News archive

Mayor's Mailbox; IHop, Outdoor Instruments and Arrive Safe this 4th…

I thought I would share some of the items I pulled out of the Mayor's Mailbox this evening.

First I was looking at "The Prosecutor" the newsletter from the Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney Mat Heck Jr. and found this announcement about free cab rides from July 1st at 6:00 pm until July 5th at 6:00 am.  The program is meant for those that drink too much to drive and the phone number is…

City issues or Summer Fun?

Anybody else thrilled they have tomatoes and peppers in their garden?  Marylin took me out golfing for Father’s day and it turns out I’ve developed a hook.  The parts for the go cart are in the mail.  Wouldn’t it be nice to clean the garage?  With all the summer activities it would be easy to forget your city representatives are making decisions that affect your lives.  Thankfully, we live in a

How is the City Code on Out Buildings interpreted and enforced?

Recently the pictures below were shared on Facebook. I’m sure I’m not the only member of council that hears questions and discussions about out buildings.  In my couple years as mayor I've heard discussion by residents who believed they were only allowed one shed and that it had to be 8 foot high or less.  This conclusion is very understandable if a resident used the Search Feature found within

Water Pressure North of Rt 70

Quick Thoughts on the proposal to Increase the Water Pressure North of 70:

  • I don't know how most members of council decided they have enough understanding of the issue to say that it definitely is needed and they are willing to spend more than $2 million dollars to fix it.
    • I believe council needs a complete report on the scope of the problem for residents
    • I believe council needs a complete analysis on how it effects possible development and current businesses

Thoughts on Signing of the 18th Amendment

 
Last Monday Council passed another supplement for the developer of Carriage Trails.  There are two points that could be made if I decided not to sign that legislation.  The first is that I’m still looking for staff to provide more information about the economic input this development provides for the City.  The second would be to address some deceptive information people keep bringing up whenever they want to say the mayor is wrong.

First Reading of the Ballot Measures for November:  Chickens, Water…

Monday evening will be the first readings of 3 possible ballot measures for November's election.  Read the chicken ballot measure.  Look and see if this covers everything you think a chicken measure should cover.  No, we won't take your suggestion to allow roosters.  We already know this will ensure the measure is voted down.  

The water pressure measure is the one I think will get the most discussion

Missing page that recently made the news

Below is the email message that I sent regarding the missing page that made the news yesterday.  The original email was composed by Councilmember Lyons.  There is quite a long email trail that I did not copy and paste but would be available as a public records request.  In the email below the date referenced in this sentence "Without checking the record, I believe that meeting was the May 3, 2016

  Huber Heights Mayoral Recall of Thomas McMasters

I've read through the first posting of the recall team and pasted it below.  My initial read is they won't actually ever give any specific examples of the allegations they make.  This is because if they do it will allow debate within the community about; the facts on how items actually made the news, the circumstances that cause the conflict, and the progress we made in the city these past few years.  

Vice Mayor Starline missed the point in his opinion

If you hadn’t heard Council Member Smith got mad at me because an agenda item she requested didn’t make the agenda.  I’ve posted her complaint below.  The issue I’m going to discuss first is Vice Mayor Starline's conclusion that the rules of council don't allow me to require Council members to provide written background information about what they want to discuss.
 
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Council needs to strengthen my authority to enforce the requirement…

Take a look at the agenda for the March 3, 2011 Huber Heights Administration Meeting.  Now take a look at the agenda for the March 14, 2011 Huber Heights Administration Meeting.  These are the work sessions that just preceded the Council Meeting that first revealed Council had finished making all the major decisions about the building of an Aquatic Center and the one that authorized Council to spend

Music Center Financials

We have new financials for the music center posted on the City Website:

Look for the new numbers on the bottom of this page.

Or go to it directly here


It is much more complete than anything we've seen assemble previously.  Look it over and start a discussion in the comments below.  

Update - April 16, 2016

How is everyone coming along with their review of the Financials?  When I started to

Where do TIF dollars come from?

We had a very good discussion about the Carriage Trails Investment/Subsidies at the Council Work session last night.  Looking at the social media discussions I see there are still a lot of questions.  I'll start with one of the basics:  Where do TIF dollars come from?

Then I'll talk about some of the other items I've been asking staff to provide for more than 6 months.  
1.  Is using the TIF dollars

Carriage Trails discussion

The first reading of the 17th amendment to the Carriage Trails development occurred at the last council meeting.  There is much interest on this subject from all over the city.  If you don't have any background you can start by reading the Summary that the Assistant City manager and I worked on to document some of the financial benefits we see as a result of the development.  Read the Summary.  You

Meeting Packet full of information  - Water Softening, Rose Music C…

The agenda for the Work Session,  this Tuesday at 6:00 pm at City Hall, has good read ahead materials for every agenda item.  I'm very happy council and staff have come together to provide this service for you.  The objective is for the City's website to become the one stop place for residents to reference when they need complete information about the issues of the city.  With the…

Update on Ward 5 appointment

Tuesday March 1st, I sent two letters to all members of City Council.  I've posted them below.  


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Council,

I thought I would provide an update on the ongoing search.  I was attempting to reach out to the elected representative to inquire if she would consider resuming her position.  She declined to contact me personally but

Open Letter to Council - It's time to do all of our debate in public

Update:

The Facebook discussions that occurred today didn't even come close to addressing the point of the original article which was that behind the scenes politicking has for years been stressful on members of council  and a blight on getting good decisions from our city government.  Nor did it achieve the goal of getting our new council members to commit to driving more of these types of discussions

Energy Aggregation on the ballot this election

The March primary is just around the corner and early voting begins in a few days.  Besides the Presidential and other primary races, Huber Heights residents will have Issue 1, Energy Aggregation on the ballot.  After I vent, I’ll address the pertinent points that I believe should affect your voting decision. 
  
The City’s website HHOH.org, now has notice of Energy Aggregation being on the ballot

YMCA discussion and the Feb 2nd Work Session

We’ve had a couple of work sessions now with the new council members in place.  We’ve seen some positive and some negative results.  The one item I plan to talk about today is the discussion with the director of the Huber Heights YMCA.  That discussion is on video.  It is the 5th agenda item and starts about 1 hour 30 minutes into the meeting.  Before I start that discussion let me point out that

Apply for the open City Council Position or convince your neighbor…

There is an opening for the Ward 5 City Council position.  If you have lived in Huber Heights Ward 5 for at least one year and have been registered to vote in Ohio for at least one year you can apply by submitting a cover letter and resume to the Clerk of the Council, Mr. Anthony Rodgers.  I'd appreciate a courtesy copy or at least notice that you are interested.  The target date for submission is on or before Feb 10,…

Water Softening Discussion

The Feb 2, 2016 Work Session agenda contains the read ahead for the water softening discussion.  This include an April 2010 report on what it would take to bring water softening to the city.  I recommend you read the entire Appendix.   Here are some of the highlights:

When measuring hardness  75 - 150 mg/l of CaCO3 is considered Moderate hardness.  Greater than 250 mg/l is considered very hard

Controversy, Controversy,  Controversy

We made the newspaper again today.  For those of you that might not know the City hired retired State Senator and former judge Neal Zimmers to lobby for Huber Heights in Columbus.  I think a chronological posting of email messages is a good way for you to understand all the contention surrounding the lunch meeting that took place Jan 7th at TJ Chumps.
 
From: Neal Zimmers
Sent: Monday, January 06, 2014 4:31…

Controversy, Controversy,  Controversy

We made the newspaper again today.  For those of you that might not know the City hired retired State Senator and former judge Neal Zimmers to lobby for Huber Heights in Columbus.  I think a chronological posting of email messages is a good way for you to understand all contention of the lunch meeting at TJ Chumps.
 
From: Neal Zimmers
Sent: Monday, January 06, 2014 4:31 PM
To: McMasters, Tom
Subject:…

Anatomy of a Newspaper Article

One of the interesting parts about being in politics is the interaction with the media.  It is always important to realized that somehow the reporter will have to squeeze what you provide into a very short space.  I thought I would provide you a non-controversial interaction so you get an idea of the translation process.  The interactions that took place for an article published today (Monday Jan

School Board opening Huber Heights City Schools - apply ASAP

Update:  Information available on the Huber Heights City School Website about the application process being used to fill the vacant School Board seat:

http://www.huberheightscityschools.org/News/1274#sthash.xl8VCZvE.dpbs

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I'm having the hardest time finding information on the Huber

Goodbye 2015, hello 2016

This past week saw the last official business of the 2015 council and next week Tuesday the 2016 council will conduct its first work session.  Last week's Special Council meeting was much more chaotic than I expected or desired.  I expect there to be more chaos than desired Tuesday just because there will be a lot of changes not only do we have three new council members but we also will be going to the work session format.

Music Center profit loss discussion - this is fun.

The latest discussion on the financial impact the Music Center has on the City budget can be found on the city website and starts 1 hour 5 minutes and 11 seconds into the video (1:05:11).  The latest figures are posted below.  The video to the left starts at about 1:19:25.  This time was chosen because of my remark stating that debating the numbers is fun.  My view is that being able to

Carriage Trails Supplement Discussion during the Committee of the W…

Last week during the Committee of the Whole meeting there was a good discussion concerning the supplements the City provides to the Carriage Trails development.  To date there have been 16 amendments to the original development agreement.  These amendments get discussed as each of the phases of the development get sold out and so far cover 600 of the planned 1200 houses for that area.  The…

Model airplanes / Drones

I think it is because I was a test pilot for the X-45 and a safety officer for Global Hawk and Predator and I've also belong to a model aircraft club that I have a different idea of UAV than what we see in the news.  Most of the drones we see in the news are really just more sophisticated model airplanes and we would be a lot safer if people realized this and operated them as if they thought…

Cookies with Santa - Christmas Concert.

I received these two Huber Heights Christmas announcements for Thursday Dec 3rd Cookies with Santa at the Athletic Foundation and Sunday Dec 6th Christmas Concert at the Eichelberger Amphitheater.


A reminder of the annual Huber Heights Athletic Foundation "Cookies with Santa" event for 2015!


The event will be held this Thursday, December 3, 2015, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Huber Heights Athletic

What does The Impact Group do for the City?

Last week during the Council meeting we had a couple of interesting items that I'm planning on writing about.  Council authorized the continuation of the contract with The Impact Group (discussion starts at 1:06:50 into the video).  This was a bad decision and I'm going to write more about that.  Also, there was an expectation that council would waive the 2nd and 3rd reading of a finance…