Mark Campbell made some comments last council meeting.  I'm tempted to characterize them but you can watch them yourself.  Below the video I've pulled forward a couple of the articles where I've written my thoughts on the use of Emergency Legislation.  I've also posted the text of some email traffic where I've tried to engage council on the issue. 

For those of you that have been to this post previously and expected to see the cut down version of the city council meeting sorry to disappoint.  After a brief discussion between Mark and I (that mostly involved settling our differences through tests of manly feats) we decided to act like men.  The result is that if you want to see his comments you'll have to view them directly from the city's website.  The comments that I had pulled into the video start about 3 hours 9 minutes after the beginning. 


Excerpt from my Mar 2011 article The Meaning of Open Meetings 

The last thing I’ll mention here is a pet peeve I talked to Ms. Kalebs about after the first meeting I attended in person. Declaring every item on the agenda an emergency makes the council look lazy and incompetent.  I know that all the council members are use to it because it is normal business but to the first time observer and those of us that are literal it really makes the council look bad.  In my conversation with Ms. Kalebs  she conveyed that the city charter required all business to get three public readings unless the council declared the item an emergency.  I fully understand that most of what is presented at the council is not controversial and should be passed on the initial meeting.  But I think it is worth the effort to try and define what needs 1, 2 or 3 public readings and then change the charter so the meeting proceedings don’t look so farcical. 

Excerpt from  Article  Council Meeting Dec 9, 2013 and Emergency Legislation

I'm going to turn the rest of this article into and examination of the City Charter and a discussion about the use of Emergency Legislation.  I suspect one of the next edits to this prose will be an explanation of how State Law and / or court cases affect the implementation of codes such as Section 5.07 of the City Charter.  But right now I don't have any conflicting data so I'm composing this from a literal view point. 
 
First "The Issue":  Council classifies a lot of the legislation they pass as "Emergency Legislation".  This gets a lot of comments from citizens.  In fact, if you search hard enough on this site you will find that one of the first articles I wrote talked about this.  I haven't search for that article but from memory, I had spoken to Councilmember Kaleps and let her know that I thought passing everything as an emergency made council look bad.  At that time I wrote that she indicated that council was aware that the public thought this way.  The tricky part was that there is definitely city business that needs to be enacted immediately and the only way to do this according to the city charter was by emergency legislation.  Consequentially, in order to change the process would take a change to the city charter.    
 
I'm actually sympathetic to Ms Kaleps point of view in the aspect that most of the legislation that is passed by emergency is not controversial and there should be some means do quick legislation that goes into affect immediately for those items.  In fact, since that time I've been much more concerned about council "waving readings" than I have been about the use of the term Emergency Legislation. 

Here is part of the email chain --------------------------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: McMasters, Tom 
Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2014 7:44 PM
To: Dan White
Subject: RE: Huber Heights City Council Meeting - 1/13/14

Dan,

I spoke with Allan Schaeffer a couple weeks ago and asked him why we weren't using A1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the city charter more often.  Certainly in this week's agenda it appears as if Items; I, J, l, M, N, and probably H could fall into (A)(1).  Keep in mind using these wouldn't change the timing of the effective date.  It would just let it so we didn't have to include the word "emergency" in the resolution.   I've not heard from him and haven't followed up.

http://www.conwaygreene.com/HuberHts/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&2.0


SECTION 5.07 EFFECTIVE DATE OF LEGISLATION.

     (A)     The following ordinances or resolutions shall take effect immediately upon their adoption unless a later date is specified therein:

          (1)     Appropriations of money;

          (2)     An annual tax levy for current expenses of the City;

          (3)     Improvements petitioned for by owners of the requisite majority of the front footage or of the area of the property benefited and to be assessed;

          (4)     Submission of any question to the electorate or the determination to proceed with an election;

          (5)     Approval of a revision, codification, recodification, or rearrangement of the City Code or ordinances and resolutions; and

          (6)     Any emergency ordinance or resolution.

     (B)     All other ordinances and resolutions shall take effect thirty (30) days after adoption by the Council, unless a later date is specified therein.

Tom McMasters
Mayor of Huber Heights
937 985-6275 (H)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Schaeffer, Alan
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 8:30 AM
To: McMasters, Tom; Dan White
Cc: McMasters, Tom; Schommer, Robert; Kaleps, Karen; Rodgers, Anthony; Campbell, Mark; Vargo, Jan; Dale, Lu; Blankenship, Judy; Dudley, Tracy; Lyons, Ed
Subject: RE: Huber Heights City Council Meeting - 1/13/14

Dear Tom,

The only piece of legislation on the current agenda that 5.07 of the HH Charter would apply to would be 11. M. dealing with supplemental appropriations. None of the other items you have suggested as being covered by 5.07 (A) (1) are appropriations.

Any questions let me know.

Alan


-----Original Message-----------------------------------------------------------------------  Note - I am searching for the email attachment mentioned in the next message ------
From: McMasters, Tom 
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2014 11:58 AM
To: Schaeffer, Alan; Dan White
Cc: Schommer, Robert; Kaleps, Karen; Rodgers, Anthony; Campbell, Mark; Vargo, Jan; Dale, Lu; Blankenship, Judy; Dudley, Tracy; Lyons, Ed
Subject: RE: Huber Heights City Council Meeting - 1/13/14

Alan,

My inquisitive nature promotes a desire for reconciliation of my layman's understanding of appropriations and your legal recommendation.

The attached document contains a definition I found online (specifically 2b) that matches my understanding as I came into this discussion.  That definition contains 4 elements that need to be met.  The attachment also contains a table where I've matched those elements to tonight's agenda items.  Besides item M which you identified, it also appears from a layman's point of view that I, L, N and H also contain the required elements.

Do you have a more formal legal definition or code clarification references that I can look at that will help me evolve my layman's understanding into the more formal legal definition?

Tom McMasters
Mayor of Huber Heights
937 985-6275 (H)

________________________________________

________________________________________
From: Schaeffer, Alan 
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2014 12:39 PM
To: McMasters, Tom; Dan White
Cc: Schommer, Robert; Kaleps, Karen; Rodgers, Anthony; Campbell, Mark; Vargo, Jan; Dale, Lu; Blankenship, Judy; Dudley, Tracy; Lyons, Ed
Subject: RE: Huber Heights City Council Meeting - 1/13/14

Tom,
I wish we could rely upon general dictionary definitions but we can't and don't. The Ohio Revised Code is our "Dictionary".

I believe the confusion deals with the fact  that an appropriation is for money to be set aside for a particular project  -say a road project.  The legislation awarding the contract at a specific amount flows from the appropriation ordinance already passed allocating the funds.

Public finance is a world unto itself.  If you want to completely understand it you are going to have to engage in some formal education because even people who do it for a living don't always understand it - our staff excepted.

If you want a general overview you would be  best to get with Donnie or Jim Bell but don't think you are going to come away from such a meeting with a fundamental understanding of Public finance.

Alan

________________________________________
From: McMasters, Tom
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2014 1:38 PM
To: Bell, James; Jones, Donnie
Cc: Schommer, Robert
Subject: FW: Huber Heights City Council Meeting - 1/13/14

Jim / Donnie,

Its not as time sensitive as the number emails I've sent today would indicate but I'd like better understanding of the Appropriation / Apportionment / Allication / Obligation / Expendature process that is used in local governemts.

In the email trail below, Alan has refers me to you for insight.

Without asking for a specific time for a meeting, I'd like to request you think about what resources are available and how long it would take for you to introduce them to a point where I can comprehend the references you site.

Until that time it would be useful for me to be able to read the ORC sections that provide the similar information to section 131.01 Revenues and funds definitions but for local municipalities  (http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/131.01).


Tom McMasters
Mayor of Huber Heights
937 985-6275 (H)

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I have not pursued issue since.  What really should be the next step is a Charter Update.  Tom