PICKERINGTON CITY COUNCIL
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2009
CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD
SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA
8:00 P.M.
1. ROLL CALL. Council for the City of Pickerington met for a Special Meeting on Wednesday,
October 28, 2009, at City Hall. Mayor
O’Brien called the meeting to order at 8:00 P.M. Roll call was taken as follows: Mr. Fix, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Hammond,
Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Sabatino, Mrs. Sanders, and Mayor O’Brien were
present. No members were absent. Others present were: Chief Michael Taylor,
Lynda Yartin, Phil
Hartmann,
Linda Fersch, Greg
Bachman, Ed Drobina, Mike McKinley, Nate Ellis, Nikki Smith, Gavin Blair, Tory Kramer,
Ted Hackworth, Rachel Schofeld, Tony Barletta, and others.
Mr. Smith moved to amend
the agenda to allow public comment; Mr. Fix seconded the motion. Mr. Sabatino stated he would like to have an opinion from the Law
Director as to whether that would be allowed.
Mr. Hartmann stated there could be public comment; however, it would
need to be limited specifically to the purpose of the meeting which is to
appoint an Interim City Manager because we are currently operating without a
City Manager. He stated the topic would
have to be limited to that to avoid any Sunshine Law violations. Mr. Hartmann further stated he would add the
caveat that Council should probably not comment on any of the
public comments. Mr. Smith stated he
just noticed there were quite a few people present and he did not know if any
of them would like to comment. Roll call
was taken on the motion to amend with Mr. Sabatino, Mrs. Hammond, Mr.
Wisniewski, Mr. Smith, Mr. Sauer, Mr. Fix, and Mrs. Sanders voting “Yea.” Motion
passed, 7-0. Roll call was taken on
the agenda as amended with Mr. Sabatino, Mr. Smith, Mr. Fix, Mr. Sauer, Mrs.
Hammond, Mrs. Sanders, and Mr. Wisniewski voting “Yea.” Motion
passed, 7-0.
Mayor O’Brien inquired if anyone would like to address Council.
There were no comments.
2. PROCEDURAL READINGS:
A. ORDINANCE 2009-79, “AN ORDINANCE
CONCURRING IN THE MAYOR’S APPOINTMENT OF POLICE CHIEF MICHAEL TAYLOR TO THE
POSITION OF INTERIM CITY MANAGER AND THE DECLARATION OF IMMEDIATE NECESSITY AND
EMERGENCY IN ORDER TO HAVE THIS ESSENTIAL POSITION STAFFED UNTIL THE
APPOINTMENT OF A PERMANENT CITY MANAGER,” First
Reading, Council. Mr. Hartmann stated he
would like to remind everyone that as this is a Special Council meeting, comments need to be
restricted to the actual topic at hand, which is the appointment of an Interim
City Manager. Mr. Hartmann stated the
way the Charter is written, and the Administrative Code, there is currently not
a City Manager for the City and that makes this very urgent because day-to-day
matters, such as invoices, etc., cannot be signed. He stated further there were settlement
agreements that are timely and need to be executed. He continued that as a result of not having
this position filled we could run into difficulties that are unforeseen. Mr. Hartmann stated time is of the essence in
getting this taken care of. He continued
he would be happy to answer any questions anyone might have. Mr. Wisniewski clarified it was the Law
Director’s opinion that this ordinance needs to be passed tonight as an
emergency. Mrs. Hammond stated she has
been questioned by residents as to if there would be any kind of conflict in
having the Police Chief as the Interim City Manager. She stated she did find that in other places
she found that the Police Chief temporarily resigned as Police Chief in order
to be appointed as City Manager and she did not know if that applied here. Mr. Hartmann stated that was a very good
question. He stated he did believe that
there were situations where there could appear to be a conflict. He stated he did look at that issue as the
structure of our City is set up and he did not find where there would be a
problem with that, and you would have the same problems if you appointed any
division head. He stated to get through
the moment it is very common and the Chief has acted in the past, as other people
have, as City Manager, so he did not believe there was a conflict in this
situation.
Mr.
Smith stated he was trying to make up his mind whether to support this as an
emergency or even to support it to waive the requirement for three
readings. He stated this is an emergency
that is self-inflicted, that we did not need to get into, and he still did not
know why we do not have a City Manager.
Mayor O’Brien inquired if this was relevant and Mr. Hartmann stated as
this relates to whether you were going to vote.
Mr. Smith stated it is relevant to him making up his mind as to whether
to vote for this or not, and Mr. Hartmann stated that was fine. Mr. Smith continued that in a back room, late
at night, here at City Hall, there was a discussion, that he participated in,
and he was still at a loss to explain any specific reasons why we are in this
situation. He stated it has been quoted
that there were “philosophical differences” and he did not recall those words
ever being mentioned in the Executive Session.
Mr. Smith questioned if anyone could give him a list of specific reasons
why we do not have a City Manager and why we are in this situation because
right now he did not know why he should vote for this. Mr. Wisniewski stated regardless of the
situation we are in, we are in it and we need to get out of it. He stated whether it is self-imposed or not,
the business of the City has to go forward and our Law Director has told us we
need to do this, we need to do it tonight.
Mr. Smith stated during the discussion he had submitted one or two proposals
that would have avoided this situation.
Mr. Wisniewski stated he believed there was an option that was put
forward that was rejected by the former City Manager that would have prevented
this scenario from occurring. Mr. Smith
stated he was not sure what that option was.
Mayor O’Brien inquired if we really wanted to go into what was said at
the Executive Session, and Mr. Smith stated he had checked with the Law
Director and he can talk about what was talked about in Executive Session, it
is not covered under attorney/client privilege.
Mayor O’Brien stated it was probably covered under an honor code. Mr. Smith stated he felt if we were a little
more forthcoming as to why we made this decision, but if you look at what is on
the public record right now, there is nothing as to why we are here
tonight. Mr. Hartmann stated he
understood what Mr. Smith was talking about as it related to the emergency, but
he felt it must be kept to that topic.
Mr. Smith stated he does not have enough information at had to make a
decision. Mrs. Hammond stated it was
discussed that we need to hire more police officers and she would assume that
with the Chief in the City Manager position that everyone else would have to
step up and move into other positions in the Police Department, and on a short
term basis that was fine, but this is pretty open ended as to how long he could
be in this position. She stated she
thought in the past there was always an ending date for an interim appointment
and she wondered if that was something Council
would want to consider. Mr. Sauer stated
he felt the end time would be when we have a new City
Manager hired. Mrs. Hammond stated the
possibility exists that that could be one or two years. Mr. Sauer stated he highly doubted that would
be the case, he did not feel any member of council wanted to wait one or two
years to hire another City Manager. Mrs.
Hammond stated that may be, but in the past there has always been an end date. Mr. Sauer stated with regard to the police
department, he felt the police department has a transition of power that is put
in place if something were to happen to the Police Chief, and that transition
of power can smoothly occur without a major impact to the police
department. He stated he wondered if
that same type of transition of power existed in other departments within the
City. Mrs. Hammond stated she was not
questioning that. Mr. Wisniewski
inquired if Mrs. Hammond would like a date such as March 31st. Mrs. Hammond stated she was wondering if we
were thinking ninety days or something along those lines. Mrs. Sanders ascertained the advertisement
for this position was on the City’s web site tonight, and it would go to the
Ohio Municipal League, the International City Manager’s Association, and the
Ohio City Manger’s Association web sites tomorrow. Mr. Smith stated he was sorry, but he felt
this just smacks of politics. He stated
three members of council are sitting for election next week and he was
surprised they did not want to get out in the public what the specific reasons
were. Mrs. Sanders stated she would
respond with her opinion, and for her it all came down to accountability. She stated the city staff needs to be accountable,
the city manager needed to be held accountable for the city staff, she felt
that wasn’t happening, and, in turn, as a Council
and the Mayor they are accountable to the citizens, and she did not see that
happening. Mr. Smith stated he felt the
City Manager had answered the accountability question. Mayor O’Brien stated he did not want to get
into discussion over something that had happened over a week ago, he would like
to keep the discussion to what we are talking about tonight. Mr. Smith stated he thought what they were
talking about tonight is what happened a week ago. Mr.
Wisniewski moved to waive the requirement in Charter Section 2.06 that the
ordinance be read on three separate meeting days; Mr. Sauer seconded the
motion. Roll call was taken with Mr.
Smith voting “Nay,” and Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Sauer, Mrs. Sanders, Mr. Sabatino,
Mr. Fix, and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yea.” Suspension of Rules passed, 6-1. Mr. Sabatino moved to adopt; Mr. Sauer
seconded the motion. Roll call was
taken with Mr. Smith voting “Nay,” and Mrs. Hammond, Mrs. Sanders, Mr. Fix, Mr.
Wisniewski, Mr. Sabatino, and Mr. Sauer voting “Yea.” Motion
passed, with emergency, 6-1.
3. ADJOURNMENT. There
being nothing further, Mr. Sabatino moved to adjourn; Mr. Sauer seconded the
motion. Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Sauer, Mrs. Hammond, Mr.
Smith, Mr. Fix, Mrs. Sanders, and Mr. Sabatino voted “Aye.” Motion carried, 7-0. The Special meeting adjourned at 8:15 P.M.,
October 28, 2009.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
_______________________________
Lynda
D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk
ATTEST:
_______________________________
Mitch O’Brien, Mayor