News archive
Open Meeting Act Lawsuit - Summary Judgment
Some of you may be aware that I filed a lawsuit against the City hoping to compel them into complying with the Ohio Sunshine Laws. I identified multiple violations over the past couple of years. All the Court filings to date can be found at https://pro.mcohio.org/pro/ then inputing 2021 CV 01213 as the case number. Find the "Docket" in the top menu and this will pull up all the documents.…
Inappropriate Executive session leads to more wasted money
I listened to the 4 August work session. At the end they went into executive session. with the stated reason of "considering options in purchasing property for public purposes". This of course is not listed as one of the Permissible Discussion Topics found in the Ohio Sunshine Laws, Open Government Resource Manual.
Turns out the discussion led to the hiring of a real-estate consultant at an outrageous…
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Complaint about the Mayor - the investigation
I thought I would take a minute to post links to the original complaint Mr. Otto made about the Mayor because Mr. Otto believed that Mr. Gore did not fulfill his responsibilities in regaurd to Mr. Morgan's residency issue.
Here is the link to the complaint.
Here is the link to Mrs. Bryge's investigation and recommendations.
I am not going to add a lot of commentary in this article but will add…
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Another no bid contract.
I thought I would talk a little bit about the Aquatic Center contract with the YMCA. The main points are that council had the opportunity to go back and compare the cost of the current contract with the YMCA with the fixed price bid we got from Dayton Pool five years ago. This comparison would have given us confidence in our current arrangement. But no one on council asked for that comparison,…
This is why I am voting against the incumbent for Council at Large
Budget Discussion
This discussion from this week's work session should be the most talked about city issue of the last 2 years. It is 45 minutes long and if you care about your personal finances and the services the city can provide you will listen to it. I am not providing commentary now but I hope after you listen to it you will join the discussion on Facebook. Tell me your thoughts and take aways.
Click here…
Inappropriate Executive Sessions - Could they cause us to lose our…
When they came out of executive session, they announced that they would be extending the…
Council thinks they are that much smarter than you
Item 3E is a resolution scheduled to be passed on Monday that waives the competitive bidding requirements for professional services needed to implement the program associated with the 51 acres the city is buying for $3.75 million dollars.
The resolution they plan on…
Should Glenn Otto be removed from Office
Good afternoon Don,
I wanted to reach out to you concerning the “yard issue” at 7019 Shull Rd.
I have spoken with Mrs. Lisse and gone to the property to review the situation. Mrs. Li…
Councilman Otto investigation
This is how Section 4.06…
Raise Council Pay by 560%!
This Monday Council will vote themselves a pay raise. Though I believe these council members are grossly overpaid for the quality of work they perform, I argue that they are not raising it enough to pay for the quality we need.
In what range should we set pay for a city council member? First, I will address my friend and city podcaster, Matt Truman’s contention that dedicated public servants…
Deceitful Spin – or outright lies, whichever.
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Councilman Morgan thinks blackmail works
Importance of Timing when creating TIF
Residential TIFs expire 30 years after creation so the city will want to time the creation correctly to maximize the amount of money collected. In the examples below I show that in general building too late costs a lot more than building too early. For instance,…
Council discusses blackmailing the school district out of $400,000
Reducing traffic congestion on Old Troy Pike
Some Ideas for imporving traffic flow you might suggest once your council decides it is important enough to start the planning:
How about connecting the access road that runs in front of Gander Mtn over to Bridgewater Rd. This is only about 1/2 mile. A half mile of road cost about $1.25 million dollars. This would allow some Huber and Vandalia residents to access businesses in the North Heights Plaza while avioding the area around the interstate interchange.
It would not be impossible to improve Wildcat road to include a bridge over the interstate. The bridge would be expensive but the I-70 TIF is a big fundraiser and with more development there is the possibility of more funds.
Reducing traffic congestion on Chambersburg and Fishburg Rds
During the recent Ward 1 community meeting a resident asked about improvements to the west sides of Chambersburg and Fishburg Roads. Your council members correctly remembered…
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:
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
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…