Hillsboro City Council rejects auditor pay ordinance

After a year of off-and-on discussion, a proposed ordinance to adjust the salary of the city auditor was voted down by Hillsboro City Council at their Thursday, Aug. 15 meeting.

The ordinance, which was amended and had a second reading in July after being tabled for a year, failed by a 3-4 vote margin, with council members Dan Baucher, Jason Brown, Jo Sanborn Earley and Greg Maurer all voting against it.

The legislation had been in limbo since being introduced and subsequently tabled in August 2023. The original version of the ordinance a year ago had proposed raising the auditor’s salary to $70,000.

Council members objected because at that time, as pointed out by Brown, council had already voted within the last year to raise the auditor’s salary, “and now the recommendation is to give another basically 22 percent on top of that.” Finance committee chair Mary Stanforth agreed last year that they would “need to have further discussions.”

During their June 2024 meeting, council voted 5-1, with council member and finance committee member Adam Wilkin voting no, to put the ordinance back in the finance committee.

According to Stanforth, upon review at their July 9 meeting, the finance committee was recommending the passage of an amended version of the ordinance introduced in 2023.

“After discussing the salary proposal, the committee decided to amend the ordinance to reflect a new salary of $63,000 for the auditor,” Stanforth said.

Even with that amendment, only two members of the finance committee — Stanforth, after a long pause, and Wilkin, along with fellow council member Don Storer, also after a long pause — voted in favor of it Thursday.

The other three readings up for a third reading each passed by a 7-0 vote. Those included:

• An ordinance amending section 155.067(D) of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro pertaining to the Business C zoning district purpose statement.

The update changes the Business “C” Zoning District’s purpose statement to read: “It is the purpose of the Business ‘C’ Zoning District to promote the development of business uses.”

The same language is contained in the current zoning code, but it also includes additional sentence in error, which safety and service director Brianne Abbott said in June is “a typo, a repeat from a different section, that needed to be corrected.”

• An ordinance amending section 154.002, 154.003 and 96.22 of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro.

As brought out by city law director Randalyn Worley in June, the ordinance changes the language in the code to remove “the three-mile jurisdictional area” around the city limits from being subject to subdivision regulations and for the code on driveway cuts.

“The current city code requires driveway cuts and Planning Commission plats within a three-mile radius outside the city limits to be approved by city administration,” Worley said at the June council meeting. “The proposed ordinance will remove such language and require approvals only within the corporation limits of the city.”

• An ordinance amending section 155.072 of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro pertaining to the permitted uses table.

Section 155.072 has a permitted uses table for each zoning district, as parking lots are currently now only “permitted with standards” in zones B and G. With this new ordinance, the lots will be permitted in the C, D, E and F zoning districts.

Several pieces of legislation were also passed Thursday on their first reading. Those included:

• Four ordinances authorizing the sale of real estate owned by the City of Hillsboro no longer needed for any municipal purpose each passed by a 7-0 vote following suspension of the three-reading rule.

The legislation involves selling parcels at 508 and 775 North West Street, 314 John Street and 324 Johnson Street, respectively, via bid.

“These pieces of legislation will allow the city to put out for bid the properties that were previously in receivership through code enforcement,” Abbott told council. “The properties are cleaned up and ready for public bid.

“We would like to request suspension of the three-reading rule on this, on all four pieces of legislation, just because the properties are not needed for public purpose at this time and to avoid maintenance costs and time of our city employees, and also to turn a profit on these properties.”

• A resolution authorizing the Safety and Service Director to enter into a contract with DLZ Ohio, Inc. for the Beech Street and Railroad Street reconstruction project, in the amount of $208,000, passed as an emergency after suspension of the three-reading rule.

According to an exhibit attached to the legislation, this “project is an emergent matter” due to “multiple areas of collapsed storm sewer in the vicinity, causing flooding to the roadways and adjacent properties, including a public park.” As noted by Abbott in the exhibit and in her comments to council, this “project must proceed prior” to work on the Appalachian Community Grant project at Crossroads Park, which is “adjacent to Beech Street.”

“[DLZ] has previously completed design of said project, and this contract is necessary to proceed with bidding, contractor selection, contract administration and to acquire low-interest funding,” Abbott said Thursday.

Maurer asked about the “timeline” for the project.

“It really needs to be done prior to construction of the Crossroads Park project to allow for adequate drainage the site,” Abbott said. “The site and the roadway floods often in that area, so to, I guess, mitigate any issues as far as flooding and things of that nature goes, this project needs to happen prior to the Crossroads Park amphitheater project.”

“And that project [Crossroads Park] needs to be completed by the end of 2026,” council president Tom Eichinger added.

• An ordinance making supplemental appropriations in the amount of $14,492, to appropriate additional funds from the Harmony Lake playground to put toward fencing at Shaffer Park, was approved unanimously.

Introduced for a first reading were:

• An ordinance amending section 155.073(M) of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro pertaining to auto service station/auto repair shop standards.

Currently, the section does not exist in the city’s zoning code, and according to Abbott, the legislation was recommended by the Hillsboro Planning Commission. As proposed, the new section will include standards for lot size (a minimum of 10,000 square feet); setbacks (at least 35 feet from the street right-of-way and at least 25 feet from adjoining property in residential districts or 10 feet from adjoining property in commercial districts); fencing and screening; exterior storage; architecture; lighting; and gas pumps.

According to zoning and annexation committee chair Jason Brown, his committee has recommended a change on the section on vehicles in the proposed ordinance to read: "Vehicles: NO vehicle shall be parked within 10 feet of the street right of way. Shops shall not permit unsightly matter in the form of refuse, junk, trash, furniture, scrap, rubbish, rubble, debris, clutter, lumber, rummage, waste, unlicensed and mechanically inoperative motor vehicles or parts thereof, and discarded material of any nature to remain on any lot or land within the limits of the city.”

Eichinger said the legislation in council’s packet Thursday is “the original legislation, so it's going to get a first read tonight, then the modifications will be made prior to the second reading.”

• An ordinance modifying the zoning classification of certain parcels, including “on Beech, Elm, Railroad, John [streets] and surrounding area,” according to Abbott, was introduced at the Planning Commission’s recommendation. A public hearing on the matter will be held Sept. 12 at 6:45 p.m.

• An ordinance vacating an unnamed alley between Trenton Street and Adams Street.

According to the ordinance, the legislation was recommended by the Hillsboro Planning Commission and affects the alley bordered by 414 and 416 Adams Street and 429 Trenton Street and its adjoining parcel. All adjacent landowners have “filed consent” to vacate the alley, the legislation says, as Abbott said the legislation came about “by citizen application.”

Having its second reading were:

• An ordinance to adjust the salary of council members and the council president.

Stanforth said in July the proposal was reviewed and recommended by the finance committee as part of their July 9 meetings and would involve raising council members’ salary to $7,200, beginning in January 2026.

This potential raise had also been discussed by the finance committee in the summer of 2023, but no legislation was introduced until July 2024.

Brown asked Thursday how the finance committee “came up with this amount,” as he said it would be “doubling” the salary of council members. Stanforth said that numbers were “presented to” her committee, as council clerk Whitney Aliff said she conducted “research of other municipalities” of similar size at Stanforth’s request.

• A resolution to adopt the 2024 version of the City of Hillsboro Treasury Investment Board policy. As proposed, the updated policy includes sections on the board’s purpose; investment philosophy; investment objectives (short-term objective, liquidity, income maximization and minimized cost of services); personal conduct and qualifications (ethics/standard of conduct and continuing education); transactions; authorized investments; determining the maturity range; service providers, safekeeping and custody; and prohibited investments.

 • An ordinance amending section 100.01 of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro pertaining to the regulations for city parks, particularly regarding pets and tobacco usage. According to parks committee chair Don Storer, his committee met July 25 to review the legislation and is recommending its passage.

In other discussion:

• Abbott discussed ongoing infrastructure upgrades in the safety and service director’s report.

Since the last council meeting, the paving project for this summer was completed, “with striping to come,” Abbott said.

As previously reported, at their December 2023 meeting, council voted to approve “$1 million worth of paving” in 2024, including some or all of West Walnut, Johnson, East South, East and West Pleasant, Oak, Vine and South Elm streets.  Due to costs being under projection, in May it was announced the city its seeking bids to pave Fenner Avenue, Holmes Street, North Elm Street, Fair Street, Catherine Street and Bell Street, along with portions of West North Street, East Beech Street and Oak Street.

According to Abbott, the Roberts Lane extension is wrapping up with “the expected completion of the project in the upcoming weeks,” as crews are currently finishing the “lighting and paving,” she said.

The long-discussed North High Street lead line replacement project has also started in the past month and is scheduled to be a “four-month project,” Abbott said.

“We will be closing High Street block by block until project completion,” she said. “Please be patient and safe when handling the road closures.”

In other updates, Abbott reported nine commercial and 20 residential building permits issued in the city for July, while she encouraged the community to attend the weekly farmers’ market uptown on Saturday mornings as well as the annual Jeepers Creepers event Oct. 18.

• During his report to council, Barreras asked the appropriate council committees to review the city’s vacation policy, to fix a discrepancy, as well as its pay ordinance, to potentially add municipal court and law director employees.

“With Ohio OPERS, the retirement system, you can switch from different Ohio entities within the government — so whether it's like the county or the city or other entities such as ODOT and things like that — and all of your time transfers with you, your sick time, your leave, your personal time, your vacation time,” Barreras said. “For whatever reason, our Hillsboro policy, for just vacation, says that you have to work within the city to receive that. We need to change that to your prior service will transfer as well.”

Eichinger placed the policy issue in the civil service and employee relations committee and the pay ordinance in the finance committee for further review.

• Stanforth gave a report on the July 29 finance committee meeting, during which members ultimately decided to deny a request from developers of the long-planned Marriott Hotel to extend the length and amount of their tax increment financing (TIF) agreement. For more, see the story at: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/hillsboro-finance-committee-denies….

• Street and safety committee chair Wilkin and utilities committee chair Maurer reported on their respective committees’ meetings Aug. 5 regarding the Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) and potential citywide waste collection. For more, see the story at: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/trash-collection-marriott-hotel-do….

Maurer also noted that his committee will be meeting again to review the waste collection proposal and bids before making any recommendations to council.

• Community enhancement committee chair Jo Sanborn Earley said that her committee met Aug. 5 “to discuss an ordinance recommending skilled gaming businesses to be licensed by the state.” They plan to have a second meeting to review legislation once it is drafted by Worley.

• A letter from an uptown business owner regarding extending the hours of the DORA was listed under communications and will be placed in the street and safety committee for further review.

• Eichinger welcomed council clerk pro tempore Lauren Walker as a substitute for Aliff.

For more from Thursday’s meeting, see the story at: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/tissots-generous-playground-donati….

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