On the surface it may have seemed like a typical budget workshop session for Beavercreek’s City Council, but observers noticed there were a few newly elected faces joining in on the discussion.

New Faces on the Job

Just two days after being elected, Beavercreek’s new city council members were already hard at work during a November 8 budget workshop. The meeting included newly elected city council members as well as current council members, City Manager Mike Cornell and city staff directors. Council plans to review the budget over 3 workshop meetings and then have a budget review and a “State of the City” address at the December meeting of City Council.

While budget workshops don’t usually make headlines like regular council meetings, this one deserved mention because it was the first meeting where newly elected council members joined current and outgoing council members. In part it is a lesson in how the transition of power occurs from one city council to the next. Newly elected council members join in many of the workshops to get up to speed and familiar with the numbers and issues for when they take office. The discussion and debate can also be revealing, giving a preview of what the next city council may be like.

Budget Items Up for Discussion

Some of the items up for discussion included taking steps to conduct a serious community survey, exploring whether an earnings tax was going to happen in the near or far term, recreation desires, regionalism and groups that the city should be associated with such as the Dayton Development Coalition.

Also up for discussion was making changes to the front facade of City Hall and ordering a conceptual analysis to explore the possibility of integrating the grounds with the police building to create a “unified campus” feel.

New Council Members Give Their Opinions

Newly elected council members contributed to the discussion. During a discussion about city paid travel, current vice mayor Tom Leonard said that he was generally against the city paying for out of state travel for council members. Newly elected council member and mayor-elect Julie Vann disagreed, saying that she thought it was a valuable experience to glean best practices. She related that after attending and hearing about youth centers and activities, that’s when she became an advocate.

Much of the travel costs discussion had to do with the city’s membership in the National League of Cities and the attendance of council members at the group’s annual meeting. City council member Phyllis Howard said that attendees can bring back information to share and it is not necessary for everyone to attend every year. Newly elected council member Jerry Petrak said that he felt the group is mostly controlled by big cities. Discussion turned to considering dropping membership to the National League of Cities and the associated travel costs.

Sponsorship of Air Force Tattoo Event Considered

During the meeting City Manager Mike Cornell suggested the city look at becoming a sponsor of the Air Force Tattoo event at a cost of $7500. The immensely popular event is held at Wright Patterson Air Force base and is free to the public. This year it was so popular there was a 2 hour wait to get in. (see related story link at end of this article). Council members discussed the idea in brief. Outgoing council member John Broughton said he wanted to make sure that the city didn’t just get a banner and nothing else for their sponsorship.

Standard Financial Reporting and Updates

The meeting also included standard financial information from the city’s Financial Administrative Services Director, Bill Kucera. A few items of interest included that the General fund increase will be less than 2% when factoring out transfers to other funds. Local government funds available from the state have been frozen for the time being. The city currently contributes 14% to pension plans for employees and the cost of living increases will be 3% with step increases for those eligible. The city will be auditing 1 hotel with a much higher number of exemptions from the bed tax compared to other hotels in the city. Exemptions can occur if someone stays longer than 30 consecutive days or if federal, state government or a political subdivision are using the room.

Advertising, mailing, council expenses, office supplies, and workers compensation were also discussed.

Story by staff, based on a notes contributed by Luke McKellar .    C-BR20071112-01