Hillsboro City Council considers water rate increase, public records policy revision

Ordinances to raise city water rates and to implement fees for police body-worn camera record requests were among the legislation considered by Hillsboro City Council members at their Thursday, Feb. 13 meeting.

Council heard the first reading of an ordinance amending Section 51.076 of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro to increase the rates charged for water service for the city of Hillsboro.

If approved, the ordinance would impose an annual increase every year starting in June 2025, including the following rate hikes: in both 2025 and 2026, an eight-percent increase; in both 2027 and 2028, a seven-percent increase; in each year of 2029-2031, a five-percent increase; and from 2032 and every year thereafter, a three-percent increase unless otherwise amended.

Current rates are $15.08 for the first 133 cubic feet per month and $6.99 for each 100 cubic feet above the minimum usage of 133 cubic feet.

Safety and service director Brianne Abbott said the proposed rate increases are “to cover inflation,” as the ordinance says the city “is incurring additional costs in operating its water delivery system.”

The rates were most recently raised in April 2019, increasing the minimum usage from $12.08 to $15.08. At that time, it was the second increase in less than a year, after voting to raise the rates from $9.08 in May 2018.

In July 2022, council also voted to raise the overage rate from $6.79 to the current $6.99 per 100 cubic feet above the minimum usage. In May 2024, council passed legislation that ensures all property owners are charged at least $15.08 per billing cycle, regardless of whether water is used.

Both Abbott and council president Tom Eichinger said the legislation is in the utilities committee for additional review over the coming months.

In other discussion, council heard the first reading of an ordinance amending Section 39.20 of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro pertaining to the city’s records request policy.

If approved, the policy would be amended to impose a fee of “$75 for each 15-minute segment of footage, not to exceed $750 per requested video,” for records requests involving body-worn camera footage at the police department.

“All records requests pertaining to police department video footage shall be paid for prior to the release of the record once an estimated cost is determined for redaction,” the proposed policy revision says.

According to Hillsboro Police Chief Eric Daniels, the proposal is in response to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s recent signing of House Bill 315, which allows agencies to implement a fee for these records if they so choose.

“Law enforcement-worn body cameras and dashboard cameras have been a major improvement for both law enforcement investigations and for accountability,” Governor DeWine said in a press release in January after signing the bill. “However, I am sensitive to the fact that this changing technology has affected law enforcement by oftentimes creating unfunded burdens on these agencies, especially when it comes to the often time consuming and labor-intensive work it takes to provide them as public records.

"No law enforcement agency should ever have to choose between diverting resources for officers on the street to move them to administrative tasks like lengthy video redaction reviews for which agencies receive no compensation – and this is especially so for when the requestor of the video is a private company seeking to make money off of these videos. The language in House Bill 315 is a workable compromise to balance the modern realities of preparing these public records and the cost it takes to prepare them. Ohio law has long authorized optional user fees associated with the cost of duplicating public records, and the language in House Bill 315 applies that concept in a modern way to law enforcement-provided video records.”

Daniels told council that the bill will officially become law effective April 2, “so I'm asking council to consider the current records policy to allow us to charge for body cam video requests.”

Council member Adam Wilkin asked if the department received “an absurd amount of requests for body cam videos.”

“We get a lot,” Daniels said. “We get online requests from online entities, from YouTube entities and from website entities who profit from police body cam video. We seem to get them on a quarterly basis, and every quarter we get a blanket request asking for any offense or incidents involving resisting arrests, use of forces, police pursuits, anything of, you know, substance.

“We will then give them a copy of the reports and then reply to their request. Then later, they will come back and ask for the body cam. Then we also get, you know, from the public, we get numerous body cam requests.”

Council member Greg Maurer also asked Daniels to explain the reasoning behind the pricing.

“It takes, on average, an hour to complete 15 minutes of review, redaction, preparation and delivery,” Daniels said. “You have to review it, you have to redact it and then you have to re-review it.”

Eichinger placed the legislation in the street and safety committee for further review.

In other legislation:

• Two standard annual items — a resolution authorizing participation in the ODOT road salt contracts awarded in 2025, and an ordinance regarding indigent defendant counsel in the courts — were both approved, after only five voting council members were in attendance in January and could not pass the legislation with suspension of the three-reading rule.  

Abbott asked council to approve both measures by an emergency to meet required timelines. The road salt contract legislation passed by a 7-0 vote after a unanimous vote to suspend the three-reading rule, but there was some discussion of the ordinance to authorize and direct the safety and service director to enter into an agreement with the Highland County commissioners to provide for indigent defendant counsel in the courts before its vote.

“I have a lot of people asking me about declaring as an emergency,” council member Mary Stanforth said. “Do we have a time frame on these? Can this not be brought to council before?”

Abbott said this particular ordinance depends on when they receive their annual contract from the county, “and sometimes it’s out of our control as to when we can present it.

“We can't present it until they give it to us,” she said. “We did try to present it last month, but there weren't enough council members here to actually put that through.”

Eichinger agreed that they “don't have any control over when they finally send the paperwork that needs to be acted on,” as is also the case with many of the state contracts they consider.

Council member Kathryn Hapner — who, as a local attorney, abstained from voting on the legislation — added that “the reimbursement comes from the State of Ohio from the Public Defender's office, and the public defender's office has timelines. If the bills aren't submitted in a timely manner, then the city and the county don't get reimbursed.”

After that discussion, the legislation passed by a 6-0 vote.

• A proposed ordinance to expand the existing Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area, or DORA, had its first reading, with the endorsement of the street and safety committee.

“This legislation will extend the hours and boundary of the DORA district as per written request to the city council and review and recommendation of the street and safety committee,” committee chair Adam Wilkin said. “We are extending the boundaries to the corner where Highland House is [the 100 block of East Main Street] and making the hours 24/7, though of course they’d be bound by the operating hours of the businesses.”

Currently, the hours of the DORA are Thursday through Saturday from 3-10 p.m.

As previously reported, after nearly a year of planning, council voted — in a split decision, 4-3 — to approve the ordinance creating a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) in uptown Hillsboro in June 2023.

According to the Ohio Department of Commerce, “Per R.C. 4301.82, a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area or ‘DORA’ (aka Outdoor Refreshment Area or ‘ORA’) is nothing more than a specified area of land that a local legislative authority has designated as exempt from certain open container provisions as defined within the legislative act that created the DORA.

Eichinger said the legislation would remain in the street and safety committee until it is due for a vote in April.

• A resolution authorizing the Safety and Service Director to apply for, accept and enter into an agreement to participate in the RPHF Solid Waste District’s 2025 Small Business Recycling Program was approved by a 7-0 vote following suspension of the three-reading rule.

Abbott said the resolution is allowing the city to pursue the district’s grant.

“This is the program the city utilizes annually in order to host the Dumpster Days events,” she said.

• An emergency resolution approving a “then and now” certification by the City Auditor, pursuant to R.C. 5705.41 (D)(1), for a payment to the Ohio Water Development Authority was approved after suspension of the three-reading rule.

The resolution was for a payment in the amount of $11,304, according to the legislation.

“This is just to make our initial fee for our new OWDA loan for the Beech Street construction project, and to make this payment,” city auditor Dawson Barreras said. “It came in at the end of the year last year, and there wasn't a PO [purchase order] open for it. Since the new year rolled over and we have the invoices dated for 2024, we obviously to open a PO in ’25, and it has to be a ‘then and now.’”

• Council approved two ordinances making supplemental appropriations.

The first was an ordinance correcting the city’s 2025 budget legislation “to correct budget line items that were negative.” It included appropriations to the following line items: Pro Services, $34,000; Medicare, $3,894; and Other Repairs, $20,000.

“When we transferred it over after council passed it, it came over as a negative instead of a positive, just from the software,” Barreras said. “It's not changing the budget that you guys passed. It's just literally fixing the number so I can legally spend the money if we need to.”

The second ordinance was to “appropriate additional funds” in the amount of $74,000.04 “in order to contract with the Warren County Building Department,” which Barreras said will be conducting the city’s building inspections.

In other discussion:

• Abbott announced progress on several ongoing projects during her report to council.

After over a year of construction, the Roberts Lane extension project is nearing completion, the safety and service director reported.

“The electrical work is complete for the Roberts Lane extension project, the lift station has been installed, and pavement markings will be complete when the weather permits,” Abbott said.

The city is also working with partners on plans for the $5.2 million Appalachian Community Grant project at Crossroads Park.

“The construction manager has been selected, and design meetings continue,” Abbott said.

Construction on Beech and Railroad Streets — which includes water, sewer, storm and street (curbs, gutters and sidewalks) upgrades — is continuing, while the “downtown pedestrian safety project is slated for April of this year,” Abbott announced.

Legislation for the pedestrian safety project was approved in April 2024, after three contentious meetings, although the city had already been awarded $336,000 through ODOT in May 2022 for the improvements. According to a press release from ODOT, “The crosswalks at the Main Street and High Street intersection will be replaced with new high-visibility crosswalks including new pavement markings, center median refuge islands and solar-powered pedestrian-activated beacons.”

For an update on economic development, Abbott said that the city issued “four commercial and six residential building permits” in January, while the city is working with Marriott Hotel developers as well as Glo Fiber for their planned fiber-to-home project.

Abbott also reported that the Hillsboro Planning Commission “granted a variance for 126 West Walnut Street” at their last meeting.

• There were no standing committee reports, although the community enhancement, street and safety and utilities committee chairs all noted that they plan to meet soon to discuss items on their respective agendas. Mayor Justin Harsha was also absent and did not have a report.

• Council heard a presentation from Highland County Health Commissioner Jared Warner regarding a potential opportunity for a partnership to enhance the city’s parks system. For more, see the story at: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/health-commissioner-proposes-fitne….

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