November 22, 2000
City council voices concerns
By Cathy Willoughby
Staff Writer
Members of Tiffin City Council voiced concerns on the recommended changes to the city's charter Tuesday night.
They were invited to the meeting of the city's Charter Review Commission to give them additional input on their initial recommendations. This is one of several meetings before the commission sends its final recommendations to attorney John Larsen to be written in its final language.
From there, it would go to city council, which could chose which items would go before the voters of Tiffin in the next general election for final inclusion in the charter.
The proposed change to the charter that would change the position of director of finance from an elected to an appointed position drew the most comment from attending councilmembers.
Fourth Ward councilman Jim Boroff was concerned that the change would make the city government "one step further removed'' from its constituents.
"I see it as a positive influence because he can not be swayed by the mayor,'' Boroff said.
Commission member John Bing told him that they reached their decision due in part to the way the finance director needs to work closely with the mayor on the budget process. A competent professional would be in place to deal with the city's financial status, with the checks and balances afforded by city council.
"I have a real problem philosophically with removing or isolating this position from the electorate,'' Boroff added. "I am in favor of erring on the part of the public.''
Commission member Steve Lepard advised those in attendance of a recent scenario in which an elected official had not kept past receipts, kept records at her home and a warrant had to be served to retrieve materials vital to the city's welfare.
"We could be in the situation where they say, 'You can't fire me, I'm an elected official,'' Lepard said.
Commission chair Joe Granata said that the group also envisioned the position being a more stable one, not serving at the whim of a new administration.
"If you have a competent person, it's not mandatory that the person has to change,'' he said.
Current finance director Larry Clausing gave the group another reason to not change the status quo: The board of control, who accepts all bids and awards contracts, would consist of the mayor and two people, the finance director and the city administrator, both appointed by the mayor. The group also discussed the qualifications of the position, and how that would influence the salary scale of the position.
Changing the three-reading rule to two was also brought up by council members. Director of Law Brent Howard cautioned members that the current rules are patterned after state laws and have corresponding case law to support it.
"And I think the discussion that occurs because of it is good,'' Howard said. "Sometimes it ( three readings) prevails, and for really good reasons.''
He also reminded members that council has scheduled additional meetings if needed to have the required three readings to pass an ordinance.
Councilman at Large Mark Hayes cited reasons for suspensions of the three-reading rule.
"Now we need to respond to things more quickly,'' he said. "And somehow this is perceived as a negative. But at the end of the year, we have financial issues to address; I wish it wasn't perceived as a negative.''
At-Large Councilman Pete Galipeau disagreed.
"There are times when it is in the best interest of the public is the notification of pending law.''
"The public needs notification of things that are going to affect their lives,'' Galipeau added. "We are just six guys and one lady; we don't have all of the answers. We still need input from the people in town. If we eliminate that input, we don't make good laws for lack of input.''
Second Ward Councilman Paul Elchert had a concern over the printing of the upcoming meeting's agenda.
"I look forward to hearing from the general public,'' Elchert said. "But more times than not, the people don't have much knowledge until after the action is taken.''
He suggested that once a month, the city place a notice in the paper giving the citizens an idea of what will be discussed at the coming city council meeting.
Howard warned that if such a measure was approved by council, it should be written so that a lack of notice would not invalidate any action taken by council.
The question of the necessity of printing ordinances in the legal advertisements twice was broached by Depew.
"I think a single time is adequate,'' he said. "I think an open government is good, and it should be printed once so people can follow it, and see the law they will be expected to follow. Or print that it is available at the clerk's or mayor's office; or for the second publication, simply list it by title and section line.''
Depew also cited the potential for savings for the city if ordinances were only printed once.
"The paper has rates for businesses that if you buy so much, the rates go down,'' he added. "That's for everything except the legals. That's because they know we don't have a choice; it seems they are just putting it to us.''
Howard also cautioned the commission that if an ordinance passed would impose a restriction on property rights, or impose penalties, the public should have notice before its effective date.
Depew estimated the savings to the city to be $10,000 if ordinances were run once, and admitted that some items, depending on the subject matter, should be printed in full text. Bing felt that each ordinance should be printed at least once in full text; afterwards, list it's title and mention that the full text was available.
Another meeting to hear the concerns of the mayor, city administrator and president of council will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the city council committee meeting room in City Hall.