Amusement device penalty ordinance among topics at brief Hillsboro City Council meeting

In a regular monthly meeting that lasted only 13 minutes in open session, Hillsboro City Council members heard the first reading of an ordinance pertaining to amusement device penalties and approved two payment-related resolutions.

The February meeting was held two weeks after a special meeting conducted Jan. 31, during which council considered all items on the January agenda and passed all pending or introduced legislation.

Finance committee chair Mary Stanforth, who had asked in January to put the amusement fee code back on her agenda, said her committee met Feb. 12 to review the needed change for penalties for violations related to amusement devices, billiard parlors and arcades. 
 
“In the original 110.99 section of the code, the fees were to be determined by the city council,” Stanforth said. “In the amended section, the penalty will be determined by the municipal court upon an application by the city law director.”

Stanforth added that city council can’t legally determine the penalties. 

“It is up to the law director to get it to municipal court, and they will determine those,” she said.

The current language in the city code, which was last updated in 1980, says, “Any exhibitor who fails, refuses or neglects to pay the tax or obtain the license required by 110.15 through 110.17, shall be subject to a fine as determined by City Council,” which is later raised to “a first-degree misdemeanor” after “conviction of a second or subsequent offense.” Separately, violations of sections 110.30 or 110.31 are classified as a “minor misdemeanor,” then raised to a fourth-degree misdemeanor. 

The proposed new ordinance will change the language to say that violations of any of those sections “shall constitute a minor misdemeanor, upon the first violation within one year, and shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed the maximum penalty for a minor misdemeanor described by law.” Any subsequent violations would be raised to “a fourth-degree misdemeanor,” the new legislation says.

If “any owner, operator, manager or any combination thereof of a particular billiard parlor or amusement arcades or of any licensee of one or more amusement devices” is found to be in violation for a third time in a one-year period, they are subject to suspension of “the licenses for all amusement devices located therein … for a period of not less than 15 days and not more than year, upon application for suspension to the Hillsboro Municipal Court by the Law Director of the city,” the ordinance says. This is in keeping with the current code.

Hillsboro Law Director Randalyn Worley told council that the “level of misdemeanor” classified in the revised legislation is “set by statute.”

The proposed ordinance will have a second reading in March.

The only other legislation on the agenda was approved by council, as two resolutions for “then and now” certifications both passed as an emergency.

The first resolution was for a $7,800 payment to Civica, the software company used by the city auditor’s office.

“This is just a payment that we didn't know about for our new software for 2024,” auditor Dawson Barreras told council.

Also approved was a resolution for a $12,038 payment to the Ohio Water Development Authority (OWDA).

“Unfortunately, with them, you will never know when you're going to receive an invoice,” Barreras said. “We do have the money to pay it. We just have to have council approval to make the payment.”

In other discussion:

• Safety and service director Brianne Abbott gave brief updates on a few ongoing city projects. 

As previously reported, the city has applied for funding through the state of Ohio’s $500 million Appalachian Community Grant program.

Hillsboro’s project proposal includes an amphitheater for Crossroads Park (West Main Street green space) and the Rails to Trails program, which would develop walking trails around the old railroad beds in the city.

“I did receive word from our lead applicant for the Appalachian Community Grant,” Abbott told council Thursday. “Their best guess for us to hear an award on that application will be toward the end of March, and that's just a guess. Our application, again, was for the Crossroads Park and the amphitheater project.”

She also reminded council that construction has begun on the Roberts Lane extension project, and “the estimated completion date will be in August of this year.”

Other projects are building council chambers at the city building, which is “nearing completion;” and a lead line replacement project on North High Street, which “will begin in the spring,” Abbott said.

Abbott reported 15 building permits — seven commercial and eight residential — issued in the month of January by the city’s building department. The city is also working with several private developers — Five Below, the long-planned Marriott Hotel and the Horizon fiber to home project — on their respective businesses.

• Although Stanforth was the only council member with a committee report, it was noted that two other committees have scheduled upcoming meeting. Council member Adam Wilkin said the street and safety committee will review a proposal for two-hour parking uptown as well as safety and security at city parks Feb. 26 at 6 p.m. Utilities committee chair Greg Maurer said that his committee is meeting Feb. 21 at 6 p.m. to discuss sewer rates, minimum utility bills and proposed citywide waste collection.

• Mayor Justin Harsha said that “aside from two weeks ago, I don’t have a report.” A story on his “state of the city” report from January can be read at: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/hillsboro-mayor-highlights-four-ye….

• At the request of city law director Randalyn Worley, council held a seven-minute executive session under ORC 121.22 (G)(3), “Conferences with an attorney for the public body concerning disputes involving the public body that are the subject of pending or imminent court action.”

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