Mayor Farmer: OSU ending ED contract

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Monday night’s meeting of Van Wert City Council included a bit more drama than usual, with three elected city officials getting vocal about situations that have arisen.

Mayor Don Farmer got on his soapbox first, noting as a preamble that the Ohio State University Extension had sent him a letter formally announcing its intention to end its contract with the city to provide economic development services, effective October 28, 2016.

The contract with OSU Extension requires a year’s notice of either party’s intention to end the contract.

The mayor provided a history and overview of the Extension’s ED efforts and also provided advice to mayor-elect Jerry Mazur and the Van Wert County Board of Commissioners, who are holding talks to develop a new city-county economic development organization.

In his statement, Mayor Farmer blamed the county commissioners for the termination of the OSU Extension ED contract – which they terminated on their end without notice to OSU – and also noted his opinion that the commissioners were unprofessional in their dealings with former ED director Cindy Leis.

He also noted that, while OSU Extension has provided $670,000 in salary and benefits funding to the program, and the City of Van Wert has provided $1.2 million to the program, as well as an additional $600,000 to related ED efforts — mostly from the city’s hotel-motel fund — the county has contributed just $156,500 to the OSU Extension ED program.

The mayor also stated his opinion that any talks about a new ED program should involve all economic development stakeholders, and specifically mentioned the Community Improvement Corporation (CIC), the Business Development Corporation (BDC) and Executive Committee members of the current OSU Extension Economic Development Advisory Group as being necessary to success of the program.

“Without (stakeholders’) participation, the plan will go nowhere and definitely not benefit our area and county,” Mayor Farmer said, and also added his opinion that any new ED plan should not be controlled by elected officials, in order to avoid undue political influence.

A number of ED stakeholders attended the meeting, but none spoke about the situation.

Mazur stated after the meeting that all current economic development stakeholders would be involved in efforts to create a plan for a new city-county economic development organization.

Also Monday, City Auditor Martha Balyeat and Van Wert Municipal Court Judge Jill Leatherman sparred a bit over the judge’s granting of personal days to her employees without informing the city auditor’s office.

Judge Leatherman noted that she had the authority to grant personal days to court employees, noting that she viewed Balyeat’s questioning of the personal days as a challenge to her authority, which she said was upheld by the Ohio Revised Code.

The auditor, on the other hand, noted that she was not out to control the court, but felt she needed written authorization from the judge concerning the granting of personal days before paying employees for those days.

In legislative action taken during the meeting, City Council approved a parking switch on Burt Street, from the railroad crossing to Main Street, although two Council members, Jon Tomlinson and Steve Trittschuh, voted against the measure. Tomlinson had said in the past that he felt the parking change was a violation of the spirit of such regulations by providing a parking exception for one small area of the city.

Council also approved a then-and-now certificate requested by Balyeat and approved legislation related to changes in city employees’ health insurance plan.

The city auditor noted that, while city spending is a little ahead of revenues, the situation was predicted and the deficit is less than what had been projected. Balyeat also noted that tax revenues are up for the year, mostly because of a $200,000 increase in income tax receipts over last year. She noted that much of the income tax increase is from employees whose taxes are taken out automatically, which she said showed the city’s economic situation was improving.

Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming noted that the West Main Street reconstruction project is now formally completed and also noted that the first leaf pick-up was completed. He also reminded city residents that biodegradable bags must be used for leaves.

The next regular meeting of Van Wert City Council will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday, November 23.