By DANAE KING
Record Herald Writer
Courtesy of the Weekly Record Herald, Printed on July 15, 2011
WEST MILTON – The upcoming election and some citizen’s discontent with Municipal Manager Tony Howard caused dissension between several council members and many of the citizens to become vocal at Tuesday night’s West Milton Council Meeting. The catalyst came from whether or not the chief of police should be at council meetings.
Howard introduced the topic of whether the chief of police should attend council meetings, which had been previously brought up by citizens at the June council meeting and at the last workshop on June 28.
“At the last workshop it was suggested that I put on the agenda for the next available discussion of this council to have the chief of police present at all meetings,” Howard said.
Council member Susan Willis responded by saying she didn’t think it was simply suggested that he look into that, but that it was suggested to have an ordinance on the agenda at the meeting, and one was not.
Willis and Howard went back and forth, with Howard requesting that Willis look in the minutes of the workshop and see if the word “ordinance” was used anywhere. She found that it was not and promptly made a motion to put the police matter in the form of an ordinance at the next council meeting.
Howard then suggested that the council should discuss whether there are some attempts being made to manage the manager’s staff.
“We are not telling you, we are requesting the police chief be here, plain and simple,” Willis said in response to Howard. “We’re not telling you how he should do his job, we’re asking for his presence at the meetings to answer the questions of our citizens.”
Mayor Pat Grim then inquired about a section in the charter, 6.07, and whether it applied. The section stated that Howard had the right to manage the workforce except for the administrators for each department, and if the chief of police was a department administrator, Howard could not say he couldn’t come to meetings.
Law Director Charles Sell looked into the section and stated that it didn’t apply to that situation because the chief of police is not a department head; he’s just a regular employee who is managed by Howard. Grim was upset that council didn’t have a say and was not able to request the presence of the chief of police, at least not without amending some of the code.
“I mean if we don’t have authority, I’m just going say it right here, why do we have a council?” Grim said.
Sell explained that the municipal manager manages the city and the council directs the manager.
“If that falls apart then the council has to come to a consensus plus one that it’s not working and the manager’s position will be terminated,” Sell said.
Willis pointed out that the chief coming to the meetings was what the citizens wanted and that it should happen.
“I have a position too, I still maintain, that anyone who wants to talk to the chief of police can during his scheduled work hours,” Howard said. “This isn’t a Tony Howard issue by the way, this is a village manager, regardless of who is sitting in this seat, I think they would take the same position.”
Willis challenged whether Howard had consulted the chief on the issue and he replied that he had and the chief agreed with his position. Sell interjected, saying that the council can change the charter to get the chief to come to meetings but that he personally, doesn’t think it is appropriate for the chief to attend council meetings and answer citizen’s questions about specific cases, and that if the council wants to change the charter, they should make sure the questions go through the council to the police chief.
According to the Chief of Police himself, Garry Kimpel, he doesn’t mind working past the slotted office hours. However, council meetings are not the right forum for discussing police matters with citizens.
“We have office hours and if somebody works during my office hours, I’m more than willing to come in in the evening and meet with them,” he said, “The council meetings are just not the right forum. A lot of things we do are confidential in nature and shouldn’t be discussed in that forum.”
Kimpel detailed that right now he only attends council meetings when the manager requests his presence over a specific issue.
What is council business?
At the council meeting, Willis brought up another issue that further illustrated the discontent among the council members. Willis passed out copies of an email that council member Deb Miller had previously sent to council members Willis, Tim Benkert, Jason Tinnerman and Howard.
She gave copies to those who hadn’t been sent it, including Grim, council member Robert Mast and vice mayor Dan Shelton. Willis made the point that the email should have been sent to all council members, as the charter states if there is a discussion about council business between council members, all members must be notified.
The council members disagreed as to whether the email, which was about a newspaper article about Piqua and Brownfield money, was council business. Miller maintained that it was not council business.
However, Grim pointed out that they had discussed the Brownfield money in a previous meeting, making it council business. Then she turned her disgust towards the council itself.
“We’ve got a council that is ineffective,” Grim said. “I got a letter here from Debby Miller which is very hateful and nasty, and she violated the charter …”
In talking about the letter Miller sent her, Grim stated that cooperation would never happen on the council and that it started with Tony Howard and Debbie Miller.
Howard said he didn’t know anything about the letter and referred to an instance in which Grim came to him about the letter and he was unaware what it was. After the meeting, Grim had no comment about what was contained in the letter.
The residents then began to express their discontent with the council. Kathy Utz was the first to stand up and her words got a round of applause from several of the citizens who attended the meeting.
“Our town is going down the toilet,” Utz said. “This arguing, we’re not getting anywhere and the only thing I would suggest is that with a city council and a manager and a mayor, and that is a very difficult form of government to make work, and what we really need to do is maybe look at having a mayor that lives in this city [Grim does live in West Milton]… and maybe somebody would give a damn about taking care of this town and getting us back on the road to recovery. Otherwise in 10 years we are not going to be here if we keep this up, this is pathetic.”
Citizen Alice Martin then stood up and told the council to act like adults. She expressed her embarrassment and shock at the actions of the council members at the meeting and said that they weren’t acting like adults.
During the meeting, Shelton introduced the idea of an amendment to ordinance 5.02, which talks about how things have to be passed with a majority vote plus one. Shelton proposed taking off the plus one and having things pass with a majority vote. Sell said he thought to change the charter, as Shelton was proposing, a city vote would be needed.
“If you feel this is proper we can always read it as its first reading and I may indicate, at the next meeting that it’s out of order if I don’t believe we can do it,” Sell said.
Another issue brought up by Willis was Deb Miller campaigning during the Fourth of July parade. She asked Howard why he let it happen.
Howard responded that he had consulted legal counsel about politicians campaigning during a parade and that he couldn’t stop them from doing it.
Miller said she checked the rules as well, and found there was nothing that said she couldn’t campaign at the parade.
Miller’s council term will be up on December 31, 2013. However, the mayor seat is up on December 31, 2011.
Grim was not elected mayor, rather, she stepped in to fill the position after Ray Moore resigned on August 10, 2010. According to the village charter, after someone fills in, an election still must be held during the next election for the seat.
In other business, the West Milton Council voted no on an ordinance in which a land owner wanted to rezone his land from business to residential.
A resolution was passed to authorize and approve submission of alternative tax document, and members unanimously voted to pass a resolution to place mayor-council member on the November Ballot.
The council will host a workshop on July 26.
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