Hillsboro City Council waives SSD residency requirement

Hillsboro City Council members took action on several pieces of legislation at their regular Thursday, Dec. 11 meeting but will return a week later for a second attempt at emergency passage of end-of-year legislation.

There were only five voting members present for Thursday night’s meeting, with six members required for suspension of the three-reading rule and passage by emergency. As a result, some of the items on the agenda introduced as an emergency were effectively tabled due to not being able to take action. 

Among the legislation that was passed, however, was an ordinance to waive the residency requirements of safety and service director Shawn Adkins, following its third reading. Council voted 5-0 to approve the ordinance.

As previously reported, council members voted Sept. 11 to tentatively approve Mayor Justin Harsha’s appointment of Adkins, the longtime public works superintendent for the city, as safety and service director. At that time, they discussed that council would have to pass legislation within the next six months to waive the residency requirement for the position, if they so choose. 

An attempt to suspend the three-reading rule and pass the ordinance on its first reading in October, after which city auditor Dawson Barreras referred to the council members who voted no as “shameful” six different times. The ordinance had no discussion Thursday, nor at its second reading in November.

Also approved were an ordinance making supplemental appropriations in the amount of $40,000 in order to pay OWDA and OPWC loans; an ordinance making supplemental appropriations in the amount of $20,000 and an ordinance making supplemental appropriations in the amount of $5,000, both to pay wages for the safety and service director and public works superintendent; and an ordinance making supplemental appropriations in the amount of $20,000 to pay health care. 

Council also heard the first reading of three separate ordinances to change the zoning classification of certain parcels and modify the zoning map.

Zoning and annexation committee chair Jason Brown reported that his committee met with Hillsboro Planning Commission chair Rob Holt Dec. 4 to consider the rezoning of Maple Run Drive, Wellston Street and East Main Street parcels. 

The Wellston Street discussion was for two parcels that are also zoned business C despite being among residential B zoning, with Holt recommending a change to B zoning. The affected parcels are 25-54-001-027.00 and 25-54-001-028.00.

For the Maple Run subdivision, Brown said Holt “pointed out that the front part of the area is zoned A but the back of it is zoned commercial C, even though everything is residential, so he recommended the entire area be changed to A zoning.” The affected parcels are 25-14-200-005.00, 25-14-200-006.00, 25-14-200-007.00, 25- 14-200-008.00, 25-14-200-009.00, 25-14-200-018.00, 25-14-200-019.00, 25-14-200-017.00, 25-14-200- 016.00, 25-14-200-015.00, 25-14-200-014.00, 25-14-200-013.00, 25-14-200-012.00, 25-14-200-011.00 and 25-14-200-010.00.    

The East Main Street discussion was on the proposed rezoning of the Thompson Funeral Home parcels “from A to B.

“Mr. Holt stated the entire area around these properties will potentially be changed from A to B in the near future, when a new GIS system gets implemented,” Brown said. “It was asked to make the individual change to the Thompson properties now to help them get started on a future project, and also asked if it could be declared an emergency, as they will still have to have a variance and public hearing after the rezoning takes place.”

The affected parcels are 25-44-001-213.00, 25-44-001-212.00, 25-44-001-209.00, 25- 44-001-194.00 and 25-54-001-210.00.    

No action was taken on the ordinances yet, as a public hearing for all three items is set for Jan. 15 at 6:45 p.m.    

In addition, an ordinance for an expansion of the city’s Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) had its second reading, with no discussion.

The other three items of legislation on the agenda, all introduced as emergencies, will be considered at a special meeting Dec. 18 at 6:30 p.m. Those include a resolution adopting ACH and Vendor Accounts Policies; a resolution adopting Federal Grants Compliance Policies; and a resolution approving a “then and now” certification for the payment of Rumpke.

Adkins said the city “needs to have passed” the legislation by the end of the year.

Regarding the ACH policy, council member Mary Stanforth asked if it was “something new that we’re doing,” and Barreras said it was recommended by the state and by Hillsboro Police Chief Eric Daniels.

“You see a lot of cybercrime happening and targeting small municipalities, and this is to kind of prevent that and get everyone up to speed and trained properly on how to identify the cybercrime,” Barreras said.

Stanforth also pointed out an error in the adoption date on the legislation to be corrected before the special meeting. 

For the grants compliance policies, Barreras said that “if we were to get busted or have something stolen from us, the state would come down and see that we did not have that policy set, and we would get hammered for it.”     

The “then and now” certification is to “pay expenses associated with Rumpke for the hauling of sludge from the Water Treatment Plant,” according to the legislation.

In other reports:

• Adkins told council that the multimillion-dollar construction project at Crossroads Park is “moving on schedule,” while the Rails to Trails project is on hold due to weather. 

Adkins also asked the council president to put an unrelated construction project — reconstruction at state Route 73 and Fenner Avenue — placed in both the street and safety committee and the finance committee for further review.

“It’s something that we had a grant for that was going to cost us quite a bit of money,” Adkins said. “We had our in-house engineer do the plans and cost estimates, which will save us a lot of money. 

“I would really like to see this project move forward next year, but it will be involving adding money to our budget. It's like 620-some-thousand dollars, versus our grant was for $2.2 million.”

In response to a question from council president Tom Eichinger, Adkins said that there is not money in the budget for the project currently.

“I think it's well worth the money to move forward,” Adkins said. “We're still actively looking for other money to help with it, but we know it's $1.5 million less than what the ODOT grant was telling us it was going to cost.”
 
For an economic development update, Adkins said there were 22 building permits, including 12 commercial and 10 residential, issued in November. Progress is being made on the “extremely fast” Amazon development as well as the long-planned Marriott Hotel and the ongoing GloFiber upgrades. 

The city also hosted its annual Christmas tree lighting and parade earlier this month, Adkins said.

• Barreras announced that he is now projecting “a $2.4 million carryover into next year,” instead of the $1.9 million previously reported.

“That’s a lot better than you estimated,” Eichinger said.
            
• At the start of the meeting, council voted 5-0 to excuse the absences of council members Greg Maurer and Adam Wilkin.

• Eichinger concluded the meeting by thanking the four outgoing council members and council clerk Lauren Walker for their service.

“I would like to thank the outgoing council members, Mr. [Don] Storer, Mr. Brown, Mr. Maurer and Ms. [Kathryn] Hapner, for all of your help and attention to the details that we have to deal with every month here in the council,” Eichinger said. “I also want to thank Ms. Walker for all of her clerk duties over the last period of time. She will, starting next year, be the clerk pro tem, and Ms. Megan Blackburn is going to take over the clerkship starting next month.”

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