…

Council needs to have a long discussion on how much money the city has before they authorize any money for a Parks and Recreation Master Plan.  There is good evidence that spending money on this plan will cause us to lose the ability to pay for more important priorities such as maintaining the park facilities we already own and bring our fire fighter/EMS manning levels closer to an efficient and effective standard.…

In the upcoming primary race for Mayor of Huber Heights, the most promising outcome would be a general election race between Mr. Wilson and Mr. Griggs. 

I had the opportunity to talk one on one with each of the three candidates earlier in the year.  Here are some of my considerations that lead to my desire to see Mr. Griggs and Mr. Wilson advance to November. 

I had a nice hour long conversation…

The Huber Heights Mayoral Debate was 6:30 April 20th at Weisenborn Middle School.  I missed the first 30 minutes because I went over to the Parks and Recreation Committee meeting to hear the discussion on the Parks and Rec Master Plan.  The part of the debate I saw was a good reflection on the LWV's and I am glad they did the work to put on this event.  As always though, it would be nicer if these…

I started writing this more than a month ago.  The ultimate objective is to advocate for more transparency by advocating for fewer executive sessions and better read ahead materials.  The last parts were difficult to write.
 
Although I intend to write about all the Charter Amendments in different articles, this article gives me the opportunity to tell you I recommend voting No on Issues 4,…

The 19th Amendment to the DEC development agreement will be discussed at Tuesday's work session. 

This is one consideration / analysis that I feel is important in order to be able to judge the “goodness” of the 19^th amendment.  One of the points of trying to write this out is to give you an idea of the kind of information that I am looking for in open meetings so that those with an interest…

There are a number of possibilities for good discussion at Tuesday's Work Session.  

There is the 19th Amendment to the Carriage Trails Development Agreement.  I see the calculations of the projected split of TIF revenue the contract formula suggests might be expected were not provided in the read ahead.  These calculations are important in helping to frame how much of a supplement the city…

Last week I detailed a current incident that shows why PS&E should not be considered a viable candidate as the law firm employing our law director.   Some people think that only the individual who was the law director was responsible and the firm should not be held responsible.  They make this argument even though in the next breath they talk about all the knowledge and support the rest of the firm…

Pickrel, Schaeffer and Ebeling (aka PS&E) put in a bid to act as the firm that employees our next law director.  The Schaeffer in PS&E was our former law director.  For the three years I have been Mayor, and the two years I observed council prior to being elected, Mr. Schaeffer provided dubious and politically motivated opinions that promote behaviors that soil the reputation of the city, cost the…

During the work session meeting the other night I was cut off before getting the opportunity to advocate again for the Huber Heights City Schools:

Follow the links from the agenda and it will take you to the 2025 PLAN AND UPDATES / ASSOCIATED REFERENCES AND DOCUMENTS page. Once there you can find a listing titled "TIF Examples and Estimates" 

Look on page the 14th page titled "Montgomery County…

There is a significant issue with the proposed ballot language for the Section 12 Charter Amendment that requires prompt action.
 
According to the City Attorney, resolutions passed by council can currently be over turned by residents through a ballot referendum.  He tells us the result of the Section 12 Charter Amendment is to take away this right from residents[1].
 
This May, it will be up…

Mayor’s Vision and 2017 initiatives
 
Introduction:
A couple of the council members recently challenged me to provide a vision for the city.  I used the word “challenged” in the first sentence on purpose because, admittedly, initially I internally scoffed at the request as being insincere.  From my personal view my vision and goals have never changed and they should be obvious to anyone that has…

Last year a member of council resigned.  In the table below you can see how many council meetings Ward 5 residents went without representation under the 1983 version of the City Charter.  The table also identifies who was responsible for Council Member attendance / appointment at each of the missed meetings.
 

Responsible party	Council Meetings without Representation	Total
Council Member

…

Item Q on Tuesday’s agenda is a discussion on Council and Mayor pay.  Currently the Mayor makes $620 a month and a council member makes $300 a month.  Look at the read ahead and you can see some research Councilmember Shaw provided that compares this to cities like Kettering and Centerville.  From my perspective, I ran this first term for reasons that did not involve the pay.  After three years’…

There are those that hope to claim Huber Heights Thomas Cloud park as a Baseball facility.  Currently the park is used for multiple sports, including baseball.  Soccer is the biggest and most successful user of the park.  Our two major soccer organizations work together as well as two organizations competing for talent can.  One of these organizations puts on two nationally recognized tournaments a year drawing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the area.…

I have not posted about the Charter Amendments other than Issue 29, until now, because of the importance of making sure Issue 29 is defeated.  I have always judge the current charter as being very well written with only Section 5 needing a re-write.  It is a shame that I have to actively campaign against Issue 29 and the proposed changes to Section 5.  

Mayor's Thoughts:  

Issue 28 -   Currently…

Vote no on Issue 29 yard signs are now available.   Send me an email if you will put one in your yard.  issue29@huberresidents.org Also read the article Vote No on Issue 29



Help me make sure all Huber Heights residents know of Issue 29 before they go to vote…