Hillsboro City Council OKs pay ordinance revision, legislation for U.S. 50 properties

After a nearly hourlong executive session, Hillsboro City Council members voted to revise the city’s pay ordinance and passed several ordinances related to properties on U.S. 50 during their Thursday, June 12 meeting.

There were no reports from city administrators, as Mayor Justin Harsha was absent, and safety and service director Brianne Abbott requested an executive session to discuss “the purchase of property for public purposes, the sale of property at competitive bidding, or the sale or disposition of unneeded, obsolete or unfit for use property.” At the same time, city law director Randalyn Worley requested an executive session “to consider the compensation of public employees.” Council entered the executive session at 7:04 p.m. and returned to their regular meeting at 7:57 p.m.

The pay ordinance revision — the third such change since January 2024 — adds or revises several positions and their salary or wage ranges. Those include: code enforcement/meter reader, $23 to $30 an hour (new position); victim rights director, $41,600 to $52,000 (changed from $20-$25/hour), plus a new, additional $30,000 per year for criminal and civil paralegal; paralegal - civil, $10,000 (changed from city building paralegal); and paralegal - criminal, $45,000-$55,000 (changed from municipal court paralegal). 

The code enforcement/meter reader position was revised Thursday prior to its passage, following a motion from finance committee chair Mary Stanforth. The original legislation presented to council had the range at $23-$35 instead of the eventually approved $23-$30 range. 

An ordinance amending section 32.086 of the codified ordinances of the city of Hillsboro also passed as an emergency, as that legislation adds a section to the city code allowing the Hillsboro Planning Commission to “appoint a clerk” and to pay said clerk “$100 per meeting.”

Also approved on their first respective readings, following suspension of the three-reading rule, were a resolution transferring real property to the Hillsboro Community Improvement Corporation; a resolution authorizing the mayor to take necessary steps to acquire real property; and a resolution authorizing the Safety and Service Director to enter into an easement agreement with Brian J. Mycroft and Christy L. Mycroft. 

Abbott said she “didn’t have anything additional to discuss” in open session regarding the resolutions, other than asking council to consider suspending the three-reading rule on all three items.

According to the legislation, the property transferred to the CIC is land on U.S. 50 owned by the city. The land the city is seeking to acquire is .917 acre adjacent to the aforementioned parcel they already own, and the legislation says it is “to bring new development, growth and opportunity to the city.”

The Mycrofts own the Hillsboro Dairy Queen, which is also adjacent to the parcels mentioned in the other two resolutions. The legislation says that the easement will be for “public access to city-owned walking trails immediately adjacent to the Mycroft property.”

As previously reported, the city received a a $1.44 million grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation for a “Rails to Trails” walking and bicycling trail on the city’s abandoned railroad bed.

Also approved Thursday were:

• An ordinance amending section 36.018 of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro passed as an emergency at the request of city auditor Dawson Barreras, following suspension of the three-reading rule.

The legislation amends the existing ordinance regarding the Treasury Investment Board to add “a member of the public appointed by the Auditor with professional investment experience” as a member to the board, along with the city auditor, mayor, treasurer and law director. It also changes the chairperson of the board from the treasurer to the auditor.

This ordinance adds to a previous revision to the investment board’s policy, which was approved by council in September 2024.

“When I was going back through legislation, I never found anything that was actually passed to add that [extra board] member,” Barreras said. “I would also like to change who the chair is. Right now, it's the treasurer. 

“I would like to make it the auditor, and reason being is because we're really going to take these investments really seriously, and to do so, we need someone as a board chair that's going to be there all the time. With the turnover rate of a treasurer in Hillsboro, I think it's kind of hard to do. It's hard to set meetings.”

For the existing term (elected in November 2021), the city has had four city treasurers.

Council member Jason Brown asked if having “professional investment experience” would be “sufficient” for a person to qualify to serve on the board.

“Should there be examples, like a degree in business, finance, a CFP [certified financial planner] certification, something like that?” Brown asked. “Or is that just going to be good enough?”

“Well, to invest people's money, you do have to have a certificate through the state,” Barreras said. “You don't technically have to have any kind of degree, but you do have to pass a test to be allowed to invest people's money. It's called the Series 65 test.”

After the discussion, council voted 6-0 to suspend the three-reading rule and to approve the ordinance.

• An ordinance creating section 35.061 of the codified ordinance of the City of Hillsboro pertaining to income tax regulations passed by a 6-0 vote after its third reading.

As discussed by Abbott at its introduction in April, the ordinance “will add language to the code of ordinances to require landlords to provide a list of tenants to the Hillsboro income tax office to ensure registration.”

If approved, the new section of city code would order “all property owners” renting living space to submit “a written report disclosing the name, address and telephone number, if available, of each tenant known to have occupied on such apartment, room, or other residential dwelling rental property” on or by Jan. 31 of each calendar year. Failure to comply could lead to a misdemeanor charge.

• An ordinance amending section 155.999 of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro pertaining to zoning violation penalties was approved by a 6-0 vote.

According to the ordinance, the legislation was recommended by the Hillsboro Planning Commission. The proposed language update would change the following sentence: “Whoever is convicted of, or pleads guilty to, a misdemeanor or minor misdemeanor shall be sentenced in accordance with the provisions set forth in the city code of ordinances.” The new sentence reads: “Whoever violates any section of Chapter 155 is guilty of a minor misdemeanor, unless otherwise recited in Chapter 155, and shall be sentenced in accordance with the provisions set forth in the city code of ordinances.”

In May, committee chair Brown reported that the zoning and annexation committee met to review the proposal. According to city code enforcement official Seth Brose, the legislation was written to “streamline enforcement and clarify penalties,” Brown said, and the committee recommended its passage.

• An ordinance amending sections of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro and adopting the City of Hillsboro Standard Drawings Manual and Design Criteria Manual passed by a 6-0 vote.

Street and safety committee chair Adam Wilkin reported Thursday that his committee met May 19 to review the legislation and recommended its passage.

“These manuals are used as guidelines for construction, building or repair of city streets, buildings or other various projects,” Wilkin said. “The design criteria manuals are used by engineers for design purposes, while the city standard criteria manuals are what is used to complete the projects.”

Part of the ordinance is the approval of the Standard Drawings Manual and Design Criteria Manual, while the ordinance would also update numerous city ordinances. Through the new legislation, “Hillsboro Codified Ordinances 91.60, 96.15, 96.16, 96.17, 96.18, 96.19, 96.20, 96.21, 96.22, 96.23, 50.020, 50.021, 50.022, 50.035, 50.036, 50.037, 50.038, 50.039, 50.043, 50.044, 51.026, 51.027, 51.045, 51.046, 51.047, 51.048, 51.075, 159.22, 159.23, 159.24, 159.25, 159.26, 159.27, 159.28, 159.29, 159.30, 159.31, 159.32, 159.33, 159.45, 154.044, 154.046, 154.047, 154.052, 154.048, 154.067, 154.068, 154.069, 154.070, 154.071, 154.072 [and] 154.073 shall be amended by striking the current language and replacing such language with ‘The Standard Drawings Manual and Design Criteria Manual is adopted by reference as if set out at length herein. A copy shall be on file in the office of the Mayor.’”

In other discussion:

• Council heard the first readings of two ordinances proposed to vacate unnamed alleys within the city. One is for the alley between 406 and 408 Trenton Street, and one is for the alley between 85 Belfast Pike and 326 Bigelow Street.

• Community enhancement committee chair Kathryn Hapner recapped her committee’s May 21 meeting, during which she said the group voted to move forward with pursuing the National Fitness Campaign’s Fitness Court as a potential addition to the city’s parks system “contingent upon receiving a grant from Senator [Jon] Husted’s office. 

“We won't know about that grant until probably October, but the county commissioners have given their approval and indicated that they will be financially supportive of this project, so hopefully we will be able to have some legislation on that,” she said.

In response to a question from Stanforth, Hapner said that if approved, the court would be located at the Railroad Street Park.

• At the beginning of the meeting, council voted 6-0 to excuse the absence of Greg Maurer, who was absent due to a business trip, according to council president Tom Eichinger.

• The written request by Debra Tolle “for leniency” on a six-year-old water bill of a previous tenant that was overlooked, which was also discussed during citizens’ comments in May, was placed in the utilities committee for further review.

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