Union negotiations, revised pay ordinance addressed in legislation at Hillsboro City Council meeting

Nearly all of the legislation introduced at Hillsboro City Council’s Thursday, Sept. 12 meeting was approved, with most — including a resolution for union negations and a new pay ordinance for legal positions — being approved as an emergency measure.

A resolution of intent to fund the collective bargaining agreement between the City of Hillsboro and the Fraternal Order of Police, Ohio Labor Council, Inc. waiving ORC 4117.14(G)(11), was the first item passed as an emergency Thursday.

“This legislation will allow the city to waive guidelines set forth in ORC 4117.14(G)(11), and will allow for retroactive pay for union employees if negotiations are not complete by January 1, 2025,” safety and service director Brianne Abbott said. “We are requesting the suspension of the three-reading rule and passage by emergency to complete the FOP negotiations in a timely manner.”

According to the legislation, “the City of Hillsboro and the Fraternal Order of Police, Ohio Labor Council, Inc. (representing Sergeants, Patrol Officers and Dispatchers) are currently engaged in collective bargaining,” and they find “it is in the best interest of the City of Hillsboro that the parties be given ample opportunity to complete the collective bargaining process in an efficient manner.”

Passage of the legislation “does not indicate a preference that all economic matters be effective on a particular date,” the resolution says. “Rather, the City Council’s intent is to accommodate the negotiation process.”

An ordinance to adjust compensation for certain city employees was also approved as an emergency, following suspension of the three-reading rule.

Finance committee chair Mary Stanforth said that her committee reviewed the ordinance at a meeting Sept. 9.

“Positions added to the ordinance are, underneath the law director, assistant law director and a paralegal for Municipal Court,” Stanforth said. “For Municipal Court, under it is clerk, court administrator, Deputy Clerk I, Deputy Clerk II, security officer and bailiff.

“The new positions listed [are] the paralegal for municipal court and the assistant law director. Except for the new positions, all the others have been included in the current budget. Auditor [Dawson] Barreras stated that there are funds to cover the additional staff. The employees listed under municipal court that have been paid by the city as administrative assistants are added to the ordinance.”

The “Law Director” and “Municipal Court” headings are new additions to the city pay ordinance. Stanforth said that Municipal Court Judge Chad Randolph, who was among those in attendance for the committee meeting, “is in the process of clarifying procedures, and part of that is adding the court employees to the ordinance, since the city is paying their salary.”

The ordinance approved Thursday includes two assistant law directors with a pay range of $25,000 to $30,000; a victim rights director at $20-$25/hour; a city building paralegal at $10,000; a municipal court paralegal at $45,000-$55,000; a clerk/court administrator at $31-$40/hour; a deputy clerk I at $25-$30/hour; a deputy clerk II at $19-$24/hour; and a security officer/bailiff at $25-$35/hour.

Stanforth said the finance committee voted 3-0 to recommend the ordinance be passed as an emergency.

“We asked that this be considered an emergency because of upcoming trials and duties that Randalyn [Worley, city law director] has that she needs the extra help, and the sooner we can get that for her, the better,” Stanforth said.

The lone new piece of legislation passed without an emergency classification as a resolution authorizing the Safety and Service Director to enter into an easement agreement with AEP on real property owned by the City of Hillsboro.
“This legislation will give AEP an easement to supply electricity to the new Roberts Lane development,” Abbott said. “We are requesting suspension of the three-reading rule on this to complete the infrastructure in a timely manner.”

The easement is for the 69.286-acre tract of land on state Route 73 owned by the City of Hillsboro for the Roberts Lane extension.

Two related resolutions placing properties on the Highland County tax duplicate were approved as an emergency following suspension of the three-reading rule. One is to certify delinquent water and sewer bills, and the other is to certify nuisance abatement invoices, to the Highland County auditor for placement on the Highland County tax duplicate.

According to the legislation, there are 11 parcels with water/sewer assessments and 10 with nuisance abatement assessments.

Also approved as an emergency was a resolution naming Shawn Adkins as the City of Hillsboro’s appointment to the District 15 Public Works Integrating Committee for a three-year term beginning in September.

The only piece of legislation having a first reading and no vote was an ordinance amending and renumbering section 110 of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro pertaining to licensing requirements for electronic gaming parlors operated within the City of Hillsboro.

Community enhancement committee chair Jo Sanborn Earley said that her committee met Aug. 9 to discuss the ordinance “recommending skilled gaming businesses to be licensed by the state, instead of only licensed in the city,” at the suggestion of city administration. The legislation is to combat potential “criminal activity occurring at these establishments,” Earley said.

The proposed ordinance includes updated definitions; license requirements; license fees, including $25 for each establishment and $7.50 for each table or device; potential license revocation or refusal by the city to issue a license; implied consent to search; age restrictions; and penalties.

In other action, council elected to approve all three items up for a third reading Thursday.

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 passed by a 6-0 vote.

As discussed by Mayor Justin Harsha in July, the “legislation will modify the parks code to prohibit tobacco products at the parks and prohibit pets from certain areas within the city parks, specifically playgrounds and shelter areas.” In response to questions from council members Stanforth and Jason Brown, Harsha confirmed that the prohibition of pets would be in “specific areas of the parks,” not including trails, while the tobacco prohibition was primarily aimed at Shaffer Park.

The code will be updated to add that “Use of tobacco products shall be prohibited” and that “Pets are strictly prohibited in any area where signs indicating such prohibition are posted.”

An ordinance to adjust the salary of council members and the council president passed by a 5-1 vote, with Brown voting no.

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 in August 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 was also approved, 6-0, after its third reading.

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. This is the first update to its policy since 2006, Stanforth said in July.

“This is bringing us up to code to invest city money to potentially and hopefully make more money,” Barreras told council during the ordinance’s introduction two months ago. “I'm hoping to make us another $500,000 a year just in interest, just the money sitting in the bank, not counting what we will make through the actual investments.”

In other discussion:

• Prior to the regular meeting, a public hearing on proposed rezoning was held, following the introduction of a related ordinance in August.

The 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 and had its second reading Thursday.

City administrators answered several questions from local property and/or business owners in the affected neighborhoods. Two parcels on West Main Street were confirmed to be unaffected, as Abbott said Crossroads Park was the only property on that street in this proposal.

One business owner asked for the “reason for the change.”

“Your business is excluded from this because it's zoned correctly,” Abbott said. “Everything around you right now is zoned industrial, and it's all residential. We're just cleaning up the zoning maps.”

Under the proposal, the listed parcels will be rezoned from industrial “E” to either business and residential “D” or residential “B.”

One of the business owners in attendance asked what the difference between the “B” and “D” classifications is. Abbott explained that “D” is for either business or multi-family residential, while “B” is residential (single- or multi-family).

“What you see highlighted in the yellow is changing from industrial to residential, because they are all residential homes in that area,” Abbott said. “We’re just kind of cleaning up our zoning maps and making sure the zoning fits with the area.”

Council president Tom Eichinger said the city also received a letter from an individual objecting to the proposed rezoning of his land, where he owns a business.

“I believe, though, that where his places are, he would be grandfathered in anyway, if he's already running his business,” Eichinger said. Abbott confirmed that was correct.

• Having second readings only, with no discussion, were an ordinance vacating an unnamed alley between Trenton Street and Adams Street; and 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.

• At the start of the meeting, council voted 6-0 to excuse the absence of council member Greg Maurer.

• Under communications, Eichinger noted that the city received three letters from area citizens in the past month. Two were from the same individual regarding ambiguity in the city ordinances in reference to solar panels, as the resident is protesting “a denied site plan review,” Abbott and Eichinger said.

“That’s being looked at,” Eichinger said.

The other letter was in response to discussions about possible citywide waste collection and asking if condo associations would, or could, be among the entities exempt from the waste collection fee. As brought out in the letter, condo owners in that resident’s HOA pay a monthly fee for waste collection, which is “already guaranteed by the association.”

Eichinger said he would make sure the utilities committee reviewed the letter at their next meeting.

• At 7:14 p.m., council voted to enter an executive session, at Abbott’s request, for “preparing for, conducting or reviewing the negotiations or bargaining sessions with public employees concerning their compensation or other terms or conditions of their employment.” They exited the session at 7:25 p.m.

For more from Thursday’s meeting, see the stories at: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/hillsboro-water-emergency-future-s… and https://highlandcountypress.com/news/hillsboro-city-council-updated-par….

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