Ohio Revised Code is very clear on the matter of public meetings and making sure there’s a record of what is discussed. ORC 121.22 (C) states the following: “The minutes of a regular or special meeting of any public body shall be promptly prepared, filed, and maintained and shall be open to public inspection.”

And whether you call it a regular meeting, special meeting, retreat or work session, it doesn’t matter. The law is also very clear with respect as to what constitutes a meeting. According to ORC 121.22 (B)(2) “Meeting” means any prearranged discussion of the public business of the public body by a majority of its members. Work sessions fit that definition. It couldn’t be any clearer. Executive sessions are the only exception.

The issue of what is being discussed at work sessions didn’t surface as a problem until last year when the city stopped posting the minutes from work sessions on it’s website entirely. Overall the posting of work session minutes on the city’s website has always been spotty at best, but 2007 was the year when none were posted at all. The minutes are still open to public inspection by taking a trip to city hall, but one has to wonder why they are not posted on the web for all to easily access and read.

The city is not doing themselves any favors with this practice. By selectively posting minutes from some meetings and not others, the city only fosters public distrust. People can’t help but wonder why those minutes are not being included. Absent any rational explanation, people are left to come to their own conclusions. Why even open the door to such speculation? No wonder there are those who distrust their public officials.

It’s nice to know that some on City Council are starting to take the issue seriously. The issue recently came up at the February 25 meeting of City Council when council member Tom Leonard asked why the approval of work session meeting minutes, that he expected to see on the agenda, were not listed. City Manager Mike Cornell said that traditionally work session minutes are approved at the next work session and not at regular meetings. Council member Jarrod Martin asked, “In the interest of making sure that we have open government, would anybody be opposed to changing that and to do those in public meetings… I mean they’re all public meetings, but to do them at a regular scheduled (meeting).” Council member Scott Hadley agreed saying, “Mr. Martin that was my purpose for not wanting to do it at the last work session meeting. So that we could do it tonight.” It was shortly thereafter, Mayor Julie Vann made the comment that inspired this editorial. Vann said, “I don’t think it’s even required that we keep minutes for work sessions.”

While I’m inclined to give Mayor Vann the benefit of the doubt on this one, it is very disturbing to hear a statement like that from one of our elected officials, especially the Mayor. I don’t think she was advocating that minutes no longer be taken at work sessions. She probably sees the work sessions as more of an exercise in fact gathering than as official meetings. But they are meetings just the same, or to quote from Ohio Revised Code, a “prearranged discussion of the public business of the public body by a majority of its members”. As such they are subject to all the rules set forth by the laws of the State of Ohio, including the taking of minutes.

No one is saying that City Council shouldn’t have work sessions or that they even need to televise those meetings. Just post the minutes from those meetings at the city’s website along with the others. Make them easy to access so we all can see what’s being discussed without taking a trip down to city hall. Why is that so hard?

Craig Barhorst

So what is this “shadowy” meeting system that many claim exists? Basically, the argument is that through “work sessions” and “retreats” City Council has found a way to discuss and debate the issues far from the cameras and somewhat out of public view. In the case of “retreats” the discussion can even take place far from the city government building. Sometimes they are at the golf course or, most recently, at the Public Works building on Orchard Lane.

While it’s true these meetings are open to the public, the lack of coverage by cameras, strange meeting times and locations often leaves many residents in the dark. The most recent retreat on January 21 occurred at 8:30 am in the morning. It also occurred at the Public Works building on Orchard Lane. It had an agenda that consisted of only one specific item, a general reference to “strategic vision” review and development.

The city’s media policy prevents any real decisions from being made at these “work sessions” and “retreats” when cameras are not running, but many wonder if council members are reaching some sort of consensus through the discussions that take place there. Then, when the regular meeting occurs and the cameras are running, they wonder if it’s nothing more than just paint by numbers.

The questions they raise are these: Are these un-televised meetings held at odd times in various locations preventing the public easy access? Does the public miss out on critical debate and discussion necessary to really understand the issues? Opponents of these types of meetings say yes. What took place at the January 28th City Council meeting would support that view.

During the dust-up at that meeting, many residents were able to experience this first-hand when council member Jarrod Martin said, “I don’t know why we had the long diatribe from Mr. Hadley. We discussed this in detail at our retreat. As a matter of fact we spent two and a half hours on it.”

That’s two and a half hours that the public will never see. If they’re lucky they may read about it as a one line description in minutes published months later. Then again, maybe not. Beavercreek has stopped publishing the minutes from “retreats” and “work sessions” on their website. That change coincided with City Manager Mike Cornell taking the helm at the beginning of 2007.

To read minutes from “retreats” and “work sessions” a person would have to go to 2006 or years prior. There are none published at the website from 2007. We seem to be suddenly getting less information, not more.

So are resident’s ending up with a santized view of their city government? It sure looks that way. And when somebody like council member Scott Hadley goes off script, things can quickly degenerate into what we saw at the January 28th City Council meeting. Was the anger and frustration we saw that night about the issue at hand, or was it about someone breaking ranks and taking the debate on an issue out of the shadows. From the looks of things, it may have been about both.

During the debate at the January 28th City Council meeting, nearly every council member referenced the “retreat” and the discussion that took place there. Essentially they were saying “Hey… we’ve already discussed this.” Too bad we’ll never really know what they were talking about.

It’s also truly sad to see Jarrod Martin, long regarded as one of Beavercreek’s champions of ethics in government, talk so openly about a discussion that took place at one of these “shadowy” meetings and object to it being brought up during City Council’s regular meeting. Perhaps he is unaware that the minutes from the meeting will probably never be published on the city’s website. Maybe he doesn’t realize that by taking the real debate and discussion on the issues away from the regular meetings, City Council only fosters ignorance of the issues.

Then again, they really didn’t talk about much if the agenda is to be believed. What was on the agenda for that meeting? Printed below is a copy of what the public saw. Strange how the two hour discussion Martin talked about didn’t even rate high enough for an agenda item. But then again, does it really matter… nobody’s looking anyway. Did it even really happen? We may never know. The answer lies in the shadows.

BEAVERCREEK CITY COUNCIL
Retreat January 21, 2008, 8:30 a.m.
Public Service Conference Room
I. CALL TO ORDER
II. ROLL CALL
III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
IV. DISSCUSSION ITEMS
  A. Short/Long Term Strategic Vision Review/ Development
V. ADJOURNMENT

The Beavercreek Record invites opinions on this issue from all current and former members of Beavercreek City Council and residents of the City of Beavercreek.
Email your comments to beavercreekrecord@sbcglobal.net or use our online submission form. Include your first and last name please. If published, we will only use your first name and last initial in print.

OPBR20080129-02

Screen snapshot from the now defunct Beavercreek
Needs Study Group website, in 2004.

That list called for a lot things under the auspices of “needs”. It called for more police officers, a new senior center, implementing the bikeway plan, park improvements, a community center (recreational center), leaf collection program, a weather alert system for the city, a fulltime city attorney and zoning technician and so on.


Funny how many of the things on that list from 2004 have already been accomplished. And all without a city income tax, too. Yes, in fact with each passing year Beavercreek somehow continues to deliver more to it’s citizens and that old list from the Needs Study Group gets weaker and weaker. Maybe that’s why the group no longer exists.


And it might also be the reason why the argument has now turned from “needs” to trying to bribe voters with fuzzy promises of reduced property taxes. Did you know that under the failed 2007 proposal you would have paid the same property taxes in addition to an income tax for as long as 18 months? The plan called for implementing the income tax then waiting to reduce any property taxes. The overlapping collection would have dumped millions of additional revenue into the city treasury. Yeah, it was all about reducing your property taxes, sure it was.


But back to this call for a recreational center. The discussion usually goes something like this; Kettering has a recreation center, why don’t we? It’s free for all their residents, isn’t it? The answers are; we already have something like that and no, it’s not free for Kettering residents. The center is funded with taxpayer dollars and to join the fitness center at the Kettering Recreational Complex, residents must pay an annual fee of $125.00. And don’t forget, Kettering’s income tax is 2.25%. That means any resident who works in a city with a lower income tax has to make up the difference and write a check to Kettering. Is all that worth it for a recreational center?


The truth is Beavercreek already has a very nice YMCA offering many of the same benefits as the Kettering Recreational Complex. Our YMCA sits upon acres and acres of wooded land, has a catch and release lake, a walking path, a skate park, a new playground for children, eight lane competitive class swimming pool, fitness center, offers health classes, the list goes on and on. In fact last year swim teams from three area high schools used the pool for training.


And with the YMCA, taxpayers aren’t shouldering the burden as much with their property taxes. The next time you hear someone say we need a recreational center or community center like Kettering, keep in mind that in 1988, Kettering citizens were asked to approve a $10.7 million bond issue for major additions and renovations to the city’s recreation center. Yes, that’s right, a raise in property taxes. Seems like Kettering’s city income tax wasn’t enough to keep that big recreational center going. Now Kettering has one of the highest city income taxes at 2.25%. Those property tax dollars collected over the years and that city income tax have made it so that Kettering residents only have to pay $125.00 extra a year to join the fitness center. Now that’s progress.


Simply put, if you live in Beavercreek you still call the shots. By living here you get to make choices. When you think about it, Beavercreek is really one of the few cities left that allows it’s citizens so much choice. Here we have the choice of paying for our recreational needs at the YMCA or not. City officials have to give us good reasons for passing tax levies. We even still have the choice of who picks up our trash, but that may soon be threatened. And last but not least, because the citizens of Beavercreek were wise enough to prohibit City Council from enacting a city income tax on their own, we still have that choice too.


So when a candidate says we need a recreational center, what are they they really saying they think we need? You be the judge.

Continued below advertisement

Continued below advertisement

Support the Beavercreek Record by visiting these advertiser websites.

       

The newsroom at newly elected Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown’s
website remains a big blank after nearly 4 months in office.

Could it be that he just isn’t news savy? No, wait, that can’t be it. He’s married to a columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He should know a thing or two about the newspaper business. Maybe it just takes his staff awhile to get something done. In any event it’s not an impressive start. If it takes him a full 4 months to get a post up on his website, how long will it take for other things?


You might think that we’re being too critical of Ohio’s newest Senator, but this is not the first time we’ve seen this. We went to his campaign site often during the election and found no new news, just year old campaign speeches and press releases. For us, this is nothing new. For us, this is a pattern.


Part of what we try to do here at the Beavercreek Record is give you both sides. Senator Voinovich’s site is filled with news… Sherrod Brown’s is a big blank. So keep that in mind when you read our opinion pages and remember that, for now, only one side is even talking.

This is an opinion piece and not a news article.

Have a different opinion? Share it. Click on SUBMISSIONS at the bottom of this page.

Beavers on display at the annual 4th of July Parade, 2005.

Record Photo © Craig Barhorst

Yes, last year was the year of the beaver and I, for one, kind of of miss all the hype. Oh sure, a lot of the beavers are still around here and there, but it’s just not the same. The hype has faded and “beaver mania” is gone. This year there was no parade at all, no beavers riding on floats, no news coverage and no kidnappers plotting devious capers. The beavers had their moment in the spotlight… their 15 minutes of fame. Now they show up around town like old “reality TV” stars. You recognize them, but you can’t always remember their names.


As a way of dealing with the absence of “beaver mania”, I’ve come up with my own method of coping. In my mind I’ve created happy endings for all the beavers where they are productive members of the city who continue contributing to the success of Beavercreek.


Maybe Construction Worker Beaver’s directing traffic at The Greene’s construction site. To Be or Not To Be Beaver is auditioning for plays at the soon to open Beavercreek Community Theater. Beaver Reader works at the Library, Dr B Ver has a small medical practice and Bicycle Beaver is riding on the bike paths, trying to come to grips with Floyd Landis being stripped of his title in the Tour de France . And there’s a good chance Beaver Crete may get the role of “Thing” in the sequel to the Fantastic Four movie, if Michael Chickles drops out. Yes, In my mind all 25 have found their place in society.




What’s your opinion? Submit your Letters to Editor or Opinions using the submission form. Be sure to fill out your email correctly because we use it to verify submissions and write “Letter to the Editor” or “Opinion” in the submission box.