Former mayors express concern at Thursday council meeting
Lead Summary
By
Caitlin Forsha-crforsha@gmail.com
There was less dialogue at Thursday night's special Hillsboro City Council meeting than at recent meetings, as council members and city administrators continued to hear from local citizens on the resolution to contract with the Paint Creek Joint EMS and Fire District.
For the full text of the resolution, click here.
While recent meetings have involved discussions between citizens and city officials, the citizens were the driving force of the Thursday meeting, as many people, including two former Hillsboro mayors, spoke at the meeting with little response from the city.
After hearing the resolution read by title only for its second reading, Chris Mathews started the citizens' comments portion of the meeting.
Mathews has spoken at several recent meetings in support of the Hillsboro Fire Department.
Mathews addressed City Auditor Gary Lewis first, asking if the city was running in a deficit and asking for the city's "projected carryover for 2014."
Lewis told Mathews to address council.
"It's not exactly a question-and-answer session," Koogler said. "It's really for you to address council."
"If Paint Creek owns the uptown fire building, which I believe Drew [Hillsboro Mayor Drew Hastings] sold to them, why are you worried about contracting with them?" Mathews asked council. "They're here. They're not going [anywhere]."
Mathews compared contracting with Paint Creek versus staying with the Hillsboro Fire Department to products "made in the USA or made in China," saying that Hillsboro's firefighters are all trained paramedics, unlike Paint Creek's staff.
"Now you're settling for just a basic EMT training certification," Mathews said. "I don't get that."
Mathews said that under the proposed contact, Paint Creek cannot and does not guarantee a paramedic on every run. He also questioned their response times, with their coverage of several townships along with the city, should they contract with them.
"Their staffing is going to be really spread thin, with Hillsboro being added to it," Mathews said. "They're going to have to add more people. We can get a contract for a year, yeah, but after that, our department gets abolished – it's gone. We're stuck."
Mathews also criticized the city's lack of a vote on Paint Creek's board.
"I disapprove," Mathews said. "It's not the direction the city needs to go. Once you disband one department, it's [an] open-door flood to other departments.
"It's not good for Hillsboro. We are not in a deficit because of the fire department, so I don't see what the difference is in keeping our fire department."
Mathews echoed the idea expressed in previous council meetings to put the issue on the ballot, saying that the decision is "bigger than city council."
"This is a major, major move for the city of Hillsboro," Mathews said. "To abolish our fire department is one of the biggest mistakes you'll ever make."
Hillsboro resident Jim Matticks next addressed council, first discussing the figures presented by former Hillsboro City Auditor Rosemary Ryan in a letter and a presentation to council.
Ryan's original reports did not include pension benefits, Matticks said.
Matticks said that Ryan's updated numbers showed a revised expense total for the Hillsboro Fire Department of $1.243 million.
"If you take the ambulance service revenue into account, with the new contract, Mr. Wilkin believes we can save roughly $600,000," Matticks said. "According to these figures, if you put the revenue back in with the ambulance, the actual numbers are going to be roughly $109-$110,000 savings."
Matticks said that he didn't think it was "worth losing our fire department for $110,000" and presented two suggestions for ways to "recoup that money."
"One is to take the safety and service director's position back down to its $53,000 level and not the $72,000 level it's currently at," Matticks said. "I don't know if city council approved his raise, but that is a 40-percent increase of a raise.
"The other way we can make up at least $100,000 is to quit using outside legal services."
Matticks also asked council if they have considered the repercussions of the contract on other individuals and organizations, such as the Highland District Hospital emergency room, or its impact on whether new businesses will want to open in the city if there isn't a fire department.
"Mr. Wilkin stated in Monday's meeting that, and I'm paraphrasing, that Paint Creek would be able to run two squads, each with an EMT and one paramedic," Matticks said. "Am I right in saying that, Mr. Wilkin?"
"That's what I said," Wilkin said.
"The contract, however, does state otherwise," Matticks said.
Matticks said that the language of the contract states that "all reasonable efforts will be made to ensure at least one paramedic."
"That is not a guarantee to me," Matticks said.
Matticks warned council against putting the city in the "worst-case scenario."
"To me, to the city and the taxpayers, the worst-case scenario the city could find itself in is that you guys decide to go with Paint Creek, the fire department goes to litigation, they win their suit, and now we're double taxed," Matticks said. "We're paying for Paint Creek and the city of Hillsboro. Can anybody give me a guarantee that won't happen?"
Matticks' comments were met with applause.
Lewis further clarified the numbers in Ryan's report.
"Last year, we only had to transfer $71,000, but the actual cost for the total amount was close to $200,000," Lewis said.
Lewis also said that Ryan had made a public records request the morning after the regular October council meeting, during which council voted on several increases to appropriation, and clarified that those appropriations had not been applied to the report Ryan was given.
Richard Stiffler of Hillsboro said that he doesn't "understand why it's not going to the Hillsboro residents" and being placed on the ballot.
"The people of Hillsboro [do] not want to go with Paint Creek," Stiffler said. "It's obvious."
Stiffler said that he had previously spoken with council members about this issue "when it's come up before."
"Do you work for you, or do you work for the residents of Hillsboro?" Stiffler asked. "This is not your agenda or what you want. It's what the Hillsboro residents want. Keep that in mind when you guys come to vote Monday."
Stiffler said that if the issue was placed on the ballot, it was "guaranteed to fail."
Stiffler was also applauded for his comments.
Council candidate Rebecca Wilkin next addressed council, stating that she has researched the issue and has determined that fire districts "work for a lot of places."
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"I think you should take everything into consideration," Wilkin said. "I don't think anybody should be bullied by anybody on either side. I think you should get the facts and really compare everything."
Wilkin said she was unsure of the difference between having one paramedic or two paramedics, but that it was important that ultimately, "there's somebody there that's coming to help me, and I appreciate that no matter what."
"It's something I don't understand, and when I'm hearing figures of $600,000, and that it shouldn't even be considered … I think it's your job to consider it," Wilkin said. "There's citizens that do feel that maybe joining the district is not such a bad thing."
Former Hillsboro mayor Betty Bishop, who addressed city leaders about her concerns in a letter earlier this month, told council that she "respects the position" they are in.
"It's been 18 years since I served as mayor," Bishop said. "There's been two administrations prior to this one that served, the Harsha administration and the Zink administration.
"I watched them as they did their jobs. Many of the things they did, I agreed with. Some of the things they did, I didn't agree with. But at no time did I see anything happen that made me feel that I had to step forward and say something."
Bishop said that she is "very concerned" about the proposed contract, saying, "I fear that it could very well devastate our community."
Bishop said that she "respects all people" regardless of where they are from but said that Hillsboro, as the seat of Highland County, has a responsibility "to protect everybody in this county when they come in here."
Bishop said that the elimination of the fire department and any potential ensuing litigation could "hinder economic development for many years to come."
"We have 100 years of continued service versus three years of startup," Bishop said. "To me, that's very scary.
"I have a lot of respect for [the Paint Creek district], but with only three years, I'm afraid they're spreading themselves very thin."
Bishop also criticized "the blame game" on how the city came into the situation.
"When the economy was good, we were tickled to death to pay these people this much money, to be competitive with other communities around," Bishop said. "Many of us agree that with the economy, the way it's slowed down, these contracts need to be re-negotiated."
Bishop compared the situation to baseball players who "are making too much money."
"When I sit back and watch them [baseball players], they're making mistakes 65, 70 percent of the time," Bishop said. "And I've never seen any administration in this city make that many mistakes."
Bishop thanked council for their service and said, "I respect every one of you, but I do want you to know that I'm very concerned."
Many audience members clapped for Bishop's address.
Ashley Stafford, a Hillsboro resident who introduced herself as the wife of Hillsboro firefighter, informed council that she did some canvassing in the city of "nearly 100 houses."
"Not one person wanted to go with Paint Creek," Stafford said.
Stafford told council of meeting an elderly lady who cried; a young man who told her "the community's being torn apart;" and a woman who advised her and her husband "to get out of the area because it's an embarrassment to live here anymore."
"I urge you to listen to the people and what they want, not what you're bullied into believing or threats," Stafford said.
The audience clapped for Stafford's speech.
Hillsboro resident Pam Limes briefly spoke to council to advise them "to hold off voting on the 28th and take a very serious look at what our fire department has to offer."
"I think they deserve that respect," Limes said.
Limes was also applauded.
Another former Hillsboro mayor, Dick Zink, came before council to "re-establish the fact that you know what you've got" with the Hillsboro fire department.
"You've got to really think this over hard," Zink said. "What you've got, don't let it get away from you."
Zink also addressed the city's financial situation, stating that the "audit firm that audits the city" has determined every year that "the city has not spent their total appropriations."
"We came in around probably $450-$600,000 every year in unencumbered balances in the general fund," Zink said. "Now, again, it's how you spend your money. Not on lawyers, not on high wages, but on the people that protect your city."
The audience also applauded for Zink.
Hillsboro firefighter Marc Bayless gave a presentation on the history of the department's "150 years of service."
Bayless reported that on Aug. 25, 1857, the department was founded. At that time, Bayless said, insurance companies were responsible for firefighting.
"At one point in time in the 1940s and '50s, this fire department was revered by the state of Ohio," Bayless said. "It was listed as a class-A department."
Bayless said the department was ranked along with departments in Cincinnati, Akron, Dayton and other large cities.
Bayless said that "people that you all are related to were members of that fire department."
"Not many people can say that their town is served by a fire department that predates the Civil War," Bayless said. "That should be something we should be advertising, not running into the ground."
Bayless said that he "was OK with" the increase to the safety and service director's salary based on the mayor's reasoning for it, which he also applied to the fire department.
"The mayor even said that if you want the best people, sometimes you have to pay them a little extra," Bayless said. "We have the best people."
Bayless said that the situation "has nothing to do with" the quality of Paint Creek's service, but rather "black and white numbers."
"Where's the savings?" Bayless asked. "We bring in enough money to cover us, almost. Throw in a billing payment, throw in some maintenance and stuff like that, you're looking at spending a couple hundred thousand dollars on our department, for years and years and years and years and years of history that you're going to throw away."
Bayless repeated his plea from an earlier council meeting to "allow [the firefighters] to sit at the table for once."
"We have a negotiations meeting coming up, but it's after the vote," Bayless said. "Let us sit at the table."
Bayless finished by asking council to "give us a chance."
The audience clapped for Bayless' presentation.
Hillsboro firefighter Ryan Passet concluded the citizens' comments, after a warning from Koogler to avoid "an unfair labor practices scenario."
Passet distributed an example of how the Hillsboro Fire Department could operate "moving forward into the future."
The details of Passet's example plan were not openly discussed.
Passet thanked council and repeated Bayless' request for "a seat at the table."
"From the start of this, a lot of bad things and a lot of contention has happened over the last few years," Passet said. "We'd like to put all that behind."
Koogler ended the meeting by thanking "everyone for coming out and speaking to us here this evening."
For the full text of the resolution, click here.
While recent meetings have involved discussions between citizens and city officials, the citizens were the driving force of the Thursday meeting, as many people, including two former Hillsboro mayors, spoke at the meeting with little response from the city.
After hearing the resolution read by title only for its second reading, Chris Mathews started the citizens' comments portion of the meeting.
Mathews has spoken at several recent meetings in support of the Hillsboro Fire Department.
Mathews addressed City Auditor Gary Lewis first, asking if the city was running in a deficit and asking for the city's "projected carryover for 2014."
Lewis told Mathews to address council.
"It's not exactly a question-and-answer session," Koogler said. "It's really for you to address council."
"If Paint Creek owns the uptown fire building, which I believe Drew [Hillsboro Mayor Drew Hastings] sold to them, why are you worried about contracting with them?" Mathews asked council. "They're here. They're not going [anywhere]."
Mathews compared contracting with Paint Creek versus staying with the Hillsboro Fire Department to products "made in the USA or made in China," saying that Hillsboro's firefighters are all trained paramedics, unlike Paint Creek's staff.
"Now you're settling for just a basic EMT training certification," Mathews said. "I don't get that."
Mathews said that under the proposed contact, Paint Creek cannot and does not guarantee a paramedic on every run. He also questioned their response times, with their coverage of several townships along with the city, should they contract with them.
"Their staffing is going to be really spread thin, with Hillsboro being added to it," Mathews said. "They're going to have to add more people. We can get a contract for a year, yeah, but after that, our department gets abolished – it's gone. We're stuck."
Mathews also criticized the city's lack of a vote on Paint Creek's board.
"I disapprove," Mathews said. "It's not the direction the city needs to go. Once you disband one department, it's [an] open-door flood to other departments.
"It's not good for Hillsboro. We are not in a deficit because of the fire department, so I don't see what the difference is in keeping our fire department."
Mathews echoed the idea expressed in previous council meetings to put the issue on the ballot, saying that the decision is "bigger than city council."
"This is a major, major move for the city of Hillsboro," Mathews said. "To abolish our fire department is one of the biggest mistakes you'll ever make."
Hillsboro resident Jim Matticks next addressed council, first discussing the figures presented by former Hillsboro City Auditor Rosemary Ryan in a letter and a presentation to council.
Ryan's original reports did not include pension benefits, Matticks said.
Matticks said that Ryan's updated numbers showed a revised expense total for the Hillsboro Fire Department of $1.243 million.
"If you take the ambulance service revenue into account, with the new contract, Mr. Wilkin believes we can save roughly $600,000," Matticks said. "According to these figures, if you put the revenue back in with the ambulance, the actual numbers are going to be roughly $109-$110,000 savings."
Matticks said that he didn't think it was "worth losing our fire department for $110,000" and presented two suggestions for ways to "recoup that money."
"One is to take the safety and service director's position back down to its $53,000 level and not the $72,000 level it's currently at," Matticks said. "I don't know if city council approved his raise, but that is a 40-percent increase of a raise.
"The other way we can make up at least $100,000 is to quit using outside legal services."
Matticks also asked council if they have considered the repercussions of the contract on other individuals and organizations, such as the Highland District Hospital emergency room, or its impact on whether new businesses will want to open in the city if there isn't a fire department.
"Mr. Wilkin stated in Monday's meeting that, and I'm paraphrasing, that Paint Creek would be able to run two squads, each with an EMT and one paramedic," Matticks said. "Am I right in saying that, Mr. Wilkin?"
"That's what I said," Wilkin said.
"The contract, however, does state otherwise," Matticks said.
Matticks said that the language of the contract states that "all reasonable efforts will be made to ensure at least one paramedic."
"That is not a guarantee to me," Matticks said.
Matticks warned council against putting the city in the "worst-case scenario."
"To me, to the city and the taxpayers, the worst-case scenario the city could find itself in is that you guys decide to go with Paint Creek, the fire department goes to litigation, they win their suit, and now we're double taxed," Matticks said. "We're paying for Paint Creek and the city of Hillsboro. Can anybody give me a guarantee that won't happen?"
Matticks' comments were met with applause.
Lewis further clarified the numbers in Ryan's report.
"Last year, we only had to transfer $71,000, but the actual cost for the total amount was close to $200,000," Lewis said.
Lewis also said that Ryan had made a public records request the morning after the regular October council meeting, during which council voted on several increases to appropriation, and clarified that those appropriations had not been applied to the report Ryan was given.
Richard Stiffler of Hillsboro said that he doesn't "understand why it's not going to the Hillsboro residents" and being placed on the ballot.
"The people of Hillsboro [do] not want to go with Paint Creek," Stiffler said. "It's obvious."
Stiffler said that he had previously spoken with council members about this issue "when it's come up before."
"Do you work for you, or do you work for the residents of Hillsboro?" Stiffler asked. "This is not your agenda or what you want. It's what the Hillsboro residents want. Keep that in mind when you guys come to vote Monday."
Stiffler said that if the issue was placed on the ballot, it was "guaranteed to fail."
Stiffler was also applauded for his comments.
Council candidate Rebecca Wilkin next addressed council, stating that she has researched the issue and has determined that fire districts "work for a lot of places."
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"I think you should take everything into consideration," Wilkin said. "I don't think anybody should be bullied by anybody on either side. I think you should get the facts and really compare everything."
Wilkin said she was unsure of the difference between having one paramedic or two paramedics, but that it was important that ultimately, "there's somebody there that's coming to help me, and I appreciate that no matter what."
"It's something I don't understand, and when I'm hearing figures of $600,000, and that it shouldn't even be considered … I think it's your job to consider it," Wilkin said. "There's citizens that do feel that maybe joining the district is not such a bad thing."
Former Hillsboro mayor Betty Bishop, who addressed city leaders about her concerns in a letter earlier this month, told council that she "respects the position" they are in.
"It's been 18 years since I served as mayor," Bishop said. "There's been two administrations prior to this one that served, the Harsha administration and the Zink administration.
"I watched them as they did their jobs. Many of the things they did, I agreed with. Some of the things they did, I didn't agree with. But at no time did I see anything happen that made me feel that I had to step forward and say something."
Bishop said that she is "very concerned" about the proposed contract, saying, "I fear that it could very well devastate our community."
Bishop said that she "respects all people" regardless of where they are from but said that Hillsboro, as the seat of Highland County, has a responsibility "to protect everybody in this county when they come in here."
Bishop said that the elimination of the fire department and any potential ensuing litigation could "hinder economic development for many years to come."
"We have 100 years of continued service versus three years of startup," Bishop said. "To me, that's very scary.
"I have a lot of respect for [the Paint Creek district], but with only three years, I'm afraid they're spreading themselves very thin."
Bishop also criticized "the blame game" on how the city came into the situation.
"When the economy was good, we were tickled to death to pay these people this much money, to be competitive with other communities around," Bishop said. "Many of us agree that with the economy, the way it's slowed down, these contracts need to be re-negotiated."
Bishop compared the situation to baseball players who "are making too much money."
"When I sit back and watch them [baseball players], they're making mistakes 65, 70 percent of the time," Bishop said. "And I've never seen any administration in this city make that many mistakes."
Bishop thanked council for their service and said, "I respect every one of you, but I do want you to know that I'm very concerned."
Many audience members clapped for Bishop's address.
Ashley Stafford, a Hillsboro resident who introduced herself as the wife of Hillsboro firefighter, informed council that she did some canvassing in the city of "nearly 100 houses."
"Not one person wanted to go with Paint Creek," Stafford said.
Stafford told council of meeting an elderly lady who cried; a young man who told her "the community's being torn apart;" and a woman who advised her and her husband "to get out of the area because it's an embarrassment to live here anymore."
"I urge you to listen to the people and what they want, not what you're bullied into believing or threats," Stafford said.
The audience clapped for Stafford's speech.
Hillsboro resident Pam Limes briefly spoke to council to advise them "to hold off voting on the 28th and take a very serious look at what our fire department has to offer."
"I think they deserve that respect," Limes said.
Limes was also applauded.
Another former Hillsboro mayor, Dick Zink, came before council to "re-establish the fact that you know what you've got" with the Hillsboro fire department.
"You've got to really think this over hard," Zink said. "What you've got, don't let it get away from you."
Zink also addressed the city's financial situation, stating that the "audit firm that audits the city" has determined every year that "the city has not spent their total appropriations."
"We came in around probably $450-$600,000 every year in unencumbered balances in the general fund," Zink said. "Now, again, it's how you spend your money. Not on lawyers, not on high wages, but on the people that protect your city."
The audience also applauded for Zink.
Hillsboro firefighter Marc Bayless gave a presentation on the history of the department's "150 years of service."
Bayless reported that on Aug. 25, 1857, the department was founded. At that time, Bayless said, insurance companies were responsible for firefighting.
"At one point in time in the 1940s and '50s, this fire department was revered by the state of Ohio," Bayless said. "It was listed as a class-A department."
Bayless said the department was ranked along with departments in Cincinnati, Akron, Dayton and other large cities.
Bayless said that "people that you all are related to were members of that fire department."
"Not many people can say that their town is served by a fire department that predates the Civil War," Bayless said. "That should be something we should be advertising, not running into the ground."
Bayless said that he "was OK with" the increase to the safety and service director's salary based on the mayor's reasoning for it, which he also applied to the fire department.
"The mayor even said that if you want the best people, sometimes you have to pay them a little extra," Bayless said. "We have the best people."
Bayless said that the situation "has nothing to do with" the quality of Paint Creek's service, but rather "black and white numbers."
"Where's the savings?" Bayless asked. "We bring in enough money to cover us, almost. Throw in a billing payment, throw in some maintenance and stuff like that, you're looking at spending a couple hundred thousand dollars on our department, for years and years and years and years and years of history that you're going to throw away."
Bayless repeated his plea from an earlier council meeting to "allow [the firefighters] to sit at the table for once."
"We have a negotiations meeting coming up, but it's after the vote," Bayless said. "Let us sit at the table."
Bayless finished by asking council to "give us a chance."
The audience clapped for Bayless' presentation.
Hillsboro firefighter Ryan Passet concluded the citizens' comments, after a warning from Koogler to avoid "an unfair labor practices scenario."
Passet distributed an example of how the Hillsboro Fire Department could operate "moving forward into the future."
The details of Passet's example plan were not openly discussed.
Passet thanked council and repeated Bayless' request for "a seat at the table."
"From the start of this, a lot of bad things and a lot of contention has happened over the last few years," Passet said. "We'd like to put all that behind."
Koogler ended the meeting by thanking "everyone for coming out and speaking to us here this evening."