Council tables ordinance to purchase uptown properties; mayor asks for ‘more cooperation’
Lead Summary
By
Caitlin Forsha-crforsha@gmail.com
In a split decision, Hillsboro City Council members voted Monday night to postpone the purchase of two uptown properties based on the finance committee’s recommendation.
Council members voted 4-3 to table the ordinance “to enter into a purchase agreement for the acquisition of two parcels of real property from John C. Wilkin and to transfer one parcel to the Hillsboro Area Economic Development Corporation,” after hearing its third reading.
Council members Bill Alexander, Dick Donley, Justin Harsha and Rebecca Wilkin voted “yes,” with members Tracy Aranyos, Claudia Klein and Ann Morris voting “no.”
As previously reported in The Highland County Press, council members debated the issue in depth at their February meeting. The ordinance is for the purchase of real estate at 120 Governor Trimble Place, Hillsboro, across the street from the Highland County Courthouse, along with what mayor Drew Hastings called a “small storage building” on West Walnut Street already rented by the city and utilized by the Hillsboro Police Department.
In February, committee chair Donley said that the finance committee was unanimously in favor of the purchase of the West Walnut Street building, but committee member Alexander had reservations about the purchase of the Governor Trimble Place building. However, the property owner wants both buildings sold together, Donley said.
Hastings told council at the February meeting that he supported for the passage of the ordinance in order to move forward with plans for the proposed plaza in uptown Hillsboro.
Donley said that the finance committee met again on April 7 to discuss the ordinance.
“Some of the council members had concerns in the past regarding the purchase of this property,” Donley said.
Donley said the concerns included the benefits of such a purchase and its effect on plans for the proposed plaza.
The finance committee voted 2-1 on April 7 to recommend keeping the proposed ordinance in committee instead of passing the ordinance Monday night, with Alexander and Donley voting yes and Morris voting no.
There was no discussion prior to the vote Monday night.
• • •
In his report, Hastings told council that the city hired a code enforcement officer; that the Hillsboro CIC has accepted “the Colony Theater project;” and that the old Webster school building will be torn down in the coming weeks. Hastings also reported that longtime Hillsboro Planning Commission member Kevin Barreras resigned his position.
Hastings then brought attention to several council members for not wearing a smiley face sticker made by a member of council, which he, safety and service director Todd Wilkin and other council members were wearing.
“I want to bring up one other thing, and that is something as simple as these smiley faces,” Hastings said. “I complain about our problems in Washington and ‘why can’t they get a law’ and ‘how come they just work against them.’ We’re all crazy mad about what’s going on this country because nobody works together, nobody gets along.
“Then I come here tonight, and one of our council members makes little smiley faces, and we have three people that just refused to wear them: ‘I will not wear these.’ ‘I’ll wear these, I’ll wear these, I won’t wear these.’ I’m not trying to shame you.”
Rebecca Wilkin interrupted that she had one but didn’t put it on.
“I’m just trying to say that I just think we don’t make an effort sometimes to come together,” Hastings said. “There’s a reason why half this council’s are sitting at the table and half of council is wearing them. It’s just – it’s a little depressing, I think, that we’re not working together more. I’m not saying anybody’s right, I’m not saying anybody’s wrong, but I just think we really need to look at trying to work a little more together.”
Hastings told Wilkin that “it’s just a very obvious thing that’s sitting there.”
Citizen Barb Cole interjected that based on Hastings’ comments, she requested that council work together with the public during meetings.
“There was a committee meeting tonight held here that committee members know I came to comment,” Cole said. “They never announced the meeting. I had no idea they were quietly having a meeting over there.
“That was supposed to be a public meeting, so I absolutely applaud the coming together, and I would make a request that city council in committee meetings respect the citizens and they announce a public meeting and allow the public to take part.”
Klein, who conducted the community enhancement committee meeting prior to Monday night’s council meeting, responded to Cole that she “did call the meeting to order” late because she was “making copies.”
“I called the meeting to order,” Klein said. “People were busy out there talking. There would’ve been no public comment accepted tonight because the fact it was simply our committee approving the bill that we had drafted. Everyone already knew what was in the bill. We just needed to have the committee look over the final draft of it before we presented it to full council.
“You were in a conversation with someone else. There were lots of people out there talking among themselves. I apologize if you didn’t hear me.”
“If it was, in fact, a public meeting, why would you say there would be no public comments?” Cole asked.
“Because we’ve been working for two years on getting this legislation drafted,” Klein said. “We have heard public comment after public comment. Your public comments have always been the same, that we’re taking away the rights of the citizens. I didn’t think you had anything further to add. You had told me last meeting that you had some ideas that you would email them to me. I heard nothing from you, so I went ahead with the legislation, and that’s what we did.
“A public meeting does not necessarily mean the public is going to be allowed to speak at that meeting. It means that the public is invited to attend. Since everything had been beat to death for two years, we simply wanted to look over the legislation and get it before this full council.”
Cole said that “the public should be allowed to speak.”
“At least respect hearing the public’s ideas,” Cole said.
Hastings then returned to the issue of the stickers.
“Becki, I would hope that you wouldn’t have taken offense at that,” Hastings said. “I just really notice anymore that we seem to have a somewhat broken council, and I don’t think it could be any better visualized than three people wearing a symbol and three people deciding not to. It just – to me, it almost begged mention.”
“I do take offense to it,” Wilkin said. “The fact that you want to say that based off of a button? Might I remind you that I wore mine the other day, I just didn’t put it on this evening.
“As far as a ‘broken council,’ I don’t feel that way at all. What I feel is, at least from my perspective, is I don’t agree with some of the things you want to do. That doesn’t translate into a ‘broken council.’ That translates into a checks and balances council, in my opinion.”
“When I say ‘broken council,’ I don’t say ‘broken council’ like I would like to have a 7-0 vote on items,” Hastings said. “I’m just asking for more – I just think there could be more cooperation amongst all concerned.”
Morris then asked the mayor to report on a “timeline for the plaza” at the next council meeting.
“We just need to get started,” Morris said. “It’s spring now.”
Hastings said he will “work on it.”
“Thus far, we’ve been in a rendering stage,” Hastings said. “To get to a final plan from the rendering stage takes some work. I want to get everyone’s input on the plaza.”
Aranyos and Morris argued that there have been numerous meetings for the public’s input.
“I also want to add the Colony in with that too,” Aranyos said. “Ask the CIC to approve that.”
Hastings said that they already met regarding that this month, as he had previously reported.
“We need to let people know that we are moving forward,” Klein said.
• • •
In the safety and service director’s report, Todd Wilkin announced that Hillsboro Police Captain Jeff Murphy, who is also the city employee of the month for March, and Jim Herdman of the water treatment plant will be retiring this spring.
“We are very sad to see [Murphy] leave,” Wilkin said. “Jeff has been with the Hillsboro Police Department for almost 27 years. He has been a patrol officer, an undercover drug officer, a sergeant and most recently a captain.
“Jim has been with the city for almost 22 years, and we appreciate his many years of dedication in Hillsboro.”
Wilkin also discussed the city’s hiring of a code enforcement officer “to clean up nuisance properties, blighted properties and the city codes in general.” Wilkin said that 145 properties were cleaned up in the city last year as a “part-time effort,” but the code enforcement officer will “dedicate his full attention to this.”
Wilkin requested that council enter into executive session “to discuss the mediation in regards to the wastewater treatment plant.” Council entered executive session at 8:47 p.m. and exited at 9:01 p.m.
• • •
Council heard the first reading of an ordinance to update 114.07 and 116.01 of the City Code of Ordinances. The “yard sale legislation” was brought before council by the Community Enhancement Committee.
The ordinance proposes a number of updates, including:
• Changing the number of days permitted for a yard sale from five days to three.
• Changing the number of yard sales per year allowed from two to four.
• Adding an option to apply for a permit at the city’s website.
• Adding to the limitations and restrictions a section that states yard sale signs must be removed within 24 hours of the sale’s expiration.
• Adding that a minor misdemeanor citation with a fine of not more than $100 will be issued to anyone in violation of the ordinance.
Council heard the first reading and voted to suspend the three-reading rule and pass an ordinance to amend Sections 153.02 and 153.06 of the City Code to eliminate fees on certain replacement signs. The ordinance was discussed in previous meetings by Morris, chair of the property maintenance and restoration committee.
• Council unanimously passed a resolution to amend the zoning map of the City of Hillsboro to change the zoning of 261 West Walnut Street and 957 North High Street from “Residential A” to “Residential B.”
• Council voted 7-0 to pass a resolution to increase appropriations in Unclaimed Funds by $16,674.19, which city auditor Gary Lewis said corrected an error in a resolution passed at the March meeting.
• Council voted 7-0 to approve a resolution to increase appropriations in Small Tools - Hillsboro Police Department to reflect an $8,500 donation to the department by the Cassner Foundation.
• Council heard the second reading of an ordinance to amend Section 51.041 of the City Code to provide for additional definitions and requirements for shut-off and turn-on fees. Todd Wilkin also added an amendment to the legislation to define users, which council voted to accept. For more information, see http://highlandcountypress.com/Content/Default/Rotator-Articles-/Article/Property-managers-tenants-speak-out-against-proposed-utilities-ordinance/-3/546/32482.
• • •
• In the finance committee report, Donley told council that the committee would be tabling a request from Grow! Highland County for a donation until this fall.
• Alexander told council that the civil service/employee relations committee met to discuss updates to the civil service handbook, which was last updated in 1985. Alexander said the committee will continue to review the handbook as well as meeting with the civil service commission.
• Street and safety committee chair Harsha said that he and Hillsboro Police Chief Todd Whited attended the Hillsboro Festival of the Bells committee meeting in March.
According to Harsha, Whited told the committee that he was attempting to obtain safety observation towers provided through the Ohio Homeland Security for this year’s festival.
“That will help with safety uptown,” Harsha said.
Harsha said that at the city administration’s request, he also asked the committee about “the way they have it structured uptown with the streets that are closed, and they talked about possibly moving the festival to a different location but keeping it in the uptown area.”
“They didn’t feel they could make all those changes in the time limit, with the festival coming up,” Harsha said.
• • •
Council heard a public request from Nick Beatty, owner of the DP Grill food truck, who asked for a change to the existing vendors ordinance, which he said is “not conducive to run a food truck in the city.”
Beatty said that had to pay $100 for a background check that “is still not back” after applying for it in February and cannot obtain a permit until then. He said the ordinance also does not specify “how long the permit is good for.”
“Being a food truck, you really don’t want that to run out during the season,” Beatty said. “I’m just looking for some kind of variance to make it up-to-date for maybe future food trucks or myself to make it easier to do business in the city limits – maybe a one-time fee. I know other bigger cities do something like that.”
Beatty said that he ran the business under a yard sale permit from the city, but “that only lasts two weeks” and “doesn’t fit what I’m trying to do.”
Donley, who conducted the meeting in the absence of council president Lee Koogler, said he would put the matter in committee, but Todd Wilkin argued that Beatty needed an answer.
“If we’re going to wait to put this in committee, if we’re in favor of this, we’re really taking money out of his pocket,” Wilkin said. “As an administration, that’s why we went the yard sale avenue because we’re trying to find ways to get him in operation that would follow our ordinances, but really, technically, the ordinance he’s referencing is really protecting the citizens from solicitations, peddlers, you name it. Unfortunately, he just falls under that because he’s not a permanent structure. He’s mobile, but he’s in a permanent location.”
Council voted 6-0, with council member Ann Morris abstaining, to grant the variance.
Council members voted 4-3 to table the ordinance “to enter into a purchase agreement for the acquisition of two parcels of real property from John C. Wilkin and to transfer one parcel to the Hillsboro Area Economic Development Corporation,” after hearing its third reading.
Council members Bill Alexander, Dick Donley, Justin Harsha and Rebecca Wilkin voted “yes,” with members Tracy Aranyos, Claudia Klein and Ann Morris voting “no.”
As previously reported in The Highland County Press, council members debated the issue in depth at their February meeting. The ordinance is for the purchase of real estate at 120 Governor Trimble Place, Hillsboro, across the street from the Highland County Courthouse, along with what mayor Drew Hastings called a “small storage building” on West Walnut Street already rented by the city and utilized by the Hillsboro Police Department.
In February, committee chair Donley said that the finance committee was unanimously in favor of the purchase of the West Walnut Street building, but committee member Alexander had reservations about the purchase of the Governor Trimble Place building. However, the property owner wants both buildings sold together, Donley said.
Hastings told council at the February meeting that he supported for the passage of the ordinance in order to move forward with plans for the proposed plaza in uptown Hillsboro.
Donley said that the finance committee met again on April 7 to discuss the ordinance.
“Some of the council members had concerns in the past regarding the purchase of this property,” Donley said.
Donley said the concerns included the benefits of such a purchase and its effect on plans for the proposed plaza.
The finance committee voted 2-1 on April 7 to recommend keeping the proposed ordinance in committee instead of passing the ordinance Monday night, with Alexander and Donley voting yes and Morris voting no.
There was no discussion prior to the vote Monday night.
• • •
In his report, Hastings told council that the city hired a code enforcement officer; that the Hillsboro CIC has accepted “the Colony Theater project;” and that the old Webster school building will be torn down in the coming weeks. Hastings also reported that longtime Hillsboro Planning Commission member Kevin Barreras resigned his position.
Hastings then brought attention to several council members for not wearing a smiley face sticker made by a member of council, which he, safety and service director Todd Wilkin and other council members were wearing.
“I want to bring up one other thing, and that is something as simple as these smiley faces,” Hastings said. “I complain about our problems in Washington and ‘why can’t they get a law’ and ‘how come they just work against them.’ We’re all crazy mad about what’s going on this country because nobody works together, nobody gets along.
“Then I come here tonight, and one of our council members makes little smiley faces, and we have three people that just refused to wear them: ‘I will not wear these.’ ‘I’ll wear these, I’ll wear these, I won’t wear these.’ I’m not trying to shame you.”
Rebecca Wilkin interrupted that she had one but didn’t put it on.
“I’m just trying to say that I just think we don’t make an effort sometimes to come together,” Hastings said. “There’s a reason why half this council’s are sitting at the table and half of council is wearing them. It’s just – it’s a little depressing, I think, that we’re not working together more. I’m not saying anybody’s right, I’m not saying anybody’s wrong, but I just think we really need to look at trying to work a little more together.”
Hastings told Wilkin that “it’s just a very obvious thing that’s sitting there.”
Citizen Barb Cole interjected that based on Hastings’ comments, she requested that council work together with the public during meetings.
“There was a committee meeting tonight held here that committee members know I came to comment,” Cole said. “They never announced the meeting. I had no idea they were quietly having a meeting over there.
“That was supposed to be a public meeting, so I absolutely applaud the coming together, and I would make a request that city council in committee meetings respect the citizens and they announce a public meeting and allow the public to take part.”
Klein, who conducted the community enhancement committee meeting prior to Monday night’s council meeting, responded to Cole that she “did call the meeting to order” late because she was “making copies.”
“I called the meeting to order,” Klein said. “People were busy out there talking. There would’ve been no public comment accepted tonight because the fact it was simply our committee approving the bill that we had drafted. Everyone already knew what was in the bill. We just needed to have the committee look over the final draft of it before we presented it to full council.
“You were in a conversation with someone else. There were lots of people out there talking among themselves. I apologize if you didn’t hear me.”
“If it was, in fact, a public meeting, why would you say there would be no public comments?” Cole asked.
“Because we’ve been working for two years on getting this legislation drafted,” Klein said. “We have heard public comment after public comment. Your public comments have always been the same, that we’re taking away the rights of the citizens. I didn’t think you had anything further to add. You had told me last meeting that you had some ideas that you would email them to me. I heard nothing from you, so I went ahead with the legislation, and that’s what we did.
“A public meeting does not necessarily mean the public is going to be allowed to speak at that meeting. It means that the public is invited to attend. Since everything had been beat to death for two years, we simply wanted to look over the legislation and get it before this full council.”
Cole said that “the public should be allowed to speak.”
“At least respect hearing the public’s ideas,” Cole said.
Hastings then returned to the issue of the stickers.
“Becki, I would hope that you wouldn’t have taken offense at that,” Hastings said. “I just really notice anymore that we seem to have a somewhat broken council, and I don’t think it could be any better visualized than three people wearing a symbol and three people deciding not to. It just – to me, it almost begged mention.”
“I do take offense to it,” Wilkin said. “The fact that you want to say that based off of a button? Might I remind you that I wore mine the other day, I just didn’t put it on this evening.
“As far as a ‘broken council,’ I don’t feel that way at all. What I feel is, at least from my perspective, is I don’t agree with some of the things you want to do. That doesn’t translate into a ‘broken council.’ That translates into a checks and balances council, in my opinion.”
“When I say ‘broken council,’ I don’t say ‘broken council’ like I would like to have a 7-0 vote on items,” Hastings said. “I’m just asking for more – I just think there could be more cooperation amongst all concerned.”
Morris then asked the mayor to report on a “timeline for the plaza” at the next council meeting.
“We just need to get started,” Morris said. “It’s spring now.”
Hastings said he will “work on it.”
“Thus far, we’ve been in a rendering stage,” Hastings said. “To get to a final plan from the rendering stage takes some work. I want to get everyone’s input on the plaza.”
Aranyos and Morris argued that there have been numerous meetings for the public’s input.
“I also want to add the Colony in with that too,” Aranyos said. “Ask the CIC to approve that.”
Hastings said that they already met regarding that this month, as he had previously reported.
“We need to let people know that we are moving forward,” Klein said.
• • •
In the safety and service director’s report, Todd Wilkin announced that Hillsboro Police Captain Jeff Murphy, who is also the city employee of the month for March, and Jim Herdman of the water treatment plant will be retiring this spring.
“We are very sad to see [Murphy] leave,” Wilkin said. “Jeff has been with the Hillsboro Police Department for almost 27 years. He has been a patrol officer, an undercover drug officer, a sergeant and most recently a captain.
“Jim has been with the city for almost 22 years, and we appreciate his many years of dedication in Hillsboro.”
Wilkin also discussed the city’s hiring of a code enforcement officer “to clean up nuisance properties, blighted properties and the city codes in general.” Wilkin said that 145 properties were cleaned up in the city last year as a “part-time effort,” but the code enforcement officer will “dedicate his full attention to this.”
Wilkin requested that council enter into executive session “to discuss the mediation in regards to the wastewater treatment plant.” Council entered executive session at 8:47 p.m. and exited at 9:01 p.m.
• • •
Council heard the first reading of an ordinance to update 114.07 and 116.01 of the City Code of Ordinances. The “yard sale legislation” was brought before council by the Community Enhancement Committee.
The ordinance proposes a number of updates, including:
• Changing the number of days permitted for a yard sale from five days to three.
• Changing the number of yard sales per year allowed from two to four.
• Adding an option to apply for a permit at the city’s website.
• Adding to the limitations and restrictions a section that states yard sale signs must be removed within 24 hours of the sale’s expiration.
• Adding that a minor misdemeanor citation with a fine of not more than $100 will be issued to anyone in violation of the ordinance.
Council heard the first reading and voted to suspend the three-reading rule and pass an ordinance to amend Sections 153.02 and 153.06 of the City Code to eliminate fees on certain replacement signs. The ordinance was discussed in previous meetings by Morris, chair of the property maintenance and restoration committee.
• Council unanimously passed a resolution to amend the zoning map of the City of Hillsboro to change the zoning of 261 West Walnut Street and 957 North High Street from “Residential A” to “Residential B.”
• Council voted 7-0 to pass a resolution to increase appropriations in Unclaimed Funds by $16,674.19, which city auditor Gary Lewis said corrected an error in a resolution passed at the March meeting.
• Council voted 7-0 to approve a resolution to increase appropriations in Small Tools - Hillsboro Police Department to reflect an $8,500 donation to the department by the Cassner Foundation.
• Council heard the second reading of an ordinance to amend Section 51.041 of the City Code to provide for additional definitions and requirements for shut-off and turn-on fees. Todd Wilkin also added an amendment to the legislation to define users, which council voted to accept. For more information, see http://highlandcountypress.com/Content/Default/Rotator-Articles-/Article/Property-managers-tenants-speak-out-against-proposed-utilities-ordinance/-3/546/32482.
• • •
• In the finance committee report, Donley told council that the committee would be tabling a request from Grow! Highland County for a donation until this fall.
• Alexander told council that the civil service/employee relations committee met to discuss updates to the civil service handbook, which was last updated in 1985. Alexander said the committee will continue to review the handbook as well as meeting with the civil service commission.
• Street and safety committee chair Harsha said that he and Hillsboro Police Chief Todd Whited attended the Hillsboro Festival of the Bells committee meeting in March.
According to Harsha, Whited told the committee that he was attempting to obtain safety observation towers provided through the Ohio Homeland Security for this year’s festival.
“That will help with safety uptown,” Harsha said.
Harsha said that at the city administration’s request, he also asked the committee about “the way they have it structured uptown with the streets that are closed, and they talked about possibly moving the festival to a different location but keeping it in the uptown area.”
“They didn’t feel they could make all those changes in the time limit, with the festival coming up,” Harsha said.
• • •
Council heard a public request from Nick Beatty, owner of the DP Grill food truck, who asked for a change to the existing vendors ordinance, which he said is “not conducive to run a food truck in the city.”
Beatty said that had to pay $100 for a background check that “is still not back” after applying for it in February and cannot obtain a permit until then. He said the ordinance also does not specify “how long the permit is good for.”
“Being a food truck, you really don’t want that to run out during the season,” Beatty said. “I’m just looking for some kind of variance to make it up-to-date for maybe future food trucks or myself to make it easier to do business in the city limits – maybe a one-time fee. I know other bigger cities do something like that.”
Beatty said that he ran the business under a yard sale permit from the city, but “that only lasts two weeks” and “doesn’t fit what I’m trying to do.”
Donley, who conducted the meeting in the absence of council president Lee Koogler, said he would put the matter in committee, but Todd Wilkin argued that Beatty needed an answer.
“If we’re going to wait to put this in committee, if we’re in favor of this, we’re really taking money out of his pocket,” Wilkin said. “As an administration, that’s why we went the yard sale avenue because we’re trying to find ways to get him in operation that would follow our ordinances, but really, technically, the ordinance he’s referencing is really protecting the citizens from solicitations, peddlers, you name it. Unfortunately, he just falls under that because he’s not a permanent structure. He’s mobile, but he’s in a permanent location.”
Council voted 6-0, with council member Ann Morris abstaining, to grant the variance.